First Team All-Eyeopener Awards

Receiving first team honours within your sport is one of the great accomplishments an athlete can earn. Here at The Eyeopener, we like to tackle first team awards a little bit differently.

We value things like who gave the best post-game sound when we were writing a recap or which players looked coolest on the court when the long athletic season made games blend together.

We even picked out some players from teams that we thought were underrated despite their excellent performances this year.

weight category. Papadopoulos defeated McMaster’s Francesco Fortino—who won silver at the OUA championship—to earn the national bronze medal in the 57kg division. He is also a three-time Ontario Federation of School Athletics Association (OFSAA) champion and earns our ‘Athlete to Watch’ award as someone to keep an eye out for in the coming years as his trophy case expands.

Storyline of the Year: MHKY falters with nationals on the horizon

The TMU Bold men’s hockey team saw its chance at back-to-back national championship tournament appearances snapped by their crosstown rivals on Feb. 19. The team dropped a do-or-die Game 3 to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on home ice. The squad won 11 of 16 games in the fall semester but only five of their final 11 winter semester games. Head coach Johnny Duco described the campaign as “a tale of two hockey teams.” TMU’s men’s hockey squad will be perhaps the most interesting to watch in the upcoming year as they’re set to host the 2024 U Sports Men’s Hockey National Championship at the MAC and will receive an automatic entry into the tournament. But Duco told The Eye earlier this year that the team wants to earn its way into the event without relying on the automatic berth.

Celebration of the Year:

Ivymae Perez

A little bit of rain didn’t stop the TMU women’s soccer team from vanquishing the Trent Excalibur 4-0 and it also gave us one of our favourite photos this year. Bold star Ivymae Perez—who went on to earn OUA All-Star honours—potted two goals in the match and celebrated by sliding across the slippery field. It’s a moment that became known as “The Ivy Slide” around our office and one we won’t forget anytime soon.

Here are the 2022-23 First Team All-Eyeopener Awards.

First Team All-interview: The athletes and their quotes are the backbone of what we do here at The Eye’s sports section. We need their thoughts to propel our stories. Here is who we thought gave some of the best interviews throughout the season.

Winners:

Akeem Clarke

Alex King

Katelyn Grasman

Lisa Haley

Ra Seang

First Team All-underrated: There are so many athletes that play at TMU, of course not every single one is going to get all the shine all the time. Here’s who we thought were always contributing to wins and maybe didn’t get the credit they deserved this season, making them the most underrated.

Winners:

Eve Uwayesu

Lamar Everd

Abby Harrison

Scarlett Gingera

Lauren Griffin

First Team All-in-game style: Look good, feel good, play good. It isn’t proper grammar but it sure is true. Whenever you’re engaging in sporting activity, looking cool is a big part of it. Whether it’s the all white shoes, compression wear and jerseys or the sweet helmet designs—here are the athletes we thought always rocked the best on drip on the field, ice or court.

Winners:

Rachel Farwell

Ashley Ditchfield

Kai Edmonds

Carly Clarke

Jeremie Kayeye