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Falmouth native to join the program for Fall 2022

The Acadia Axemen are proud to announce the commitment of Falmouth, NS native Bailey Peach to the Acadia hockey program beginning in the fall of the 2022-23 season.

We asked Bailey why he chose Acadia, he responded saying, “Committing to Acadia to be an Acadia Axemen just felt right, I wanted to have the opportunity to continue my hockey career on a competitive AUS hockey team. I spent many years attending the Acadia Axemen skills camps as a young player and I want to be able to give back to the community.  I’ve been coached by Burnsy in Minor Hockey and his leadership and compassion to improve players is the best you can ask for.”

Acadia Axemen Head Coach Darren Burns is looking forward to having the Falmouth native in the lineup next fall saying, “We are very excited to have Bailey joining our program in September. To have a player of Bailey’s caliber join Acadia, after playing in our minor hockey association, is tremendous. We are very familiar with Bailey as a person and he has always had an excellent attitude since a young age. He is an extremely intelligent player who can score goals with a lot of offensive upside. His vision and his thinking are at a very high level. He will no doubt be a player who displays a high intelligence level and we feel he will adapt quickly to this league.”

The 5’10” forward started his major junior career with the Sherbrooke Phoenix after being selected 11th overall at the 2017 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft. He played three-and-a-half seasons in Sherbrooke, Que., before being traded to the Charlottetown Islanders in December 2020.

With a difficult season and a half for all junior players due to the Covid-19 pandemic, last spring Peach had a goal and three assists in eight playoff games to help the Islanders make it to the deciding game of the semifinals before losing to the eventual champion Victoriaville Tigres.

Bailey’s top junior season to date was in 2019-20 where he scored 19 goals and 46 points in 52 games with Sherbrooke. His career totals in the QMJHL were 107 points in 184 regular season games.

This fall, with Charlottetown already icing the maximum three 20 year olds on their roster, Bailey joined the Victoria Royals of the WHL as an overager.  At the time of writing this article, Peach is having a strong campaign on the west coast, already with 9 points in 12 games.

When we asked Peach about his style of play and what fans can expect from him next fall, he said, “I look forward to meeting all the Acadia fans as they are a big part of the game. Fans can expect me to bring a strong work ethic, positivity, high energy and passion to the team. I am a strong two-way forward that can bring offence and also take care of the defensive zone. Also, I’m excited for the opportunity to bring my game back home to the East Coast next Fall!”

Jack and his girlfriend Emma Stevens ran the half marathon this past weekend.

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – By John DeCoste ’77 – On Oct. 10, Flaman, a Saskatchewan native, fourth-year Acadia business student and three-year hockey Axemen veteran, ran the half marathon as part of the 29th annual Valley Harvest Marathon.

Despite playing a pair of Axemen hockey games on Friday (in Wolfville) and Saturday (in Antigonish), the 24-year-old Flaman completed the 21.1-kilometre distance in around one hour and 51 minutes.

He took on the challenge as a way of honoring his older brother Mike, diagnosed a year ago with multiple sclerosis (MS), and as a means of raising funds and awareness for MS research.

“I’ve been training for it all summer,” Flaman said in an Oct. 6 interview. He admittedly had not run anything close to a 21-kilometre distance before. “Never,” he said. “It’s something new for me.”

Asked the longest distance he had run at one time, Flaman said that as part of his pre-race training, “I’ve gotten up to around 16 kilometres.” He was confident he would complete the half marathon distance on Oct. 10, adding, “it’s going to be fun. I’m not going to quit now.”

By taking on this challenge, he said, “I am looking to show that regular exercise and being outside doing things is good for you and will likely prolong your life.”

Flaman credited his girlfriend Emma Stevens for playing a big part in his pre-race training and preparation. “One day, she suggested we go running together,” he said – and it became a regular occurrence. Stevens agreed to run part of the half marathon with Flaman. “We’ll run it together.”

His mother Tricia has also been a huge support, especially with his fundraising. “She’s coming out here for the weekend,” Flaman said of his mom. “She hasn’t been here in a year-and-a-half. It’s pretty exciting. She’ll not only get to see me run, but also get to see me play two hockey games.”

In a follow-up email Oct. 11, Flaman described the race as “really fun, actually. The support from all the people on the side of the track really keeps you going.”

He was pleased with his race result, particularly for his first time running the distance. He and Stevens “ran the first half together, and she helped me get through the early grind.” Overall, he “managed to stick to my game plan of taking it easy off the start and getting faster as it went on.”

Flaman’s other goal, raising funds for and awareness of MS, also went well, he said. When we spoke Oct. 6, he had managed to raise around $7,500 toward his ultimate goal of $10,000.

He said Oct. 11, “I managed to surpass my goal of $10,000 before the race started, so I had some extra motivation. I can’t thank enough all the people who supported me and made donations,” he said.

“It started off slow,” he said of the fundraising, “because I didn’t tell a lot of people about it at first. Since I’ve put it out there, the support has been great.”

Flaman said and his brother have always been close. “Mike is three and a half years older than me. Over the past five or six years, we’ve gotten closer than we were when we were younger.”

They have become closer still since Mike’s diagnosis, and despite the distance between Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, Jack has been there for Mike as much as he can.

After playing hockey at the recreational level, Mike Flaman has taken over helping with the operation of the family dairy farm. “He’s looking to carry on the family business.”

Jack, on the other hand, played four years with a series of junior and major junior hockey teams in western Canada before being recruited to Acadia in the fall of 2018. He played two seasons with the Axemen before he and his teammates had to take last season off due to Covid-19.

He is looking forward to playing a full season in 2021-2022, and also that Acadia is scheduled to host the 2022 University Cup in Halifax next March. “Our goal is to earn our way there, not just be there.”

As for MS, asked if there might be a chance that he might be diagnosed someday, Flaman replied, “with MS, you never really know. That’s the scary part.” His brother, he pointed out, is only 27. “He’s on an experimental medicine program through Health Canada, which is making a big difference for him.”