Sports Media Canada Achievement Awards Presented

The Canadian Sports Executive of the Year Award was instituted seven years ago to identify and honour leaders in sport Boughnerwho have made a notable contribution to the improvement of sport in Canada and who have demonstrated an unusually high level of understanding of sports media and its role in the development of sport at all levels in this country. The 2009 recipient of the award, Bob Boughner, twice named Coach of the Year in both the Ontario Hockey League and Canadian Hockey League and bench boss of the reigning Memorial Cup Champion Windsor Spitfires, has a long and proven track record of getting the most out of not only himself, but those fortunate enough to be around him

Sports Media Canada also named the recipients of this year’s George Gross Awards for excellence in sports journalism — sportswriting, sports broadcasting and sports photography.

The 2009 award for sports writing was shared by Globe and Mail reporters, David Shoalts and Paul Waldie. When Shoalts first began to write on the dire financial situation in which the Phoenix Coyotes found themselves in 2008, the NHL club and commissioner Gary Bettman downplayed the stories emanating from north of the border.
But the veteran Globe and Mail hockey columnist, along with the Globe’s highly regarded Report on Business reporter Paul Waldie, kept unearthing the facts that demonstrated the Coyotes` financial woes should be taken seriously.
The Coyotes soap opera, which soon involved Canadian entrepreneur Jim Balsillie, went on and on. But Waldie and Shoalts kept sifting through the mounds of fact and fiction to present the pertinent truth through their own enterprise.

Broadcaster of the Year: Jim Hughson, leads the Hockey Night In Canada broadcast teams that cover the NHL. The hockey broadcasting veteran began his impressive career calling NHL games in October 1979 and joined CBC’S HNIC in 2005. His admirable 29-year career as a sports broadcaster includes calling Wayne Gretzky’s final game in Canada. He was also for a time, the voice of Blue Jays baseball on CBC.

Photographer of the Year: Adrian Wyld, captured the Team Canada celebration at the end of the gold medal game when Canada defeated Sweden 5-1 to win the World Junior Hockey Championship in Ottawa in 2008. It was Canada`s fifth straight world junior title. Adrian Wyld is a staff photographer with The Canadian Press based in Ottawa.