Members of the Nanaimo and District Lacrosse Association recently met to recognize successes from the past season and to begin planning for another startup in the new year.
There was a good turnout for the association’s annual general meeting, which combined the election of officers for next season together with the presentation of numerous awards from the past season of play. My thanks to president Brian Boas for passing along the highlights…
The awards portion of the AGM began by honouring three players from each team from the various age levels. From the peewee C squad led by coach Gordie Walls-Good, winners were Connor James as most inspirational player, Byron White as most sportsmanlike and Colby Young as most improved. Coach Todd Jones saw winners from his peewee B team named as Brendan Olson for most inspirational, Aidan Jones for most sportsmanlike and Jake Moreno for most improved player.
Winners from the peewee B2 squad coached by Ken Gregory were most inspirational player Zack Giszas, most sportsmanlike player Fletcher Falk and most improved player Will Hawthornewaite. Chosen from coach Chris Bowmen’s peewee A team from last season were Chase Heslop for most inspirational, Jayden Tomiyama for most sportsmanlike and Evan Soucy for most improved player.
At the bantam level, awards from Jason May’s bantam C squad went to Connor Olson as most inspirational player, Hugh Joly as most sportsmanlike and Avin Golobar as most improved player. From the bantam B team coached by Bruce Merner, the most inspirational player award was claimed by Ian McMahon-Pointe, while Nathan Anderton earned the most sportsmanlike award and Wes Cholach the most improved player title. Winners from the bantam A team, coached by Steve Bishop, were Isaac Bevis as most inspirational, Maneel Jaswal as most sportsmanlike player and Connor Reid as most improved.
Turning to the midget level, the midget C boys’ team was coached by Darren Angell. Sharing honours as most inspirational players on the squad were Dayton Popham and Logan Seymour. From that same team, Sean Pye was picked as most sportsmanlike player and Stephan Gosau as most improved over the year. Receiving awards from coach Todd Manns’ midget A team were Rhys Bibby for most inspirational player, Max Creighton for most sportsmanlike and Logan Davidson for most improved player.
From the peewee girls’ team coached by Farren Ferguson, the award recipients were Jayne Nystrom as most inspirational player, Sierra Howden as most sportsmanlike and Madison Rypma as most improved.
Mike Nicholls was head coach for the bantam female squad this past season. That team recognized Emma Young as the most inspirational player. Named as most sportsmanlike player was Sophie Scobie, while Shayla Frinton was chosen as most improved player.
Individual honours from the midget female team coached by Ross Angelucci went to Jenna Rafter as most inspirational player, Hannah Boas as most sportsmanlike and Sophie Vanderlee as most improved player.
Representing the junior girls’ squad coach by Rick Geddes, most inspirational player was Morgan Theedom, most sportsmanlike was Shai McNulty and most improved on the year was Kourtney Prevost.
In addition to the above team presentations, awards were also given out at the minor lacrosse AGM to the top players from each age division of boys’ and girls’ competition. Also, a number of other prestigious association awards were presented to top players and volunteers. In a future column we’ll acknowledge those winners.
Whatever your sport, a reminder in closing to play your hardest, play fair and show good sportsmanship.
Ian Thorpe writes about sports Thursdays.