As you walked into the Oasis, you could feel the excitement in the air. The room was lively with excited hellos and conversation. Fanshawe Student Union president Jabari Cooper and vicepresident of athletics, Kyle Spencer, were the masters of ceremonies for the night and introduced the dignitaries and special guests.

For some of the people getting that MVP or rookie of the year, their award was not necessarily a surprise. “No, I was not shocked that I got MVP, but it was very nice to get (the award) and I am grateful they considered me,” said cross-country runner, John Mason. Mason was given special recognition this year this year is his last for running due to the five year rule, which states athletes may only compete for five years before they are ineligible. Over the past five years, Mason has gotten two individual Ontario Colleges Athletic Association medals, three national team medals, and one national individual medal along with now three MVP awards. This year was the most successful year in Fanshawe Athletics since 1967, with three OCAA bronze medals, two OCAA silver medals, five OCAA gold medals, one CCAA silver medal and two CCAA gold medals. We brought home some serious hardware.

The women's cross country team won gold at nationals for the second year in a row, and so they got rings again for their accomplishment. The OCAA awards one coach with the coach of the year award, and this year Fanshawe's own Matt White, coach of the women's volleyball, was awarded this honour.

“I was not expecting it at all, but this is not a testament to me, it is a testament to the skill of the girls,” White said. “We had success and failure, but they worked their butts off this year. This is not so much coach of the year for me as team of the year; because without their hard work and effort I could not have gotten this.”

Of all the awards given and received, two of them stand above the rest. These two are the men's and women's athlete of the year award. The men's award was given to basketball player, Manny Campbell. The mechanical engineering student helped the basketball team achieve a fourth place finish at the national championships in Alberta this year and a silver medal finish at provincials. Campbell was very excited about his award and just could not stop smiling after he got it. Campbell said he would like to thank the whole school for their support during the provincial tournament that was hosted at Fanshawe, and he would also like to thank his team and his coach. For the women, the recipient was soccer goalie Emily Gillet. Gillet attributes her success to her team saying, “I love them all so much and this is definitely a team award, I was just the only one recognised.”

This was a great night for Fanshawe's athletics, now the summer is here and time for offseason training. Let's bring the competition back just as strong next year to make it even more successful.