Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation Announces Five Finalists for 2020 during its 25th anniversary celebration

By Pete Souris

The Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation announced the five finalists for the 2020 Hockey Humanitarian Award, presented annually to college hockey’s “finest citizen” for leadership in community service.

Devin Brosseau (Saint-Lambert, Que.) Senior, Forward, Clarkson University

Brosseau, who was a 2019 Hockey Humanitarian Award nominee, spearheads the Golden Knights’ Team Impact with a local disabled teenager. He organized Clarkson Hockey’s 2018 & 2019 Hockey Fights Cancer nights at Cheel Arena benefiting the American Cancer Society, which raised $8,000 this year alone and is Clarkson Hockey’s Team Captain for Relay For Life. Recently, the three-time team captain part in a fundraiser for a local child in order to help pay for expenses associated with her illness. Brosseau heads up Clarkson Hockey’s Involvement with the Headway Foundation the last two seasons where he has involved every athletic team on campus as well as many local youth teams this year. He led Clarkson Hockey’s efforts in the 2019 Snack Pack Program Drive to help provide nutritional snacks to students in the Potsdam Central School District. He volunteers at local elementary schools for visiting/reading and is active in the Town of Potsdam’s Annual Spring Cleanup and has organized Clarkson Hockey’s Salvation Army Bell Ringing.

Cal Burke (Boxborough, Mass.), Senior, Forward, University of Notre Dame

Burke has led the Irish as team captain in 2019-20. In his career, he has played in 137 games while scoring 36 goals and adding 50 assists for 86 points. He has been a part of a Notre Dame program that has advanced to at least the NCAA Regional Final round in each of the last three seasons. Burke is also a member of Notre Dame’s Rosenthal Leadership Academy and he earned the Compton Family Leadership in Service Award in 2019 and he was Notre Dame’s 2019 Big Ten Sportsmanship honoree. An excellent student as a Business Analytics major in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, Burke earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2018 and 2019 and prior to that he was named to the Hockey East All-Academic Team in 2017. Burke is active in the Notre Dame community and beyond. One of the spearheads in regards to the team’s involvement with the Fighting Irish Fight for Life program, Burke is also a member of Notre Dame’s Student Athlete Advisory Council. A 2019 Hockey Humanitarian award nominee, Burke serves on a mental health sub-group within the SAAC, working to reduce the stigma around mental health and help-seeking.

Amanda Conger (Swanton, Vt.), Senior, Forward, St. Anselm College

A team captain for the Saint Anselm College women’s ice hockey team, senior Amanda Conger’s life-saving donation of a kidney to someone in need epitomizes the Benedictine Catholic tradition of community engagement and service that her institution is founded upon. As part of an internship, Conger learned of a local Vermont man with stage-five kidney disease. Without hesitation, she went through the strenuous tests to determine if she was a match, sometimes traveling over two hours to get to the hospital. Once confirmed as a match, Conger went through the harvesting and transplant process this summer ahead of her final season with the Hawks. The reigning Most Outstanding Player of the 2019 New England Women’s Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) Tournament potentially put her ice hockey career on the line heading into her senior season. Despite not being able to lift more than five pounds during her recovery, the Dean’s List student has since returned to the ice and maintains her position as a team leader, whose selfless actions this summer spoke louder than any words.

Dakota Keene (Poland, Maine), Senior, Forward, UMass Boston

A captain and Co-President of the UMass Boston Student-Athletic Advisory Committee, Keene has made a huge impact over his four years. On the ice, he has been a key member of the Beacons’ penalty kill and has recorded 22 points in 90 career games. Keene founded the campus’ “Hope Happens Here” Chapter, to help UMass Boston students learn about mental health issues and focus on how to get rid of the stigmas. Keene organized “Hope Happens Here” games for all of the UMass Boston athletic teams and raised over $2,500 dollars for the organization at men’s games this season. He has led the charge in having the men’s hockey team pair up with a “Team Impact” athlete and he serves as a board member of the Student Alliance for Indigenous Peoples Association on campus. A two-time Academic All-Conference selection, Keene is a management major, with a minor in economics.

Delaney Wolf (Bismarck, N.D.), Junior, Defense, Saint Mary’s University

Wolf has proven to be a team leader from the minute she stepped on the Saint Mary’s campus. Voted a team captain as a junior, Wolf is beloved by her teammates, coaching staff and Saint Mary’s professors — because they all know she is going to bring her best to whatever she is asked to do. Despite balancing the rigors of carrying a 4.0 GPA as a double-major in Biochemistry and Spanish and playing collegiate hockey, not to mention playing the French horn in the university band, Wolf finds time to give back — tutoring fellow Saint Mary’s student-athletes, hosting team meals, mentoring youth hockey players in the Winona association, and spending countless hours participating in local volunteer work both in her hometown of Bismarck, N.D., and in Winona, Minn.

Jake Bunz from the University of Wisconsin was honored as the 2019 recipient of the Hockey Humanitarian Award.

The 25th recipient of the Hockey Humanitarian Award will be honored in a ceremony on Friday, April 10th as part of the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four weekend in Detroit, Michigan. Additionally, the Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation will make a donation to the charity most important to each of the five finalists. These donations are made possible with the generous support of the award’s partners and donors.