William “Bill” Repchull
- 2024 -
Builder - Multiple Sports
Bill moved to Sackville in 1976 and could not wait to get involved in the community. An avid sports person, he started volunteering as a minor hockey and baseball coach. In his first year as a hockey coach, he became involved with the Mockey Canada Hockey Tournament an event started to allow local coaches and referees to end their seasons off with a thank you for their hard work during the season. In the first year Bill seen it was not successful, so he volunteered along with LDRA to run the tournament successfully bringing thousands of volunteers from not only the local areas but across Atlantic Canada into the community for 25 years.
Bill’s sporting love being baseball he seen the potential Sackville athletes had while playing pickup ball and decided the community needed more. He started the Sackville Men’s Slo-pitch league and the Electric Orange women’s traveling team. While traveling with the women around Nova Scotia he decided to start the Nova Trophy Men’s Team. As one of the top-rated pitchers in NS, Bill put together and lead a group of Sackville athletes that were considered NS best men’s team at the time. Nova Trophy became the first team to go to two national slo-pitch championships along with hosting two Eastern Canadian Championships in Sackville. Bill’s involvement did not just lie with Baseball and Hockey he was also involved with running the Men’s, ball hockey league, pro bowing league, old-timers’ hockey, and served as the General Manager of the Sackville Blazers for five seasons.
Bill’s love of community sports leads him to write a sports page in the Bedford Sackville Daily News for over ten years promoting local athletes, teams and organizations. Today Sackville athletes continue to play in leagues Bill started forty years ago in the community.