@nformer

College athlete of the year,
Diana Artuso, centre, is
presented with an award
and a gold watch by local
media personalities at the
Hyatt Regency Hotel on
March 10.

Student honoured at Sports BC banquet

iana Artuso collected an enormous

honour for herself and for the
College on Wednesday, March 10 at
Sport BC’s 33rd annual Athlete of the
Year Awards. Beating other nominees
from Douglas and Langara colleges,
Diana took home the award for college
athlete of the year for her role as the
most prolific goal scorer in Canadian
college soccer over the past year.

This is the first year that Sports BC
welcomed college athletes to its elite
sports banquet where snowboarder Ross
Rebagliati and triathlete Peter Reid
tied for senior athlete of the year.
However, it’s a place most fitting for a
repeat MVP in the Canadian Colleges
Athletic Association national
championship (1998 and 1996).

Diana was at the helm scoring all
three Capilano College goals when the
Blues won gold at last year’s CCAA

national championships in Kamloops.
She is a past winner of the Premier’s
Award for Athletic Excellence in
women’s soccer and was named the
female athlete of the month by
Capilano College in last October’s
North Shore News. She achieved a
personal best of 36 goals in 21 games
this past season and holds the CCAA
national championship scoring record
with seven goals in 1998.

“Diana is a truly exceptional athlete
who demonstrated outstanding skill
and athletic ability, commitment and
determination this year,” says Athletics
and Recreation director, Joe
Iacobellis. “Her achievements in
college soccer become more
outstanding knowing that as a
perennial top goals scorer, she was
always checked by two defenders
whenever she played and despite this,

was still capable of winning top
scoring honours at both provincial
and national competitions.”

Diana was also an excellent
student earning an average term
grade point average of 3.59 in the
Early Childhood Care and Education
program. She graduated in December.

Off campus, Diana trains as an
elite provincial athlete under the BC
Soccer Association’s athlete
assistance program. She works out
weekly at the Provincial High
Performance Centre at Simon Fraser
University. In 1997, she was asked to
represent her province and led the
B.C. team to a gold medal at the
Canada Summer Games, winning the
scoring title for the championship
with five goals. She is looking
forward to representing her province
and her country in the future.

@ e= Capilano
@€em College

Vol. XX1 No. 3
March 19/99