Canada West celebrates 2026 SID and Creative Award recipients
Awards honour excellence in sports information and content creation across CW
April 22, 2026 - Communications departments across all 17 Canada West members continued to raise the bar throughout the 2025–26 season, producing innovative content and exceptional coverage connecting student-athletes with fans across multiple media platforms.
Today, Canada West announced the recipients of its annual SID and Creative Awards, recognizing excellence in sports information, communications and media.
The annual awards celebrate the vital role sports information professionals play in telling the stories of Canada West student-athletes, coaches and teams. Throughout the season, communications staffs work tirelessly behind the scenes to maintain high standards in areas including statistics, webcasting, social media, photography and written content, often remaining at venues long after games have ended to ensure every aspect of coverage is complete.
The awards feature seven categories and are voted on by SIDs from each of Canada West’s member institutions, making them a true peer-recognized honour. New for 2026 is the Communications Department of the Year Award, which recognizes the department that demonstrated the highest standard of excellence across all aspects of communications and sports information.
2026 Canada West SID and Creative Award Recipients
Communications Department of the Year: UBC Thunderbirds, contributors Stu Walters, Jeff Sargeant, Toby Kerr and Jake McGrail
Feature Story of the Year: "Kapinga’s basketball success story borne out of family’s daring escape from First Congo War," written by Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Griffins
Action Photo of the Year: Derek Elvin, Saskatchewan Huskies (Electric Umbrella)
Social Media Content: University of Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas, contributors Connor Hood, Dayln Livingston and Gabby Castelblanco
Sports Info Assistant of the Year: Jenna Stevenson, Calgary Dinos
CanadaWest TV MVP: Adam Donnelly, Thompson Rivers WolfPack
Video of the Year: Manitoba Bisons Re-brand Launch, contributors Neil Noonan (video producer) and AK Gassama
2026 Canada West SID and Creative Awards
Communications Department of the Year: UBC Thunderbirds
Contributors: Stu Walters, Jeff Sargeant, Toby Kerr, Jake McGrail
The UBC Thunderbirds communications staff, led by Stu Walters, Jeff Sargeant, Toby Kerr and Jake McGrail, are honoured as the inaugural winners of the Communications Department of the Year Award. The group was nominated for the award by their peers and praised for consistently delivering exceptional coverage while managing one of the busiest and most successful athletic programs in the conference.
Fellow communications staff across Canada West highlighted UBC’s ability to provide timely and accurate statistics, photos, recaps and highlights, while also producing some of the strongest social media, video and graphic design content in the conference. The department was repeatedly recognized for its professionalism, responsiveness and willingness to support visiting teams in all aspects of sports information and media relations.
Peers also pointed to the challenge of covering the Thunderbirds’ extensive home schedule, which often includes multiple playoff series and national championships taking place simultaneously. Despite managing one of the most demanding workloads in the conference, the UBC staff has demonstrated an exceptional ability to multitask, communicate effectively and maintain a consistently high standard, earning widespread respect across Canada West.
Feature Story of the Year: "Kapinga’s basketball success story borne out of family’s daring escape from First Congo War" by Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Griffins
When the MacEwan Griffins hired David Kapinga as the program’s new men’s basketball head coach, he came with an incredibly courageous back story after escaping war-torn Africa as a young child.
Griffins Sports Information Specialist Jefferson Hagen earns a second straight Feature Story of the Year Award for his powerful article chronicling Kapinga’s journey. The story details his poignant journey to landing his first U SPORTS head coaching job, following his family’s escape from the First Congo War, time spent in a refugee camp in Tanzania, and eventual move to Canada, where he went on to become a standout player and national champion with the Calgary Dinos.
The article resonated with a wide audience on Griffins social media channels, gathering over 13,000 views and reaching over 8,000 Instagram accounts.
Action Photo of the Year: Derek Elvin, Saskatchewan Huskies (Electric Umbrella)
It's a second straight Action Photo of the Year Award for the photography team from Electric Umbrella, as photographer Derek Elvin perfectly frames one of the most pivotal moments of last year's Mitchell Bowl.
The photo features Huskie running back Ryker Frank as he breaks free of the Queen’s Gaels defensive line for a big gain. The photo perfectly reflects what was a low-scoring, gritty and physical game, which saw the Gaels chase the Huskies for the entire duration of the contest. The Huskies would go on to win the national semifinal 22-11 in front of a passionate home crowd.
The photo was included in a carousel on Instagram which generated 57,546 views, 855 likes, and 638 interactions.
Best Social Media Content: University of Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas
Contributors: Connor Hood (Communications Coordinator), Dayln Livingston (Digital Media Associate), Gabby Castelblanco (Video Production)
A strategic pillar of the Alberta communications department for the 2025-26 season was to position UofA Athletics as a destination. The dynamic team of Connor Hood, Dayln Livingston and Gabby Castelblanco developed a social media campaign that endeavoured to create a sense of FOMO with their audience and supporters, encouraging fans to rally around the Green + Gold Spirit and foster a deeper campus connection.
To do this, the team focused on a video-centric campaign focusing on key concepts including:
- Videos that focused on energy, excitement, crowd, and atmosphere
- Content that focused more on the emotion of live events, and less on the results/outcomes
- Highlighted marquee games/events, including home openers, rivalry series games, Green + Gold Spirit events, and Canada West Championships
Over the course of the season, 28 videos were posted on UofA athletics social platforms as part of this campaign. The results were tremendously positive, and received overwhelmingly strong feedback from student-athletes, coaches, staff, alumni, and campus partners.
The videos themselves generated 736,303 total views and nearly 10K total interactions.
Sports Info Assistant of the Year: Jenna Stevenson, Calgary Dinos
Since joining the Calgary Dinos communications staff in 2024–25, Jenna Stevenson has quickly emerged as one of the department’s top young communicators.
Stevenson has played a key role across a variety of sports throughout her time with the Dinos, including taking on primary responsibility for the Dinos men’s hockey social media channels. Her creative work, particularly a series of weekly videos on Instagram, delivered some of the department’s strongest engagement of the year, including the Dinos’ most-viewed reel of the season, generating 95,918 impressions and 8,671 engagements. In total, her Reels series produced 863,771 impressions and 21,802 engagements.
Her versatility and dependability has led to increasingly significant assignments. Jenna has embraced every opportunity thrown her way, putting in the work required to better understand each sport and consistently deliver high-quality coverage.
When the Dinos hosted the men’s basketball national championship, the communications team faced a staffing challenge after the Dinos women’s basketball team also qualified for nationals. Because of her outstanding work throughout the season, Stevenson was chosen to travel with the women’s basketball team and chronicle its journey at nationals. She delivered exceptional results, with her social media content generating more than 225K impressions and 5K engagements, a testament to her creativity and professionalism.
Canada West TV MVP: Adam Donnelly, Thompson Rivers WolfPack
Adam Donnelly has served as webcast coordinator for the Thompson Rivers WolfPack for the past five seasons, bringing an exceptional level of passion and commitment to delivering the best possible broadcast experience on Canada West TV.
Working in two city-owned facilities that require a full setup and teardown before and after every event, Donnelly has gone above and beyond in overseeing every aspect of the WolfPack webcast. From running extensive cabling to solving technical issues and improving production quality year after year, he has played a critical role in enhancing the viewing experience for student-athletes, their families and fans watching from home.
Despite the significant challenges presented by the WolfPack’s facilities, including lighting and connectivity limitations, Donnelly consistently found ways to elevate the broadcasts and strengthen the program’s Canada West TV production.
Donnelly will depart the WolfPack at the end of the year after completing his education degree, but leaves behind a lasting impact on the department.
Video of the Year: Manitoba Bisons Rebrand Launch Video
Contributors: Neil Noonan (Video Producer), AK Gassama
When the Manitoba Bisons unveiled a fresh new identity last fall, the introductory video produced by Neil Noonan served as the emotional centrepiece of the launch. Through dynamic footage and a compelling narration delivered by Bisons football star AK Gassama, the video revealed the new logo while capturing the pride, passion and shared identity behind what it means to be a Bison.
The piece resonated strongly with audiences, generating more than 121,000 views on Instagram and attracting a significant external audience, with more than 80 per cent of viewers coming from outside the Bisons’ existing followers. Its success extended beyond athletics, earning recognition across the wider university community and consideration for broader institutional awards.
Used across the Bisons’ website, social media channels, Canada West TV and in-venue screens, the video became a powerful rallying point for athletes and fans alike. Through striking visuals and masterful storytelling, Noonan created a piece that not only energized the Bisons community, but also strengthened the connection between the program and its fans.
About Canada West
As the leading university athletic conference in the country, Canada West is home to student-athletes that excel in the classroom and their communities. The conference is comprised of 17 member institutions spanning from Victoria to Winnipeg, with over 3,200 student-athletes competing across 14 sports. Canada West’s mission is to train leaders and build champions by providing leadership in the delivery, regulation, and promotion of university level high performance sports programs throughout western Canada.