by Breeanna Hickman
the Carillon

Several individuals of the U of R Women's Basketball Team added more awards to their long list of achievements when the GPAC announced their award recipients recently.

Head coach Christine Stapleton won GPAC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year.

Cymone Bouchard was named Rookie of the Year and was an All-Star Rookie. Bree Burgess made the 2nd team All Star for the second year in a row, while Corrin Wersta was named to the 1st team All Star for the third consecutive year.

Fifth-year forward Andrea Gottselig also made it onto the first team All-Star roster, but was also nominated for the TSN Award for athletic, academic and community involvement. Gottselig is graduating with an Education degree, and interned this year at Balfour Collegiate where she's helping with committees and the Outdoor Education Club. Gottselig is also coaching teams at Balfour and does clinics around the province. "I think it's a definite honour to be recognized, not only athletic but academic and community involvement as well. It's something that I hold very special to me.²

Gottselig, a native of Findlater, Saskatchewan, has been on the All Star Teams four out of her five years of eligibility and was the GPAC Rookie of the Year in 1995/96. She was a 2nd Team All Canadian in 1997/98 and competed at the 1999 World University Games in Spain and Taiwan.

Second-year centre Phoebe Adhukwud De Ciman has been nominated for the Tracey McLeod Award, which awards an athlete who has overcome adversity while competing in CIAU athletics.

De Ciman, a pre-med Science major with hopes of getting a biology degree, arrived in Canada four years ago from Ghana, Africa. As the oldest of six children, De Ciman has "gone through living in war-torn countries and seeing people die." She has been in thirteen schools and has never stayed in one place for more than four years.

De Ciman knew was basketball was, but didn't know the rules or had never watched a full game before she arrived in Canada. "I had no clue, never did any athletics, nothing."

Attending Miller Collegiate in Regina, Phoebe arrived at the basketball season. "I came in, our coach was like well, you're tall, you should play basketball. That was about it. I needed something to do, I was new in Canada and needed to meet some people. I didn't know anything about the sport."

"It's a great honour for me. It's been a roller coaster, but just to show kids that you know you can make something out of your life when you go through a war," says De Ciman. "Instead of carrying yourself down, you take it as a positive and make something out of your life."