Women's volleyball and men's soccer each took home to of the six major athletic awards in 2019-20 as the annual year-end achievements were honoured in an online digital celebration held over several weeks.
The UBCO virtual banquet, hosted by Oliver Rizun, of the Heat men's golf team, and Brianna Owen, one of the student athletic trainers for the men's volleyball team, handed out the school's athletic awards – its 12th as the Heat.
Rookie of the year, graduating player of the year, and outstanding athlete of the year are the three major athletic awards with one each handed out to males and one each to females.
| TEAM AWARD WINNERS | ALL AWARD WINNERS [PDF] | VIRTUAL BANQUET | AWARD FINALISTS |
Rookie of the Year
After capturing the national rookie of the year in U SPORTS women's volleyball, it's not surprising that Amaya Perry is the female rookie of the year for the Heat. Meanwhile, Pierson Stanley, the talented forward from the men's soccer team, is UBCO's male rookie of the year.
Male Rookie of the Year – Pierson Stanley (soccer)
The indoor sports have dominated the male rookie of the year at UBC Okanagan since the inception of the award in 2014. For 2019-20 however, it was the impressive attacking abilities of the Heat men's soccer rookie striker, Pierson Stanley, who kicked his way to the UBCO Rookie of the Year award.
| 2019-20 Men's Finalists | List of previous winners | More on Stanley
Female Rookie of the Year – Amaya Perry (volleyball)
Perry ran away with the rookie award at UBC Okanagan even though she was up against arguably the strongest group of finalists for the award since its inception in 2015.
| 2019-20 Women's Finalists | List of previous winners | More on Perry
Graduating Athlete of the Year
Jordan Korol, a Philosophy, Politics and Economics major and women's basketball record-setter, and Mike Mitchell a trail-blazing cross country runner and Engineering student, receive the top award for graduating players at UBCO.
Male Graduating Player of the Year – Mike Mitchell (cross country)
Mitchell is the first men's cross country runner at UBCO to win a major school athletic award. His growth as a runner coincided with the growth of the program that took him from competition at the collegiate level to U SPORTS — the highest level of post-secondary sport in the country — that earned him recognition as the top male graduating Heat athlete in his final season.
| 2019-20 Men's Finalists | List of previous winners | More on Mitchell
Female Graduating Player of the Year – Jordan Korol (basketball)
After capturing UBCO's outstanding athlete of the year last season, Korol followed up her record-setting 2018-19 season with a strong final year in the blue and gold to seize the graduating athlete award.
| 2019-20 Women's Finalists | List of previous winners | More on Korol
Outstanding Athlete of the Year
Women's volleyball setter / outside hitter Natalie Livingston and men's soccer defender Hamish Walde rise above the rest and are the 2019-20 UBC Okanagan Heat's Outstanding Athletes of the Year.
Male Outstanding Athlete of the Year – Hamish Walde (soccer)
Walde captained his team to its best regular season record in Canada West play, earning Canada West All-Star recognition on his way to securing his spot in school history by becoming the 29th Male Athlete of the Year at UBCO.
| 2019-20 Men's Finalists | List of previous winners | More on Walde
Female Outstanding Athlete of the Year – Natalie Livingston (volleyball)
Livingston's versatility and success at multiple demanding positions on the court allowed the Heat women's volleyball team to maximize their roster, and put together an extremely competitive season to earn her the award for top female athlete at UBCO.
| 2019-20 Women's Finalists | List of previous winners | More on Livingston
After those six main awards, rookie of the year, graduating athlete of the year and outstanding athlete of the year, for male and female, highlighted the best of the best this past season at UBCO.
The process for the most prestigious UBCO awards starts with the teams who nominate their best; those nominations go to an external committee who rank the group and then only the top tier become finalists. Like the Academy Awards, that elite group of finalists are announced prior to the banquet, with the deserving winner welcomed at the banquet.
For a detailed description of the awards, and more information for all of the nominees, see the Preview for the banquet.
Every team also handed out their own two awards to spotlight the quality efforts of student-athletes across all Heat programs. This portion of the virtual banquet was hosted by Braxtyn Horbay and Noah Campbell. Horbay played with the Heat women's basketball team while Campbell featured on the men's volleyball squad.
These awards celebrated two players from each Heat team in two areas: an individual who exhibited the best in a leadership and community capacity, and a team MVP.
In alphabetical order - by sport - the team award winners were, or check the winners out with their photos here:
Men's Basketball:
- Keaton Souster - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Hafith Moallin – Team MVP
Women's Basketball:
- Ana Evans - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Jordan Korol – Team MVP
Men's Cross Country:
- Mike Mitchell - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Mike Mitchell – Team MVP
Women's Cross Country:
- Camille Galloway - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Camille Galloway – Team MVP
Men's Golf:
- Marcus Apchin - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Cole Wilson – Team MVP
Women's Golf:
- Samantha Copeland - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Samantha Copeland – Team MVP
Men's Soccer:
- Nicholas Reitsma - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Hamish Walde – Team MVP
Women's Soccer:
- Maddy Laranjo - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Anastazia Ziros – Team MVP
Men's Volleyball:
- Denham O'Reilly - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Teo Ardanaz – Team MVP
Women's Volleyball:
- Claudia Corneil - Leadership & Community Service Team Award
- Natalie Livingston – Team MVP
