Aldergrove's Lucas Simpson is among the finalists in Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Division of Athletics and Recreation major awards.
Each one of the WolfPack’s teams have at least a representative for the three major awards: Doctor Roger H. Barnsley Scholar Athletes, TRU Sports Task Force Athletes of the Year and the Cliff Neufeld Leadership Athletes of the Year.
The Barnsley Award goes to the male and female student athletes who best combines academics and athletic performance. All nominees qualify as ‘TRU Scholar Athletes’.
On the women’s side nominees for this award are: Jorri Duxbury (Salmon Arm, BC-Women’s Basketball), Katie Woo (Surrey, BC-Women’s Volleyball, Emily Atherton (Victoria, BC-Cheerleading), Emily Oliver (Kamloops, BC-Women’s Soccer) and Melissa Ryeo (Chilliwack,BC-Cross Country).
The male nominees for the Barnsley Award are: Brett Rouault (Vernon, BC-Men’s Basketball), Jagdeesh Uppal (Kamloops, BC-Swimming), Corey Wallis (Enderby, BC-Men’s Soccer) and Jay Huggins (Nanaimo, BC-Baseball).
Rouault and Duxbury won the award in 2013-14.
For the Sports Task Force Athlete of the Year — which is based totally on outstanding performance on the field or court — has the following nominees. For Female Athlete of the Year: Duxbury, Emily Edmundson (Kamloops, BC-Women’s Soccer), Iuliia Pakhomenko (Donetsk, Ukraine-Women’s Volleyball) and Alexis Gosselin (Cheerleading).
STF Male Athlete of the Year nominees are: Brad Gunter (Courtenay, BC-Men’s Volleyball), Alex Reid (Kamloops, BC-Baseball), Josh Wolfram (Kamloops, BC—Men’s Basketball) and Travis Froehlich (Revelstoke, BC-Men’s Soccer).
The Cliff Neufeld Leadership Award goes to the athletes who not only excels in their sport but also leads by example with their teammates and in the community.
Nominees for that award are for women: Taiysa Worsfold (Kamloops, BC-Women’s Basketball), Sydney Goward (Williams Lake, BC-Cheerleading), Alesha Miller (Vernon, BC-Cross Country Running) and Brianne Rauch (Kimberley, BC-Women’s Volleyball).
For men: Logan Geisbrecht (Williams Lake, BC -Cheerleading), Brett Parker (Langley, BC-Men’s Basketball), Lucas Simpson (Aldergrove - Baseball) and Ryan Pidhirniak (Coquitlam, BC-Cross Country Running).
In addition, the Newcomer of the Year, Community Award and the Directors Award will be announced at the awards banquet, which will be held at the Campus Activity Centre’s Grand Hall on Thursday, April 2.