Hurricanes earn honours
Emma Hughes and Marcus Lapointe selected top male and female scholar-athletes at national level
Emma Hughes of Summerside and Marcus Lapointe of Wolfville, N.S., have received a prestigious honour from Holland College athletics.
Each year, Hurricanes athletics recognizes the top male and female Canadian collegiate scholar-athletes with awards of distinction.
Hughes was the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association rookie and player of the year for the Hurricanes badminton team.
Lapointe played libero for the ACAA champion men’s volleyball Hurricanes.
Both Hughes and Lapointe were also named the 2017 Holland Hurricanes rookies of the year.
The recipient of the Hurricanes academic team of the year award is men’s football. The Hurricanes had the highest number of scholar-athletes on their roster with 17 students, more than any other Hurricanes team during the 2016-17 academic year.
Holland College aims to recognize all of the Hurricanes student-athletes who excelled academically while also competing in the sports of baseball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, badminton, football, hockey, softball, golf, cross-country running, dance and cheer during the 2016-17 academic year.
A total of 116 Hurricanes made the grade, combining academic and athletic achievement at the varsity or club level in their chosen sport.
Fifty-six students who participated in CCAA sports were recently nominated for the CCAA national scholarathlete award.
The remaining 60 student-athletes who participated in football, hockey, softball, dance and cheerleading were recognized with Hurricanes scholar awards.
These awards are presented to student-athletes who have achieved an honours standing, which is an academic average of at least 80 per cent over their full year of studies at Holland College in the 2016-17 academic year.
With these outstanding numbers, Holland College was recently presented the CCAA’s annual award for the member institution with the highest number of academic all-Canadians during the 2016-17 academic year.
This is the third straight year Holland College has been awarded this national academic recognition.
Athletics and recreation director Albert Roche is happy with the number of scholar-athletes involved with the Holland Hurricanes.
“We strive to attract student-athletes who can perform well academically because we know how challenging life can be when attempting to balance studies with the rigors of varsity sport,’’ Roche said. “This group of students is a great source of pride for the Hurricanes and Holland College and we congratulate all our recipients on attaining this level of academic excellence.’’