EDMONTON - Canada West Athletics is pleased to announce major award winners for the 2006 football season, as selected by coaches of the seven teams.
Getting the conference nomination for the Hec Crighton Player of the Year award is Rams quarterback Teale Orban, a third-year starter playing right in his hometown of Regina. The 20-year-old Business Administration student led the entire nation in passing, with 2,619 yards over eight conference games, and connected for a conference-record 26 touchdowns through the air. After a tough 0-2 start, Orban guided the Rams to a 4-2 mark the rest of the way, including a big come-from-behind win over Alberta in the final game of the year by the necessary margin of victory to secure a playoff berth. With Orban at the helm, Regina managed to score over 30 points five times in 2006 conference play as the team made the playoffs for the first time since 2003, a far cry from the 2004 squad that finished 0-8. In 2006, he set numerous team season and single-game records. Orban is the third Canada West QB in five years to win the Frank Gnup Memorial Trophy, after Steve Bilan (Saskatchewan, 2004) and Shane Munson (Manitoba, 2002).
The Canada West Peter Gorman Rookie of the Year nominee is another pivot, Calgary’s Dalin Tollestrup, an 18-year-old starter out of Alberta’s Raymond High School. At 6’2’’-182 lbs. and showing great athletic ability, Tollestrup was pegged as the team’s starter from the very beginning. With an injury-plagued o-line, the Dinos were 0-6 before the young pivot, who played almost every down during the season, pulled off an upset of UBC to gain his first win, and he won again in his final game of the year, earning CIS Player of the Week honours in the meantime. Overall he passed for 1,941 yards, six touchdowns and led the team in rushing for much of the year, eventually finishing second on the roster with 258 yards along the ground.
Named the John Metras Outstanding Lineman nominee is Saskatchewan Huskies offensive lineman Jordan Rempel. The hulking 6’6, 310-pound sophomore from Caronport, SK stood in the way of opposing defences attempting to rattle Huskies quarterback and had little problem creating a lane for top running backs Tyler O’Gorman and Scott Stevens as needed. The Saskatchewan offence ranked second in the conference, with 485 yards per game, and allowed the second-fewest sacks, 12, during the eight-game regular season.
Top defensive honours and a finalist for the CIS President’s Award is Cory Huclack of the top-ranked, undefeated Manitoba Bisons. Huclack, a fifth-year linebacker in his final season, was a 2005 conference All-Star and is clearly the top defensive player on the conference’s top defensive team, picking up a team-high 47 tackles to go with two sacks, two interceptions, a forced fumble and a pass break-up during the season. The Bisons surrendered a league-low 143 points over eight games, and the 22-year-old Winnipeg native was a factor all year, including when he registered a game-high seven tackles during a 35-16 victory at then-No. 2 Saskatchewan.
Russ Jackson Student-Athlete award nominee, Saskatchewan’s Dylan Barker, is a third-year Arts & Science student from Moose Jaw, SK, currently applying to the College of Dentistry and in his second year of eligibility. The 22-year-old safety registered a team-high 47 tackles, up from 37 in his freshman year, along with one sack, one interception, four defensive break-ups and a forced fumble during the eight-game Canada West season. He added four tackles, one pick and a break-up in last week’s 35-16 semifinal win over UBC. Barker, selected to the 2006 East-West Bowl All-Star game, also excels in the classroom, having been a 2004-05 Huskie Academic All-Canadian, recipient of the Peggy McKercher Scholarship for Academics & Athletics and a winner of the John Middleton Scholarship for Academics. Even back in high school, Barker was a four-year honour roll student.
Manitoba Bisons 11-year head coach Brian Dobie in the Canada West Coach of the Year after taking the Bisons to that undefeated 8-0 mark and a No. 1 ranking in the final CIS poll of the season. Dobie, who shared the award with his opposing head coach this weekend, Saskatchewan’s Brian Towriss, in 2002, has taken Manitoba from a 3-5 win-loss record in 2004 to 4-4 last year and now the perfect season. With solid recruiting of stars such as Cory Huclack, Justin Cooper, Justin Shaw, John Makie, Karim Lowen and Matt Henry, the Bisons have struck a perfect balance between offence and defence. Things also bode well going forward, as only Huclack and four others on the 2006 roster are in their final year of CIS eligibility. Coach Dobie, a player for the 1973 Manitoba Bisons that won the Churchill Bowl, is in his 32nd year of coaching overall and has a career Bisons coaching record of 52-45-1, including a 2001 Hardy Cup win and an appearance at the ’01 Vanier Cup, the same year he was named CIS Coach of the Year.
Individual 2006 Canada West football major award winners are as follows (*denotes unanimous selection):
Hec Crighton Player of the Year nominee / Frank Gnup Memorial Trophy winner: Teale Orban, Regina
Peter Gorman Rookie of the Year nominee: Dalin Tollestrup, Calgary
John Metras Outstanding Lineman nominee: Jordan Rempel, Saskatchewan
President’s Award Outstanding Defensive Player nominee: Cory Huclack, Manitoba
Russ Jackson Outstanding Student-Athlete nominee: Dylan Barker, Saskatchewan
*Coach of the Year: Brian Dobie, Manitoba

All winners automatically become finalists for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) awards to be handed out during Vanier Cup week in Saskatoon later this month.

The list of Canada West conference All-Stars will be released on Friday, and the Hardy Cup final, between Saskatchewan and Manitoba, goes Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg.