Four athletes from Burnaby were among the 13 outstanding amateur athletes, coaches and officials named as finalists for Sport B.C.’s Athlete of the Year awards to be held in March.
Douglas College senior RuiLin Huang in badminton, Burnaby Central grad Amar Dhesi in high school wrestling, Burnaby Mountain wrestler Stacie Anaka in the female senior athlete category and Simon Fraser University grad Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe in women’s basketball were all shortlisted in their respective categories for the 48th annual awards ceremony and gala dinner that will take place at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver on March 5.
Nominations were received from the provincial and multi-sport organizations, high schools, colleges or universities. Finalists and winners are selected by a committee of 20 highly regarded B.C. sportswriters, broadcasters, and amateur sport leaders.
Huang led Douglas College with five consecutive Canadian Colleges’ Athletic conference national women’s singles titles. She was also a five-time All-Canadian and PacWest player of the year.
Last year, Huang was named the CCAA female player of the year across all sports and is a four-time national badminton player of the year. She has also earned Douglas College’s athlete of the year for five straight years.
In her collegiate career, Huang amassed a near-perfect record of 207 wins and just one defeat.
It is Huang’s second nomination for college athlete of the year.
“I’m so happy to be nominated again,” said Huang, who graduated from Douglas in December with a degree in accountancy. “I had a great team and a great coach. Without their help I wouldn’t have been able to get the results I got.”
Huang is up against University of the Fraser Valley and PacWest female volleyball player of the year Kayla Unger and All-Canadian and two-time PacWest league MVP Alanna Bekkering for the bronze-medal-winning Thompson Rivers University women’s soccer team.
“When I got the email (from Sport B.C.). I said, ‘Wow, again.’ Hopefully I can be luckier than the last time,” Huang said.
Dhesi is a four-time national wrestling champion, who was undefeated in his last two years of high school wrestling without a single point scored against him.
The promising heavyweight, who is the first B.C. wrestler to earn a full-ride athletic scholarship to a top-10 NCAA Division I wrestling program, was also the first Canadian in two decades to win a U.S. national title.
Dhesi is currently ranked No. 19 in the nation at Oregon State University.
Dhesi is shortlisted along with two-time B.C. high school football player of the year Mt. Douglas running back Marcus Davis and three-sport Oak Bay Secondary grad Lars Borneman.
Anaka, the senior world silver medalist and Pan American gold medal-winner, is among the top three women nominated for senior female athlete of the year.
The SFU grad and senior national champion is currently the head women’s coach on Burnaby Mountain.
“It’s always quite an honour to be considered in the realm of being among the best athlete in B.C. I was definitely surprised,” Anaka said.
Anaka is up against 10-year senior women’s national basketball team veteran Kim Gaucher and Canadian record holder in the 200-metre backstroke, Hilary Caldwell.
Raincock-Ekunwe, who led the varsity women’s Clan basketball team to a first-ever Sweet 16 finish at the NCAA Division II national championships last year, was named a second team All-American.
In 2013, Raincock-Ekunwe set a Great Northwest conference record of 49 career double-doubles, but her 63 doubles with SFU are unofficially third best all-time in NCAA Div. II.
Raincock-Ekunwe also set a conference single-game record of 24 rebounds in 2013, while leading the nation with a shooting percentage of 0.653 in Div. II.
The 6-2 forward is nominated alongside University of B.C.’s women’s volleyball player of the year Shanice Marcelle, who was named the top female athlete in Canadian Interuniversity Sport.
Two-time national rowing championship champion in the lightweight pairs, Maxwell Lattimer, was also nominated in the university category.
Sport B.C. announced the finalists for the 48th Annual Athlete of the Year Awards last Thursday. They represent 21 different individual and team sports and 20 communities throughout the province.
