GEORGE BROWN 2011-12 ATHLETIC AWARDS

George Brown College turned to its veterans this year for the two prestigious annual awards given for sports excellence.

Dayvon Reid, a multi-sport athlete known for his dominance in badminton, and Melissa Vilar, a standout for the Huskies women's basketball team were honoured in the annual gala event held at the Metropolitan Hotel in Toronto.

George Brown President Anne Sado and Rob Ford, the Mayor of Toronto, attended the finale to a sports year to pay tribute to athletes, coaches and others involved in one of the most successful seasons in sport in the College's history.

Reid, a repeat winner, dominated the provincial badminton scene with a pile of accolades - including this year's Player of the Year awarded by the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association. Poised, confident and feisty, the performance of the 6-foot-2 Reid, the physique of a running back, was powerful on the badminton court.

The 22-year old Reid, a four-time Ontario medallist, teamed with Mark Wong to capture the OCAA Men's Doubles title in Ancaster winning 21-12, 21-13 over Chris Hong and Mohammad Nazimuddin of Mohawk College in Hamilton. They just missed out on a National title losing, by the closest of margins, in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association gold medal game in Kamloops, B.C. dropping a heart-breaker to Luo Wei and Simon Wu, from Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C, 19-21, 21-12, 23-21.

Born in Jamaica before moving to Brampton, Reid will graduate in Business Administration (Accounting) and has talked about adding to his education by attending university in the fall.

Vilar, from Memphis, Tenn., capped her George Brown basketball career in fine fashion.

The Huskies won a provincial bronze medal on the hardwood, the first medal in the sport in the past 21 years, and it was the superb defensive game by the 19-year old 5-foot-5 guard who was the catalyst (also chosen Player of the Game) in a 50-45 overtime thriller over Fanshawe College of London.

Vilar, who lived in Memphis for 13 years before moving to Toronto to finish her high school and college education, plans to pursue a career in Nursing. On the basketball court, she averaged 10 points a game for a team that was 16-7 over-all and 4-1 in the post-season round.

"Superb performances as well as great individual and team accomplishments - you can't ask for anything more," said Ed Mark, Manager of Athletics and Recreation at George Brown. "While the efforts by our students have been exceptional, and in all sports, the support system they needed - from coaches to assistants, therapists to managers - deserves much gratitude."

Reid and Wong weren't the only George Brown athletes to claim medals this year. Boryana Yankova, their teammate, won an OCAA silver medal in Women's Singles while Sean Sweeney earned a gold medal at the OCAA cross country finals.

George Brown College also won several major awards by the OCAA. Kim Ng, Coach of the Year in badminton; Reid and Wong as all-stars; Erika Houde-Pearce, Hannah Giesel and Sweeney, cross country all-stars, Aria Charles and Quichelle Barriffe, basketball all-stars; as well as Kyle Taitt and Anthony Ciccocelli as soccer all-stars.

Other George Brown Huskies winning awards were those chosen as Most Valuable Players for their respective teams:

Men's Soccer - Max D'Arcangelo and Taitt; Women's Soccer - Mackenzie Oram; Golf - Andrew MacIsaac; Women's Volleyball - Alyson Clow; Men's Volleyball - Edwin Sheon; Men's Basketball - Nana Ntim; Women's Basketball - Aria Charles and Kristina Lane; Cross Country - Sean Sweeney.

A series of special awards were also announced with the Alex Barbier Bursary, presented to a student athlete for outstanding leadership in their sport of student life involvement, this year shared by basketball player Marika Phillips and Danique McIntosh.

The Husky Merit Award, given to a student who has made an all-around outstanding contribution to Varsity athletics programming at George Brown College went to Helder Frizado, who was the College mascot at games and special events.

The KC Fitness Award recognizing an outstanding student athlete on any varsity team who has maintained an excellent academic standing within their program and also has made significant contribution to a team was shared by distance runner Ahmad Sangau and volleyball player Margaret Williams.

The Contribution to Athletics Award, sponsored by Vital CPR d was given to individuals who demonstrated Huskies spirit considered to be beyond expectation. They were Joseph Tilo, Stephanie Pereira, Peter Boyce and Team Connex from the Sport & Event Marketing Program: Chezhu Lu and Oksana Levchenko, Tulike Roy and Jingtao Lin.

Source: George Brown College