The BC sport sector gathered at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver on March 12, 2015 to recognize the athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, and sport administrators in 17 award categories at the Athlete of the Year awards.
The Athlete of the Year Awards, founded by Sport BC, are the longest running sport awards ceremony in Canada and bring a tradition of honouring the best of the best of sport in BC.
Recipients are determined by a Selection Committee of individuals from the media and sport sectors in BC. The committee is chaired by Bernie Pascall.
Amongst the recipients were many whose paths to their tremendous careers in sport brought them to the BC Games as athletes, coaches, and officials.
BC Games alumni included the following award recipients:
Athlete with a Disability - Josh Dueck (Vernon) - Para-Alpine (2004 and 2006 BC Winter Games
Male Coach of the Year - Paul Eberhardt (Vancouver) - Basketball (1992 BC Summer Games)
Male High School Athlete of the Year - Jordan Lu (Vancouver) - Golf (2010 BC Summer Games)
Official of the Year - John Carroll (Surrey)- Gymnastics (1992, 1993, 2002, 2004, 2012, 2014 BC Games)
Male Senior Athlete of the Year - Denny Morrison (Fort St. John) - Speed-Skating (2000 BC Winter Games)
University Athlete of the Year - Brad Gunter (Courtenay)- Volleyball (2008 BC Summer Games)
And Carey Price (Anahim Lake) (2002 BC Winter Games) and Jamie Benn (Victoria) (2004 BC Winter Games), members of the Men's Canadian Olympic Team, were recognized with the Best of BC Award.
The Community Champion Award was presented to BC Games alumna and Olympic medallist (Ski Cross) Kesley Serwa (2002 BC Winter Games) who was the honourary captain of Team BC for the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George.
Longtime BC Athletics staff member and advocate of the BC Games, Brian McCalder was presented with the Daryl Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award, the award category that was sponsored by the BC Games Society.
Seven Team BC alumni were also recognized as award winners at the event. See the full story here.
The BC Games Society also recognized the President and Vice President of the Nanaimo 2014 BC Summer Games, Jeff Lott and Bruce Hunter as its President's Award recipients. See complete story here.