St. John's Athlete of the Year nominees announced

An assortment of sports are represented as the city's athletic best for 2011 will be honoured next Friday night at the 61st annual St. John's Molson-Coors Athlete of the Year banquet.

The city's top male and female athletes, along with the team of the year, will be announced at the event which starts 7:30 p.m. in the E.B. Foran/Greene Room at City Hall.

The male winner takes home the Tom 'Dynamite' Dunne Memorial Award, while the top female athlete earns the Margaret 'Mag' Davis Memorial Award.

Voting for the awards was conducted by members of the St. John's Molson-Coors Athlete of the Year Committee. Members of the committee are chairman Don Power of the St. John's IceCaps, Jill Brewer and Carla Lawrence of the City of St. John's, Tom Brewer and Ross Crocker of Molson-Coors, Troy Croft of Sport Newfoundland and Labrador, Bernie Davis of the St. John's Amateur Baseball Association, Terry Hart of VOCM, Roger Head and Jim Tee of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Michelle Healey of Memorial University, Hall of Famer Don Johnson, Doug Redmond of the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Association, Rod Snow of the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Centre and John Browne, Brendan McCarthy, Kenn Oliver and Robin Short of The Telegram's sports department.

Finalists for male athlete of the year for 2011 are swimmer Owen Daly, runner Colin Fewer and rugby player Ciaran Hearn. Up for female athlete of the year honors are basketball player Hannah Jardine, soccer player Jane Pope and runner Kate Vaughan.

Teams in the running for team of the year honours are the Colin Thomas curling team, St. John's under-16 girls' soccer team and West Side Charlies men's softball squad.

MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Owen Daly

Owner of an assortment of provincial records, the St. John's Legends club member was the provincial association's swimmer of the year for 2011. He competed in a number of events, including the Canada Cup in November where he was the fastest swimmer in his 16-and under age group, setting new provincial record times in the 50-metre butterfly, 50m freestyle, 100m free and 100m fly. A member of the Swim Canada 2011 Prospects Team, Daly won a bronze medal at the Canada Cup.

Colin Fewer

Fewer enjoyed another banner year on the road race circuit, starting with a seventh-place finish in the highly-popular Vancouver Sun Run, which routinely draws thousands of entries each year. Fewer covered the 10K course in a personal best time of 30:27.

Fewer returned to Vancouver in November for the Canadian cross-country championship, and finished seventh in the senior men's 10K race, in 33:19. He was selected by Athletics Canada to participate in the North American/Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) cross-country championship set for Trinidad and Tobago in March.

Locally, Fewer repeated as the provincial cross-country champ, and won every road race he entered, including the Tely 10. It was Fewer's seventh straight Tely 10 title, covering the 10 miles faster than the other 3,045 runners and walkers, in 51:19.

Ciaran Hearn

Hearn certainly built up a lot of air miles in 2011, travelling all over as a member of both the national rugby team, and Canada's Sevens squad.

A native of Conception Bay South and a member of the Baymen RFC, Hearn also played for the St. John's-based Rock team in the Canadian Rugby Championship league, thus making him eligible for the city's athlete of the year award.

A Sport Canada carded athlete, the highlight of Hearn's year was an appearance in the World Cup of Rugby, the third-largest sports spectacle in the world behind the Olympic Games and World Cup of Soccer, held in New Zealand.

Hearn started for Canada against Tonga (a win) and France (a loss), but was relegated to the bench for games against Japan and New Zealand.

Following his World Cup appearance, Hearn returned to Victoria, B.C. to train before heading to Guadalajara, Mexico for the Pan American Games with Canada's Sevens squad. Hearn helped Canada win the PanAm gold medal.

In warmup matches for the World Cup, Hearn suited up for Canada against the United States in Toronto and Glendale, Colorado, and donned the red and white in the Churchill Cup staged in Worcester, England.

In Sevens play, Hearn wore Canada's colours in Hong Kong, Edinburg, London and New Zealand tournaments.

FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Hannah Jardine

The city's top high school basketball player made her international debut in 2011 when she was named to Canada's under-16 team for the FIBA Americas U16 championship held in Mexico.

Canada claimed the tournament's bronze medal, and through the five-day event, Jardine averaged 7.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 24 minutes of playing time per game. In the bronze medal game, a 53-36 win over Puerto Rico, Jardine scored six points, but was dominant under the boards with 13 rebounds.

She was selected to play for Canada in part because of her performance at the national under-17 championship in Winnipeg, where she had a double-double (double figures in points and rebounds) in each game in which she appeared.

Locally, she helped her O'Donel Patriots of Mount Pearl win the provincial 4A high school championship, scoring 29 points in the final game as O'Donel got past Bishops Barons 62-59 in the final of the all-Newfoundland tournament. In semifinal play, Jardine scored 38 points as O'Donel beat St. Kevin's Mavericks 64-49.

At the Hall of Fame Cup, featuring the top eight high school teams in the province, Jardine earned a berth on the tournament all-star team.

In addition to high school ball, Jardine is also playing in the St. John's Division I ladies' league.

Jane Pope

Pope was a standout on the soccer field again in 2011, helping her St. John's under-16 squad win the silver medal at the under-16 nationals in Lethbridge, Alta. It was the first time a Newfoundland female team reached the final of a Canadian soccer championship.

In that tournament, in which Newfoundland went 3-2, Pope enjoyed a two-goal game in a 3-0 win over Alberta.

At the Atlantic level, Pope scored once in the final, a 2-0 Newfoundland win over Nova Scotia, and was named tournament MVP as Newfoundland won the Atlantic championship in Fredericton, N.B.

Following that event, Pope was named to the under-16 Atlantic team - along with five other Newfoundlanders - for Soccer Canada's all-star championship in Hamilton, Ont.

Locally, she was the tournament MVP as St. John's won the provincial under-16 championship and in Breen's Jubilee Trophy play, had three goals as the St. John's U16s played an abbreviated schedule, making nine starts.

Kate Vaughan

Last year's St. John's Molson-Coors female athlete of the year didn't miss a beat in 2011, with continued success on the local and national levels.

At the Canadian track and field championship in Calgary, Vaughan won the bronze medal in the 5,000 metres, posting a time of 17:04. Later in the year, in Vancouver, Vaughan competed in the Canadian cross-country championship and placed sixth, earning a spot on Canada's team for North American/Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) cross-country championship.

Locally, Vaughan dominated, winning every race she entered, including the Burtons Pond 5K, Harbourfront 10K, Not So Hilly half-marathon, CHCM 10K, Mews Centre 8K, provincial 5K and the Tely 10.

It was her second straight Tely 10 title, winning in 57:43, the eighth-fastest time posted by a woman despite the awful (wind and rain) weather conditions.

TEAM OF THE YEAR

Colin Thomas curling team

The team of skip Thomas, Cory Schuh, Chris Ford and Spencer Wicks gave Memorial University its first national curling crown, winning the Canadian Interuniversity Sport title on home ice. The Thomas foursome defeated the University of Manitoba 7-6.

MUN was up 7-5 but facing two Manitoba rocks in the rings in the 10th end when Thomas tossed his final stone where it was able to hang in the back of the 12-foot, outscoring the last Manitoba skip's rock by a couple inches.

The Thomas team, with one exception (Kelly Schuh throwing third rocks instead of Cory Schuh), won the bronze medal at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior curling championship in Calgary.

In the game to decide who advanced to the final, it came down to the last rock as the Newfoundland and Labrador representative lost 6-4 when Ontario made an open hit with last rock of the 10th end to clinch the win.

The Thomas rink went 8-4 in the round-robin.

St. John's under-16 soccer team

They might have been thumped 7-0 in the final game, but the players on the under-16 girls' soccer team still had a lot to celebrate, becoming the first provincial female team to reach a Canadian championship game.

St. John's finished with a 3-2 record at the U16 nationals.

The team has been together for six years and has never lost an age group game in this province. St. John's also won the Atlantic championship in Fredericton, N.B.

West Side Charlies

The team, from the St. John's Molson Senior Men's Softball League, lost only one game at the Canadian senior men's softball championship in Owen Sound, Ont. Unfortunately, it was the championship game.

West Side finished in first place with a 7-0 record after the round robin, and earned a double life in the playoff. However, that double life didn't extend to the final.

Newfoundland beat New Brunswick 1-0 and Quebec 5-3 to earn a berth in the championship game, while Kitchener, Ont., the eventual tournament champs, finished in eighth place on a 2-5 record in the round-robin, but beat New Brunswick, host Owen Sound and Quebec to reach the final.

West Side outfielder Steve Mullaley was the MVP of the round-robin, while Sean Cleary was top pitcher. Ian Fehrman, an Ontario native who played for Newfoundland, was the top batter. Tournament all-stars were Ryan Boland, Jason Hill and Calgary resident Sean Whitten.

PAST WINNERS

MALE

1951 - Ferd Hayward

1952 - Ted Gillies

1953 - Ted Gillies

1954 - George Hillier

1955 - George Hillier

1956 - Lloyd Cooke

1957 - Barry Maunder

1958 - Tols Chapman

1959 - Bill Gillies

1960 - Bill Martin

1961 - Doug House

1962 - Charlie Spurrell

1963 - Ian Campbell

1964 - Tony Manning

1965 - Ian Campbell

1966 - Tols Chapman

1967 - Gordon Follett Sr.

1968 - Mac Rideout

1969 - Brian Brocklehurst

1970 - Ford Metcalfe

1971 - Joe Walsh

1972 - Ross Crocker

1973 - Ross Crocker

1974 - Blair Tucker

1975 - Denis Byrd

1976 - Jack MacDuff Rink

1977 - Blair Tucker

1978 - John Dwyer

1979 - Paul McCloy

1980 - Mel Fitzgerald

1981 - Paul McCloy

1982 - Paul McCloy

1983 - Paul Merlo

1984 - Chris Daly

1985 - Paul McCloy

1986 - Paul McCloy

1987 - Paul McCloy

1988 - Colin Abbott

1989 - Colin Abbott

1990 - Paul McCloy

1991 - John Slaney

1992 - Rob O'Brien

1993 - Iain Tennent

1994 - Troy Croft

1995 - Rod Snow

1996 - Andy Crosby

1997 - Peter Benoite

1998 - Harold Druken

1999 - Colin Abbott

2000 - Mark Parsons

2001 - Brad Gushue

2002 - Jeff Saxby

2003 - Jason Hill

2004 - Brad Gushue

2005 - Brad Gushue

2006 - Brad Gushue

2007 - Ted Purcell

2008 - Mike Noftall

2009 - Luke Adam

2010 - Zach O'Brien

2011 - ???

FEMALE

1969 - Maria Fitzpatrick

1970 - Pam Yetman

1971 - Annette Rossiter

1972 - Kate Jackman

1973 - Peg Baker

1974 - Marg Davis

1975 - Colleen Tapper

1976 - Joanne McDonald

1977 - Marg Davis

1978 - Joanne McDonald

1979 - Kathy Noseworthy

1980 - Paula Kelly

1981 - Gillian Grant

1982 - Debby Power

1983 - Sue Doyle

1984 - Nicola Will

1985 - Sue Doyle

1986 - Joy Burt

1987 - Pam Ennis

1988 - Sherry Morrissey

1989 - Pam Ennis

1990 - Cora McCloy

1991 - Cora McCloy

1992 - Jasmine Wadhwa

1993 - Andrea Hutchens

1994 - Krista Manning

1995 - Michelle Healey

1996 - Michelle Healey

1997 - Ann Murrin

1998 - Cheryl Oldford

1999 - Donna Phelan

2000 - Donna Phelan

2001 - Jennifer Parsons

2002 - Jenine Browne

2003 - Jenine Browne

2004 - Jenine Browne

2005 - Julia Howard

2006 - Laura Breen

2007 - Stacie Devereaux

2008 - Nichole Adams

2009 - Vicki Thistle

2010 - Kate Vaughan

2011 - ???

TEAM OF THE YEAR

2009 - Kelly's Pub Junior Canadians softball team

2010 - The Rock Under-20 rugby team

2011 - ???