You can always count on a wide variety of sports to be represented when Yarmouth County hands out its annual athletic awards and this year was no exception.
The 2018 awards ceremony was held Friday, Nov. 30, at École secondaire de Par-en-Bas in Tusket.
The list of sports this year included – in alphabetical order – athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, bowling, curling, figure skating, hockey, karate, soccer, swimming and volleyball.
Highland dancers were honoured as well, along with Special Olympians and participants in the Jeux de l’Acadie.
Individuals and teams were recognized for their accomplishments from the past year.
Always a highlight at the ceremony is the presentation of special awards.
Not all of the special award recipients were present to receive their award in person, including swimmer Mary Beth Brown, Yarmouth County’s female athlete of the year, who is attending Acadia University. Hers was the last award presented and on hand to accept it on her behalf was Brown’s longtime Whitecap swim coach Ginny Smith, who retired from coaching this year and who received a nice round of applause from those attending Friday’s ceremony. (Smith had coached the Whitecaps since the early 1970s.)
The Vanguard carried a list of this year’s special award recipients in its Nov. 28 print edition, along with a brief bio (also available on our website). To see that article, click here.
To recap the names of the special award recipients for this year, they were:
--Alec Cottreau, male athlete of the year
--Mary Beth Brown, female athlete
--Dylan Landry, male youth athlete
--Madison Boudreau, female youth athlete
--Duane Fitzgerald, male coach
--Katrina Larkin, female coach
--Ernie Pitman, male official
--Jean Brown, female official
--Jordan Bain, male sport volunteer
--Saige Breton, female sport volunteer
--Jerry Burgess, male fair play award
--Jill-Marie Jacquard, female fair play award.
