More honours for local Olympians

It’s happened eight times in the history of the award.

For the first time since 2007, the H.P. Broughton Award is a shared honour.

In a banquet on Tuesday night, Olympians Mac and B.J. Marcoux along with the Canadian curling team of Brad Jacobs, Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden, Ryan Harnden and Caleb Flaxey were honoured as co-winners of the award.

The award marks the third time in four years that the Jacobs rink has been honoured as Sault Ste. Marie’s sportsperson of the year.

“It’s pretty special,” said Jacobs. “I don’t know how many athletes have won it three times but we’re honoured.”

The last time the award was shared was in 2007 when it was shared between former Soo Greyhounds coach Craig Hartsburg and the Soo North Stars hockey team.

BJ Marcoux accepted the award for himself and brother Mac, who couldn’t be in attendance on Tuesday night as he was training out of town.

BJ spoke of how much it meant to be able to share the award with the Jacobs team.

“It means everything to share it with them,” said BJ Marcoux. “There’s no way you could split the award up after both sides achieving what they achieved.”

Jacobs spoke highly of the accomplishments of the Marcoux’s as Mac brought home a gold and two bronze medals from the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

“They did phenomenal in Sochi and to both be from Sault Ste. Marie, it was only right that we share this award,” said Jacobs. “Having such a successful Olympics on both sides form both teams, it’s phenomenal. I’d love to do it again in four years. To share it with them is amazing.”

Jacobs said the past year has been a dream come true.

“It’s been everything that you lay in bed and dream about all coming true,” Jacobs said of the last year. “It’s maybe not the way you drew it out but it’s still all of those dreams coming true. It’s been phenomenal and something that we’ll always remember and hopefully something that we can use to inspire others.”

BJ Marcoux added that the past year for himself and his brother Mac shows that hard work is worth it in the long run.

“The last year has been crazy,” said BJ. “We’ve never had so many accomplishments and never had to push ourselves so hard to really get somewhere that we wanted to be. Everybody wants to be on top and it goes to show that if you want it, strive for it and work hard for it, all that time and effort can get you there.”

High school football coach Marty Smith was honoured at the banquet as he was inducted into the Russ Ramsay high school hall of fame.

Tuesday night also saw the honouring of the top male high school athletes. Joey Bruni of St. Basil won the Walter Lowe award as the top male high school athlete while John Stobie of White Pines won the B’nai B’rith award as the student best combining athletics and academics.

Awards were also handed out to the top athletes in nine individual sports, including badminton (Dylan Turgeon of St. Mary’s); basketball (Mitchell Mazzuca of St. Basil and Anthony Iacoe of Korah); cross-country running (Aron Mohammadi of Notre Dame du Sault); curling (Nick Acorn of Superior Heights and Brendan Acorn of White Pines); football (Mitchell Mazzuca); hockey (Jaron Rowe of St. Mary’s); soccer (Joey Bruni); track and field (Christopher Kramer of St. Basil); and wrestling (Brett Lacasse of Korah).

Photo: Brad Jacobs addresses those in attendance at the H.P. Broughton awards banquet on Tuesday night as (from left) Mac Marcoux, Ryan Harnden, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Fry look on