TEAM STOUGHTON Named Manitoba Team of the Year for 2011

Monday Jan 30 2012

A sparkling performance as a CFL running back, the emergence of a promising world-calibre swimming career, and a return to world championship form on the curling ice were the achievements that influenced the provincial sports media in the selection of the Manitoba Athletes and Team of the Year for 2011. ANDREW HARRIS scored an early touchdown in the Grey Cup victory ofthe British Columbia Lions over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and CHANTAL VAN LANDEGHEM won five medals in the World Junior Swimming Championships to top the voting in the male and female categories. The Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association also announced at its annual awards dinner tonight (Sunday) the choice of the JEFF STOUGHTON CURLING TEAM, the men's world curling champions, as the recipient of the Maurice Smith Memorial trophy as the 2011 provincial Team of the Year.

A graduate of Winnipeg's Oak Park high school, Harris had two yearson the B.C. Lion practice roster before he became the Lion tailback. In 2011, his third season as a starter, Harris led B.C. in rushing with 458 yards and added 395 yards in pass receiving in the regular CFL schedule. He followed that with two touchdowns in the Western final, and a superb Grey Cup game, rushing for 65 yards and a 19-yard first quarter touchdown to beselected as the outstanding Canadian in B.C.'s 34-23 victory. Van Landeghem displayed her excellent development in the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, winning four individual medals and one relay medal. She won silver medals in the 100-metre freestyle and the 4x100-metre freestyle relay, and showed future promise in short distances by winning bronze medals in the 50-metre backstroke, 50-metre freestyle, and 50-metre butterfly events. Stoughton's Charleswood foursome won the first Canadian Brier title for Manitoba since his last triumph in 1999, beating Glenn Howard 8-6 in the final. Then with brilliant support from teammates Jon Mead, Reid Carruthers, and Steve Gould, Stoughton cruised to the Ford World Men's Championship in Regina. The team had a 10-1 round robin record,  and went 2-0 in the playoffs, nipping Scotland's Tom Brewster 6-5 in the gold medal game. Stoughton and Gould were previous world champions in 1996. The Stoughton team led the balloting by 39 members of the sportsmedia throughout Manitoba, with 24 first place votes in finishing 29 points ahead of the runner-up Winnipeg Thrashers in the team division.

Harris had 15 first choices and won by 21 points over the malerunner-up, Winnipeg Rifle quarterback Ryan Marsch, while Van Landeghem was in the closest race. She had 12 first place votes and won by only eight points over Canadian triathlon champion Sarah-Anne Brault. The Thrashers were the first Winnipeg team to win the Telus Cup Canadian Midget Hockey Championship in its 33-year history, beating the London Knights 3-1 in the final in St. John's, Newfoundland. Other teamfinalists were the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who rebounded from a 4-14 season in 2010 to finish first in the CFL East Division, and advanced to the Grey Cup game as Eastern champions; Kelly Robertson's Canadian senior curling champions, who were unbeaten in the Manitoba playdown, then had an 11-1 record in winning the senior nationals in Digby, Nova Scotia; and the Brandon Bobcats, silver medallists in the 2011 men's CIS National Volleyball Championship.

In the women's category, Brault won the Canadian Triathlon Championship in Kelowna, upsetting the favored Paula Findlay (world number three). Brault finished 55 seconds ahead of Findlay, the defending champion, and now has her sights on the London Olympics. The 2009 top Manitoba female athlete Jennifer Saunders won her fourth Canadian singles title in racquetball, and was ranked seventh on the Women's Pro Tour; hockey star Jocelyne Larocque, a Canadian National team member and an NCAA first team all-American at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, was the top scoring defenceman in her conference; and Manitoba Bison assistant soccer coach Desiree Scott was selected to play for Team Canada in the 2011 FINA Women'sWorld Cup and the Olympic playdown. Ryan Marsch of the Winnipeg Rifles won the Peter Dalla Riva Award as the Canadian Junior Football League's offensive Player of the Year. He led the Prairie Fooball Conference in passing with a record 3,030 Yards.

Other male finalists were Doug Brown, who was named to the CFL East Divisionall-star team for the sixth straight year and the eighth time in what could have been the last season of his career; ten-pin bowler Mike Schmidt, who qualified for the fifth time to represent Canada in the Qubica AMF BowlingWorld Cup; and last year's winner Jonathan Toews, who led the Chicago Blackhawks in scoring with 32 goals and 44 assists playing in 80 regularseason NHL games in 2010-11. In other dinner features, the Cactus Jack Wells Memorial Award for largest impact on the Manitoba sports scene in 2011 was the re-birth of theWinnipeg Jets in the National Hockey League, resulting in a phenomenal public response to the shift of the Atlanta franchise to Winnipeg.

Hector Vergara of Soccer Manitoba earned the Dallis Beck Memorial Good Guy Award, presented for exceptional service to his sport, and major support of the media requirements in the province. Veteran sportswriter Tim Campbell of the Winnipeg Free Press was inducted into the MSSA Manitoba Media Roll of Honour for his outstanding service in sports journalism, and his specialty coverage of hockey, golf,and other sports in the province. The MSSA Jack Matheson Memorial Awards, established to provide financial support to sports media aspirants, perpetuates the memory of the former Winnipeg Tribune sports editor, who died one year ago. The 2012 recipients are Emily Doer and Andrew Parker, who have been enrolled in the joint communications course at Red River College and the University of Winnipeg.

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