No clear-cut winners for top MB athletes of 2011

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/12/2011 (5039 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The votes are in for the 2011 Manitoba athletes and team of the year, but only Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association secretary-treasurer Bob Picken knows the results. That’s if Pick has had time to count them since the voting deadline of Dec. 21. The winners will be announced at the 56th MSSA awards dinner on Jan. 29 at the Delta Winnipeg.

The sports media across the province are the decision-makers, so T&C each get a vote. History has shown that we seldom agree on the choices. This year there were no obvious winners.

Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews was the male athlete of the year for 2010 after he was named the top forward at the Winter Olympics and led his team to the Stanley Cup. He’s back on the ballot this year, but without such lofty credentials.

A 10-pin bowler and three football players are the other male finalists. Mike Schmidt was a finalist last year when he won a 10-pin world championship. This year he made the short list because he qualified for the Bowling World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Andrew Harris was a finalist in 2009 when he was named Canada’s top junior football player. He may have a better chance of winning this time around after rushing for 458 yards and gaining 395 as a receiver during the regular season and being named the outstanding Canadian player in the Grey Cup won by his B.C. Lions.

Blue Bombers lineman Doug Brown, who was a CFL East Division all-star for the sixth straight year, and Winnipeg Rifles quarterback Ryan Marsch, the Canadian Junior Football League’s top offensive player of 2011, complete the list.

After being a finalist for several years, racquetball player Jennifer Saunders was named the female winner in 2009. Last year she lost to speedskater Clara Hughes. Saunders again is in contention after winning the Canadian women’s singles and doubles championships.

She is joined on the ballot by athletes from four different sports. Swimmer Chantal Van Landeghem won three silver medals and two bronze in the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships. She also was a finalist in 2009.

Sarah Anne Brault is the Canadian triathlon champion. Hockey player Jocelyn Larocque was an All-America selection for her play on defence at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She also plays for Canada’s national team and is a member of the provincial ball hockey team.

Desiree Scott was a mid-fielder for Canada’s gold medal-winning soccer team at the Pan Am Games. The day of the dinner she and her teammates will be in Vancouver hopefully celebrating after qualifying for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

In the team category, the battle seems to be between the Grey Cup finalist Blue Bombers and the Jeff Stoughton curling team of Jon Mead, Reid Carruthers and Steve Gould that won both the Canadian and world championships. The Winnipeg Thrashers won the Canadian midget hockey championship, but voters are not likely to vote for a minor hockey team over the Bombers or Stoughton.

The other finalists are Kelly Robertson’s Canadian senior men’s curling champions and the Brandon U Bobcats men’s volleyball team that lost in the final of the CIS national championship. The latter two teams are better candidates for Westman team of the year.   

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A combination of versatility and stamina is required in the sport of racketlon. Apparently that is what Evan Mancer possesses. He may also have inherited quick hands from his father, Terry, a talented Winnipeg dentist, squash player and hockey stickhandler.

Racketlon is a discipline in which the rackets keep getting bigger and heavier. It isn’t that they are adjustable. They get larger because the participants begin with table tennis, move to the badminton court, then on to squash and finally conclude with tennis.

T&C  reported recently that Mancer finished ninth in the world in the elite category. This was on the road in Vienna. Now he was on his home table and courts.

Toast dropped by the Winnipeg Winter Club tournament on Dec. 17 to get his first look at the sport. In the A Division final, Mancer faced a tough squash opponent in Andrew Boumford, but he managed to win.

He beat badminton star Sean Chawla in one semifinal while Boumford got by Winter Club squash pro Trevor Borland in the other. Don Bushuk took the A consolation over Tom Bauer.

Glen Hollins topped the B Division with a victory over Rob Guthrie while Nitin Sundhi won the consolation over Andrew Parkinson.   

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As we close out 2011, T&C want to thank the members of the sports community who contributed both to this column and our bi-weekly column that ran in Prime Times until mid November. In 2012, you will be able to read Toast & Coffee each week in The Herald, The Lance, The Metro, The  Sou’wester and The Times.