Paralympic athlete Liam Hickey and Brad Gushue’s curling team recorded a hat trick Tuesday night, winning their third straight athlete of the year and team of the year awards as St. John’s honoured its sporting best for 2018.
Hockey player Maggie Connors joined the prestigious list of winners of St. John’s Athlete of the Year for the first time, winning female athlete of the year.
The 68th annual awards banquet was held in the Foran/Greene Room at City Hall.
Hickey took home the Tom “Dynamite” Dunne Memorial Award as male athlete of the year, while Connors won the Margaret “Mag” Davis Memorial Award.
Team Gushue received the Molson team of the year award.
Voting, conducted by members of the St. John’s Athlete of the Year Committee, is based on a points system — five for first, three for second and one for third.
LIAM HICKEY
Hickey, the 2016 and 2017 St. John’s athlete of the year, was a member of Canada’s silver medal team in Para hockey at the 2018 Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The Canadians lost 2-1 in overtime to the United States in the gold-medal game.
Playing in his second Paralympics — he was part of Canada's basketball team in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games — Hickey tied for second in team scoring with six goals and five assists in five games.
Canada, which ended the 2018 Paralympics with a record of 4-1, entered the Games as the No. 1 ranked team.
Following the Paralympics, Hickey and Team Canada played in the 2018 Canadian Tire Para Cup in London, Ont., in December, and again lost to the Americans in the final, 5-4.
Hickey was fifth in Canadian team scoring (goal, three assists) in five games.
Hickey totaled 36 points. Rugby player Campbell Clarke and hockey player Alex Newhook gathered 19 apiece.
MAGGIE CONNORS
Connors helped the Canadian under-18 hockey team win the bronze medal at the world championship in Russia, picking up three points in six games. Last summer, she attended the national under-22 team’s Summer Showcase in Calgary, playing a trio of games against the United States. Those games allowed coaches and management to get a glance at players who could be part of the national team program which will soon begin a new Olympic cycle leading up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Connors finished up five years at Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Minnesota last year, winning the U19 U.S. national championship as a 17-year-old. It was the third straight U.S. national U19 title for Shattuck.
Connors, who scored one of her team’s goals in the 5-1 win over Detroit’s Belle Tire in the final, finished the year with 75 points in 50 games.
She started her first season on the NCAA highly-ranked Princeton Tigers in the fall, and has been one of team’s the top performers as a freshman.
In 16 games with Princeton during the first half of the season prior to New Year’s Day, Connors had six goals and eight assists.
Connors gathered 48 points. Soccer player Teri Murphy had 23 and artistic swimmer Catherine Barrett had 12 points.
TEAM GUSHUE
Gushue’s team also made in three in a row Tuesday night, easily winning with 55 points to the 20 garnered by the Holy Cross men’s soccer team and 12 by the St. John’s-based Atlantic Rock under-19 squad.
The team of skip Brad Gushue, vice-skip Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker won their second straight Tim Hortons Brier curling championship with a 6-4 victory over Brendan Bottcher's young Alberta team in 2018.
The win came almost to the day after they captured the 2017 Brier in St. John’s. The 2018 Brier win came in Regina, Sask. where they were wearing Team Canada's colours.
So good was Gushue in the Brier playoffs that he curled a perfect 100 per cent in the Page playoff 1-2 game against John Epping, and 96 per cent in the final.
Those numbers made him the Hec Gervais Award winner as MVP.
The team headed to Las Vegas to defend its world championship, but lost 7-3 to Sweden's Niklas Edin in the gold-medal game.
Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker, along with fifth man Tom Sallows and coach Jules Owchar, representing both the Bally Haly Curling Club and Re/Max Centre, were vying to become just the fifth team - all of them Canadian - to successfully defend the world men's championship.
Team Gushue finished off its 2017-18 curling season winning win the Humpty's Champions Cup in Calgary.
In addition to the Brier, the rink won three of the seven Grand Slam events last season.
Previous winners of the St. John’s Athlete of the Year and Team of the Year are:
MALE (Tom 'Dynamite' Dunne Memorial Award)
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 — Ciaran Hearn
2012 — Matthew Beer
2013 — Ciaran Hearn
2014 — Sean Cleary
2015 — Sean Cleary
2016 — Liam Hickey
2017 — Liam Hickey
2018 — Liam Hickey
FEMALE (Margaret ‘Mag’ Davis Memorial Award)
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 — Kate Vaughan
2012 — Hannah Jardine
2013 — Malorie Harris
2014 — Malorie Harris
2015 — Malorie Harris
2016 — Hannah Rivkin
2017 — Jessie Noseworthy
2018 — Maggie Connors
TEAM (Molson Team of the Year Award)
2009 — Kelly’s Pub Junior Canadians softball team
2010 — The Rock Under-20 rugby team
2011 — St. John’s Under-16 girls soccer
2012 — The 3Cheers Pub men’s softball team
2013 — St. John's under-18 girls’ soccer
2014 — Memorial Sea-Hawks women’s soccer team
2015 — Galway Hitmen men’s softball team
2016 — Brad Gushue curling team
2017 — Brad Gushue curling team
2018 — Brad Gushue curling team