FORMER GBMH EXECUTIVE MEMBER and COACH GREG O'NEILL DELIVERS KEYNOTE MESSAGE TO TOTS & NOVICE AUDIENCE ! 

 (Photo: GBMH President James Edwards and Vice President of Financial Operations Angela Battiste present guest speaker Greg O’Neill with a MINERS Souvenir package jacket following his keynote address) 

Tuesday evening at the BAYplex Community Hall the Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association held their closing 2014-15 AWARDS NIGHT for both the TOTS and NOVICE Divisions. GBMHA President James Edwards opened the banquet with some welcoming remarks to the large turnout of players, coaches and parents. President Edwards thanked the players and coaches for their effort and expressed his hope that everyone had fun during the past season. Edwards acknowledged and thanked the entire GBMH executive for their dedication and commitment in helping the association enjoy yet another successful year. He also congratulated all the Atom, Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget award winners who received recognition on Monday during their closing banquet.   

Following Edward’s opening remarks he introduced the guest speaker Mr. Greg O’Neill. He commented that for many in attendance, Greg is certainly not stranger to the Glace Bay Minor Hockey program. Edwards stated “Greg held our Vice President executive seat up until just last year". Prior to this Greg started out in minor hockey and worked his way up through the system, moved onto high school and then played AUAA hockey with ST FX X-MEN hockey team. He went on to share “not only was Greg a stand-out hockey player at every level that he played but moreover he was his team’s captain, further demonstrating the respect that his team-mates and coaches had for him”. Edwards continued by saying ‘Greg has also dedicated decades to coaching in GBMH and as I look out in the audience I see some parents who Greg coached as they came up through the system”.

The key-note guest speaker Greg O’Neill caught everyone attention instantly as he gathered up a new hockey kitbag that he recently won at the Vince Ryan tournament and placed it on a front table. O’Neill is not only known locally for his hockey background, but moreover as an accomplished educator (Vice-principal OVEC) and knew exactly how to capture the attention of a young audience.  

O’Neill started his message by asking the players to identify items that he took out of the hockey bag. By engaging the youth in giving answers he had their attention. O’Neill began to remove popular items such as a cell phone, ipad and a video game controller which everyone watching could relate to. He stated that the items he took from the bag are very important and popular among children these days and that an empty blue kitbag itself is not so appealing to youngsters.  He followed up by saying that eventually technology will invade their sports interests however they will need to balance social media with education and sports interests accordingly.  Greg shared that the kitbag on the table was won a couple of weeks ago at the Vince Ryan Hockey Tournament when he and his hockey buddies got together to play some hockey. These for the most part were the same buddies that he started out playing hockey with back when he was five years old”. He said “that kit-bag for me brings back years of memories which I cherish”.

Next O’Neill as a former true Glace Bay MINER, set-up his key-note theme message by randomly asking the youngsters in attendance to identify a key random capital Letter and stand at the top of the head banquet tables. When all was completed the youngsters has under-covered the hidden word of MINERS.  O’Neill then proceeded to explain to the audience exactly what each letter in the word MINERS meant to him.

My MINERS KIT BAG: “MINERS”

M - Memories – Played with many of the same players from Tots to Oldtimers and enjoyed the same dressing room experience win, lose or draw, we were friends from the start and are still friends to this day. 

I – Individual – As an individual you will be challenged to contribute your very best that you have to offer whether it is at the Metro or Rep level. You must always remember that you must give it your all as part of your team contribution.

N - New – Each year you will meet new team-mates, coaches, managers and others who will impact your future life. Many of your past experiences such as players and friends will follow you the rest of your life.  

E – Exercise – Hockey players must realize that the more that you put into your physical conditioning the more that you would get out of your exercise effort. A healthy body and mind is attributed to good exercise practices. Hockey will always offer you healthy exercise where it starts in Tots (4yrs) or ends in our local Glace Bay Huff & Puff hockey at (80+) age. 

R – Respect – Hockey players must respect their coaches, managers, officials, rules of the game, opposing teams and facilities where we play in.

S- Sport - The sport of hockey will always ultimately separate and eventually bond players for a life-time as originally individuals try to find their way but in most cases return back to what they call “their friendship team”. 

In closing off O’Neill thanked the youngsters for listening and wished them all the best in the many years ahead of enjoying the game of hockey.

President Edwards extended a special thank you to Greg for taking the time to pass along such an important message to the youngsters in the audience. Edwards and Angela Helle Battiste then presented Greg with a small token of appreciation for being the guest speaker.

In closing out the ceremony Edwards thanked everyone for attending and delivered a key final message by saying that HOCKEY CANADA just released a new moto which will be adopted by all minor hockey associations including Glace Bay next season. “I LOVE TO WATCH YOU PLAY”.

All and all the players had a blast as everyone enjoyed a nice meal of pizza and pop and received some nice Glace Bay Miner souvenirs to take home with them.

Special Thanks to Special Events Co-ordinator Robin Barrett and the many parent volunteers who assisted in making both banquet events a tremendous success.