{"id":25116,"date":"2019-10-31T14:41:42","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T18:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25116"},"modified":"2019-11-08T11:58:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T16:58:43","slug":"auroras-champions-lauded-at-annual-sport-aurora-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/auroras-champions-lauded-at-annual-sport-aurora-breakfast\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora\u2019s champions lauded at annual Sport Aurora Breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although he may have been halfway across\nthe world in Moscow, Stephen Maar was certainly at Saturday\u2019s Breakfast of\nChampions in spirit when he was named the Sport Aurora Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am very humbled and grateful to be\naccepting this award,\u201d Maar said in an email exchange. \u201cNot only as the\nindividual accolade it is, but it represents the recognition of the community\nof Aurora in high performance sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in its seventh year, the Sport\nAurora\u2019s Mayor\u2019s Breakfast of Champions annually brings together Aurora\u2019s\nwinning teams, individuals, coaches, and managers under one roof to celebrate\nProvincial championships or better within their respective sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s crop of champions included\neight teams and more than 100 athletes and coaches. Ex-NHLer and Junior A\nAurora Tigers owner Jim Thomson once again played emcee, while Paul Rosen, a\nformer sledge hockey goalie turned motivational speaker, provided the keynote\naddress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marr is the fourth athlete to receive\nthe Athlete of the Year honour, first handed out in 2016 to hockey player\nCameron Morrison, an ex-Aurora Tiger and current Colorado Avalanche prospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The honour went to Carmen Whelan in the\nevent\u2019s second year, a celebrated Canadian gymnast and graduate of Dr. G.W.\nWilliams Secondary School in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Thomas, winner of the Stanley Cup\nwith the St. Louis Blues last season, earned the 2018 title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Maar, being the first in his sport\nto receive the honour, he said it means \u201call the more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to extend a huge thank you first\nand foremost for my parents who afforded me every opportunity to cross train\nand play a variety of sports to settle into my niche,\u201d said Maar. \u201cThank you to\nthe Aurora Storm volleyball club, who gave me great coaching, facilities,\nteammates, and was the beginning of my career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLastly, I wanted to give a personal\nshout out to Jeff Salhani, my elementary gym teacher, someone who instills hard\nwork ethic and great charisma for winning with all of his athletes across all\nsports. Sorry I couldn\u2019t be there to accept in person!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accepting the award on Maar\u2019s behalf\nwere his parents, Bob and Jill, who received the honour from Aurora Sports Hall\nof Fame member Alan Dean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom young ages, both of our sons Ryan\nand Stephen have benefited from the high-quality sports programs offered here\nin Aurora,\u201d said his mother. \u201cThe community support of athletics in Aurora is a\nvery important cornerstone for the development of the athletes that call Aurora\nhome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A graduate of Bill Crothers Secondary\nSchool, the 24-year old Maar is preparing for his first season playing for\nDinamo Moscow in the Russian Super League, his fourth season of professional\nvolleyball after his time at McMaster University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheryl Duckworth, a longtime volunteer\nwith the Aurora Special Olympics in sports ranging from swimming, to golf, to\ngymnastics, was lauded as the Sport Aurora Coach of the Year, the first time\nthe award has been handed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local piper Yunus Galgar brought his\nmusical skills to the event for the fourth year in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m so absolutely proud of every single\nperson in this room for what they achieved and accomplished,\u201d said Aurora Mayor\nTom Mrakas in closing remarks. \u201cCharacter and work ethic are what will allow\nyou to succeed, regardless of whether it\u2019s sports, business, your career, or\nlife in general. Just remember that\u2026I wouldn\u2019t be standing here if I didn\u2019t\nwork to get where I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m honoured to have the privilege to be among this crowd. Your strong focus and perseverance to your sports motivates others to get active, and become a part of Aurora\u2019s sporting community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jake Courtepatte <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although he may have been halfway across the world in Moscow, Stephen Maar was certainly at Saturday\u2019s Breakfast of Champions in spirit when he was named the Sport Aurora Athlete of the Year. \u201cI am very humbled and grateful to be accepting this award,\u201d Maar said in an email exchange. \u201cNot only as the individual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2019-10-31-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6x6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 16:20:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}