2012 Award Winner - Craig Metzger
"Craig Metzger joined the Laker organization and Executive shortly after his son Joe made the 1995 Minor Atom team in 2004. As a Laker Executive member, Craig immediately jumped into a heavy workload with important positions as Alliance Rep and Registrar. He volunteered as manager for the 1995 team and became statistician. His elaborate Excel spreadsheets are still used by some Laker teams as an important tool to keep track of team and individual statistics. During his tenure as an Executive member, Craig represented the Laker organization at numerous Alliance meetings and articulated Laker positions on topics such as Spring Tryouts, Residency and other important Alliance rules. Craig was instrumental in helping develop the Laker website. MB Sports in Goderich created the current Laker website and with Craig's assistance and suggestions for improvement, MB Sports continued to expand and improve it. There are numerous features within the website that are the direct result of Craig's recommendations and ideas. Currently, the MB Sports website is used by over 100 different organizations and is considered the pre-eminent website for minor sports organizations.
Craig's contributions to the improvement and development of the Laker organization have been invaluable. Many aspects of the organization have changed over the past 8 years. Craig's involvement has been significant and noticeable. Areas that most Laker families take for granted such as branding, fundraising, written policies and procedures, Laker clothing, classified ads for equipment, all have Craig's fingerprints all over them.
In the past few years, Craig's role on the Executive changed. He took on role of Website Administrator, always ensuring the Laker website was current and informative. Craig often encouraged teams to write articles about their teams and often was the editor of content. Craig has been the author of numerous organization articles. Many organizations look to the Laker website to copy ideas and format their own websites.
Last year, Craig officially resigned from Laker Executive and became our website consultant. Even today, Craig is still considered an important resource and "go to" guy when a question comes up that no one else seems to have an answer for.
It is also worth noting that during the past 8 years, Craig has been a tremendously dedicated and devoted hockey Dad. Joe has played 8 seasons for the Laker organization and played in approximately 500 games. Craig attended a majority of these games and travelled thousands of kilometers to support Joe in his Laker career and at the same time, balanced the hockey schedules of this two other sons. Craig, Kelly and family have been the ideal Laker family during all these years.
In the spirit of John O'Keefe for which this award is named, the most interesting observation about Craig is this: Craig has carried himself with the utmost professionalism and integrity while a volunteer within the Laker organization. A humble person, Craig has never sought attention to himself or sought recognition for his obvious achievements to the Laker organization. Craig simply set out to do the best job he possibly could. He quietly volunteered this work ethic and intellect to continually strive to make the Laker organization better for current and future players. Craig and John O'Keefe met each other in that first Minor Atom 95 year and became friends. John would be very proud to know that Craig is receiving an award in his namesake." (April, 2012)