Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2009 37 OAKVILLE'S BEST: Pictured clockwise from left, gymnast Sabrina Gill, paddler Mark Oldershaw, football player/coach Matt Laidlaw and softball player Lauren McLaughlin were all named their sporting organization's top athletes. OAKVILLE BEAVER FILE PHOTOS BY NIKKI WESLEY (OLDERSHAW AND GILL), CHANTAL AYOTTE (LAIDLAW), CHRIS KORNACKI (MCLAUGHLIN) Sport Oakville recognizes athletes, teams, coaches, volunteers Sport Oakville honoured the town's top athletes, teams, coaches and volunteers last weekend with its second annual Sport Recognition Awards at Town Hall. More than 200 awards were handed out to celebrate the excellence, perseverance and dedication of its member sport organizations in the areas of sports development, performance and contribution to the community. Saturday's awards were hosted by The Weather Network's Chris Mei. CBC News at 6 host Diana Swain, who also worked last year's Olympic Summer Games in Beijing for CBC, was the event's guest speaker. Below are brief bios of the award winners: Athletiques International · Volunteer Award Sandy Segeren: Sandy has given hours of her time and expertise to help at events, and in on- and off-track activities for the betterment of all the athletes at the club, whom she supports in both their training and competition. · Volunteer Award Dave and Andrea Andison: Dave and Andrea volunteer more than 100 hours per year to the club and to the paddling community, organizing food concessions at regattas, open houses and the annual banquet for the club. the club for the past three years. His involvement in the U14 girls led to two of their members making the provincial U14 team for 2009. Minor Oaks Hockey Association · Coach award Nelson Pavao: Nelson has coached two house league teams. He has coordinated the club's annual Christmas Toy Drive, and the Breast Cancer Fundraiser in which his team wears pink jerseys "Paint the Rink Pink". · Team Award 2008/09 Oakville minor peewee A A Rangers (Michael Gironda, Michael Choma, Luke DeRango, Mark Bzowey, Matthew Kim, Anthony Baxter, Tim Arnold, Nickolas Serniuck, Scott Abrams, Drew Doherty, Ben Bernier, Sean Kohler, Craig Cook, Brayden Sampson, Jack Jeffers, Jackson Bales, Ben Blacker; head coach Mike Choma, assistant coach Nick Serniuck, assistant coach Bob Bernier, trainer Paul Jeffers, manager Chris Arnold): This team achieved a perfect 28-0-0 record in the Tri-County Bowen AA regular season and was season champion, a fourth consecHelen Ford utive regular season's championship title for the team. In addition, the Rangers were also 2008/09 OMHA champions, the team's third championship title in the past four years. · Volunteer Award Helen Ford: Helen is a life member of MOHA and has been involved for more than 30 years. She does ice scheduling for the town's rep teams, as well as serving as Oakville's representative for South Central Triple A, vice-president for Tri-County and as a director of MOHA. Halton Stars Cricket Club · Athlete Award Ali Shah: As captain of the Halton Stars Cricket Club, Ali has won a few games by his individual efforts in a season where he scored one 100 and two 50's for the team, scoring a total of 366 runs. · Coach award Saleem Zafar Shah: Saleem played an incredible role in his team's achievement of winning the championships last season and making the playoffs this season. He has provided a strong foundation to his players and is developing champions. · Team Award Halton Stars Cricket Club (Muhammad Ali, Kaleem Arif, Arsalan Baig, Abreez Gul, Muhammad Haroon, Imranul Haq Kazmi, Abdul Majid Kahn, Atique Ahmed Kahn, Nadeem Mahmood, Izaz Mansur, Bilal Mohammad Khan, Bhoj Pidar, Imran Raja, Naveed Anwar Sehrai, Ali Shah, Varun Sheth, Adeel Siddiqi, Farid Siddiqui, Muhammad Saqib Siddiqui, Asim Syed, Ghufran Ali Syed, Kaukab Syed, Tahir Bilal Syed, Mubasher Waheed, Saleem Zafar): This team was runSakeem Zafar Shah ner-up in the regular season and won the playoff championships in 2008. It has been promoted to the Elite division of the Etobicoke and District Cricket League. · Volunteer Award Kaleem Arif: Kaleem has been running the Halton Stars Cricket Club since 2005, where he has devoted time, money and effort to the promotion of cricket in Oakville and in Halton. Halton Cowboys · Athlete Award Matt Laidlaw: Matt played on the junior varsity team in the Ontario Varsity Football League and was rated second in all of Ontario for defensive play. He was selected and played on the U17 Team Ontario for the Canada Cup in Saskatoon this summer. · Team Award Tyke OMFL summer team (Nicholas Crouse, Bug Smith, Daniel Rhooms, Colton Bales, Garrett Homes, Jacob Hambly, Joshua Roberts, Matthew Belo, Scott Smith, Lucas Montgomery, Michael O'Shea, Eduardo De la Garza, Christian Smodis, Tristan Belo, Braydon Cunningham, Benjamin Crouse, Kenneth Lemieux, Ryan Trettor, Gurjit Singh, Jeremy Clarke, Zachary Martins, Anthony Daibes, Jonathan Reid, Troy Franklin, Basel Daibes, Dante Iocoviello, Colin Moran, Braden Bales, Jordyn Gallardo; team officials: Ben Montgomery; Ben Jenkins; Jamie Johnson, Mike O'Shea, Paolo Iacoviello): This team was composed of a majority of first-year players who were on average younger than their competition, achieved a record of 2-5 and made the playoff semifinals in the Ontario Minor Football League. · Volunteer Award Richard Speakman: Richard has invested a great deal of time in the development of the Halton Cowboys senior team as well as other junior teams at the club. He has served as the governor of the senior team and has helped many players in both on- and off-field endeavours. Burloak Canoe Club · Athlete Award Mark Oldershaw: Mark has achieved many successes paddling C1 for Canada and has won World Junior Championships and medalled at the 2009 World Championships in Dartmouth, along with five gold medals he achieved at nationals. · Team Award midget C4 team, women's 1,000m (Alanna Bray- Lougheed, Marsh McLeod, Morgan Oliver, Rebecca Yoshida): This group of paddlers achieved the first ever midget C4 1,000m gold medal for the club at nationals this year. Oakville Aquatic Club · Athlete Award Tera Van Beilen: Tera had an amazing summer: competing at nationals, on the senior B team in Great Britain, and at the Canada Summer Games in PEI. Halton Field Hockey Club · Coach Award Justin Warner: Justin led the Halton girls' U14 indoor hockey team to a silver medal at the provincial indoor championships. He has been a volunteer coach with See More page 38