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Besse earns Mr. Hockey Award

03/10/2013, 3:45pm CDT
By BSM Staff

Red Knight caps career with state's top honor.


Dan Labosky (left) was a finalist while Grant Besse (right) won the 2013 Mr. Hockey Award.

Benilde-St. Margaret's record-setting co-captain, Grant Besse, capped his stellar four-year career as a Red Knight by being named the 29th recipient of Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Award.

The Mr. Hockey Award is given to the outstanding senior high school boys’ hockey player in the state of Minnesota and is selected by a panel of National Hockey League Scouts, NCAA Division I coaches and selected media members from around the state.

Besse earned the award after scoring 48 goals and 76 points in 28 games for the Red Knights, capping a career which saw him score 163 goals, good for fifth all-time in state history, and 272 points, which ranks seventh in state history.

The award was presented by Tom Chorske, the inaugural winner of the award in 1985 who went onto spend 11 seasons in the National Hockey League and won a Stanley Cup with New Jersey in 1995.

Besse becomes the first Red Knight to win the award as he and linemate Dan Labosky became BSM's third and fourth finalists for the award, following Blake Friesen (2004) and Patrick Daly (2011).

Red Knight head coach Ken Pauly, in discussing Besse's credentials for the award, spoke of his off-ice persona.

"He came to Benilde-St. Margaret's with great character and a great sense of morals," Pauly said. "That comes from his parents and his family. I think what we've done is reinforce those values but, as great of a hockey player as he is, he's even a better person."

With the option of moving onto play junior hockey instead of return to BSM following a state championship in 2012, Besse elected stay put.

"This is where I wanted to be all along," he told St. Paul Pioneer Press writer Tim Leightion after the awards banquet at St. Paul's RiverCentre. "To play with the guys and to represent my school was really important to me."

"Grant gets it on a number of different levels," Pauly added. "He is a throwback. He is what high school hockey should be all about, what it could be about. If more people embraced that philosophy, these kids would stick around. His character and commitment are off the charts."

Besse will continue playing hockey this season with the Omaha Lancers of the United State Junior League before playing for the University of Wisconsin next fall.

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