The Northwest Alberta Sports Excellence Award nominees have been announced. The awards are given to celebrate the champions in the sports community and recognize them for their efforts. Coaches, amateur athletes, volunteers, and sports leaders are among the many who are highlighted.
This year the people nominated for Developmental Coach of the Year for hockey include James McGuigan and Matt Keillor. There are also coaches from other sports who are nominated as well such as Tiara Chambers, Katelyn Duffy, Jordan Loughlin, Jill Jardie, Chad Ramsay and Acacia Aspeslet.
The Coach of the Year nominations are set between two with Chris Spaidal for soccer and Elizabeth Gustafson for Arctic Sports. Male Athlete of the Year has five people going up against each other from sports like mixed martial arts to soccer. Alexander Luis Maria Martinez Aedo, Dylan Smith, Dylan Sparks, Ethan Fernandes, and Kobe Spaidal were all nominated for that category.
Only three people are competing for Female Athlete of the Year with Target Shooting and Track & Field among the sports in the category. The nominees are Elizabeth Gustafson, Jamie Wigamore and Mirelle Martens.
There are also Team of the Year awards being presented to both a female and male category. GPRC Women’s Indoor Track Team and GPRC Women’s Volleyball teams are nominated. Two high school team’s are up for male team of the year which are St. Joseph’s Grade 9 Volleyball and St. Joseph’s Celtics Football team.
Eric Turner, Kieran Goldhawk and Logan Rempel are all nominated for Junior Male Athlete of the Year while Jordan Greber and Kennedy Gray are up for the female category. The Sport Builder award has three nominations with Annie Arsenault, Nicole Greentree, Kali Mayne-Everton, and Laura Miller included under one ballot. The other two nominees are Colin Griffith and Xiao Mo Sun.
GPRC Wolves Athletics are nominated for Community Spirit award while the Sport Citizen nominee is Melanie Curtis for Gymnastics. The Team of the Year award nominee is Grande Prairie Piranhas Masters Swim Team and the Outstanding Official nomination goes to Kelly Wills.
The last category is the Unsung Hero with four nominees which are Stan Neufeld, Darcy Wereley, Scott Lowe and Joshua Kostanuick.
The ceremony is set to take place on March 12th hosted by the GP Sports council and The Alberta Sport Development Centre Northwest at the Stonebridge Hotel.