Following the conclusion of the 2020-21 season, the Saskatchewan Hockey Association announced the recipients of the 2021 SHA Awards, including Mike Weger as Volunteer of the Year - South.
Each year through a nomination process, the SHA Awards highlight the outstanding volunteers from the North and South, outstanding Coach, and Minor Hockey Associations. Mike was nominated by Jody Corbett of the Weyburn Minor Hockey Association.
Mike began volunteering with the Weyburn Minor Hockey Association in 2014 after his then-four-year old son began playing hockey, and never stopped. He kept on volunteering as his two daughters also began to play hockey.
Always volunteering as the position of manager on various minor hockey teams, Mike was also approached to join the WMHA board of directors in 2020 and happily obliged. When it was identified that there was no female U15 hockey opportunity within Weyburn, Mike took it upon himself to recruit both female players and coaches to fill the gap.
During the month of March, Mike took the lead role for the “Make Hockey More” initiative and was single-handedly responsible for scheduling over 120 ice times for groups of eight (COVID restrictions) for ages under-9 through under-15. He arranged for members of the Weyburn Red Wings to help provide instruction, but they then had to pull out in order to quarantine into bubbles.
When plans for instructors at the event fell through, Mike stepped in and coordinated parents and coaches to run sessions and even ran some himself.
According to Corbett, he spent some 20 hours on the ice with a variety of groups, and “countless hours logging registrations, organizing groups and everything in between. From what I witnessed, March was a big success in keeping our kids active, giving them a little more routine in their day and ‘something to do’ and a little more hockey before we switched to spring gear.”
He was also asked to join the AAA midget Gold Wings management committee, and took care of a training weekend that almost fell through because of COVID hitting Regina.
Corbett added the comments, “Everything he does is behind the scenes. I only know of the things he has done for our association because my kids are the same age as a couple of his. He doesn’t talk about it or ever say ‘I am so busy’ … he just does it to keep everyone’s skates on the ice from novice to AA to females.”
He added of Mike, “For someone who never expected hockey to become a part of life, he has definitely given up a lot of this time and energy to improve hockey for all of WMH. We are very fortunate to have Mike as a part of our community, on and off the ice, as he doesn’t do things for ‘my kids’, he does things for everyone.”
