Area’s top athletes named for 2016
KITCHENER — There’s something special about growing up and honing one’s sport in a smaller community, something that fuels the desire to succeed.
Of this, Brad Scheifele, sire of hotshot National Hockey Leaguer Mark Scheifele, is certain.
Brad Scheifele spoke on his son’s behalf Tuesday at a noon news conference where the eight nominees for the 2016 Kitchener-Waterloo and area’s athlete of the year were revealed.
No matter what sport Mark participated in through his youth — hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, basketball — people in larger centres often asked the current Winnipeg Jet forward why he chose to play in his hometown before he joined the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts in 2010.
“I think that put a bee in his bonnet,” Brad, of Kitchener, said. “That drove Mark to prove that no matter where you come from, if you are given an opportunity you can do well.
“That goes to show how we are driven in this whole area to succeed. There is an inward desire for people here to prove themselves.”
Mark Scheifele, a former seventh-overall draft pick by the Jets posted the best numbers of his pro career — 32 goals this past season.
He also collected gold with Team Canada at the 2016 world hockey championship in Russia.
The 24-year-old force of nature led his Jets with 82 points and a plus-18 rating this past season. What’s more, he asserted himself as one of the top young guns in the league. At September’s World Cup, Scheifele found his place on Team North America’s top line, with Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.
Along with Scheifele, the 2016 athlete of the year nominees are:
Paralympic swimmer and Canadian record holder Alec Elliot, of Waterloo;
North American Challenge champion lawn bowler Darryl Fitzgerald of Kitchener;
Pro soccer player Alyssa Lagonia, of Kitchener, who captained her Swiss team to a second-place league finish;
Kitchener’s Jamal Murray, a former all-American basketball player at the University of Kentucky and a first-round draft pick for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets;
Elmira native Garrett Rank, a three-time Canadian mid-amateur golf champ and NHL referee;
Pro lacrosse player Dhane Smith, of Kitchener, who set the National Lacrosse League’s single-season record of 137 points in 18 games with the Buffalo Bandits in 2016 and won the Mann Cup with the Six Nations Chiefs;
National team member and world silver-medallist sledge hockey player Kevin Sorley, of Petersburg.
Since so many world-class athletes call this area home, Brad Scheifele insisted K-W and area is a formidable incubator for athletes with a constellation of coaching stars behind them.
“Being in K-W allowed Mark to be a great character guy,” Brad told the assembled crowd at the Subscribers’ Lounge in the Kitchener Aud.
All of Mark’s minor sports coaches — from lacrosse’s Jamie Diebolt and hockey’s Todd Hoffman, along with his former school team coaches — had “an imprint” on Mark, Brad said.
“I would do it all over again. We met a lot of great people.”
Mark was not available to attend Tuesday’s media conference because he is training for Team Canada and the 2017 world hockey championship slated for Paris, France and Cologne, Germany May 5 to 21.
The athlete of the year will be announced at a banquet on May 16 at Golf’s Steakhouse.
Previous winners include Pan American Games boxing champ Mandy Bujold, ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje and world champ boxer Lennox Lewis.
Awards of excellence recipients were also recognized on Tuesday including: longtime local fastball coach and administrator Bruce Young; Kitchener Minor Baseball Association’s 2016 minor bantam Tier-1 team; and the Waterloo Regional Boxing Academy.