Jacob Baribeau has been a strong asset to the Briercrest hockey team this year.

The snappy first-year centre, who is studying in the business administration program, said it was through a strong calling from God that he found himself pursuing a Briercrest education.

“God definitely had everything to do with my coming to Briercrest. Before I applied to Briercrest, I had the next five years of my future all planned out. I was going to go to the University of Waterloo for an engineering program, to me; a Bible college was not even in the question,” Baribeau said. “However, God had other plans for me. Through a strange family connection, the former Briercrest hockey coach, Dalton Stoltz, heard my name and began the long process of recruiting me. Eventually he got my attention and after a lot of prayer and confiding in others, I felt a clear calling to come to Briercrest.”

Baribeau has found that there is something extra special about his team at Briercrest compared to all the teams he has previously played with.

“Everything is special about our team. And it all roots from it being a Christian hockey team. I have played four years of junior hockey and I’ve never felt the same connection as I do with this group of boys. These guys are my family while I am here and I know every one of them has my back. That in itself is really special to me.”

Being Briercrest’s leading point scorer this season with 16 points, Jacob finds that his strength lies within his reliability, work ethic and positive attitude.

“I try to always show up to work hard for games and practices and to be a player my coach can rely on to never give up. I’m not perfect, I have my bad days, but I try and shrug it off and get back at it the next day,” Jacob said. “As a person I think I bring a lot of positivity to the group. So I try and make sure I am continually encouraging to everybody.”

A focus upon becoming a man of God is at the forefront for Baribeau.

“My goal as a student is to learn as much about God and business in the time frame that I am here. Grades are important to me so I strive to excel in academics, but I am more concerned about coming out of Briercrest prepared to be a godly businessman wherever I go. As an athlete, my desire is to train my hardest and become a dominant player in this league.”

Baribeau sees a lot of different options for his future.

“I want to do everything basically. I want to travel the world, play professional hockey in Europe, start my own robotics business, become an economists, maybe run for president; that’d be pretty cool. Honestly, my dream is pretty simple I want to find my passion and somehow get paid to do it.”

Briercrest wants to wish Jacob Baribeau all the best this semester and is excited to see where the Lord leads him in the future!