Niagara Knights gather around awards round table
Friday was a night to remember for the Niagara Knights.
That’s when student athletes who competed in tournament and varsity sports at Niagara College got together to celebrate the 2017-18 season.
Schoolwide and team honours were bestowed at the 49th annual athletic awards banquet held at Parkway Conference Centre in St. Catharines.
Mike Santoro, interim associate director of athletics and recreation, thanked the studentathletes for building on an “established culture of excellence” at the region’s community college.
“Tonight is a celebration of our many student-athlete success stories this year,” he said. “Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication over the course of this season.”
Topping athletic achievements in 2017-18 at the college were four medals won at Ontario championships, including a gold in women’s curling.
Five Niagara student-athletes were named Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association academic all-Canadians and 36 earned all-academic honours.
In March Niagara hosted the eight-team Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) men’s basketball championships at its main campus in Welland.
The biggest awards at the banquet went to athletes of the year Mary Ingribelli and Samuel Robson.
Ingribelli, a St. Catharines native and Governor Simcoe Secondary School graduate, was the top female athlete for 2017-18 after playing a key role in the Niagara women’s basketball team winning 14 games for the first time ever.
season scoring record at the college, made the OCAA first all-star team and was selected an all-star at the provincial championships in Etobicoke where the Knights finished fourth.
Robson became the first soccer player at the college to earn athlete of the year honours after a standout season between the pipes for the men’s team. The Milton native allowed just eight goals in 11 starts.
Robson, an OCAA all-star, also excelled in the classroom earning academic all-Canadian honours.
Soccer player Michelle Maecker, a Fonthill resident and E.L. Crossley alum, and basketball player Jordan Wilson, from Nassau, Bahamas, went home from Friday night’s banquet with rookie athlete of the year awards.
Mike Beccaria, head of the women’s basketball program, received the Ralph Nero Memorial Award as coach of the year.
The award honours the memory of longtime Notre Dame College School and Niagara College coach Ralph Nero, whom Beccaria succeeded as head coach of the men’s team in 2007.
Beccaria, who took over the women’s program in 2013, spent 3½ seasons as head coach of the men’s team. He led Niagara to a bronze medal at the 2009 OCAA championships.