U SPORTS News

Among the most important aspects of U SPORTS is highlighting outstanding student-athletes on a national stage.

As such, the means by which these athletes are recognized has been a key focus of the evolution of U SPORTS. The U SPORTS awards program has been highlighting the best Canadian university athletics programs have had to offer in various forms and functions for some time. Now, these methods are being updated for the digital age.

We are continuing to work on building and improving our overall awards and recognition program, There’s a number of different ways that we do that within our organization, because it’s still important to recognize all of our outstanding student athletes, our committee members, championship hosts, our sponsors, along with other groups and people who support U SPORTS and university sport in Canada.

Jocelyn Falbo - U SPORTS Manager of Corporate Events and Awards

The U SPORTS awards program uses major functions and events to recognize those that have made significant contributions to Canadian university sport, often student-athletes. These are typically represented by various plaques and sponsor gifts during events such as national championships, the Governor General’s Commendation and the annual BLG Awards. However, the U SPORTS rebrand has brought with it a new opportunity to recognize these figures.

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“(The rebrand) gave us the opportunity to update the awards that were being done,” Falbo says. “It was a great chance for us to review our entire awards program and also modernize it a bit. We wanted to make sure that what we are recognizing and what we are giving out are things that the student-athletes are going to like and appreciate. The rebrand was a great time for us to make that transition.”

For this season, the biggest change to the program will see an awards system that integrates digital and social media and promotes greater involvement with the receiving athletes.

“For the next year, the 2017-2018 school year, along with all the awards that we have done in the past, we will also be distributing digital awards,” Falbo explains. “Any award that you would normally get in the form of a plaque, or certificate, or whatnot, all of the student-athletes will also be receiving digital awards. This will be a platform that they will receive (the award) digitally, and then they will be able to upload it to their social media.”

The new approach will allow players to have a digital footprint of their achievements in U SPORTS with a dedicated webpage highlighting their awards and accolades throughout their athletic career. Aside from the professional boost the program brings, it also brings a new angle of validation for the award winner through integration of social media and modern approach to the honour of being recognized nationally.

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This is a great tool where they can showcase all of their hard work and everything that they have achieved which is really important because that’s why they put all of their blood, sweat, and tears into the many hours of training.

Jocelyn Falbo - U SPORTS Manager of Corporate Events and Awards

 

Christian_Ryan.png (65 KB)Christian is a third-year sport media student at Ryerson University. He previously obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English at Acadia University, where he provided colour commentary for the Acadia Axemen and Axewomen soccer teams. His reporting repertoire includes U SPORTS, the Canadian Women's Hockey League, and the Verizon IndyCar Series for Honda Indy Toronto.