One of our area’s most popular and long-standing sports groups took time recently to recognize successes from the season past, as well as taking steps to begin planning for the future.

The Nanaimo and District Lacrosse Association held its annual general meeting last month. A good turnout of interested players, parents and volunteers at the meeting saw numerous player and team awards presented and also helped to elect a new executive for the year ahead. My thanks to registrar Debbie Cawthorne for passing along highlights from that meeting…

The awards portion of the meeting was divided into three sections, the first being honours for players from specific teams in the various age groups. Starting at the peewee A level, Owen Thomas was selected as most inspirational player, Tyson Meldrum as most sportsmanlike player and Teegan Lance as most improved.

From the peewee B squad, winners were Clayton Smith as most inspirational player, Danielle Hardy as most sportsmanlike and Gordie Walls-Good as most improved. Peewee C recipients were: most inspirational player Lachlann Glennie, most sportsmanlike Meridian Best and most improved Bryce Taylor.

At the bantam level, Darrin Wilson, Chance Mackay-Topley and Jonah Hewitt were recognized as the most inspirational, most sportsmanlike and most improved players respectively from the A team.

Bantam B1 winners were Matt McConnell as most inspirational, Aidan Vink as most sportsmanlike and Jake Soles as most improved. From the Bantam B2 team, Evan English was judged as most inspirational, Kreston Lance as most sportsmanlike and Nik Hildebrand as most improved. Dylan Brugge was chosen as most inspirational player from the bantam C squad, with Tyler Welsh the most sportsmanlike and Elijah Desaulnier the most improved player.

Turning to midget-age players, the A team awards went to Brandon Manhas for most inspirational player, Mitch Backstrom for most sportsmanlike and Alex McDougall for most improved.

Midget B1 winners were most inspirational player Kevin Good, most sportsmanlike Andrew Baldwin and most improved Griffin Woodward. Receiving awards as midget B2 players were Carl Maibach for most inspirational, Aaron Moore for most sportsmanlike and Calum Specken for most improved.

Girls’ teams are an important part of Nanaimo lacrosse and award winners from those squads were also recognized. Chosen from the peewee girls’ team were Chelsy Brugge as most inspirational player, with the most sportsmanlike award going to Michelle Reynolds and the most improved award to Tayelor Bourque.

From the bantam girls’ team were chosen Michelle Berti as most inspirational player, Kelsey Dougan as most sportsmanlike and Danika Mayor as most improved. Midget girls’ team winners were most inspirational player Samantha Hartmann, most sportsmanlike Justine Pullen and most improved player Maggie Paugh. Representing the junior girls’ squad, most inspirational player was Marissa Jordan, most sportsmanlike was Emily Shaw and most improved player was Kelsey Carter.

The second group of awards presented at the meeting were division awards consisting of a most valuable player named from each of the various age divisions.

Winner from the peewee boys’ division was Tyus Barfoot, while bantam boys’ MVP was Jacob Odynsky and Midget boys’ MVP went to Andrew Miller.

From the girls’ divisions, Elise Angelucci was chosen as MVP from the peewee age group, Rylee Allan was the MVP for bantams, Kara Galbraith from the midget girls’ group and Brenna Collicutt was most valuable player from the junior girls’ division.

In the near future we’ll review a number of other prestigious awards given out at the lacrosse AGM, as well as election results and other recent news from the local lacrosse world.

Whatever your sport, a reminder in closing to play your hardest, play fair, and show good sportsmanship.

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Ian Thorpe writes about sports Saturdays.