Hockey Nova Scotia is proud to announce that Truro's Willa Evans is the 2023 winner of the Bill Riley Scholarship.

A former recipient of the Hockey Canada Champion honour for her work with BIPOC youth in hockey, Willa is a multisport athlete who has played a leadership role on the multiple teams she has been a part of. This season, Willa attended Kings Edgehill School on a leadership scholarship and played on the school's girls prep hockey team where she continued to be a role model for young Black girls.

Next year, Willa will be attending Plymouth State University where she will play hockey and run track, while also pursuing an education degree. A volunteer coach with Hockey Nova Scotia's Black Youth Ice Hockey Program and BIPOC First Shift Program, she hopes to be a role model for her future students and athletes in the classroom and on the ice.

The Bill Riley Scholarship, a $2000 scholarship, is presented annually to a graduating player in Nova Scotia of African descent who plans to pursue a post-secondary education after high school. Like Riley, the recipient should be a driven, hard-working student who is passionate about hockey.

On Dec. 26, 1974, Amherst's Riley made history by becoming the third Black player to skate in the National Hockey League, and the first of African Nova Scotian descent, when he suited up for the Washington Capitals. The hard-working and respected winger would go on to spend parts of five seasons in the NHL with the Capitals and Winnipeg Jets, scoring 31 goals and adding 30 assists in 139 career games. After his NHL career, the former Amherst Junior Ramblers star would captain the AHL’s now-defunct New Brunswick Hawks to a Calder Cup championship in 1982. He also served as captain of the Halifax-based Nova Scotia Voyageurs.

Congratulations to Willa on receiving this important award!