Lachance wins Brennan Trophy

Richard Lachance, a teacher at Northern Secondary School in Sturgeon Falls, is this year’s winner of the Al Brennan Memorial Trophy.

The award is given annually to the coach/executive in the North Bay area.

Lachance has been a teacher for over 16 years. In 1989, he started teaching at Northern and became the head of physical education a few years later.

Aside from carrying out his normal duties at Northern, he has been extremely active both as a coach and as an executive.

He started his coaching career, establishing Northern as a perennial powerhouse in junior football.

Lachance guided his troops to a pair of Nipissing District Association championships and reached the finals twice.

For a short period of time while trying to establish a consistent senior program, Lachance was coaching both teams at the same time.

Once everything was going well, Lachance began concentrating solely on the senior team which he has coached for the past seven years.

It’s because of Lachance’s hard work and dedication that Northern has been able to maintain two strong football programs.

His drive and efforts have also resulted in excellent results with the school’s track and field team which he has coached for 14 years and the girls senior and junior volleyball teams, which he has coached for five years.

Lachance has also been extremely active convening at all levels. He has been an NDA and Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics convenor in football, basketball, volleyball and track and field.

In March, he chaired the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations girls ‘A’ volleyball championships, which were held in Sturgeon Falls.

In all, he has convened six OFSAA championships at Northern and in 1998, he was awarded the OFSAA Leadership Award.

Lachance has also been involved in numerous fundraising activities in order to allow athletes at Northern to participate in athletics throughout the years.

His work ethic and commitment to the students at Northern Secondary School over the years have been unbelievable.

He is truly a worthy winner.

Lachance will be presented with the trophy at the annual North Bay Sports Hall of Fame dinner and induction night Saturday April 17 at the Best Western