The St. Thomas University athletics department celebrated another successful year with its end-of-the-year banquet on March 26.
There were 18 graduating Tommies who received T-plaques for participating in at least one sport for three years at STU. The women’s soccer team and men’s volleyball team were congratulated on their Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association league wins. The women’s soccer team was also awarded the LeRoy Washburn Community Service award.
Jonah Burridge, a fifth-year men’s volleyball player, was awarded the John Frederick Walls Memorial Award for contributing to the athletics department and having good character.
Burridge was surprised when he received the award, but is very grateful.
“I’m really appreciative of it. I’ve loved my five years here,” said Burridge.
Fourth-year women’s hockey player Taylor Cook received the Cathy Wadden Commitment Award for her work as vice president of the St. Thomas University Student Athletic Council.
Cook was proud to be awarded the honour after her hard work, especially with the Tommies athletics food drive.
“It feels really good. I’ve put a lot of hard work into the community this year and getting the girls to be a bit more active in the community,” said Cook.
“The food drive was a huge success. It took a lot of time and effort to put together but it was really rewarding at the end of the day.”
Fifth-year women’s volleyball player Deidra Jones and men’s volleyball rookie Christian Christie won the Tommies Coastal Graphics Athlete of the Year awards for their outstanding work on and off the courts.
Jones was very happy to have accepted the award and was thankful for the support from her teammates.
“It feels like such an honour because these girls are amazing and to get honoured with this award, it feels amazing,” said Jones.
Christie was grateful of his fellow teammates and said they were a huge part of his success.
“It’s amazing. I have to thank Henri [Mallet] for bringing me out here. We’ve had an amazing year. We had a great group of guys and everything really came together for us and I was just lucky to be able to come in to this,” said Christie.
“We’ve got seven guys who will be in their second year next year and the team is getting older and we’ll just continue to grow from this season.”
