Photo credit: Garrett James Photography (Ward, Wilson, Cousins, Johnson), Tami Quan (Farmer)
LANGLEY, B.C. – Shaw and the BC Hockey League have announced the five winners of the Shaw BCHL Scholarship Program for the 2021-22 season.
After gathering submissions during the regular season, the BCHL and Shaw have selected five players who will receive a $2,000 scholarship award to attend a Canadian post-secondary institution.
This year’s winners are:
Kolton Cousins (Prince George Spruce Kings)
Christophe Farmer (West Kelowna Warriors)
Buddy Johnson (Surrey Eagles)
Ben Ward (Merritt Centennials)
Griffin Wilson (Cowichan Valley Capitals)
This program is designed to provide graduating BCHL players with financial support to use in the next step of their hockey and academic careers.
The winners were selected based on their academic track record, their stated future career and education goals and their time spent in the BCHL.
“Education is one of our league’s key pillars,” said BCHL CEO Chris Hebb. “Providing scholarship opportunities to our players so they can pursue their academic goals is a great way to promote education in our league and for us to support our players as they move on from the BCHL. These five student athletes are very deserving of this support and we congratulate them on their accomplishments during their time in the league and we look forward to what’s next, on and off the ice.”
Christophe Farmer has committed to play hockey and continue his education at Concordia University, while Griffin Wilson will attend the University of Guelph, Kolton Cousins is going to Queen’s University and Buddy Johnson and Ben Ward will both attend Simon Fraser University.
“The BCHL continues to play an instrumental role in helping young athletes realize their full potential, and helping them develop the discipline, passion, and self-motivation that is necessary to succeed both on and off the ice,” said Chethan Lakshman, Vice President, External Affairs, Shaw Communications. “Through our partnership, we are happy to once again play a small role in supporting these five players as they take the next step in their lives and careers.”
Through the first three years of their partnership, Shaw and the BCHL have awarded a total of $30,000 in scholarship funds to 15 different graduating players from the league.
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About the BCHL:
Sending more players on to college hockey every season than any other hockey league in Canada, the BCHL has established itself as a national leader in the development of young student athletes. Considering today’s NHL features more NCAA alumni than ever before, Junior A hockey is fast rivaling other leagues in North America as a breeding ground for the sport’s most elite and successful players. In 2019-20 alone, there were 196 BCHL players who received scholarships to top schools in the U.S. and Canada.
About Shaw Communications:
Shaw is a leading Canadian connectivity company. The Wireline division consists of Consumer and Business services. Consumer serves residential customers with broadband Internet, Shaw Go WiFi, video and digital phone. Business provides business customers with Internet, data, WiFi, digital phone, and video services. The Wireless division provides wireless voice and LTE data services.
Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (Symbol: TSX – SJR.B, NYSE – SJR, and TSXV – SJR.A). For more information, please visit www.shaw.ca
Media Contact:
Jesse Adamson
Manager, Media & Communications
BC Hockey League
604-354-0035
jadamson@bchl.ca
