HALIFAX: A gymnastics coach from Fall River, a Canoe athlete along with his teammate, and a taekwondo athlete from Wellington are the three local athletes who were awarded Support4Sport awards on Saturday night May 27 in a ceremony in Halifax.
David Kikuchi, who coaches Halifax’s Ellie Black, was honoured as Coach of the Year.
Waverley’s Craig Spence, who is an athlete from Cheema, and partner Bret Himmelman were named the Team of The Year.
Raya Mae Porter of Wellington, who competes with Inner Strength Taekwondo in Wellingotn, was named the Jr Feamale Athlete of the Year.
Mya Archibald of Fall River was one of the two other finalists in this category.
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More than 200 awards were given to the province’s top athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, and community sport organizations.
The Support4Sport Awards recognize the achievements of Nova Scotia’s top athletes, teams, coaches, officials and volunteers in amateur sport over the past year.
Each of the finalists were nominated by their provincial sport organization as the best in their sport. Their achievements were judged through a multi-level selection process that considers their complete athletic performance throughout the year, as well as their top achievement of the season.
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Other award winners were as follows:
Sport Makes a Difference
Halifax RFC Pride Rugby
Ignite Soccer Newcomers Program
The Speedy Kids Community Skate at the Oval Program
Official of the Year
Soccer- Marie-Soleil Beaudoin (Halifax)
Junior Male Athlete of the Year
Karate- Gassan Alkurdi (Halifax)
Senior Male Athlete of the Year
Canoe Kayak- Ben Brown (Dartmouth)
Senior Female Athlete of the Year
Gymnastics- Ellie Black (Halifax)
Chair Award
Ron Shaw
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Quotes
“Tonight’s event is a great opportunity to celebrate the top athletic achievements in Nova Scotia. The people here have dedicated to much of their lives to sport and we are honoured to celebrate them.”
-Jamie Ferguson, Sport Nova Scotia CEO
“Congratulations to each and every award recipient. These winners represent the best of the best in Nova Scotia amateur sport and they all should be very proud of their accomplishments. This will be a wonderful evening to remember.”
-Allan MacMaster, Minister responsible for Nova Scotia Gaming
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Quick Facts
Support4Sport Awards judging process
Provincial sport organizations submit one nominee per category. These are the provincial sport organization winners. Winners for each sport can then go forward for the overall award in the same category (across all sports). There were two committees who reviewed all of the selections.
The volunteer judging committees are comprised of leaders of the provincial sport organizations, representatives from the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic, members of the media, Sport Nova Scotia’s board of directors and community sport stakeholders.
The first committee looked at the nominee’s most outstanding performance of the past year-worth 60% of the nominee’s overall score. The top five candidates in each category advanced to the second committee.
- Members of the second committee looked at the whole picture, the year overall, past successes, obstacles, the competitive field and any other outstanding considerations. The second committees mark was worth the other 40% of the nominee’s overall score.
