Calgary — Gabrielle Mastromateo persevered in the pool after illness and Sarah Gates applied her leadership on the field off the field in Canadian college sports.
University of Toronto’s Mastromatteo and McMaster’s Gates took home Wednesday’s Doug and Lois Mitchell Award winners as U Sports Athletes of the Year.
Mastromatteo broke U Sports records on his way to national titles in the men’s 50m and 100m breaststroke a year after a long and heavy bout with COVID-19.
The 21-year-old from Kenora, Ontario missed three months of training in early 2022. Lost pool reps cost the Varsity Blues trade student a spot on Canada’s Commonwealth Games team.
Didn’t feel like being in the pool until September.
“It’s great to be seen for working so hard even during tough times,” Mastromateo said.
“I feel like it’s very easy to get rewards when everything is going well, but it’s nice to see that there is a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.”
The Gates of Newmarket, Ont., capped off the Marauders’ decorated career by leading the country in scoring with 27.3 points per game.
She shot 48.3 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from three-point range while averaging 30 minutes a game.
“My teammates, my coach, and my family are the best support system,” Gates said. “They pushed me to be the best I can be. Coming out of the year of COVID and a few odd years, I didn’t want to leave any work unfinished.”
During the 2020-21 U Sports season that was nearly decimated by the pandemic, Gates founded the Women’s Sports Leadership Committee at McMaster.
The group started an apprenticeship to give women the opportunity to train at the university level at the school.
“We can grow a lot,” Gates said. “This is only the beginning.”
Mastromatteo and Gates each received their awards and a $5,000 scholarship to pursue graduate studies at a gala Wednesday in Calgary.
U Sports’ outstanding male and female athletes have been recognized since 1993 when former CFL player and commissioner and UBC football alumnus Doug Mitchell established the awards.
Mitchell passed away last year at the age of 83.
His wife, Lois Mitchell, who was Lieutenant Governor of Alberta from 2015 to 2020, continued her co-sponsorship of the Honor Awards formerly called the Howard Mackie Awards, BLG Awards and Lt. Col. Athletics Awards.
No winners have been announced in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2022 winners are Edmonton Elks quarterback Trey Ford (Waterloo) and Canadian rugby player Sophie De Guidi (Queens).
Previous winners also include CFL players Jesse Lumsden, Don Blair and Andrew Buckley as well as Olympic swimmer Kylie Massey, heptathlete Jessica Zelenka and hockey player Kim St-Pierre.
Trustees of the Canadian Athletics Foundation, a not-for-profit board founded 31 years ago by Doug Mitchell, voted for the winners.
One finalist of each gender is selected from each of the four conferences—Atlantic, Ontario, Quebec, and Canada West—annually.
Alberta volleyball player Jordan Canham and Mount Royal Tatum hockey player Amy represented Canada West.
McGill swimmer Pablo Collin and Lavalle track and field and cross country runner Jesse Lacours were finalists for the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec.
St. Mary’s cross country and track runner Andrew Peverell and University of New Brunswick hockey player Kendra Woodland were Atlantic Conference favorites.
U Sports is one of Canada’s largest sports leagues with 4,000 student-athletes playing varsity sports at 56 Canadian universities from Victoria to St. John’s, NL.
Ontario athletes won the male and female awards for the second year in a row and for the fifth time overall.
“Canadian sports don’t always get the appreciation that I feel they deserve sometimes,” Mastromateo said.
“There are so many great athletes here. Everyone I’ve been competing with has been amazing. To come out on top of that, I still don’t quite get it, but it’s so amazing. I feel so appreciative of the work that you’ve done.”
He is the first University of Toronto athlete to win Athlete of the Year. He has three more years of U Sports eligibility remaining.
“Gabby is a world-class swimmer and has shown that with two meets records at the National Championships this season,” Varsity Blues swimming coach Byron McDonald said in a statement.
But there are pits to any adventure, and Gabe hit a big one last year with a heavy blow from COVID that kept him out of serious workouts for months.
“With this comes uncertainty and a lot of challenges, so a strong support team and personal drive has brought Gabe back to his previous form.”
Mastromatteo was selected for the Canadian Pan American Games swim team that will compete in Santiago, Chile later this year.
Gates completed her honorary degree in Human Behavior with a minor in Health Addiction in Society and Sociology. She hopes to play professional basketball in Europe.
“Her ability to not only score but to influence the game in so many ways was exceptional,” Marauders head coach Teresa Burns said in a statement.
“It was also great for her to grow as a person and as a leader and to learn to use her voice to promote change, especially for math.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 24, 2023.
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