LEWISTON – All it took was a little bit of encouraging.
Tony Dube was down, and seemingly out. After his freshman year of high school, the Biddeford goalie had tried – and failed – to make his way in junior hockey.
“I lost all my confidence,” Dube said. “I was going to quit.”
Instead, he rejoined Biddeford High School.
“He was at the brink, but we knew what kind of talent he was,” Biddeford coach Jamie Gagnon said. “It would have been the biggest mistake of his life.”
Three seasons later, Dube has 46 wins and two state championships as the starting goalie for the Tigers.
Sunday, he added another accolade to the list, earning the 2008 Travis Roy Award as the state’s top all-around senior hockey player.
“The Travis Roy Award was a goal (Gagnon) set for me from the beginning,” Dube said. “He and my team did everything they could to help me get here.”
Dube is the first goalie honored with the award, which takes into account hockey skill, academic proficiency and community involvement.
“What he’s done as a player, as much as what he’s done on the ice, is just incredible,” Gagnon said. “With the adversity that he’s gone through this year, this is nothing short of phenomenal.”
Dube learned last year that his father had brain cancer. He stood by him through surgeries, and through chemotherapy and radiation treatments, all the while continuing to play the sport he loves.
“My dad made it to every game this season, and got to see us finish off our perfect season,” Dube said in a speech to the more than 400 people gathered at the Ramada Inn. “He is now cancer-free.”
Dube was one of four finalists for the award, named after former North Yarmouth Academy and Boston University hockey player Travis Roy, who suffered a career-ending spinal cord injury just 11 seconds into his collegiate career.
Other finalists included Jon Roy of Lewiston, Matt Delguidice of Messalonskee and Derek Kump of Falmouth.
“This whole group of players is great,” Roy said. “Dube winning it, he deserves it. I didn’t really care if I won it or not. It was a toss-up, and I knew coming in whoever won it, deserved it.”
Roy was among several local players honored with All-State and All-Conference awards. He joined fellow Blue Devils Jordan Bourgoin, Casey Poussard and Justin Nadeau on the All-State East first team, along with EL defenseman Matt Nyholm. Casey Parker and Jeff Lewandowski of St. Dom’s earned first team All-State West honors, while Cory Cormier and Ben Piper of Poland/Gray-New Gloucester garnered Tier III All Conference honors.
All-State second team honorees included Richard Paradis, C.J. Bergeron and Andrew Gwarjanski of St. Dom’s and Matt Letourneau, Robbie Leeman, Cam Poussard and Jake Brown of Lewiston.
Jamie Gagnon of Biddeford, Aaron Rand of Poland/Gray-NG and Bill Schwartz of Brewer took home top coaching honors in their respective conferences. This year, the Class A Coaches’ Association renamed the award in honor of former St. Dom’s coach Bob Boucher, who died one month after receiving a lifetime achievement award at last year’s banquet.
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