The Jim Quigley Memorial Athlete of the Year Award went to figure skater Katherine Malcolm, Coach of the Year Award to Ed Leeuwenburg, and the Norm Harkness Team of the Year Award to the Muskoka Containerized Services (MCS) midget hockey team.

Wayne Scott, chair of the awards committee, presented the first award of the evening to rising figure skating star Katherine Malcolm.

“Katherine has so many accomplishments I can’t begin to read them all, but it seems every award the Bracebridge Figure Skating Club has, bears this young lady’s name,” said Scott.

He also lauded the 17-year-old for her academic achievements and contribution to the community, despite a travel schedule that finds her frequently out of town training and competing.

“One might think that the Bracebridge Figure Skating Club would be far from her mind. Not so,” said Scott. “Almost every Friday, and whenever else she can manage it, Katherine is at the Bracebridge arena. She’s been a CanSkate volunteer for seven years, and helps plan and perform in the annual carnival.”

Despite graduating this year with an above 80 average and being accepted at all five universities she applied to, Malcolm said she’s taking a year off, in an effort to pursue her goal of reaching the national championships.

Unfortunately for Brace­bridge, that means a move to Barrie so she can keep up her gruelling schedule of four hours of on-ice training and two hours of off-ice training, five days a week. Nonetheless, Malcolm said Bracebridge is always close to her heart.

“I love representing this town,” she said. “It’s a real honour to get this award. It makes me feel like I’ve succeeded.”

Mark Grimstead handed over the Coach of the Year Award to Ed Leeuwenburg, coach of the Bracebridge MCS midget Bears hockey team.

“In any sport, having a coach with the wisdom and courage to make sure every player feels that he or she is an essential and valuable part of a team is critical to a player’s skill development and self-confidence,” said Grimstead. “That aspect of coaching is at least as important as striving to win. Ed is that type of coach.”

In a heartfelt acceptance speech, Leeuwenburg thanked players, parents and his fellow coaches.

He said he tried to instill values of respect in his team, and encourage them to be ambassadors for the community.

Leeuwenburg did not have long to sit down, as he joined his team a moment later to accept team of the year honours.

The Bears were nothing short of dominant this year, sporting a 38-16-8 overall record, and marching all the way to the provincial “BB” semifinals before being edged out by Port Perry, three games to two.

Even more impressive, said presenter Heather Moore, is the fact that the Bears were near the bottom of the league in penalty minutes and did not have a single fighting major.

Moore said the nomination papers included recommendations from several opposing coaches and even the staff at the Collingwood arena.

“They said they had never seen a dressing room as clean as when the boys left it,” said Moore.

Team captain Jason Hiley thanked the committee, coaches and parents.

“Many of us have spent the last 10 years with this team,” he said. “It was an awesome year to finish with. I think we exceeded everyone’s expectations.”