Unsung heroes
Sport P.E.I. to recognize Hale, Walker, James next week
Sport P.E.I. will be recognizing three hard-working individuals when it holds its annual awards presentations Wednesday, Feb. 3, at the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel.
The P.E.I. Mutual coach of the year award will be presented to Judy Hale of biathlon, baseball umpire Kent Walker will receive the official of the year honour, while the ADL volunteer administrator of the year is ringette’s Mike James.
Hale, of Charlottetown, has been the driving force behind biathlon’s incredible success in the past number of years, and the two-time Biathlon Canada coach of the year has seen her athletes do some great things recently.
In December two of her athletes, Caitlin Campbell and Lucas Boudreau, were selected to the Canadian junior team competing at the worlds in Romania, while she has overseen the careers of other fine biathletes such as Carsen Campbell and Menno Arendz. She coached the P.E.I. team to best ever finishes at the 2015 Canada Games, and is forever looking to upgrade her skills and is constantly looking to develop. P.E.I. biathlon is one of the strongest in the region, and the credit for that rightly goes to Hale.
Walker can be seen behind the plate at all of the big baseball games in the province, and the level 5 umpire and Charlottetown resident has gained a considerable reputation for the way he handles the balls and strikes.
Kent will umpire up to 100 games a summer at all levels from minor ball to the New Brunswick senior league, and such is his standing within the game he will often get the call for national and int e rna t i ona l competitions. He sits on the Ba seba l l Canada Umpires Council and is the supervisor of umpires for the P.E.I. Baseball Umpires Association, where his organization, administration, development and training of young officials is crucial for the success of the sport moving forward.James has made a wonderful contribution to the sport since he first joined the board in 2009. The Charlottetown resident has overseen a staggering 50 per cent increase in participation across the province. New programs have evolved during his tenure, particularly on the player and coaching development side, and a result of this has been some excellent performances by Island teams and players competing at higher levels.
.James himself is a high performance coach, but his contribution spreads to all aspects of the sport. The Ringette P.E.I. president chairs tournaments, looks for innovative ways to improve the game and continually tries to find ways to make the ringette experience as pleasurable as possible for all those involved. experience as pleasurable as possible for all those involved.