In the spring of 1984, a young man named Brian Fearon was killed in a motorcycle accident in downtown Fredericton.  Brian was a close family friend to the Paul and Joan Leger family and their son’s best friend. 
 
Brian was also a minor hockey official in the Fredericton Youth Hockey Officials Association, and Paul was on the executive of the association as the assigner of officials.  At this point, Paul got to know Brian not only as a family friend but also as a fellow official.
Brian had particular qualities which made him a very effective official.  He always gave his best effort, and had a professional and respectful manner on the ice.  It was this work effort, commitment to excellence and improvement which made Brian a special hockey official for which he is remembered with this annual award.
 
In addition, Brian was also prepared to ensure that the association ran effectively by replacing officials as required and in fact did the challenging task of doing the weekly assignments when Paul was unable to do so.
 
In the spring of 1985, Paul and Joan decided to donate an annual memorial trophy in Brian’s memory.  The criteria for the award are that the official is less than 20 years old and demonstrates the following qualities:
 

• Commitment to excellence
• Respectful manner and respect for others
• Knowledge-based decision making
• Dependability, hard work and perseverance
• Progressive development to higher levels of hockey.

 
Fellow officials vote on candidates nominated on the basis of the aforementioned qualities.   

1985  Darren Dunnett	1986  Ken Lewis
1987  Stephen Peabody	1988  Chris Connor
1989  Robert Robichaud	1990  Ryan LeBlanc
1991  Andrew Carruthers	1992  Ryan LeBlanc
1993  Brad Jenkins	1994  Craig McKay
1995  David Clark	1996  Jeff Vetter
1997  Greg Heatherington	1998  Chris Hickey
1999  Jamie Marshall	2000  Eric Novac
2001  Anastasia Caldwell	2002  David McKeen
2003  John Drisdelle	2004  Elliot Coates
2005  Brett Campion	2006  Andrew Connors
2007  Mike Wies	2008  Jordan King
2009  Marc Rossingol	2010  Neil Campbell
2011  Ryan DeMolitor	2012  Corey Kavanagh
2013  Jeremy Pelletier	2014  Nick O’Dell
2015  Alex Cameron	2016 Jeremy Richard
2017 Thomas Ripley	2018 Jack Nason
2019 Matt Hanson	2020 Jonathan Morrison
2021 Brendan Quinlan	2022 Maxwell Ashton
2023	2024

   
At the Annual General Meeting [AGM] the spring of 2007 the Association established the award and made the first award in 2008.  The Executive Committee felt that the award should be available to all officials who have completed one year of officiating, without the limitations of an age criterion.
 
Award Criteria:

• The recipient must be a member in good standing of the association.
• The recipient should be at least a second year official.
• The recipient must have shown significant improvement, progress, ability and desire to officiate at progressively higher levels of hockey.
• Both on and off the ice decorum, knowledge of the rules and communication skills with players and coaches will be factors in the decision in making the award.  

Award Recipients
 

2008 Brad Crawford	2009 Neil Campbell
2010 Corey Ross	2011 Corey Kavanagh
2012 Nick O’Dell	2013 Anthony Pelletier
2014 Joel King	2015 Mike Pattle
2016 Dawson Wood	2017 Duncan Burns
2018 Brendan Quinlan	2019 Dave MacDonald
2020 Logan Brennan	2021 Caleb Rice
2022 Max Holt	2023