Harry Bernat – Captain of the Year
At the start of the 2010 season, Tom Smith did a great job communicating what it takes to be a good captain. To increase awareness and to reward captains, he established an annual award named after ACTA’s founder: The Jerry Graf Captain of the Year Award.
Criteria for winning the award consists of activities and actions that all captains should do to make ACTA a great doubles league. This includes no defaults; playing all your players; good sportsmanship; setting up practices and making other tangible efforts to enhance your team identity.
Harry Bernat, this year’s winner pictured above with Tom, is a great example of all that is good with ACTA. Harry has been a captain for about 16 years and knew Jerry Graf from the start in 1989. His teams, the Destroyers, have had tremendous success, notably as C league champions for 5 consecutive years. They are consistently playoff contenders. His players appreciate his organizational skills as well as his personal touch which includes an awards banquet at the end of each season. Well deserved Harry!
Other award winners include Patrick Brick for topping the COED Ladder. Elianna Pint won top honors for women while beating mostly men! Trevor Chan picked most improved on the COED ladder. Over the past two years, Trevor catapulted in the standings from the fifties to the top ten. This was no easy task.
Most matches went to our own iron man Kirk Leach. Kirk played a whopping 44 matches in the season. Finally, the first eco ladder challenge winner was Hunter Smith. Clarendon’s EMS manager Jamie was appreciative of ACTA’s effort to increase awareness on reusable water containers and biking to matches. To help increase next year’s scores, he donated a case of water bottles which were distributed at the meeting.
The event was attended by over 50 members and all courts was occupied through midnight. Congratulations to all winners!
Conmgratulations to Harry Bernat and all of the other winners from 2010. Let’s keep in going during the 2011 season.