The Atom Major AA Trappers made the final Coach4Food practice a memorable one as they pushed Tom Hedican's program above the 1 million-pound mark by adding more than 6 tons of food.
The Trappers, with a slew of sponsors, loaded 12,913 pounds to the program in Hedican's final practice for the fundraiser for local food banks. That pushed this year's total to 54,956 pounds of food for North Bay and area food banks but also shot the program's total over 10 years to 1,012,197 pounds.
Hedican says that more than 600,000 of those pounds were generated in North Bay alone.
"This is a number I never thought we would see, ever," said Hedican.
"The hockey and ringette associations and the community of North Bay deserve the credit for this. The teams have worked so hard over the years and there is no doubt in my mind, you could not find a more giving, generous community in the country, than North Bay."
Hedican also thanked the founder of the food bank, Marty Martinello, and director Dick Dinnes for allowing him the opportunity to start the program.
"They said I cound try it, so I did and we now have great people carrying on the work they began in the current board of the food bank," he said.
"I thought they might think it was a crazy idea to try to trade coaching for food, but they told me to try it. And 10 years later, it's a provincial program and we've raised a million pounds of food and raised the awareness level among young people that not everyone is as fortunate as they are... some people can't afford hockey, and some can't even afford food."
Sponsors of the final practice included Ted Thomson's Assante, the North Bay Police Board, Carmen Anello, Coach4Food CEO Ernie Hedican, Stacy Jackson, Herb and Joanne Shoveller, Tiny Italy Restaurant, Don Wallace, Dennis Lathem and Karen Cook in memory of Nelson Giles.
Hedican said while he has run his final practice, there is still food at the North Bay Food Bank to be weighed and added into this year's total, which will be announced Wednesday.
This year, the top collecting girls and boys team will be honored before a North Bay Battalion game and receive a practice from the Battalion coaching staff.
The third place team will also receive a practice from the Battalion. Coach4Food is also run by OHL teams around the league in partnership with the Shutout Hunger Program.
Hedican, a professional goaltending consultant, founded Coach4Food in 2005, inspired by rock legend Bruce Springsteen and his work with food banks around the world. This will be his final year of running Coach4Food practices. Coach4Food has been endorsed by Springsteen and NHL coaches Ken Hitchcock and North Bay's Mike Yeo. Next summer Yeo will meet with local coaches who participate in this year's program.
