Hockey league drafts Boilermaker son

L-359’s Jeff Theriau is proud father of WHL player

Alex “Bear” Theriau, son of L-359’s Jeff Theriau, holds the winning trophy for the Western Canadian Bantam Hockey Championship. At just 15 years of age, he has been drafted to play in the Western Hockey League.

AT JUST 15 years of age, Alex “Bear” Theriau is well on his way to playing professional hockey. In fact, he has already been drafted by the Lethbridge Hurricanes to play in the Western Hockey League, a major junior hockey league.

Just last year, he and his dad, Jeff Theriau of Local 359 (Vancouver, British Columbia), moved from their home in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island to Burnaby, British Columbia, so Bear could play for the Burnaby Winter Club (BWC).

The BWC has a reputation as a solid hockey club. Knowing this club’s coach wanted Bear to play was all the incentive it took for Jeff and Bear to make the move to play hockey in Burnaby.

This Bantam AAA team went undefeated in league play and the playoffs, winning the lower mainland championship, the BC championship, and capping the season as the Western Canada champions. Bear was also selected as a first team “All Star” in the Western Canadian Tournament. During this run of hockey domination, Bear also maintained honour roll marks at his school.

Bear lost his mother, LeeAune Theriau, to cancer on Dec. 1, 1998. His dad has been raising him as a single parent ever since, traveling across the country at times for work. Theriau wants to thank the following Boilermakers for supporting his son this past hockey season: Joe Maloney, Richard MacIntosh, Rob Kappel, John McLaughlin, and Steve Johnson.

The WHL has teams in all four western Canadian provinces and in two states in the United States. Players in the WHL earn financial aid for post-secondary education. Many of the players end up in professional hockey leagues around the world or take their hockey careers to the college campus.