Young Sport Yukon award winners in good company

Sport Yukon honoured the territory’s outstanding athletes Friday night at the annual Sport Yukon Awards Night.

Sport Yukon honoured the territory’s outstanding athletes Friday night at the annual Sport Yukon Awards Night.

“We had some fantastic nominees,” said executive director of Sport Yukon, Tracey Bilsky.

Awards were given to cross-country skier Dahria Beatty, National/Territorial Female Athlete of the Year; hockey player Ted Stephens for National/Territorial Male Athlete of the Year; swimmer Alexandra Gabor for International Female Athlete of the World; cyclist Zachary Bell for International Male Athlete of the Year; cross country ski coach Nick Stratis for Coach of the Year and Canadian Ski Patrol System-Yukon Zone Don Wilson for Administrator of the Year.

“They represent the Yukon well,” Bilsky said of the group of winning athletes.

Also given an award was the junior women’s curling team, Team Koltun, made up of skip Sarah Koltun, third Chelsea Duncan, second Linea Eby, lead Jenna Duncan, coach Lindsay Moldowan and assistant coach Gord Moffatt.

Bilsky said the difference in the amount of quality athletes from 20 years ago was “remarkable,” and made the judges’ jobs harder.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult,” said Bilsky.

The judges had the difficult task of narrowing down the top athletes based on their past season. Despite the difficulty in picking the finalists the judges enjoy the chance to review such a group of athletes.

“It’s a fantastic position to be put in,” said Bilsky.

This year’s Hall of Fame inductee was Peter Cassidy, who has been a fixture of the sporting community in the Yukon for many years.

“Peter has contributed to sport for the past 20 years,” said Bilsky. “He’s not only well known, he’s well respected.”

Bilsky describes the inductee as selfless.

“He can make volunteering very fun,” she said.

Cassidy’s nomination was unique, as he was nominated as both a builder and a coach. A builder is described as someone who helps develop sport, sport opportunities and sport governing bodies.

When asked about his induction into the Yukon Hall of Fame, Cassidy was bashful.

“You’re making me feel old,” he laughed.

All jokes aside, Cassidy was happy to be recognized for something he never thought of as work.

“I was quite humbled by it, when I look at all the people in the hall of fame,” he said.

“It’s kind of a warm and fuzzy feeling for sure.”

Cassidy was informed about a week ago that he would be given the honour.

The coach first came to the Yukon in 1977. He spent about 13-15 years coaching “everything under the sun,” in Mayo, he said.

He eventually made his way to Whitehorse where he began coaching volleyball at F.H. Collins Secondary School.

“That was a lot of fun,” he said.

Cassidy says the best thing about being a coach is how many kids he was able to see on a daily basis.

“I can’t count how many kids,” he said. At any point though, Cassidy saw more than 100 kids a day as a gym teacher.

“When you see that and are able to come in to contact (with that many kids), that’s great,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy was also on the Arctic Winter Games committee for the past 15 years, and continues to be involved. He is an administrator with Sport Yukon as well.

In the past seven years Cassidy has been involved with the Whitehorse Glacier Bears to ensure the programming remains fun for the kids.

“I’ve been really living vicariously through those kids,” Cassidy laughed.

After his seven years, Cassidy finished up with the Glacier Bears in October and is looking forward to whatever path he takes.

“We’ll see what other challenges pop their heads up,” he said.

Cassidy now works at the student residences planning student programming and trying to get students involved in sports because he truly believes; “sport involvement builds character.”

He also believes that the principles applied to sport, like giving everything 100 per cent can be used in everyday life.

“If you take that attitude and apply it to your exams, or your job at Superstore, you’re going to have a successful life,’ Cassidy said.

Bilsky said many of the award winning athletes were younger, but that is not necessarily strange.

One that stands out to her is Beatty, who won first in her age division at the Don Sumanik Memorial Free Technique Race this past weekend.

“I’m not surprised that she’s made it into this,” Bilsky said.

Beatty competed in the Arctic Winter Games for the first time when she was nine, Bilsky said.

Nominated for the awards were cross-country skier Colin Abbott for National/Territorial Male Athlete of the Year; cross-country skier Janelle Greer for International Female Athlete of the World; Abbott again for orienteering, and cross-country skier David Greer for International Male Athlete of the Year and the 2009 Canada Games Boys Soccer team for Team of the Year.