More than hockey: Dalhousie's Bélanger leads program to help children with Down syndrome

When Dalhousie University hockey player Alec Bélanger played major junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League, the coaches stressed the importance of community involvement to their players.

For the then 16-year-old who had some growing up to do, he didn't understand what it had to do with hockey.

"Why wouldn't it be, like, play hard, be tough?" Bélanger remembers thinking.

Now 21, Bélanger, who was born in Quebec City but moved around a lot, has wrapped up his rookie season with the Tigers. He earned the Atlantic University Sport award for rookie of the year for his play on the ice.

Off of it, he was honoured with the student-athlete community service award for starting a program at the university that pairs student volunteers with children with Down syndrome and their siblings. The group meets and does activities and exercises one day each week. It could include bingo, a scavenger hunt or playing catch.

He said the wisdom of those coaches changed his life. "No matter what I do with my life, some part of it's gonna be volunteer work," he said.

Bélanger spent the first 2½ seasons of his major junior career playing for the Ottawa 67's. For most of his time there, the head coach was André Tourigny, a former Halifax Mooseheads head coach who now coaches the NHL's Arizona Coyotes.

Tourigny said he's "extremely proud" of Bélanger.

"I think there's no better reward than seeing your athletes, the person you coach, turning into that kind of a person," he said in a recent phone interview from Toronto when the Coyotes were in town to play the Maple Leafs. "That's 10 out of 10."

Tourigny said he stresses community involvement for many reasons. One is that he thinks hockey players are role models.

"When you have the power to help