Details of the CPSL 5th Anniversary Annual Awards Banquet hosted by the North York Astros Soccer Club at the Hollywood Princess Convention & Banquet Centre in Concord on Sunday October 20th, 2002 at 7:05pm.
The Master of Ceremonies was Sportsnet commentator Gerry Dobson. He led off with the joke soccer superstar who played the whole national team all by himself. (Voyageurs readers read this one a month ago) but just substitute the participants Ronaldo for David Beckham of Brazil/England playing against France/Scotland and scoring early then the teammates at the pub finding out he let in a tieing goal in the 90th minute but he'd been sent off in the 11th minute!
League President Vince Ursini gave out brief summary of the year. Expansion? The league can be choosy but they are moving towards bringing in more Quebec teams next year.
The awards are presented between courses in the meal which makes for quite a few disturbances for me to take photos although this year it seemed unneccessary as I was elbowing away with about five pros. This shows me on a personal level the leagues success because in one of the early years I was the only photographer when the pro didn't show up.
Disturbing the anti-pasti:
1. Referee of the Year: (presented by referee in chief Tony Comacho) Mike Lambert.
2. Coach of the Year: (presented by Toronto city councillor Paul Sutherland) Aldwyn McGill of the Metro Lions.
3. the councillors of Vaughan, four of eight of them are at this dinner present league president Vince Ursini with a scroll. The league offices at the Soccer Centre are in Vaughan.
After the pasta:
4. Eastern Conference Champions (presented by A-League Toronto Lynx co-owner Nicole Hartrell) Ottawa Wizards.
5. Western Conference Runners-Up Mississauga Olympians.
6. Western Conference Champions (presented by Colin Linford, president of the OSA) Toronto Croatia.
(I only noticed later that I didn't catch the Eastern Conference Runners-Up but Montreal Dynamites weren't mentioned and playoff winners Metro Lions I didn't notice for that award).
7. Top Goal Scorer (presented by two execs from Locust Sports)...Darren Tilley with 20 goals.
8. All Star Game players were presented to all coaches and players who played against TSV 1860 Munich in Kitchener.
9. Government of Canada League Cup (Clifford Kell ?)
..................runners up....Toronto Croatia
..................winners........Ottawa Wizards
After the main course:
10. special acknowledgements by Vince Ursini to city officials, Astros officials, league officials, and the hotel facilities for hosting the Rogers Cup.
11. new Appreciation Award was given to the volunteer directors and league officials.
12. Pain in the Butt Award to Bruno Ierullo of North York Astros and then a special award was given to him for his hard work.
13. Fair Play Award (presented by Toronto city councillor Pete LoPreti) Mississauga Olympians
(least red and yellow cards in a season).
14. Rookie of the Year Award (presented by execs from Final Decision) Darren Tilley of Mississauga Olympians who wins the award at age 35!
15. Goalkeeper of the Year Award (presented by Hall of Famer/FIFA member Dick Howard) George Azcurra of Toronto Croatia.
16. Defender of the Year Award (presented by official Al Pereira) Domagoj Sain of Toronto Croatia
(he was the only winner of an individual award not present).
17. League MVP Abraham Osman of Ottawa Wizards.
18. MVP of the Rogers Cup Guillermo Compton Hall of North York Astros.
19. media thank you's were acknowledged from Stan Adamson for reporting on soccer to Neil Davidson of Canada Press, Norm DaCosta of Toronto Star, a guy from the Toronto Sun (none of them were here tonight and I've never heard them mention the CPSL), Robin Glover who had to take in that few extra seconds of applause by correcting Stan and proclaiming he'd been to 63 CPSL games this year! Various soccer publications, the CPSL website (which is down this weekend pending some legal action), and tonight's MC and broadcaster Gerry Dobson.
somewhere in here dessert was served.
20. Rogers Cup Runners Up North York Astros
21. Rogers Cup Winners (presented by "This Week in the CPSL" host on Rogers TV Alex Basinanoski sp?) Ottawa Wizards.
Two dancers from a troupe called "Freedom of Sound" who were performing next door at another feature (hmm the Indian wedding?, the 25th wedding anniversary?, or the bar-mitzva?) went through a 10 minute dance routine. Hayley and Kelly tried to get guests doing the "YMCA" but gave up. I'd bet on the bar-mitzva where at least the teenagers would love them.
The guests started to flee but the Astros after hosting this were not going to have a separate awards night so gave out awards to their sponsers.
Their players of the year were compiled by the winners of the three stars of each home game.
3rd place:......$50 to Guillermo Compton Hall (had only joined the team last month)
2nd place:.......$100 to Gabriel Salguero a midfielder.
1st place:........$300 to Kurt Ramsey a defender.
I asked Guillermo Compton Hall what teams he's played for in Argentina. He said Rio Plate (I suppose we'd translate that as River Plate) and Venice of Argentina. He's only been in Canada one month and plans on staying here in the off season.
I'd talked to York Region Shooters manager Elio Scarcello before the meal. This years team started out as the entire roster of the Vaughan Rockets and they'd played together since the age of twelve. They couldn't keep going with just those players because of injuries and some of the players like Adrian Cann and Bill Androutsos were lured away on college scholarships.
I also talked confidentially to ex-Hamilton Thunder coach Marko Maschice. He's staying in Canada for now and looking to catch on in coaching.
Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
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