By Martin Cleary
Season after season, no matter the sport, games are played, races are run, matches are decided and championships and individual honours are awarded to athletes, coaches and officials.
But after the dust has settled and more thought is given to each of those timeframes, specific athletes, coaches and volunteers are recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty.
Such is the case for two Carleton University officials, four high-performance national-team athletes and one curler (posthumously).
At the annual OUA Honour Awards Banquet in Oakville earlier this month, Carleton Ravens men’s basketball coach Taffe Charles was selected the male coach of the year from the association’s entire sports program. Sheila-Ann Newton was the recipient of the J.P. Loosemore Award for her professionalism, leadership and unwavering commitment to varsity sport student-athletes since 2017 at Carleton.
The Coaching Association of Canada named 20 Team Canada athletes to receive a grant of up to $1,000 to pursue coaching education through the National Coaching Certification Program. The list included Ottawa athletes Amy Burk in goalball, Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka in sprint canoe, Vicky Savard in indoor volleyball and Ngaire Barraclough in road cycling.
They will study coaching through three different streams – competition-introduction, competition-development and advanced coaching diploma. The program, which was started in 2018, has allowed 146 Team Canada athletes to gain formal coaching education to support their elite sport experience.
Curling Canada initiated its first Wheelchair Curling Sport Leadership Award program and Shauna Petrie was one of the recipients along with coach Tom Ward and CBC TV sports reporter Devin Heroux. Petrie received her award posthumously.
Here are their stories.
TAFFE CHARLES
The 2025-26 OUA men’s basketball season was seen as a rebuilding campaign for Carleton University, after several student-athlete graduations and the addition of new players. But that’s now how it evolved.
Head coach Taffe Charles established “a culture of belief and accountability” in his seventh season to not only take the Ravens to the U SPORTS Final 8 championship, but also to the program’s 18th national title.
Carleton won the OUA East pennant with a 17-5 record and posted an impressive 10-1 playoff mark. Its only loss was in the OUA Wilson Cup conference final to Toronto Metropolitan University Bold. The Ravens focused on disciplined defence, which was led by OUA defensive player of the year Nelson Cilien, and ball possession through rebounding.
Despite being the sixth seed at the national championships, Charles guided the Ravens past Laval, the Bold and Bishop’s University Gaiters in the final for its record-extending 18th title.
SHEILA-ANN NEWTON
As varsity administrator and student-athlete services co-ordinator at Carleton University, Sheila-Ann Newton was an integral part of the athletics department and respected for her genuine care and compassion.
“Throughout her time with the Ravens, Newton has played a vital role in supporting student-athletes, coaches and partners at Carleton, helping create a student-athlete experience rooted in dignity, access and opportunity,” said the OUA’s news release.
“Her leadership in eligibility and compliance has ensured the fair and consistent application of OUA and U SPORTS regulations, always advocating for and protecting the best interests of student-athletes, while helping teams remain prepared and competition-ready.”
Newton assisted the university’s varsity council to create several programs to empower the student-athletes and raise thousands of dollars in support of various Ottawa programs. The Food Insecurity Program was a key initiative.
“Known for her institutional knowledge, integrity and ability to bring people together, Newton has helped hundreds of student-athletes navigate their academic and athletic journeys, while empowering them to grow as leaders within their communities,” the release added.
AMY BURK
An advocate for the vision-impaired community, Amy Burk has represented Canada at five different Paralympic Summer Games from 2008 through 2024 in the sport of goalball. She also competed in four world championships, helping Canada to the gold medal in 2011.
At the Parapan American Games, she celebrated the gold medal in 2023 as well as bronze medals in 2011, 2015 and 2019. She is often regarded as the cornerstone of the women’s goalball program.
TOSHKA BESHARAH
In her Summer Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Games, Toshka Besharah finished 10th overall in the women’s K4 500 metres with Natalie Davison, Riley Melanson and Courtney Stott. They were fifth in the heats and fourth in the semifinals, but didn’t advance to the final.
Besharah, a bronze medallist from the 2021 and 2019 world junior championships, was a silver medallist in the women’s K4 500 metres at the 2023 Pan American Games and the bronze medallist in the K2 200 metres at the 2022 world championships in Dartmouth.
VICKY SAVARD
A graduate of Louis-Riel high school, Vicky Savard made her first Canadian women’s national volleyball team at age 28 in 2021. A talented outside hitter, Savard has played six years of professional volleyball in Europe and currently is in her second year with Nebraska of League One Volleyball in the United States.
Savard helped Canada win two bronze medals at the NORCECA women’s championship. While playing for Minis Arluy VB Logrono, she was named the best outside hitter of the Liga Iberdrola.
NGAIRE BARRACLOUGH
Ngaire Barraclough had one of her most successful seasons as a road cyclist in 2022, when she competed for The Cyclery Racing team of Ottawa.
She finished fifth in the women’s elite road race at the Canadian road championships and also had a sixth-place and 10th-place showing at the Joe Martin stage race. Sixth in the individual time trial for Canada at the 2023 Pan American Games, Barraclough now competes for Red Truck Racing.
SHAUNA PETRIE
A dedicated competitor, advocate, volunteer and organizer, the Ottawa-born Shauna Petrie was admired for her exceptional decades-long work in wheelchair curling in Ontario and throughout Canada.
Her kindness and passion for the sport allowed her to increase participation numbers in wheelchair curling and develop future athletes.
“Shauna was a tremendous advocate for wheelchair curling,” said Mark Ideson, who partnered with her to win the 2022 Leduc mixed doubles wheelchair curling championship, in a Curling Canada news release.
“She brought energy, passion and excellence to our sport. She always had a gift for encouraging others, while helping grow the game. She will be deeply missed. It’s especially meaningful that she’ll be one of the inaugural recipients of this award.”
In her final competition, Petrie skipped Ontario to the 2025 Canadian wheelchair curling title. She passed away from breast cancer several weeks after nationals. Her love of the game helped inspire the creation of the Wheelchair Curling Sport Leadership Award.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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