CALGARY — Basketball player Justine Colley from St. Mary’s University has been nominated for a second time for CIS female athlete of the year.
"It’s definitely a huge honour to be recognized twice for such a prestigious award," she said Tuesday, as she joined seven other nominees for the 2014 male and female BLG Awards, which will be presented April 28 in Calgary.
Colley, from East Preston, N.S., credited her support system at home and at the university for helping her win such recognition two years in a row. After last year’s nomination, she was also selected for Canada’s senior national women’s basketball team.
Colley, a guard, was also picked as the most valuable player in Canadian university sport women’s basketball for a second year in a row.
"Both years we had really great teams, a great group of girls," she said of her last two at St. Mary’s.
"My coach Scott (Munro), he really makes sure that he brings in really good athletes but also really great people and I think that’s what made us such great teams."
On the women’s side, the other nominees are McGill hockey player Katia Clement-Heydra from St. Bruno de Montarville, Que., UBC volleyball player Lisa Barclay from Brandon, Man., and York sprinter Khamica Bingham from Brampton, Ont.
On the men’s side, the nominees are University of Saskatchewan hockey player Derek Hulak from Saskatoon, Acadia hockey player Liam Heelis from Georgetown, Ont., Bishop’s football player Jordan Heather from Oromocto, N.B., and Carleton basketball player Philip Scrubb from Richmond, B.C.
Hulak has gone from a second-place finish with the Huskies in the CIS championship to the AHL’s Texas Stars, farm team of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, where the winger scored a goal with his first shot March 27.
"It’s definitely been an adjustment," he said as the Stars wait to find out who they will play when the Calder Cup playoffs begin. "It’s been exciting. It’s been a great experience so far."
The two BLG Award winners each will receive a $10,000 post-graduate scholarship. The awards date back to 1993 and are sponsored by and named for the law firm Borden Ladner Gervais.
Last year, UBC volleyball player Shanice Marcelle picked up the women’s award and McMaster football player Kyle Quinlan picked up the men’s award.