Left to Right: Award winners from the evening's banquet gather for a group photo.
All medal winners from the national tournament gather for a group photo afterthey 
receive their medals.

Alf Mcguire, chairman of CCAA badminton (left) presents Karen Ng of Georgian
College, and Scott Yorke of Mount Allison University, with the Eileen Harle
Award for Sportsmanship.

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

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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.