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| Nelson Lokombo (#25) is the U Sports defensive player of the year. |
On Thursday at the annual Vanier Cup gala held in Quebec
City, Quebec, U Sports handed out its national awards and all-Canadian honours
for football. Lokombo, who is a third year defensive back for the Huskies, was
named the winner of the Presidents’ Trophy as the U Sports defensive player of
the year.
Lokombo
topped the Huskies with four interceptions, and he returned two of those
interceptions for touchdowns during the regular season.
The
Abbotsford, B.C., product posted 23.5 total tackles, 2.5 sacks and four pass
breakups during the regular campaign as well.
Lokombo was
the first Huskies player to win the Presidents’ Trophy since current defensive
coordinator Warren Muzika claimed that honour as a Huskies linebacker in 1998.
Muzika was playing in his final season with the Huskies in 1998 and helped them
win the Vanier Cup as U Sports national champions with a 24-17 victory over the
Concordia University Stingers.
On top of
winning the Presidents’ Trophy, Lokombo was named a U Sports first team all-Canadian
all-star. He was one of five Huskies players named first team all-Canadian
all-stars.
The Huskies first team all-Canadian all-stars included running back Adam Machart, left guard Mattland Riley, centre Connor Berglof and defensive tackle Evan Machibroda.
The Huskies first team all-Canadian all-stars included running back Adam Machart, left guard Mattland Riley, centre Connor Berglof and defensive tackle Evan Machibroda.
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| Nelson Lokombo, right, returns an interception for a touchdown. |
His total
of 1,334 yards rushing and 1,538 all-purpose yards are new Huskies team records
for one regular season. Machart led U Sports in rushing.
Machibroda,
who was playing out his final season of U Sports eligibility, piled up 22 total
tackles, five sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery during the
regular season.
The Huskies
finished second in the regular season standings of the Canada West Conference with
a 5-3 mark and fell to the University of Calgary Dinos 29-4 in the Canada West
final – the Hardy Cup.
Fifth-year quarterback
and U Sports all-time great Chris Merchant of the University of Western Ontario
Mustangs won the Hec Crighton Trophy as the most outstanding player in U Sports.
Merchant beat out Machart for that honour.
McGill
University defensive tackle Andrew Seinet-Spaulding claimed the J.P. Metras
Trophy as the most outstanding down lineman. Seinet-Spaulding beat out
Machibroda for that award.
Concordia
University Stingers receiver Jeremy Murphy was named the winner of the Peter
Gorman Trophy as the top rookie in U Sports. He beat out Huskies linebacker
Ramsey Derbas for that honour.
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| Nelson Lokombo, right, secures one of his four interceptions this season. |
Mustangs head
coach Greg Marshall took the Frank Tindall Trophy as the U Sports coach of the
year. Marshall beat out Huskies head coach Scott Flory for that award.
Veteran University of Regina Rams defensive line coach Greg Nesbitt took the Gino Fracas Award as
the volunteer coach of the year for U Sports. Nesbitt has been on the Rams
staff for a lengthy stretch of time.
The U Sports
football season concludes on Saturday, when the Dinos (9-2 overall) face the
University of Montreal Carabins (9-2 overall) in the Vanier Cup at the
Universite Laval in Quebec City.
Hilltops’ “Sarge” still should have been
CJFL coach of the year
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| Tom Sargeant was passed over for CJFL coach of the year. |
Last Saturday, the Hilltops won their sixth straight CJFL championship
downing the host Langley Rams 11-6 in the CJFL title game – the Canadian Bowl.
The Hilltops have won nine of the last 10 CJFL crowns and have been CJFL
champions 22 times.
While the Hilltops have piled up all these titles, Sargeant,
who has been the team’s head coach since 1998, continually gets shutout in
winning the CJFL coach of the year award.
At the CJFL awards banquet last Friday in Langley, the CJFL
coach of the year award was given to Rams head coach Howie Zaron. The Rams
finished the 2019 campaign with a 12-1 overall record after falling to the
Hilltops in the Canadian Bowl.
Sargeant claimed CJFL coach of the year honours on two
occasions in 2000 and 2003.
It has to be noted the CJFL looks really bad not naming
Sargeant the coach of the year on the national level even just once during the
Hilltops current run of winning nine of the last 10 CJFL titles.
Last year, there was a huge opportunity to correct that
oversight as the Hilltops won the Canadian Bowl posting a perfect 11-0 record.
They were so dominant in the 2018 campaign they trailed on the scoreboard for a
total of just 81 seconds in all their games.
This season, the Hilltops went through a huge amount of
turnover in starters on both offence and defence. They needed fourth quarter
comebacks to pull out victory in a couple of contest.
Incredibly, the Hilltops put together another perfect season
with a 12-0 record. Sargeant picked up his 200th career victory in
Week 2 of the season, and he later became the all-time wins leader in Canadian amateur
post-secondary football.
Sargeant currently has a career 210-30-2 in the CJFL’s regular
season and post-season.
If Sargeant wasn’t have to claim CJFL coach of the year
honours after either of those campaigns, one has to wonder if he will ever
receive that honour again.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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