Celebrating Scholastic and Sports Excellence

Written by Drew McConnell

Thumbnail Photo by USports

Congratulations! You’ve successfully made it to the year 2021. Who'd ever thought it was possible? 2020 was definitely a year to forget for a number of reasons - COVID, lockdowns, toilet paper, murder hornets (?!), that time Twitter thought World War III was impending, me taking a job as an Athletics Contributor when there are exactly ZERO university athletic competitions being staged. No, a banner year it was not. But that doesn’t mean we can't wipe the slate clean for 2021 and spread some positivity. 

That’s why for my first column of the year for The Journal, I’ve decided to highlight one of the great awards of recognition handed out to university athletes every year - the Academic All-Canadian Award. Since 1988 U-Sports, the governing body of university sports in Canada has presented the award annually to varsity athletes who compete on one or more varsity teams while maintaining at least an 80% average (3.5 Grade Point Average out of 4.0) throughout the year. 

Saint Mary’s has a long and illustrious history of boasting many Academic All-Canadian award recipients. Since1990, Saint Mary’s student-athletes have brought home an astounding 1,115 Academic All-Canadian Awards - including 83 recipients for the 2019-20 academic year alone - which equates to more than 29% of SMU student-athletes receiving the honour. This is a significant increase from the 61 recipients of the award who were from SMU the previous year (2018-19). 

Outside of SMU, Atlantic Canadian schools historically perform extremely well compared to the rest of Canada. In fact this year, the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) led the way in All-Canadian recipients per capita, with more than 39% of Atlantic Canadian university athletes having the award bestowed upon them. That compares with 34.6% of student-athletes from the Quebec conference (Réseau Du Sport Étudiant Du Québec), 33.9% from Canada-West, and 31.5% from the Ontario University Athletics conference. 

2018-19 Academic All-Canadian Award Recipients. Photo by Saint Mary’s University

The 83 SMU recipients come from a wide array of varsity sports and academic programs. Women’s soccer led the way for the Huskies with 14 award recipients for the 2019-20 season. SMU women continued to dominate with 11 recipients from the rugby team and 11 from the women’s hockey team. The men’s football team also held its own with eight award winners coming from the grid-iron. Four other Huskie squads put forth seven winners apiece -- including women’s track and field, women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, and men’s hockey. 

Men’s soccer, men’s track and field, women’s and men’s cross country, and men’s and women’s curling round out the remainder of the All-Canadian award winners from the maroon and white. The specific award winners will be announced in early February, according to SMU Director of Athletics and Recreation, Scott Grey. 

Finally, each year the top eight student-athletes -- two from each conference, one male and one female -- are chosen to receive special recognition.  Then, the top eight student-athletes receive a special invitation to Ottawa and are honoured by the Governor-General at Rideau Hall in a special ceremony. Athletes also receive complimentary transit and accommodations, as well as a customized ring. The ceremony, known as the “Governor General’s Academic All-Canadian Commendation” was founded in 2013 by former Governor General David Johnston. 

Saint Mary’s has had three athletes represent the Huskies as top eight All Canadians since the award’s inception. The most recent nominee was men’s hockey player Christopher Morrison who got the nod at the end of the 2008-2009 season. Steve Gallace, also a men’s hockey player, was the first Huskie to earn the top-eight distinction, which he did during the 2000-2001 season. And one year later, men’s soccer player Tim Mullen became the second top-eight nominee from Saint Mary’s.

This year Dalhousie leads the way with two top-eight All-Canadians, who represent the entire AUS contingent of student-athlete nominees. In fact, the Tigers have had seven athletes receive the top-eight designation in the past ten years. So even though the Tigers and Huskies are sworn enemies (they are cats and dogs, after all), you have to respect the program Dal has put together. Credit is given where credit is due. That said, based on the number of quality athletes donning the maroon and white these days, it won’t be too long before a Santamarian (or two) gets the top-eight invite. 

Despite the fact that much of 2020 was a certifiable dumpster fire, it’s important to recognize the positives in any situation. The 83 student-athletes who earned an Academic All-Canadian Award deserve a great deal of recognition. The time and effort required to be a varsity athlete is extraordinary - not to mention attaining and maintaining scholastic excellence. Because of this, we should celebrate these young men and women and embrace the positivity of glorifying the accomplishments of others. So with that said -- congratulations to the 4,910 student-athletes from coast-to-coast for not only making it to 2021 but by making it as an Academic All-Canadian.