Brazilian Jiu Jitsu champion Lillian Marchand accepts the 2024 Tim Hortons North Okanagan Athlete of the Year award from Dan Currie of Tim Hortons and Ann Holmes from the awards committee. (Vernon Matters photo)oin

By Pete McIntyre

annual awards

Football teams and Jiu Jitsu star win North Okanagan sports awards

Jun 20, 2024 | 5:00 AM

There was an extra winner at the 2024 Tim Hortons North Okanagan Sports Awards, which were presented Wednesday night outside Vernon City Hall.

For the first time, two teams shared the Team of the Year award — and for good reason.

The Vernon Secondary School (VSS) junior and senior Panthers football teams both won their respective provincial championships last December at BC Place in Vancouver, so both were named Team of the Year by the awards selection committee.

Members of the Vernon Secondary School Panthers junior and senior football teams pose with Dan Currie of Tim Hortons (with trophy) and John Topping from the awards committee after winning the Team of the Year award. (Vernon Matters photo)

The junior Panthers defeated the Parksville-Qualicum Whalers 61-22 to win their title while the senior Panthers edged the John Barsby Bulldogs from Nanaimo 23-22 in the AA senior final. The victory was the senior Panthers third provincial championship in five years.

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Panthers head coach Sean Smith told the gathering he was most proud of his team members because they “bought into our process.”

“We have something in our program that we say ‘I’m in.’ And I’m in means that you’re in for everything, so that means morning workouts, off-season training, watching film, all the things that happen outside of the field that most people don’t see,” Smith explained.

Lillian Marchand was named the Tim Hortons North Okanagan Athlete of the Year for 2024 after her outstanding year in Brazilian jiu jitsu

The 17-year-old, who is known as ‘Lillatron,’ has won numerous competitions, including gold in four major global competitions in 2023. And this past April, she won two gold medals in the 2024 Brazil Jiu Jitsu Championship.

Lillian Marchand with her two gold medals from the 2024 Brazil Jiu Jitsu Championship. (submitted photo/Instagram)

Marchand, a member of the Okanagan Indian Band, thanked her family for their support.

“It means a lot that you guys are here. You guys are like the backbone of why I’m doing all this. Without your support, I wouldn’t be able to travel all over the world and do what I do,” the teen sensation told several hundred people on hand for the ceremony.

Marchand also thanked her coach, Mario Deveault, who has been with her since she was five.

Marchand bested a strong field of five other nominees which included VSS football/basketball player Mark Johnson, marathoner Oliver Stankiewicz, ultra athlete Shanda Hill and hockey players Zac Funk and Austin Roest.

The third and final award presented was for Leadership in Sports which honours people for their long-term dedication to sport, and for helping others and their community.

VSS football coach Sean Smith was chosen as the 2024 award winner.

VSS football coach Sean Smith (centre) receives Leadership in Sport award from Dan Currie of Tim Hortons (left) and Kevin Mitchell of the awards committee. (Vernon Matters photo)

Smith said he was “very honoured” to receive the award and had been looking at some of the past winners which included the likes of Ann Holmes and Denis and Barb Murdoch who he knew while growing up in Vernon and attending Fulton Secondary

“I was fortunate enough to have a guy named Bob Shannon [from Fulton] coach me when I was younger. He spent countless hours with us, building his basketball program into a powerhouse. And so when I started teaching, I kind of had him in my vision of what I had to do as a teacher.”

Smith said he shared the leadership award with his assistant coaches, managers, trainers, players, parents and all the others who helped build the program over the years.

The other leadership nominees were Bill Tarr who has been a coach, team manager, equipment manager and board member with the Vernon and District Minor Football Association; Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland who is from Vernon; Graham Cooper, president of the Vernon Tennis Association, who received the Tennis B.C. Presidents Award for his decades-long work of growing the sport in the region; Vernon Vipers assistant coach Colton Sparrow and athletic director Rory Taber from Eagle River Secondary School in Sicamous.

The awards selection committee is made up of local community reps and media members and headed by Ann Holmes.