The Kelowna Community Theatre was full of beaming parents and billet families on Sunday afternoon.
The Kelowna Rockets held their annual team awards ceremony, where a dozen awards were handed out to deserving players.
Before the hardware was given out, Rockets’ public address announcer Bill Barnes kicked things off as the events emcee, welcoming a number of speakers to the stage.
Team pastor Tim Schroeder, president and GM Bruce Hamilton, head trainer Scott Hoyer and team captain Cal Foote all addressed the crowd at the theatre.
They thanked a variety of key people and groups, including team staff, billet families, parents, underrated players on the team and many more.
Finally, it was time to get down to business, awards time.
Gordie Ballhorn led the way with three awards, while fellow 20-year-old Carsen Twarysnki netted himself a pair of trophies, as did captain Cal Foote.
Foote took home the big honour of the day, winning his second straight most valuable player award.
Here’s the full list of award winners for the 2017/2018 Kelowna Rockets season, in the order they were handed out.
- +/- Award: Gordie Ballhorn
- Scholastic Award: Will Kushniryk
- Most Improved Player: Carsen Twarynski
- Top Scorer: Kole Lind
- Unsung Hero: Gordie Ballhorn
- Top Defensive Forward: Conner Bruggen-Cate
- Top Defenseman: Cal Foote
- Most Sportsmanlike: Leif Mattson
- Rookie of the Year: Kaedan Korczak
- Humanitarian Award: Carsen Twarynski and Gordie Ballhorn
- Most Valuable Player: Cal Foote
- President’s Award: Dillon Dube
The President’s Award was a new one this year, and one the team says won’t be handed out every season, but it recognized the incredible achievements of Dillon Dube over the season.
Dube captained Team WHL to a pair of victories in the Canada-Russia series in the fall, then followed that up by captaining Team Canada to a gold medal at the World Juniors in January.
Before all was said and done, the team honoured the 20-year-old players with a few words and individual framed collages of their Rockets career.
The departing players, Twarynski, Ballhorn and James Hilsendager, all briefly addressed the crowd and expressed their desire to end their junior careers with a championship run.
The Rockets begin their post-season push with game one on Thursday, when they host the Tri-City Americans at Prospera Place.
Puck drop is at 7:05 p.m. and tickets are still available through Select Your Tickets.
