2013 Ricoh Sport Award Winners
The winners of the 2013 Ricoh Sport Awards were unveiled by Sport Nova Scotia at a June 1st awards gala. Among them, an engineer who left his career to build on 28 national gold medals – and brought home an Olympic medal, a seventeen year-old whose record-smashing Olympic performance is just the beginning, a hockey phenom from Cole Harbour, and an official who is an international go-to for her sport.
Over 500 members of the Nova Scotia sport community gathered at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel to see Sport Nova Scotia present the 17th annual Ricoh Sport Awards. The prestigious sport recognition event honoured the achievements of more than 180 athletes, coaches, officials, sponsors, sport associations, and volunteers from across the province.
Click here to see the winners for all sports.
The overall Ricoh award winners of the night are:
The RICOH Team of the Year – U17 Girls Provincial Basketball Team
The RICOH Female Individual Athlete of the Year - Ellie Black from Halifax (Gymnastics)
The RICOH Male Individual Athlete of the Year - Mark de Jonge from Halifax (CanoeKayak)
The RICOH Female Team Athlete of the Year – Nkem Ezurike from Sackville (Soccer)
The RICOH Male Team Athlete of the Year – Nathan MacKinnon from Cole Harbour (Hockey)
Coach of the Year - Keiji Yamanaka from Fall River (Gymnastics)
The RICOH Official of the Year – Marie Bowness from Bedford (Figure Skating)
The Ricoh Association of the Year Award (two winners): the Valley Speed Skating Club and the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron
The Ricoh Sport Makes a Difference Awards (two winners): nine year-old Luke Allen from Antigonish (TaeKwonDo) and the Black Youth Ice Hockey Program
Sport Nova Scotia Chair Award: Lowell Cormier from New Waterford
Click here to see biographies for the overall winners.
Sport Nova Scotia members (the Provincial Sport Organizations) submit one nominee per category based on achievements over the past year (April 1, 2012 – March 31, 2013). These are the sport-specific winners or “PSO winners”. Over 180 PSO winners were submitted by 38 different sports. Except the Sport Nova Scotia Chair Award, all overall winners (as above) were selected from this field. Two committees reviewed all the nominations. These volunteer committees were comprised of leaders of the Provincial Sport Organizations, representatives from the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic, members of the media, and community sport stakeholders. The first committee looked at the nominee’s most outstanding performance of the past year. This is worth 60% of the nominee’s overall score. The top five candidates in each category advanced to the second committee. Members of the second selection committee were tasked with looking at “the whole picture” - the overall year, past successes, obstacles, the competitive field, and any other outstanding considerations. This mark was worth 40% of the nominee’s overall score.