Kiera Pemberton, a power forward basketball player for Walnut Grove Secondary, the Langley-based Trinity Western Spartans men’s volleyball team, and Stacy Fournier, a star softball player and coach from Brookswood, were winners at the 56th Annual Athlete of the Year Awards held by Sport BC.
Pemberton was named high school female athlete of the year, while the Spartans won team of the year honours, and Fournier received the Bobbie Steen Legacy Foundation Award for baseball and softball.
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In her last year as a Gator, Pemberton averaged 34 points per game while adding 14 rebounds per contest.
An all-time BC provincial championships scoring leader and two-time provincial championship MVP, the freshman now plays for the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
Last July, when Pemberton earned the David Gifford Memorial Scholarship, awarded to the top female and male athlete in B.C., she was described as “one of the most gifted athletes this province has ever seen,” who organized and coached her own girls’ basketball camp, that raised over $1,000 for KidSport charity.”
Last year, Trinity Western won the gold medal match of the 2023 U SPORTS Men’s Volleyball Championship.
Since entering U SPORTS in 1999, Trinity Western Spartans men’s volleyball team has won seven national championships.
Last year, Fournier was named permanent head coach of the Simon Fraser Softball program.
Among her achievements, Fournier, a Brookswood Secondary School grad, was a member of the Langley senior B Xtreme, that won the 2014 provincial championships.
She has been a player with the Baseball B.C. provincial team since 2005, and is an active member of Canada’s national team, competing in 2013, 2017, and continuously since 2019.
READ ALSO: Langley’s Fournier named head coach of SFU Softball
Presented March 7 in Vancouver, the awards recognized the province’s best in amateur sport, including athletes, coaches, teams, and officials for outstanding performances in their 2023 sport season.
Each finalist was nominated by their provincial or multi-sport organization, high school, college, or university.
Sport BC President and CEO, Rob Newman said the selection committee was “inspired by the sport stories of all of our finalists, the category winners, and the organizations they represent.”