Jake Skillings of Thornton Academy wins Travis Roy Award

AUGUSTA — Thornton Academy successfully defended its Class A state championship last weekend, and Jake Skillings was a big reason why.

On Saturday, Skillings became the second straight Thornton player to win Maine’s most prestigious hockey trophy: the Travis Roy Award.

Skillings, who led Class A in scoring with 21 goals and 28 assists, was honored as the state’s best senior at the Class A Hockey Coaches Association’s banquet at the Augusta Civic Center.

The award is named for Travis Roy, who played for Yarmouth High, North Yarmouth Academy and Tabor Academy, then went on to Boston University. In his first shift for the Terriers in 1995, Roy lost his balance and went head-first into the boards. The accident left him a quadriplegic, and he went on to become a speaker and author who also started the Travis Roy Foundation, which provided support for those with spinal injuries. Roy died on Oct. 29, 2020, at age 45.

Thornton goaltender Drew Johnson won the award in 2025.

“It means a lot to me,” Skillings said after the ceremony. “I read (Travis Roy’s) book, too, and just learning and how he dealt with stuff just really pushed me to be the best person and player I am today.”

Another message Skillings took from Travis Roy’s book, “Eleven Seconds”, is that there will always be bumps in the road.

Skillings spoke about one recent bump, the death last fall of his 18U coach, Jake Brown, who died at age 34 as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash.

“We had to play for him,” Skillings said. “We know he loved the sport. We loved him as a coach. He was a very easy guy to talk to and somebody to go to if you needed help. And it’s just too sad on what happened, but he is truly remembered as a great person.”

Thornton coach Jamie Gagnon said Skillings was one of the locker room leaders.

“He did things the right way in the locker room and that’s kind of what you’d hope would be the representative of this award,” Gagnon said. “He’s, you know, very unassuming, very much so. Like, just wanted everything to be for the team. Everything had to be for the team. And it was always the first thing out of his mouth was: How does it impact the team?”

Skillings was joined by his Thornton teammate Trent LeSieur, Falmouth’s Cale Hanson and Cheverus/Yarmouth’s Ben Dumais as finalists for the award.  

Skillings and LeSieur became friends at age 5 when their fathers started talking at a Learn to Skate session. They have been teammates ever since.

“Yes, it’s something that we dreamed of, and it’s honestly a great accomplishment for both of us,” Skillings said.

Skillings is Thornton Academy’s third winner. C.J. Maskut (2012) was the first Golden Trojans’ player to win the award.

Gagnon said it was nerve-wracking having two finalists from his team.

“But yeah, it’s obviously, as you see two guys up there and doing something they’re not familiar with, they’d rather be out there playing hockey, which we’ll be doing tonight,” Gagnon said. “It’s rewarding to see it go to one of them, but I think both of them would have said that, if they could pass that trophy off and give it to the other, they probably would, too. So two selfless athletes, good people, good players.”