Ottawa, Ont. - Softball Canada is pleased to announce the award recipients who will be recognized at the Softball Canada Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet on November 16th, 2019 in Richmond, B.C. The Banquet will be held in conjunction with the Softball Canada Congress and Annual General Meeting which will take place from November 14-16. As previously announced, Christman Lee (Official, British Columbia), Melanie Matthews (Athlete, British Columbia), Mike Renney (Coach, British Columbia), Greg Timm (Builder, British Columbia) and Brian Van Os (Official, British Columbia) will be inducted into the Softball Canada Hall of Fame at this Banquet. The event will also feature the presentation for Doug Chase (Athlete) who was accepted to the WBSC Hall of Fame in 2017.
                                                                     
The Kahunaverse Sports Coach of the Year award will be presented to Ted Birdsall from Vancouver, B.C. Birdsall has been coaching competitively for ten years, with a proven record of success in the White Rock Renegades Fastpitch Club. In the last nine years, his teams have come home with seven Provincial medals and three Canadian Championship titles. Starting in 2010, Birdsall took his U12 Renegades ’99 all the way through U16, coaching them for six years and taking four gold medals and one bronze at Provincials, as well as winning the Canadian Championship in 2015. He went on to coach the U16 Renegades ’02 for two years, winning Provincial and Canadian Championship gold medals in 2018. In 2019, he coached the first year U16 Renegades ’04 to a Provincial gold medal in July followed by a Canadian Championship gold medal in August, going undefeated in Calgary.
 
New for 2019, Softball Canada will recognize both a Fast Pitch and Slo-Pitch Umpire of the Year presented by Home Run Sports (a division of Kahunaverse Sports).
 
Frankie Billingsley, from Edmonton, Alta. has been selected as the recipient of the Kahunaverse Sports Fast Pitch Umpire of the Year award. She has been a Level V Fast Pitch umpire since 2011 and obtained her WBSC Certification in 2013. Frankie has been quite active at the international level, umpiring at 2014 USA Softball World Cup, the 2017 Japan Cup and the 2016 and 2018 WBSC Women’s World Softball Championships. In 2019, she worked the Canada Cup and a pair of other high-profile international events, travelling to Lima for the Women’s Softball competition at the Pan American Games and then to Surrey, B.C. for the WBSC Americas Softball Olympic Qualifier, both held in August. She is also a leader off the field, co-producing a Softball Alberta education podcast series, co-leading the Instructor/Evaluator clinic and served as a presenter at the Blue Convention.
 
The recipient of the Kahunaverse Sports Slo-Pitch Umpire of the Year award is Steve Camus from Welland, Ont. Steve earned his Level V Slo-Pitch Certification in 2007 and became a certified WBSC Slo-Pitch umpire in 2011. At the international level, he worked at the 2011 World Senior Master’s Games, participated in an exchange with USA Softball to work their National Championship in 2012 and officiated at the 2016 WBSC Co-Ed World Cup. He remains active on the field and umpired at this year’s Men’s Canadian Slo-Pitch Championship in Moncton. Off the field, Steve leads the largest provincial program in the country as the Slo-Pitch Umpire in Chief for Softball Ontario. He is the Umpire-in-Chief for many major events and leads several clinics each year. He was the UIC for the 2018 Border Battle and has been a UIC or DUIC at several Canadian Championships.
 
The Rose Hodgson Volunteer of the Year award will be presented to long-time Softball BC volunteer Dave Brewer who now resides in Leduc, Alta. Dave began volunteering in the sport of softball shortly after moving to Trail, B.C. in 1976. He first became the president of  his local men’s Fast Pitch league, and was then asked to recruit, promote and develop adult Fast Pitch throughout the Kootenays region as senior coordinator from 1985 to 1990. He joined the Board of Directors of Softball BC from 1990-1996 before taking a step back and turned his focus towards officiating, become a District Umpire in Chief for the Kootenays from 2000-2008. He then rejoined Softball BC’s Board of Directors from 2008-2018, also serving as the province’s Umpire in Chief from 2013 until he moved to Alberta last year.
 
This year’s recipients of the Claude Deschamps Memorial Fund are Julia Berka from Surrey, B.C. and Owen Torrie from Williamsford, Ont.
 
Julia Berka recently began her post-secondary education at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Kinesiology. A member of the Surrey Storm 2001A team, she has competed in a total of eight Softball BC Provincial Championships and four Canadian Championships, winning a provincial bronze medal in 2019 and silver at both the Provincial and Canadian Championships in 2017. She is also an assistant coach with the Surrey Storm 2007A team and plans on continuing to coach and becoming a teacher. Julia is also a Level 1 softball umpire.
 
Owen Torrie began a two-year Powerline Technician program at Conestoga College this Fall. A member of the 2018 Junior Men’s National Team, Torrie was part of Canada’s pitching staff at the WBSC Junior Men’s Softball World Championship in Prince Albert. In 2019, he played for both the Shallow Lake Sting (U19) and Owen Sound Selects (U23), capturing a gold medal at the U19 Men’s Canadian Championship and earning the Top Player of the Championship Round award. Torrie also enjoys playing various other sports including hockey and has volunteered at a number of softball and Canpitch clinics with the OASA.
 
The Ethel Boyce Memorial Award will be awarded to Kim Vibert from Calgary, Alta. and Brendan Hagerman from Napanee, Ont.
 
Kim Vibert is in her fourth year in Kinesiology at the University of Calgary, where she recently completed her fourth and final year with the Dinos softball team by winning a silver medal at the 2019 Canadian Collegiate Softball Association (CCSA) National Championship after winning bronze in 2018. Kim played in a total of three Canadian Championships – she was named to the tournament All-Star Team as an Outfielder in 2016 (U18) and 2018 (Women’s) – and represented Saskatchewan at the 2017 Canada Summer Games. A natural leader, she is interested in shifting her focus towards coaching.
 
Brendan Hagerman started his second year of a Business Administration degree at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ont. He represented Canada at the 2018 WBSC Junior Men’s Softball World Championship and was recently named to the 2020 Men’s National Team Athlete Pool. Brendan has played for the Napanee Express since 2013, winning a silver medal at the 2017 U18 Men’s Canadian Championship and gold at the U19 event in 2018 while being named to the tournament All Star Team as a Catcher at both events. He also won the 2019 PJHL Clarence Schmalz Cup (Junior C Hockey) as a member of the Napanee Raiders.
 
The Softball Canada Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet will be streamed on Softball Canada’s YouTube page starting at 8:00pm PST on Saturday, November 16 and will be available to be viewed later. A cocktail reception will begin at 6:00pm with the meal at 7:00pm.
 
In addition to these awards that will be presented at the Softball Canada Congress, Softball Canada will be announcing new Athlete of the Year award recipients sponsored by Home Run Sports (a division of Kahunaverse Sports) in late November.
 
Congratulations to all of this year’s award recipients!