Three in contention for annual recognition
Kia Nurse, Darnell Nurse and Cindy Nelles are finalists for Golden Horseshoe Athlete of the Year Award
Imagine yourself as a contestant on “Let’s Make A Deal.”
Monty Hall shows you three doors and asks you to pick one. Guess correctly and you win a new car. Guess wrong and you go home as the proud owner of a bag of rocks or a sack of dirt or maybe a mangy goat.
But what if the game was tweaked so there was no bad choice?
What if there was a Lamborghini behind the first door, a Ferrari behind the second and a McLaren behind the third?
No matter what you pick, you’re correct.
Well, then you’d be the Golden Horseshoe Athlete of the Year committee.
When this year’s three finalists were announced on Tuesday — siblings Darnell and Kia Nurse, and McMaster University rugby star Cindy Nelles — it was immediately clear there was no bad option. Every door was a winner. Every choice was right. This isn’t all that unusual. There have been plenty of great classes since the award was first presented in 1995.
Consider that athletes who have lost over the years — though lost seems awfully harsh — include a swimmer who won four Paralympic medals, a guy who was named AHL rookie of the year and MVP in the same season, the CFL’s most outstanding Canadian, the Hec Crighton Award winner and, incredibly, even Major League Baseball’s saves leader.
Let that sink in for a moment before carrying on.
Frankly, it’s hard to imagine there could ever be deeper classes and tougher calls than some of those. But that’s exactly where we are.
Darnell Nurse was the player of the game in the gold-medal showdown at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Toronto last January. Simply put, he was dominant. Canada likely doesn’t end its top-of-the-podium drought without him. Most amazingly, there wasn’t a single even-strength goal scored against Canada while he was on the ice in the entire event. He also captained the Soo Greyhounds to the OHL semifinals and has cracked the Edmonton Oilers’ lineup as a regular.
His sister, Kia, not only won an NCAA basketball title, carried her Canadian national team to Pan Am gold and then pushed them to an Olympic berth via the qualifiers in the summer, but she was named a finalist for the Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s top athlete. Now she’s a key member of the top-ranked University of Connecticut Huskies that just won their 55th-straight game.
As for Nelles, she came out of nowhere — OK, not really, but it seemed that way to most — to become the dominant player in Canadian university rugby. She was named Ontario MVP, Canadian MVP and MVP of the national championship, where she led McMaster to its first Canadian title. Then she was named captain of Canada’s developmental squad and breakout player in all of North, Central or South America. Male or female.
Care to make a choice? Go ahead. Door No. 1, Door No. 2, or door No. 3?
“The problem is, you’re forced to compare apples to oranges to bananas,” says GHAY chair Michele Vesprini. “They are heavily accomplished, all three.”
No, it’s not easy. It’s nearly impossible. When the committee sat down and chose these three from the initial list of 22 and then cast their ballots for the winner — the award will be handed out Feb. 25 at the annual CYO Children’s Fundraiser, but voting has already been done — the heartburn pills were out.
In case you’re wondering, there won’t be a tie. There can’t be. The GHAY constitution doesn’t allow for multiple winners. No copouts here.
So who’s going to win? If you’re bound and determined to win your annual Golden Horseshoe Athlete of the Year office pool this year, who should you choose?
Go with Kia. She was a finalist the past two years, losing to golfer Mackenzie Hughes (the year he qualified for the U.S. Open) and then hockey star Laura Fortino (who set up the golden goal at the Sochi Olympics). Though, again, ‘losing’ seems like the wrong word.
Anyway, there’s no way she goes home three-consecutive years without the prize.
That doesn’t mean this would be a sympathy vote. What she did over the past 12 months was sensational. Her performances were consistently incredible. Whenever the stakes were highest, she was at her best. In a single year she elevated herself from a great player to one of the elite in the world. And she’s still getting better.
The most amazing part of her story. She hasn’t been on the losing end of any contest in a year. It’s unlikely she’s going to start now.