The Wallace Deveau Bursary is a $500 award (two $500 recipients) that will be presented annually by the Cole Harbour Bel Ayr Minor Hockey Association (CHBA) to support two deserving youth hockey players in their pursuit of post-secondary education. This bursary honours Wallace Deveau's longstanding dedication to youth, sport, and community.

ABOUT WALLACE:

Wallace Deveau started volunteering and coaching with Cole Harbour Minor Hockey in 1969.  He was there as part of a group helping to cut down trees and clear the land for the building of Scotia Stadium (now Scotia 1 at CHP).  He served on the executive as area rep, vice president and coach coordinator as well as being a head coach for 38 years.  Wallace coached mainly in Cole Harbour but spent some years coaching Sedmha, Dartmouth Minor Hockey (3 seasons), and 1 season coaching the Dartmouth Forbes Chevy Major Midget AAA(now Steel Subaru).  Wallace played on the Cole Harbour Coaches Hockey Team.  After stopping coaching full time as a head coach Wallace continued to help coach and mentor younger coaches and former players.  Wallace helped with Timbits, Novice and Atom in the early 2000s as his grandson began playing hockey in Cole Harbour, he loved those years on teams with his grandson and son in law and son having three generations of the family on one team.  He finally stopped going on the ice around 2009 with his son Marcel’s Atom AAA teams but continued to sit in the stands as he always did, a student and teacher of the game.  He led teams to numerous league, playoff and provincial titles at various levels and won Atlantic titles in both bantam and major midget.  He took two all-star teams to the International Quebec Peewee tournament.  Wallace ran a week long summer hockey camp for many years to help players with skating and the transition to contact hockey.  His technical approach to the game and attention to skating was in part due to his constant study of the game and working closely with the likes of Pierre Page (Dalhousie Tigers Hockey) and Danny Flynn(HNS).  In 1982 Hockey Nova Scotia and Cole Harbour Minor Hockey helped send Wallace to Helsinki and Turku Finland for a coaches symposium, he also received his level 5 coaches certification that year.  Wallace then gave coaches clinics around the province for Hockey Nova Scotia in return for their sponsoring his trip to Finland.  Many families still remember “the garage” on Caldwell Road where many of chalk talks, goalie practice and shooting practice took place, some goalies saw over 2000 shots in one hockey season there, numerous tarps needed replacing over the years but it was always open for anyone. Over his 57 years, he head coached 1301 games (942 wins, 239 loses, 120 ties).  Although Wallace loved games stats, and winning, more important to him were his players, the parents, his assistant coaches and goalie coaches and the life lessons they all passed on to the players, motivating them to be their best and teaching them the benefits of hard work and building bonds for life.  He felt fortunate to coach many good teams but was more thankful for all the good friends, relationships and bonds that were built as a result of all his years coaching and volunteering.  Many former players in the 1980s and 1990s went on to successful careers both on and off the ice and still kept in touch with him up to his passing in July 2024.  He would always perk up and smile to hear a story of one, or to see and chat with a former player, parent or coach. Wallace helped build a path for those that followed and he loved the rink and the players.  For Wallace minor hockey was about THE PLAYERS/KIDS.  Wallace would be both honored and proud to have his name attached to this initiative intended to help better players in some small way like he always tried to do himself.

Download the Wallace Deveau Bursary Application here: (PDF / MS Word)

Read the Wallace Deveau Bursary criteria here