SoftballCanada Announces 2009 Award Winners
October 20, 2009
Ottawa, ON
SoftballCanada Announces 2009 Award Winners
(Ottawa,ON) – Softball Canada is extremely pleased to announce the following awardwinners, who will all be recognized at the Softball Canada Hall of Fame Banqueton November 14th, 2009 in Ottawa, Ontario. The Banquet will be held in conjunction with the Softball Canada Annual General Meeting, which will take place from November 12-14. As previously announced, Phyllis Bomberry (Athlete, Ontario), Don Bracey (Official, Ontario), Gil Read (Builder, Ontario), the 1949 Tip Top Tailors (Team, Ontario) and Darren Zack (Athlete, Ontario) will all be inducted to the Softball Canada Hall ofFame during that very same Banquet.
The Home Run Sports Coach of the Year award will be presented to ClaudeVinet from Beloeil, Quebec.Claude is a Certified Level III Coach who has been actively coaching for over 29 years. This past summer, he coached the Team Quebec Midget team, which placed fourth at the Canadian Championship,third at the PONY Nationals in the USA and culminating with a Bronze medal atthe 2009 Canada Summer Games, which was Quebec’s first medal at the event since1977. In addition to spending countless hours with his own team, Claude alwaysfinds the time to help less experienced coaches in Quebec, and also runs the provincial training center in Quebec, planning all indoor practices for all six of the Quebec Teams in the Elite program.
Dick Coleman from Orleans, Ontario, has been selected as the recipient of the Home Run Sports Umpire of the Year award. Dick has served the umpiring community since1988, and along the way, he has unselfishly helped many young umpires improve their abilities as an Instructor/Evaluator. A long-time Umpire-in-Chief for the Orleans Amateur Softball Association (OAFA), Dick also took on theadded responsibilities of Fast-Pitch Zone 10 Umpire-in-Chief in 2001 andSlo-Pitch Zone 8 Umpire-in-Chief in 2004. The Orleans fastball community hosts two or more provincial tournaments each year and Dick has been involved inalmost every event, either as a working umpire or as the DUIC or UIC.
The Rose Hodgson Volunteer of the Year award was first presented at last year’s Annual General Meeting, and this year’s winner is Carl Littlejohns from Innerkip, ON. Carl has been an athlete, coach and active volunteer in the sport of softball for almost 50 years, starting out as a player at the age of 10, and soon began umpiring at the age of 12. He was one of the founding members of the Innerkip Eagles Intermediate Men’s Fastball Team, and also helped organize the Woodstock Men’s Orthodox League, where he still plays tothis day. He joined the ORSA as a director in 1976, served as President from1983-1984 followed by Secretary-Treasurer in 1985, a role he still fulfills to this day. Carl is also a regular volunteer for the local Lions Club, and has also canvassed on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society for the past 25 years.
This year’s recipients of the Claude Deschamps Memorial Fund are Brendan Roach from Waterloo, Ontario and Patricia Séguin from Rigaud, Quebec.
Brendan Roach is a first year Kinesiology student at the University of Waterloo and has been playing softball since he was 6 years old, recently leading Team Ontario by pitching them to a Gold medal at the U19 International Men’s Softball Championship in Charlottetown, PEI. In addition to his interest in softball, Brendan alsoenjoys playing various other sports, such as volleyball and hockey, and also enjoys volunteering for both softball and volleyball.
Patricia Séguin,who has just begun the second year of her CEGEP and Bachelors program in Nursing at Valleyfield College in Quebec, was a key player for Team Quebec atthe Canada Summer Games this past summer in Summerside, PEI, helping the teamwin its first medal at the Games since 1977 with a Bronze. As a member of theTeam Quebec program, Patricia has volunteered at various Softball Quebec tournaments, including the Montreal Challenge and Canadian Championships, and alsofinds the time to work clinics with younger athletes in her region.
The Ethel Boyce Memorial Award will be awarded to Shane Boland from Goulds, Newfoundland and Chenelle Mitchell from Carlyle, Saskatchewan.
Shane Boland is a first year Public Relations student at Memorial University in St. John’s,Newfoundland. He represented Canada at the 2008 ISF Junior Men’s WorldChampionship in Whitehorse, and this year represented Newfoundland at the U19International Softball Championship in Charlottetown, PEI and at the Canadian Junior Men’s Championship in Owen Sound, Ontario, leading the Kelly’s Pub Jr.Canadians to a Gold medal and earning All-Star Second Baseman honours. He has volunteered to coach his former High School softball and hockey teams, and has also served as an instructor for the Learn to Play program.
Chenelle Mitchell hasjust begun her degree in Accounting at the University of Regina, and recently participated at the Women’s Canadian Intercollegiate Championship in Kitchener, ON. This past summer, she also played for the Carlyle Cougars and the South East Angels.Chenelle is an excellent volunteer in her local community of Carlyle, organizing pitching clinics for younger players. She also helpedout at a Softball Saskatchewan Skills camp in her hometown and was Head Coachof the local Squirt C team.
Congratulationsto all of this year’s award winners!
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Formore information, please contact:
GillesLeBlanc
Manager– Marketing and Communications
SoftballCanada
(613)523-3386 ext. 3105
