The Delta Sports Council officially sent off over 70 city athletes who are headed to the B.C. Summer Games in Cowichan next week.
A reception at the Delta School Board office Thursday night saw the athletes presented with congratulation certificates on behalf of MP Carla Qualtrough and MLAs Ian Paton and Ravi Kahlon.
Paton also served as Master of Ceremonies — introducing all athletes and giving them words of encouragement.
Bernadette Kudzin brought greetings from Qualtrough’s office, Councillors Robert Campbell and Bruce McDonald from the City and Joanne Angelidis from the Delta School District were also on hand.
The Delta Sport Council held its first send off in 2005 on the deck of Sharkey’s restaurant in Ladner to wish good luck to athletes headed to the Western Canada Summer Games at the time.
Since then, the Delta Sport Council has had a 'send off' for all the ‘multi sport’ games that city athletes have attended — including the BC Games, Western Canada Games, Canada Summer and Winter Games, Commonwealth and Olympics.
A celebration for the Commonwealth and Olympics is challenging as most of these athlete are usually training outside of Delta.
“The Delta Sport Council values the amount of work, effort and training that has gone into each of these athlete’s accomplishment. Being chosen to represent Zone 5 (Vancouver Coastal) is a very big honour,” said Carlene Lewall on behalf of the Delta Sports Council. “Many of our recent Olympians experienced their first multi-sport games at either the BC Summer or Winter Games. Maybe some of the athletes will continue on to excel in their sport at a future Olympics.”
“The Delta Sport Council is pleased to be able to host this ’send off’ and thanks the Delta School District for allowing them to host this at the Board office.” "We wish each of the athletes, coaches and officials success at the Games as we are proud to have them representing Delta and Zone 5.”
Delta athletes headed to Cowichan include:
Athletics
Jacob Bonikowsky, Madelyn Bonikowsky, Savayre Ghumman, Robin Gill, Alexander Lamyln, Harvir Panesar, Isla Stewart.
Baseball
Jordan Bach, Ryan McCarthy, Tanton McNeill, Nate Rosser, Carter Spencer, Noah Thomas, Boston Warkentin, Will Wilson.
Basketball 3x3
Kajla Rutledge.
Basketball 5x5
Andie Assaly, Alexa Kusel, Makena Rutledge, Jasmine Sidhu.
Canoe/Kayak
Kenjiro MacMartin, Noah MacMartin.
Box Lacrosse
Kevin Dhillon, Ben McDonald, Rhys Porteous, Conrad Squarek, Max Yingling,
Field Lacrosse
Tavis Bott, Evan Neaves, Silas Richmond, Cameron Squarek.
Rowing
Hana Anderson, Elijah Brown, Ellie Gach, Rachel Mehling, Eve Morton, Quinn Torok.
Soccer
James Proctor, Julia Hsu, Lucas Radstaak.
Softball
Amy Hendrickson, Taylor Kelly, Camryn Milley, Hayley Reid, Sophie Schuuman Hess, Nicole Sparrow, Bianca Tomlinson.
Swimming
Akashvir Bhangu, Kirra Trites.
Volleyball
Sebastian Kler, Jonathan Saxon, Zoe Arca.
