Wm. E Hay Wildcats and bantam Cougars wrapped up their 2010 season with award banquets last week, taking pride in their successes and looking ahead for greater achievements.
A visibly more upbeat Norbert Baharally addressed his players and the guests on Thursday, Dec. 9 with the confidence of having turned around the team from a 2009 season with no wins to playing the provincial Northern Division final this year.
“This year we learned how to win,” said Baharally.
“Last year we also had a talented team but we could not figure out how to win. This year, we believed we could win and we did win.”
Baharally stressed that it was difficult to award individual players in a team sport like football and called on his award winning players not to forget that they owed their recognition to the efforts of all the other players, as well.
Baharally expressed the hope that, with many talented young players returning next year and with a new line of players joining from the bantam Cougars, Wildcats would have bright season in 2011 as well.
Then the award winners were presented with their plaques by coaches.
The honor roll of the 2010 Wildcats football team is as follows:
Most Valuable Player – Landon Potter
Best Back – Braden Nelson
Rookies Of The Year – Morgan Loshny / Riley Anderson / Ty Page
Most Improved Player – Drew Hunt
Captain’s Award – Jared Steinwand
Most Versatile Player – Cory Fisher
Best Lineman – Randy Schofer
Player contributing the most with the east recognition – Mike Donahue
Most Dedicated Offensive Player – Dustin Dayman
Most Dedicated Defensive Player – Anton Stewart
ALL STAR AWARDS
Major League Award Winners
Landon Potter – Running Back
Braden Nelson – Rookie of the Year
Dustin Dayman – Quarterback
Randy Schofer– Lineman of the Year
Anton Stewart- Linebacker
Riley Anderson – Offensive Line
Jared Steinwand – Full Back
Cory Fisher – Linebacker
Michael Donahue – Offensive Line
Morgan Loshny – Defensive Back
Players who were given Wildcat Pride awards were Cory O’Donoghue, Dylan Pearson, Theren Churchill and Cody Shepherd.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Dec.7, the Stettler Cougars concluded their 2010 season with a banquet and awards pesentations.
“This season marked the ninth year for the Cougars,” said head coach Mike Roach.
“It was a tough regular season for the boys, but they rallied late in the season and were crowned the Tier III Champions for the Central Football League and moved on to provincials.”
This was the second straight season that the Cougars have qualified for provincial play.
The Cougars also picked up the Players Choice Sportsmanship Award at the league All Star Banquet.
“This award had never been won by the Cougars before, so it was quite an honor to win it,” said Roach.
Stephen Zuk and Nicholas Baharally were the Cougar All Stars this year.
Follows the Cougars honor roll for the 2010 season:
Timex Award-Thomas Cassidy
Offensive rookie-Patrick Kneeland
Defensive rookie-Trent Sanders
Contributed the most with least recognition-Christian Young
Captain’s award-Matt Kirk
Best lineman-Brandon Rowland
Most dedicated-Morgan Dayman
Most improved player-Josh Weeteringen
Most versatile-Jordan McCallum
Outstanding offensive -Austin Peterson
Outstanding defensive- Ryan Gerl
Dean Nemetz Memorial Award-Ryan Coleman
Defensive backs- Garrett Burns, Micheal Loblaw
Best back-Stephen Zuk
Most valuable player - Nicholas Baharally