Lethbridge athletes, coaches and volunteers will be recognized at the annual Lethbridge Sport Council Achievements Awards next month. Fifteen awards will be handed out at the Enmax Centre on April 6.
Executive Director of Lethbridge Sport Council Susan Eymann says all the recipients serve as role models for aspiring athletes, coaches, leaders and officials. She adds she was excited to get nominations for sport officials, something the council does not see every year. It also made a change to the coaching category in order to show recognition to more community members.
“It’s the first year we have officially divided the coaching excellence award to include community coach, as well as high performance,” Eymann says. “Both are equally as important, but when looking at nominations, it’s hard to compete with national and olympic coaches, so we wanted to make sure that our community coaches got the recognition that they deserved.”
Eymann says this is the first awards ceremony with a lot of activity in sports since the pandemic and it is exciting to see all that is going on in the community.
“We love this day and the ceremony day. Being able to read all the nominations that come in, you just learn so much about what is happening in the sport community,” she says. “I am loving 2023, there is so much happening and 2022 leading into it, there were just, everyone was back at it again — they were not only training, but they were competing, they were travelling, the volunteers were getting back into it and although it’s been challenging for some organizations to get the number of volunteers, the ones that are committed, are there, are doing just amazing work.”
The winners of the awards are:
- Junior Female Athlete – Payton Shields
- Senior Female Athlete – Kacie Bosch and Paige Crozen
- Senior Male Athlete – Coby Iwaasa
- Special Olympics – Naomi Liam
- Amateur Team – University of Lethbridge Pronghorns 4x100m Medley Relay Swim Team
- Coaching Excellence High Performance – Peter Schori
- Coaching Excellence Community Coach – Rob Wood
- Officiating Excellence – Lindsey Ducharme
- Volunteer in Sport – Peter Kremenik
- Business and Sport Excellence – Stranville Living Master Builder
- Dr. Gary Bowie Sport Event Excellence – ATB Financial Lethbridge Rotary Dragon Boat Festival
- Sport Administrator – David Zeeb
- Knud Petersen Spirit in Sport – Chad Chief Moon
- Servus Credit Union Outstanding Sport Citizen – Kieran Mattice
Tickets for the awards ceremony are on sale now for $20 and $10 for youth. Tickets can be purchased on the sport council’s website.