It takes a community to raise a child. If you want proof of that statement, take a look at the athletes featured in the next few pages who are achieving great things at the college, university or professional levels around North America.
And to what do we attribute this success? A lot of hard work, dedication and determination by the athletes themselves, and also the love and support from family and friends and the coaching they each received close to home on the Sunshine Coast, be it at the community volunteer level or through their elementary or secondary school coaches.
Hockey
Halfmoon Bay's David Arduin is in his senior year at Geneseo, the state college of New York. Just prior to the Christmas break, Geneseo had a record of 7-6 and was 4-4 in conference play. Arduin had six points, including four goals in seven games with Geneseo so far this season.
Roberts Creek's Brady Bjornson was named the assistant captain of the North Shore Wolfpack of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League this season. After a tough season last year in Squamish, the Wolfpack moved the team to the North Shore where they are flourishing. Bjornson has six goals and 30 points in 21 games so far this year.
The Antilla brothers from Madeira Park continue to roll along, big brother Joe with the Kootenay Ice and younger brother Timo in his first season with Kimberly Dynamiters of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL). Joe recently made a successful return to Vancouver when the Ice beat the Vancouver Giants in a Western Hockey League contest at the Pacific Coliseum in front of more than 500 hockey fans from the Sunshine Coast. Joe is in his fifth season with the Ice and has four goals and 23 points so far this season.
Gibsons' Josh Gray is in his second season with the Osoyoos Coyotes of the KIJHL. The right-winger registered 23 points last season and already has 31 points this year.
Garden Bay native Kyle Bruce is in his second season with the Braehead Clan in Scotland playing in the English Elite Hockey League. He had 38 points last year and in 21 games so far this season has two goals and 13 points.
Sechelt goalie Scott Legault was recently traded to the Columbia Valley Rockies of the KIJHL after starting the season with the Fernie Ghostriders.
Legault helped lead Vancouver North West Giants to their third consecutive Major Midget League Championship last season.
Kyle Horseman is in his first season with the Trail Bay Smoke Eaters of the British Columbia Hockey League and has one goal in 10 games so far this season.
Soccer
Soccer is huge on the Coast, and the success of teams in the House and Rep Leagues is evident by those who are garnering success off-Coast.
Halfmoon Bay's Noah Mithrush is in her junior year with the North Dakota Fighting Sioux. The midfielder played eight games in 2010. Before UND she played at Arkansas-Pine Bluff in 2009, started 20 of 23 games and tied for fourth in goals (six) and fifth in points (19). As a freshman, she had two game-winning goals, helping the Golden Lions to a 12-7-4 record and also led the Golden Lions to a Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship and was named to the all-conference second team.
Kelsey Bellerive also played at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff Lions in 2009/10, but we have been unable to track her down at a different school.
Closer to home, Diamond Smith and Tricia Gignac both red-shirted this season with the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Wolfpack, meaning they both practised with the women's team, but did not see any game action. They both hope to crack the line-up next season.
Lauren Storoschuk from Pender Harbour just completed her first season with the women's team at Capilano College, while Gibsons' Addy Fearnley played her second season with the Royal Military College where the squad registered a tough 3-11-2 record.
Roberts Creek's Nick Pennington finished his second year at UBC Okanagan where he played striker for the men's team on a scholarship.He is there again this fall and then is off to Australia to the University of Woolengong for a term on UBC's "Go Global Program." He hopes to play soccer for the university while Down Under.
Volleyball
Stuart Richey of Roberts Creek is in his second season with the TRU Wolfpack on the men's team. He is getting some playing time this year. TRU is 7-12 on the season heading into the Christmas break.
Stuart's big sister Kyla Richey had another strong year, helping lead the University of British Columbia T-Birds to their fourth straight national championship. She continued her strong play with the women's national team and is now back with the T-birds for a run at a fifth national title. UBC was 9-1 in conference play at the holiday break.
Golf
Connor Richey was named male athlete of the week at the University of the Fraser Valley in October after helping lead the men's golf team to the Pacific West silver medal and a berth at the CCAA national championship tournament in PEI.
The first-year Roberts Creek native shot 146 over the two days to place fifth overall. He was also one of the four Cascades in the weekend's top 10 at the tournament. At the nationals, he won second place in the long ball competition while the Cascades team came in third overall.
Track and field / Cross country running
Roberts Creek's Kendra Pomfret is in her third year running track and cross-country at the University of Victoria while sisters Brianna Kane and Michaela Kane and Kim Doerksen are all going strong at Simon Fraser University.
Brianna is in her senior year and was recently named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Academic team. As a team, SFU finished second in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference cross-country season. All three women are preparing for the indoor track and field season, which starts this month.
Shaun Stephens-Whale graduated from UBC in the spring with a degree in civil engineering. He is currently pursuing a second degree in astronomy and physics at UVic. He finished first in the Yeti snowshoe series and the Five Peaks trail running series, was the fastest to ascend the Sheraton Wall Centre in the Climb the Wall event and broke his own course record at the Seattle Big Climb. In September, he travelled to Wales where he competed in the Commonwealth Mountain Running Championship.
Sechelt's Kristin Ohm-Pedersen, a graduate of Chatelech Secondary School, also competed for Canada at the Commonwealth Mountain Running Championship.
Gibsons' Clay Brown helped lead the Guelph University Gryphon's track and field team to a silver medal at last year's Ontario University Athletic Association finals and a silver at the CIS championships. He hopes to continue that success again this year, competing in the triple jump.
Mountain biking
Several riders who starred at both Elphi and Chat continue to rip it up at the international level, with Katherine Short representing Canada at the downhill World Cup this past August in Switzerland and Kris Sneddon winning back-to-back BC Bike titles and a perennial contender on the national and international scene.
Tennis
Halfmoon Bay's Madison Shoemaker is in her first year with the Seton Hall University Pirates. Shoemaker finished with a 4-4 record in the Pirates spring season and won a pair of consolation finals at United States Tennis Association invitational events.
Basketball
Sechelt's Devin Haynes and Gibsons' Andrew Baron are in their third year and first year with Douglas College. The Blues are 4-3 on the season so far in the Pacific Western Athletic Association. Haynes is second in rebounds, averaging 9.8 per game.
Football
Graydon Benner went to Notre Dame in Saskatchewan from Grade 9 to Grade 12. He wanted to go so he could play hockey and have more opportunity with competitive sports. The first day at Notre Dame there was a football practice. He had never played, but they found equipment for anyone who wanted to play, and he was hooked. He played football and hockey that first season and played AA baseball in the spring.
This year, Graydon is back in Regina playing junior football for the Regina Thunder and going to the University of Regina and Campion College.
Baseball
Mitch Rainer is in his first year with Cumberland University in Tennessee. After two years at Hill College in Texas, he signed a full-ride scholarship to play for the Bulldogs in Lebanon, Tenn.
Gibsons' Tim Scarr is heading into his second year with the Vancouver Island Baseball Institute Mariners. He was on the disabled list for most of September, but is working hard to return for a strong spring. The Mariners lost the league championship to the Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs in May.
Tim's brother Thomas Scarr is preparing for the spring season at the University of Calgary. He too was on the DL with a nagging arm issue, which impacted his play with the North Shore Twins last year.
KP Hlatky is entering his sophomore season with Douglas College. The new season starts in March.
Brothers Jesse Dill and Tony Dill are both finding success in Victoria. After graduation in 2002, Jesse played for the University of Victoria club team, the North Shore Tribe and the Burnaby Bulldogs. He joined the Victoria Mavericks of the BC Junior League, where he contributed to their provincial championship in 2006.
He pitched for the Dalhousie University Tigers of the Atlantic Conference of the Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association in the 2008 and 2009 seasons. He pitched for Victoria at the Grand Forks International Tournament in 2006 and 2011 and was a league leader in strikeouts in the Maverick organization in 2011 and had an ERA of 1.51.
Jesse's most recent achievement was as a member of the undefeated pitching squad of the Mavericks in the BC Senior Baseball Championship when his team won the provincials, earning a berth in the 2012 National Tournament.
When attending the University of Victoria, Tony played for the South Island Junior Baseball League where, in 2008, he earned the rookie of the year and batting titles. He now plays in the Mavericks League and played centre fielder with the Maverick all-stars at the Grand Forks International Tournament in 2009, 2010 and 2011, batting .400 at last year's tournament. He is currently coaching with a developmental team of the Mavericks Collegiate Baseball Academy.
The Academy, whose players can be students at the University of Victoria, Royal Rhodes University or Camosun College, hopes to field a team in 2012 to join the Canadian College Baseball Conference.
Editor's note: Did we miss anyone? Through several community contacts and sources we tried to track down all our athletes. If we have missed someone, email editor Ian Jacques at [email protected] with the details so we can add them to our growing database.
