British Columbia annual awards

The British Columbia Soccer Association announced its 2008 winners at the annual awards banquet on Saturday night. Defender Robbie Veenhof was named Senior Athlete of the Year while defender Derrick Bassi was named Youth Athlete of the Year.



Other award winners were Senior Official Michelle Pye, Youth Official Matthew Wynne, Senior Coach Julius Karpati, Youth Coach Spiro Pegios and Administrator Noel Estacio. Ron Joseph won the Presidents award, Joe Jhutty won the AC Sanford award, Alan Churchard was named a Life Member, and Jan Cox, Don Mangano, Chris Paige and Cees van Delft received Awards of Merit.



Veenhof, who one day earlier signed with the expansion Victoria Highlanders (USL PDL), spent the 2008 season with Victoria’s Gorge FC. He helped his team win the 2007-08 senior provincial championship to qualify for the 2008 BMO National Championships. Veenhof and Gorge FC then finished fourth in the Challenge Trophy competition in St. John’s, NL.



While Veenhof won the senior award, sixteen-year old Bassi won the youth award. Earlier in the week, Bassi was runner up to Russell Teibert in voting for the 2008 Canadian U-17 Player of the Year honours. Bassi has been a member of Canada’s National Training Centres program and also took part in December’s Canadian U-17 camp in Mexico.



Along with the award presentations, the BCSA also unveiled its new provincial association logo. The BCSA awards banquet featured Masters of Ceremonies Craig Forrest and Gerry Dobson.