(TORONTO, ONT.) - Sangmuk Choi of the Dalhousie Tigers men's soccer team has been honoured with the national student-athlete community service award. The awards banquet took place Wednesday evening, preceding the 2015 CIS men's soccer championship being hosted by York University in Toronto, Ont. Nov. 12-15.
Choi is the third winner from Dalhousie since the inception of the award in 2005, following in the footsteps of Nathan Rogers (2013) and Chris Haughn (2006).
In his fifth and final AUS season, Choi has proven himself to be a dedicated CIS student-athlete, making the Dean's List and earning Academic All-Canadian status every year since he arrived on the Halifax campus. When not in the classroom or on the pitch, the Anyang, South Korea native gives a lot of his spare time to volunteerism.
For the past three years, he has been a volunteer research assistant with the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy in Children and Youth's data collection project. He works as an exercise leader's assistant with the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Health in Motion program, helping with patients in their recovery. He also spends time working with Special Olympians during Special Tigers days and with the Dalhousie International Students Association soccer tournament.
Choi is a kinesiology student who also plays on the Dalhousie tennis team and referees soccer. He aspires to be a physiotherapist and become a national-level referee.
"Sang has been an outstanding CIS student-athlete at Dalhousie," said Tigers head coach Pat Nearing. "He works exceptionally hard in games, practices and in the classroom, and that hard work has paid off. He has been a key member on our roster and has a cumulative GPA of 3.95. Sang is a quiet and humble person with exceptional personal characteristics. Student-athletes like him don't come along very often and it has been a privilege to coach him."
The other nominees were Sherbrooke defender David Giroux-Jérôme and McMaster midfielder Ross Genovese.
The complete list of national awards winners is below. (Recipients from the Atlantic conference are in bold.)
CIS MEN'S SOCCER: 2015 AWARDS & ALL-CANADIANS
Joe Johnson Memorial Trophy (player of the year): Cam Hundal, Victoria
Lou Bilek Award (rookie of the year): Valentin Lamoulie, UQAM
Student-Athlete Community Service Award: Sangmuk Choi, Dalhousie
Coach of the year: Christophe Dutarte, UQAM
First Team
Pos. - Athlete - University - Year - Hometown - Academic Program
GK - Chad Bush - UBC - 1 - Ottawa, Ont. - Arts
D - Andrew - Snyder - Acadia - 4 - Bridgewater. N.S. - Business Admin.
D - Maxime Leconte - UQAM - 3 - Montreal, Que. - Administration
D - Sandro Rajkovic - Cape Breton - 5 - Hamilton, Ont. - Business Admin.
M - Raheem Rose - Ryerson - 2 - Etobicoke, Ont. - Geographic Analysis
M - James Louis-Jeune - UQAM - 4 - Saint-Léonard, Que. - Administration
M - Guillaume Comtois-Noël - UQTR - 3 - Montreal, Que. - Administration
M - Jonathan Lao - York - 3 - Unionville, Ont. - Liberal Arts
S - Justin Maheu - Cape Breton - 3 - Ottawa, Ont. - Business Admin.
S - Cam Hundal - Victoria - 5 - Terrace, B.C. - Education
S - Leighton Speechley-Price - Windsor - 3 - Lymington, England - Business
Second Team
GK - Valentin Lamoulie - UQAM - 1 - Aix-en-Provence, France - Open Studies
D - Lukas MacNaughton - Toronto - 3 - Brussels, Belgium - Architecture
D - Niko Saler - Alberta - 4 - Lethbridge, Alta. - Physical Ed. & Rec.
D - Tyrone Downes - York - 4 - Markham, Ont. - Kin. & Health Science
D - Alexandre Haddad - Montreal - 5 - Montreal, Que. - Administration
M - Charles Arsenault - Laval - 4 - Bonaventure, Que. - Business Admin.
M - Marcus Lees - UNB - 3 - Barrie, Ont. - Kinesiology
M - Martin Dabrowski - Ryerson - 5 - Barrie, Ont. - Business Admin.
S - Gagandeep Dosanjh - UBC - 5 - Abbotsford, B.C. - Kinesiology
S - Bezick Evraire - Dalhousie - 5 - Ottawa, Ont. - Arts
S - Dominic Russo - Calgary - 4 - Calgary, Alta. - Arts/Business
For the complete CIS release, please click here.
Source: CIS Communications