Four hundred players, parents and guests attended the 12th annual Salmon Arm Football awards banquet at the SASCU Recreation Centre Saturday evening. The banquet is the culmination of another successful season of tackle football in Salmon Arm for both Shuswap Minor Football (SMF) and Salmon Arm Secondary (SAS) Golds Football. SMF represents the three Atom, Pee Wee and Junior Bantam teams, ages 7-13, while SAS, the Junior Varsity and Varsity Golds teams, grades nine to 12.
The team MVPs for this season were, Sage Brooks, Jr. Bantam; Chris Szybunka, Sr. Varsity; Grant Shishido, Jr. Varsity; Tyler Chartier, Pee Wee; and Chase Henning, Atom. Colby Erikson, a Varsity Gold, received the Brad Jackson Memorial Award.
The speaker via video this year was Jordan Grieve, fourth-year All Canadian playing for the UBC Thunderbirds. He started playing in Salmon Arm with both SMF and SAS.
His message was, “Don’t let anyone tell you’re not enough of anything to do what you want, just be prepared to work harder to achieve what you want.”
Grieve himself was often considered too small to play at the next level, but as his SMF/SAS nick name, Mighty Mouse, proved, he didn’t believe that.