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BRITISH COLUMBIA CAPTURES CCAA NATIONAL BADMINTON TITLE SACKVILLE, NB — Awards and honours were passed out at last night’s All-Canadian banquet at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association’s (CCAA) six-team national badminton championships, which were held this past weekend at Mount Allison University, in Sackville, NB. The Team Supremacy Award went to the British Columbia team that was completely comprised of players from the Douglas College badminton team, from Vancouver, BC. The BCCAA (British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association) team finished with a 23-2 record and was followed by the Alberta Colleges Athletic Association (ACAC) at 21-4, and the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) at 12-13. The BC Wild Card team finished at 11-14, followed by the Atlantic team (ACAA) at 5-20, and the Atlantic host team at 3-22. The BCCAA team won gold medals in women’s doubles (Stephanie Ko, Melody Liang), men’s doubles (Chris Lee, Andy Cheung), and mixed doubles (Alvin Lau, Charmagne Yeung). The Alberta team knocked off the BCCAA in women’s singles (Sun Yang defeated Jessy Sung) and also captured the difficult men’s singles category by defeating the wild card British Columbia team 2-1 (Dan Kai defeated Kiran Bogavelli). Complete results are available on the championship web site at www.mta.ca/ccaabadminton Also at Saturday’s banquet, Mount Allison’s Scott Yorke of the top Atlantic team (ACAA), and Georgian College’s Karen Ng of the Ontario squad were honoured as winners of the prestigious Eileen Harle Fair Play Trophy. The Eileen Harle Award is an honour given at the national tournament to a badminton player or players, who best observe the principles of fair play, show respect, and demonstrate positive attitudes towards other players and officials. Every year the winners are selected by the officials working at the national tournament. Yorke, a men’s doubles player, and Ng, Ontario’s conference player of the year, were recognized with the national award at the banquet which marked the end of the three-day national CCAA competition. Yorke, a fourth-year science student from Debert, NS, won the ACAA conference championships with his doubles partner Brent Barkhouse, from Hantsport, NS. Last year he was also the winner of Mount Allison University’s Sportsmanship Award. Scott is a past multi-sport athlete from Cobequid Educational Centre in Truro, NS. Also from the Maritimes, is Fredericton resident Karen Ng, who is the gold medal winner from the OCAA in women’s singles. The league MVP, Karen is a third-year player from Georgian College, in Barrie, ON. She was also selected as the CCAA Athlete of the Month in both 2007 and 2008, and has been a dominant force in Ontario badminton. Karen has been distinguished as a CCAA Academic All-Canadian, all-star, and is manager for the Georgian Bay Ontario Winter Games. Her sister, Sally, also participated in the national championships as a doubles player, with Halifax teammate Laura KarisAllen of the Mount Allison Mounties. Player and Coach of the Year Awards were also given out at the banquet, with Brad Pape of the British Columbia Wild card team winning the coaching honours, and Melody Liang and Raymond Wong winning the player awards. Pape, of Kamploops, BC, is the current coach of the Thompson Rivers University team and has been for 23 years. He is no stranger to CCAA badminton, having had many successful champions at the conference and national levels. This season his team was part of a six-team league, and four of his players qualified for nationals. His coaching goals have always been to raise the calibre of play for the athletes and to promote the sport of badminton, especially at the younger levels. Brad is also vice president of the Kamloops Badminton Association. Melody Liang, of Burnaby, BC, was Player of the Year in the BCCAA. She is a member of the conference’s championship women’s doubles team, has won four league titles, and was named Player of the Week this season. She was a semi finalist and quarter finalist in mixed doubles and women’s doubles at senior nationals and is currently in second year at Douglas College. The men’s top player in Canada, Raymond Wong from the OCAA, had an excellent season winning several league and invitational tournaments with an impressive 30-0 record. He was the CCAA Athlete of the Month and OCAA provincial champion in men’s singles this season. Wong finds time to participate as an assistant coach with younger players and is a first-year athlete from Humber College, in Toronto. - 30 -
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