PORTLAND — Camden Hills hockey players James Annis, Zach Hand, and Nicholas Czuchra were recognized with end of season awards for their outstanding play during the 2014-15 hockey season at the Maine Western B Hockey banquet in Portland Sunday, March 15.

James Annis, Senior Captain, was chosen as third team forward. Annis led the Windjammers in goals scored and points this year with 14 goals and 23 total points in 15 games played.

James’ leadership on and off the ice during the hockey season was a major reason for our success. Despite missing games for the whole month of January and early February due to a knee injury, James was able to come back sooner than expected and help our team down the stretch of the regular season scoring some big goals and making tough plays all over the ice.

Zach Hand, Junior goalie, was named to the Honorable Mention team. Hand led Class B West goalies in both goals against average 1.00 and save percentage 0.956. Hand also had five shutouts in 10 games played during the regular season and was named the December 2014 West B Goalie of the Month.

Zach was a big reason why our team remained competitive throughout the 2014-15 season as his consistent and solid play in net helped our team play with confidence.

Nicholas Czuchra, Junior defenseman, was named to the Honorable Mention team. Czuchra led the Windjammers in defenseman assists with seven assists during the regular season in 15 games played. Czuchra was also strong defensively throughout the season routinely blocking shots and being a disruptive presence along the blue line and in front of the net defending opponents. Czuchra was named the February 2015 West B Defenseman of the Month.

Despite missing some games earlier in the hockey season due to injury and sickness, Nick bounced back and really emerged as one of the better defenseman in our league. Nick’s skating and passing abilities helped our team offensively as well as being a defensive stalwart and leader on the blue line all season.

ANNIS WINS HOBEY BAKER AWARD 

Annis, son of Kerry Keefe and Patrick Annis of Rockport, is the 2014-15 Camden Hills recipient of the Hobey Baker High School Character Award.

James epitomized the qualities character and leadership that the Hobey Baker Award represents during the 2014-15 season. A senior captain who was playing a high level early in the season and then he suffered a MCL knee injury on December 30, 2014. Despite the unfortunate injury, James remained positive [and stayed] in constant contact with his teammates while rehabbing his knee working hard on his physical therapy so he could try to have the chance to play for his team by the end of the season. James came back on the ice five weeks later and resumed game action on Feb. 9,  at least a week or two ahead of what was originally expected helping lead his team into the playoffs. 

ABOUT THE HOBEY BAKER AWARD

The Maine Hockey Coaches Association in conjunction with the Hobey Baker Foundation hosted the third annual Hobey Baker High School Character Award program in Maine. The awards are given annually to one high school senior from each participating boys and girls hockey program in the state. The award recognizes and rewards student-athletes for displaying exemplary character and sportsmanship in their schools and communities.

The Hobey Baker High School Character Award is an extension of the prestigious Hobey Baker Memorial Award given annually to the nation’s top collegiate ice hockey player.

Hockey coaches from schools across the state have selected one member of their team to receive this honor. Selected students exemplify the spirit, sportsmanship and Character represented by the collegiate award through their attitude, work ethic, unselfishness, and “coachability”.

In Hobey Baker’s senior year at St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H. they handed Princeton its only hockey loss that year and yet when he later attended Princeton, he would captain and lead them to a pair of national hockey Championships in 4 years.

In football, he was a punt return specialist and he never fumbled a punt. Against Yale one year, he had 13 punt returns, a school record, not to mention that he scored all the points in the next two games with Yale, - all field goals, one of which was for 43 yards. This was in a time that equipment was poor at best and conditioning programs were nonexistent. As captain in his junior year, he scored 92 points. His scoring marks in football stood for almost half a century.

Wherever he went, they won.

On the ice, Baker’s ability, as great as it was, was topped by his sportsmanship and he is perhaps known of this - more than his playing skills. He was always counted on to visit the opposition’s locker room after every game, shake every players hand and congratulate them on a fine game, regardless of who won.

Between St. Paul’s, Princeton and some amateur hockey, he amassed 120 goals and 100 assists, in 55 games, averaging 4 points per game, and never missed a game or a shift on the ice. In his 8 years of playing, he was only penalized twice.
At Princeton, the ice arena is named after him and at St Paul’s School, they compete every year for an award simply known as “Hobey’s Stick”.

Consider this: Hobey Baker is a charter member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame and is one of a handful of Americans to be elected into the Canada’s Hockey Hall of Fame. At Princeton, he captained both Football and Hockey teams and is also a member of Princeton’s Hall of Fame for Hockey and Football.

Hobey Baker was considered to be the greatest hockey player of his era and also the first American super star hockey player. At age 26, Hobey Baker died while piloting a newly repaired airplane in France. Ironically, his orders to return home were found tucked inside his jacket.

“The spirit of the 2015 Hobey Baker High School Character Award is to acknowledge that it takes more than hockey skill to develop great student – athletes and the development of exemplary Character and Sportsmanship in our high school hockey players is a vitally important aspect of the Student – athlete experience,” said Dave Daniello, Maine State Director of the Hobey Baker Character Award Program. Continuing on, he said, “We are honored to participate in this important award and recognize these outstanding high school students in Maine as we believe that Character builds Excellence”.

“We are very grateful for Dave’s efforts to make this award program a reality for Maine said Gary Wahman of the Hobey Baker Foundation. “The development and recognition of exemplary Character and Sportsmanship in our high school players is an extremely important aspect of the student-athlete experience.” 

Karl Enroth is the head ice hockey coach at Camden Hills Regional High School. Information from the Maine Hockey Coaches Association and the Hobey Baker Foundation was used in this report. 

Reach the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.