CBU's Watson & Spizzirri awarded National Recognition
CBU CAPERS Jamie Watson & Jacob Spizzirri received honours on Wednesday night.
(Kamloops, BC) - AUS All-stars Jamie Watson and Jacob Spizzirri were both named to U Sports all-star teams on Wednesday night. Jamie Watson was named a 2nd-Team All-Canadian and Jacob Spizzirri who was recently named AUS Rookie of the Year was named to the National All-Rookie Team. The CAPERS will kick-off their quest for a National Championship on Thursday at 11.30pm Atlantic time with a quarterfinal matchup against UQTR. The game can be seen live at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFHqaX2UssM
Full List of Award Winners
TORONTO - Christopher Campoli, a third-year midfielder from Ontario Tech University, was named the U SPORTS player of the year in men's soccer, Wednesday night. Campoli, who hails from Woodbridge, Ontario, is the first Ridgeback to capture the Joe Johnson Memorial Trophy. In fact, he is the first Ontario Tech athlete in any sport to be named a national player of the year.
Other national award winners announced during the All-Canadian Banquet held in Kamloops, B.C., were UBC defender Eric Lajeunesse, who won the Lou Bilek Award for rookie of the year; Deven Doodnath of Nipissing, who won the Student-Athlete Community Service Award; and UNBC head coach Steve Simonson, who won Fox40 coach of the year honours.
The 2022 U SPORTS championship gets underway Thursday at Thompson Rivers University's Hillside Stadium and culminates Sunday with the national championship game at 2 p.m. Pacific Time. All 11 games from the eight-team tournament will be webcast live on CBC YouTube Channel, with select games on Gem and cbcsports.ca in English, and all games in French at USPORTS.ca.
Official championship website: usports.ca/en/championships/soccer/m/info
ALL-CANADIAN AND ALL-ROOKIE TEAMS:
The all-Canadian teams were also announced Wednesday. Joining Campoli, Paumier, Henman and Adeniyi on the first team were goalkeeper Sterling Kerr (Mount Royal), defenders Jacob Begley (Ontario Tech), Lewis Dye (STFX), Guillaume Pianelli Balisoni (UQTR), Caden Rogozinski (Mount Royal) along with midfielders Thomas Gardner (UBC) and Soji Olatoye (York). Rogozinski and Olatoye both won their second straight all-Canadian nods, while Gardner returns to the dream team for the first time since 2018.
On the second team is goalkeeper Taylor Miskolczi (Brock), defenders Kareem Sow (Montréal) and Jamie Watson (Cape Breton), midfielders Heikel Jarras (Laval), Jack Sears (Guelph) and Gabriel Wiethaeuper-Balbinotti (UQTR), along with forwards Thierry Côté (Montréal), Mohamed El Gandour (Mount Royal), Sean Freeman (Saint Mary's) and Victory Shumbusho (UBC). El Gandour (2019, 2021) and Shumbusho (2017, 2019) are both three-time all_Canadians, while Sow and Jarras are repeat winners from last year. Freeman was on last year's all-rookie team.
The all-rookie team consists of Lajeunesse, Spizzirri, Jeanne, Arango, along with goalkeeper Ludovyck Ciocciola (McGill); defenders William Omoreniye (Calgary) and Orion Wiersma (Saint Mary's); midfielders Ilyes-Jaden Fradj (UQAM), Tiago Pereira (Brock), Tadija Vukas (Toronto) and Jonathan Walter (Mount Royal); along with forward and Samuel Barrowcliffe (STFX).