Just got in and had an email waiting from the U of A’s athletics dept. Alex Steele has been selected as CW MVP in men’s basketball this year, and Don Horwood picked up conference coach of the year.
I can’t give enough props to Steele. He’s grown by leaps (of tall buildings) and bounds in his three years with the Bears. I thought he deserved the award, but figured he’d be overshadowed by the success of the Calgary Dinos this year. Apparently not. With the MVP victory, Steele should be a lock as an all-Canadian this year as well.
For Horwood, the award caps off an impressive 25th season at the end of the Bears’ bench and his 40th overall season as a coach. Last year he led his team to a first-place finish in their division when the thing was wide open. This year, while overshadowed by the powerhouse Dinos, he coached the only team in Canada West to beat Calgary, UBC and Brandon (the other three teams joining the Bears at the Final Four in Calgary this weekend) in the regular season. It should be noted that the Bears also dropped a two-point decision to Carleton in the pre-season.
The awards go as follows:
Rookie of the Year: Tyler Fidler, Calgary
Defensive Player of the Year: Yul Michel, Brandon
Ken Shields Award nominee: Matt Opalko, Winnipeg
Coach of the Year: Don Horwood, Alberta
All-Stars
First Team Second Team
Alex Steele, Alberta Henry Bekkering, Calgary
Erfan Nasajpour, Winnipeg Chris Dyck, UBC
Andrew Spagrud, Saskatchewan Adam Hartman, Brandon
Greg Wallis, Simon Fraser Isaac Ansah, Manitoba
Dany Charlery, Brandon Tyler Hass, Victoria
4 Comments
February 26, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Not only is he the coach of the year, he’s also the Safeway Shopper of the week.
Also, I’m not guaranteeing anything (since i don’t know how Carleton’s press setup looks) but the goal is to live blog the Ravens-GeeGees OUA East final this Saturday evening at 8 EST (5 PST, 6 MST)
February 26, 2008 at 6:43 pm
You’re a magic-maker, Rossy. I forgot about that. I’ve got something better than that on our COY, but I’m waiting to hear back from someone to see if I can use it.
February 26, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I suck and still haven’t typed anything up from the Holland College vs UNBSJ games. I should get on that because the men’s game was pretty dang exciting. Not only did *someone else* (the assistant coach!) yell out that the refs were not calling three in the key, but when some annoying fan-guy-who-thought-he-knew-everything screamed “look alive, boys!” I responded with “yes! don’t look dead!”
It was an excellent outing.
October 6, 2008 at 3:39 am
[...] Alex Steele: Canada West MVP Just got in and had an email waiting from the U of As athletics dept … Dyck, UBC Andrew Spagrud, Saskatchewan Adam Hartman, Brandon Greg Wallis, Simon Fraser Isaac Ansah [...]
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