Senior defenseman Luke Lindsay, the captain of the Eau Claire Memorial hockey team, has been named the recipient of the Jeff Sauer Humanitarian Award, the Coach Sauer Foundation announced.
The Jeff Sauer Award was presented Thursday at the Wisconsin High School Hockey Coaches Association dinner in Madison. The annual award has been presented for the last five years and aims to encourage community service among girls and boys high school hockey players in Wisconsin.
It is named after the legendary former UW coach and hockey ambassador Jeff Sauer, who passed away in February, 2017. The Jeff Sauer Humanitarian Award’s goal is to recognize good high school hockey players being great people.
Lindsay has been active in Eau Claire doing volunteer service in the last four years. Lindsay is the president of the Partner’s Club which serves students with special needs. He also was an integral part of leading a Thanksgiving food drive that raised $1,200 for the Community Table, an organization that provides food for the homeless and food insecure people in Eau Claire. Luke helped create and, with his Old Abes’ co-captain, organized a “tie blankets in the trees program” where fleece blankets were available to the homeless that lived near Hobbs Arena. The unused blankets were donated to the Sojourner House that served as a homeless shelter in the Eau Claire area. Luke also rang bells for the Salvation Army and worked with the mini mite hockey program in Eau Claire.
On the ice, Lindsay is a second team all-state defenseman who was the Old Abe’s third leading scorer this season with 18 goals, 19 assists and 37 points. He hopes to play junior hockey and eventually play in college.
The other finalist for the award was Andrew Budzinski, a four-year defenseman for Madison Edgewood. Budzinski had six assists in his season for the state tournament-bound Crusaders and off the ice spent over 100 hours reading to the elderly and teaching technology skills at the Jefferson, a Madison west side retirement home.
Previous winners have come from all over the state and include two boys and two girls, including Zoe Uihlein of Milwaukee University School last year.
Luke Lindsay and Chip Sauer
The following is an area for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. WiPH is not responsible for comments posted by users.
Please also keep “woofing,” taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.
