by Sean Marcellus @snmarcellus / CCHL Director of Hockey Operations
Ottawa, ON – The Central Canada Hockey League is pleased to announce Brockville Braves play-by-play broadcaster Neil McHugh as this years recipient of the Chris Messina Broadcasting Award.
Chris Messina, who suddenly passed away in August of 2017 at the age of 32, was the CCHL’s first Director of Broadcasting who was a cornerstone in developing the structure and guidelines for the CCHL member teams to follow for play-by-play, commentary, and interviewing.
Without Chris’s tireless efforts, the CCHL Broadcasting program would not have survived its early challenges. Today, the CCHL is among the leaders in North America in online broadcasting, and its technology is the most advanced of any league at this level. Without the foundation work laid out by Chris, the program would not have achieved the level of success and status it holds today.
Neil “Q” McHugh is the consummate volunteer, who’s area of expertise just happens to be play-by-play, as well as interviewing and color analysis of hockey games. He is the ultimate master of preparation when it comes to calling games. He makes himself familiar with all the players and has the lineups well under control.
“Q” has broadcasted well over 500 CCHL league and playoff games in his unequivocal style. In addition to his play-by-play, Neil regularly conducts pre-game interviews with coaches from both teams as well as select players from each team. These interviews have always been made available to all of the teams, as well as the league and are cherished by the players.
