MADISON – Jack Redman, a junior from LaCrosse Logan and a member of the Onalaska/LaCrosse co-op, has been named the sixth recipient of the Jeff Sauer Humanitarian Award, the Coach Sauer Foundation announced.
The Jeff Sauer Humanitarian Award was presented Thursday at the Wisconsin High School Coaches Association dinner in Middleton. The annual award hopes to encourage community service among girls and boys high school hockey players in the state of Wisconsin. It is named after the legendary former University of Wisconsin coach and hockey ambassador who passed away in February, 2017. The Jeff Sauer Award’s goal is to recognize good high school hockey players being great people.
Redman is a worthy example. He has done volunteer work for the elderly and at his church and in conjunction with teammates on Logan’s soccer team, Jack has worked with disabled athletes. While rehabilitating a serious knee injury that sidelined him from varsity hockey, Jack decided to try and play sled hockey and discovered an appreciation for the work put in by athletes on those teams. He decided to start refereeing sled hockey games and continues to officiate those games as well as officiating for teams in the Onalaska, West Salem, LaCrosse and Sparta youth hockey association. Redman, who has a 3.7 grade point average and is a member in the National Honor Society, also participates in soccer and golf at Logan. Redman was nominated for the award by his coach, Oak Moser.
Redman was one of four finalists for the award. The others are Brooke Brennan, a senior forward from Hayward; Ben Accola, a senior forward from River Falls, and Autumn Cooper, a junior forward from Superior. The Jeff Sauer Award is modeled after the Hockey Humanitarian Award, which is presented annually to college hockey’s finest citizen and seeks to recognize players, male or female, who contribute to local communities in a true humanitarian spirit.
After retiring from college hockey, Jeff worked extensively with disabled hockey players, He coached the U.S. sled hockey team to a gold medal at the Winter Paralympics in 2014 and in his seven years as coach, Team USA won two gold medals at the Sledge Hockey World Championships. was active. Additionally, Sauer was president of the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association. The Coach Sauer Foundation was very impressed with all the candidates and their stories of student athletes who deserve notice for reasons that ultimately are more important than mere personal statistics.
Madison Ice Arena displays a replica of the Jeff Sauer Award in its lobby to honor Redman and all past and future winners. LaCrosse Logan High School will also receive a plaque to display to commemorate Jack’s achievements.
