Marty Hastings honoured with 2025 Fred “Gus” Collins Media Award

May 8, 2025 – Covering university sports requires care, compassion, and trust, and Marty Hastings has been doing it brilliantly for nearly two decades.

The CFJC Kamloops reporter is the 2025 recipient of the Fred “Gus” Collins Media Award, recognizing a media member who tirelessly covers Canada West university student-athletes.

Throughout his career, Hastings has continuously worked hard to share the stories of student-athletes with the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack. He was also recognized with the Fred Collins award in 2019 while he was a staff reporter with Kamloops This Week, and becomes just the second repeat winner in the award's history.

"We are lucky enough to have Marty out to at least one, if not two, practices a week, doing everything from weekend previews to feature stories," says Cam Doherty, TRU WolfPack Manager of Marketing and Communications. "While the shifting media landscape has seen him transition from print to video, Marty has excelled with CFJC, finding new and creative ways to showcase our student-athletes."

A proud TRU alum, Hastings has played a critical role in connecting the WolfPack to the Kamloops community over the past 16 years. In addition to his role with CFJC, he also shares WolfPack stories as a regular contributor to the CBC Radio Kamloops morning show.

Amazing Stories, Amazing People

For Hastings, there's something unique and special about connecting with student-athletes and giving their stories a voice.

“The importance of university sports coverage is underrated,” said Hastings. “You get amazing stories, you find amazing people. In professional sports you might get those canned and unoriginal quotes a lot of the time, and you don't find a lot of that in university sports. You get a lot of honesty. Generally, I think people are happy to have their sports covered and they're appreciative that you're there. You get trusted with subject matter that can be pretty personal.”

Hastings knows the importance of building trust with the student-athletes, coaches and teams he covers, and doesn't take it for granted when they place their trust in him to tell their story.

His caring and compassionate approach was demonstrated earlier this season in a story highlighting the WolfPack men's volleyball home opener, where he shared a powerful update on the student-athletes and families impacted by last year's tragic multi-vehicle collision that claimed the life of TRU student-athlete Owyn McInnis, and left teammates Riley Brinnen and Owen Waterhouse with life-altering injuries.

“You have to ask people what they’re comfortable with,” said Hastings. “Before I did interviews on the record for that story, there were conversations with the WolfPack and the Waterhouse family to get an understanding of what they’re comfortable talking about. Once they relay their story to you, it’s just a matter of making sure you tell it with dignity.”

Hastings was blown away by the trust that was shown to him by the university, the parents, the coaches, and the players, including WolfPack Athletic Director Curtis Atkinson.

“I appreciate the trust that was shown to me, especially by Owen Waterhouse’s parents, and Curtis Atkinson with the WolfPack,” said Hastings.

Hastings also recognizes that his work is a true team effort, and couldn't happen without the support of his colleagues involved in everything from shooting and editing his stories.

"I really want to thank some of the people I work with, including Anthony Corea, Adam Donnelly, Kent Simmonds and Sydney Chisholm, who all helped me with stories this year. I just want to thank everybody who put a lot of time in to make those stories sing."

Hastings will also move forward as a nominee for the Fred Sgambati Media Award, a national media recognition presented by U SPORTS.

More about the Fred “Gus” Collins Award

The late Fred "Gus" Collins was a long-time contributor to the development, success and promotion of Canada West, notably through his endless effort to produce updated, accurate statistical information to all media in an era long before laptops and spreadsheets.

The Fred "Gus" Collins Award is presented annually to a member of the media who works tirelessly covering Canada West and its student-athletes. The winner becomes the Canada West nominee for the Fred Sgambati Award, which is presented by U SPORTS to a member of the news media, who has made a major contribution to the development and growth of U SPORTS.

A list of previous Fred "Gus" Collins recipients is available here.