The creation of the Trevor Wingrove Bursary Fund was announced Wednesday, and it will be awarded on an ongoing basis to graduating high school students within the Coquitlam Minor Lacrosse Association.
Photograph by: The NOW , file
Trevor Wingrove's lifelong passion for the fastest game on two feet will live on, thanks to a new bursary established in his memory.
The creation of the Trevor Wingrove Bursary Fund was announced Wednesday, and it will be awarded on an ongoing basis to graduating high school students within the Coquitlam Minor Lacrosse Association.
The fund was established by both the Wingrove family and the Coquitlam Foundation in memory of the former lacrosse star and city staffer, who died of cancer in 2010 at the age of 42.
"We're looking for people that display a lot of the qualities that Trevor had," Trevor's father Les Wingrove said.
"Trevor was a very dedicated individual in whatever he did, and he excelled at lacrosse.
The successes that he had in lacrosse were because of the way he went about his business: he was a leader."
About $5,000 worth of seed money is currently in the fund. Those applying for the bursary must have played with the local lacrosse association for at least two years, and have plans to enrol in a postsecondary institution, training program or career-training program.
Described by his father as a "rink rat" from an early age, Trevor's first position of note came when he served as the waterboy for the junior Adanacs, the team his father coached, beginning at the age of 12.
From there, he became a standout on the lacrosse floor at virtually every level he played.
A B.C. junior league first team all-star in 1987 and '88, Trevor won the most inspirational player award in 1988. In the senior lacrosse ranks, he played 145 regular season and playoff games, and put up 132 goals and 284 points along the way.
But for all those statistical accomplishments, his dad is more proud of the way in which his son played - Trevor won the most sportsmanlike player awards in both 1987 and 1988, and only accumulated 73 penalty minutes during his entire senior lacrosse career.
"Trevor was a good all-around player and he used to rack up quite a lot of points," Les said.
"He could score, and he always got a lot of assists. But he could play both ends of the floor really well."
A severe injury to his Achilles tendon in the early 90s signalled the beginning of the end of Trevor's days on the lacrosse floor, resulting in a new focus on schooling. After attending Whittier College in California for a year, he moved back to Metro Vancouver to continue his studies at Douglas College, while at the same time working on a seasonal basis for the City of Coquitlam.
"When he was a lot younger, he came to me one day and said out of the blue, 'You know, Dad, I think I want to go to university,'" Les recalled. "I wondered what made him decide that and he told me, 'Well, I'm always around all the guys on your team and the guys that really have it together are the guys who go to university.'"
Trevor's seasonal work soon turned into a permanent position as deputy city clerk.
From there, he worked his way into one of the top executive positions in the city, as the general manager of corporate services.
The deadline for applications for the Trevor Wingrove Bursary Fund is Feb. 15.
For more information, visit www.coquitlamfoundation.
