Kara Williams, Sukh Dhaliwal, Amelia Worrell, Nick Bruce, Amber Korner and Cole Briggs (from left) are among the UFV student-athletes who were honoured by U Sports or the CCAA for their academic achievements in 2015-16.
The University of the Fraser Valley athletic department is pleased to announce that 13 student-athletes have received academic awards from their respective national sport organizations for the 2015-16 school year.
Seven Cascades soccer and basketball players have been recognized as U Sports Academic All-Canadians: Kayla Klim (women’s soccer), Amber Korner (women’s soccer), Chandpreet Sandhu (women’s soccer), Kree Byrne (men’s soccer), Sukh Dhaliwal (men’s soccer), Danielle Vanbergen (women’s basketball) and Amelia Worrell (women’s basketball).
Additionally, six volleyball and golf athletes have been honoured by the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) as National Scholar Award winners: Nick Bruce (men’s volleyball), Joel Kleingeltink (men’s volleyball), Dan Tang (men’s volleyball), Nicole Blandford (women’s volleyball), Kara Williams (women’s volleyball) and Cole Briggs (men’s golf).
The two awards are roughly parallel, but the criteria are slightly different. The U Sports Academic All-Canadian requires an academic average of 80 per cent, or 3.67 on UFV’s GPA scale. The CCAA National Scholar, meanwhile, requires “honours standing”; the threshold for the UFV Dean’s List is a 3.5 GPA.
“Students are here first for academics, second for athletics, and the combination of both will make them exceptional graduates,” said Steve Tuckwood, UFV director of athletics and campus recreation. “We measure success in many ways, including how our athletes do in the classroom, and we had a lot to be proud of in 2015-16.”
Bruce and Worrell were honoured at the Cascades’ 2015-16 awards banquet in March, winning the male and female individual academic awards, respectively, for having the athletic department’s top GPAs in the fall semester. Kleingeltink also received an additional academic award in the spring – he was a CCAA Academic All-Canadian, which requires a conference all-star selection coupled with academic honours.
The Cascades’ success in the classroom doesn’t end with the award winners. Forty-nine student-athletes, representing about one-third of the UFV student-athlete population, achieved at least a 3.0 GPA in 2015-16. Their names are featured on a banner in the lobby of the Envision Athletic Centre.
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