North Central District Merit Award Winners

Dale Regel (2009)
Dale began his teaching career in 1978 at Monsignor Boucher Junior High School. He moved to Holy Cross Junior High School in 1982, with his final transfer to St. Mary High School in 1985, where he became the Vice-Principal since 2000. Dale has coached volleyball and basketball in each year he has been teaching. He has also coached soccer, badminton, track and wrestling. The school did not have a volleyball team when he arrived at St. Mary. Dale, who is well known for accepting challenges, enthusiastically took on the task of starting this activity at the school. Dale has been a vital member of the North Central District since moving to St. Mary. Dale’s desire to improve high school sport and work towards the welfare of the students across the province has been evident by his attendance to Annual meetings for nearly a dozen years.

Bill Yeaman (2006)
Bill’s first teaching assignment was in Gladmar starting in 1979. Bill then spent the next 23 years teaching mainly Physical Education and History at Birch Hills. Mr. Yeaman had many dramatic impacts on athletics in Birch Hills School and the North East District. Under the guidance of Bill, they famously won 4 back to back provincial titles from 1984 to 1987 and then followed up with two more in 1989 and 1997. Birch Hills were known as contenders in all activities because of Bill’s dedication to sport. At one time or another he held every NESSAC title; president, vice-president, secretary, and referee-in-chief. He held the position of Section 3 representative on the SHSAA executive council for three terms (1992-1998). Bill is a leader in the strongest sense of the word and always wanted to get into school administration. In 2004 Bill transferred to Kinistino School in the role of Vice-Principal.

Bob Coffin (2004)
Bob began his teaching and coaching career in 1975 at Mount Royal Collegiate. He then taught at City Park Collegiate where he was head of the physical education department, head football, wrestling and track coach. Bob was a true believer in the benefits of participation, high sportsmanship expectations and student athletes having fun. Aside from his extensive coaching and teaching duties, Bob found time to be very involved at the administrative and organizational level. He was extremely active on the executive of SSSAD, Phys. Ed. Curriculum and could always be counted on to volunteer with any activity that involved students. Bob also taught at Marion Graham, Aden Bowman and finished in the North Central District as vice principal at Carlton Collegiate. His overall vision of doing what is best for students and his passion for fairness allowed Bob to quickly become a leader at the SHSAA executive table.

Bob McDougall (1991)
Bob began teaching at Imperial in 1960, taught two years in Weybum and then left teaching for a short time. He returned in 1968 to teach Social Studies at Hepburn. He completed his career as an educator as the Principal of Hepburn school. He served the SHSAA as a North Central delegate for many years. In the North Central district, he was known as the person to contact when in doubt about a school sport issue. Coaching was a very important part of Bob's life and he coached many different activities. It was basketball and volleyball where he gained prominence with regular appearances at provincial championships.

Alex Johnstone (1985)
Born in Shellbrook, Alex, accepted his first teaching position at Shellbrook. He returned to university and then took a one year teaching positions at Fond du Lac, a year at Hafford and then back to Shellbrook in 1971 where he completed his teaching career. While very active in division and district athletic administration it was for his interest in track and field that Alex is best known. In fact, in retirement Alex accepted the position of Executive Director of Saskatchewan Athletics.

Paul Skopyk (1977)
Paul has always been interested in high school athletics and he served as North Central District Secretary for four years. He was also very active in community work and community recreation.

Lew Hobson (1973)
From the age of 14, Lew was known throughout the province as a ball player. The left-handed pitcher turned semi-pro at age 17 which led to a scholarship to play ball at the University of Arkansas. Following university Lew accepted what he thought would be a temporary teaching position in Prince Albert. Thirty years later he retired from teaching having spent the last sixteen years as Vice-Principal of Carlton Comprehensive. Lew also served on the Carlton School Board. Lew served on the executive of the SHSAA and was President when reorganization of the Association was a critical issue.

PJ Worobetz (1965)
As president of the North Central District for five years and a faithful official for almost two decades, PJ was committed to high school athletics and was the first superintendent to be honoured with a Merit Award, the SHSAA’s highest honour.