Hinse adds Guy Lafleur Award to trophy shelf
The third time proved to be a charm for Concordia University’s Olivier Hinse. The Sherbrooke native was awarded the Guy Lafleur Award of Excellence, presented annually to hockey players at the amateur level who “best combined hockey performances with academic excellence.” This year marked the third consecutive time the former Magog Cantonnier star was a finalist for the award.
“I knew it was a good school and the education department is just amazing,” he said. “When I met Kevin Figsby I could tell he wanted me to come to his school.”
Hinse began playing competitive hockey at the age of seven in Fleurimont and played in the Sherbrooke organization until he moved to Magog to play for the midget AAA Cantonniers.
Since that time he had augmented his playing and academic pursuits (has maintained a 3.17 GPA in Child Studies) with a series of off-ice activities that have benefitted others including coaching at Stingers hockey schools, participating in the Stingers community skating party, taking part in the Centraide Walk and helping at L’Abri en Ville, unloading crates of fruit that are sold to help fund the integration of mentally challenged adults into the community.
On the ice, Hinse tied for the Ontario University Athletics lead and finishing second in the CIS with 18 goals in 26 league games this past season and he led the nation with four short-handed goals. His leadership qualities were evident in his rookie season when he was an alternate captain in his rookie campaign; he served as team captain this past year.
Hinse had an incredible work ethic. He is able to work part-time 20 hours a week and last year was an assistant coach with the Lachine Maroons in the Quebec Junior Hockey League.
“I am not a person who can sit around and do nothing,” he explained. “I work in the morning, go to school and practice in the afternoon and coach in the evening. Last year I coached with Jesse (former Champlain and Concordia standout and Ayer’s Cliff native Jesse Goodsell) with Lachine but they are moving so I will be coaching with the StJerome Panthers.”
Two months ago, Hinse reached another milestone when he became the first Stinger to win the Dr. Randy Gregg Award, presented annually by the CIS to the university hockey player who has exhibited outstanding achievement in hockey, academics, and community involvement. He is only the second player from a Quebec-based university to win, the first being McGill’s Mathieu Darche who won the award in 2000 and later played for the Montreal Canadiens.