The Sarnia-Lambton Sports Hall of Fame has announced its class of 2025.
Nine individuals and a team will be inducted this fall.
They include figure skater Michael Marinaro, who is being given the Jack Isom Award for athletes who have excelled in international competitions.
Along with Kirsten Moore-Towers, Marinaro was a highly decorated athlete from 2014 to 2022, winning three national titles, along with two Four Continents medals.
The pair also won medals in both the Grand Prix and Challenger series, including gold at the 2019 Nebelhorn Trophy and the 2017 U.S. International Classic.
The pair also represented Canada at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics.
With former partner Margaret Purdy, Marinaro was the 2013 World Junior silver medalist and the 2010 Canadian junior champion.
A full list of recipients can be found below:
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Professional Athlete:
Hockey star Dustin Jeffrey and golfer Chris Dickson are winners in this category.
Jeffrey played 131 National Hockey League games with Pittsburgh, Dallas and Arizona, scoring 18 goals and 15 assists for 33 points. Counting his time in the American Hockey League and European loops he played 785 professional games, scoring 209 goals and 408 assists.
Jeffrey, who grew up in Courtright, was a member of the 2009 Pittsburgh team that won the Stanley Cup. He also played with an AHL champion and a Swiss Cup winner. On top of that, he helped Team Canada win a pair of Spangler Cups.
He joins his father, Neil Jeffrey, and grandfather, Stuart Jeffrey in the Hall. Both of those individuals were members of teams that were inducted in earlier decades.
Chris Dickson was a touring golf pro for eight years, from 2001 to 2009, during which time he won eight events. He also holds two course records while playing the PGA tour.
From there he went on to coaching where he helped the University of Western Ontario Women's golf program to numerous team and individual titles. In 2012 he won the Canadian Golf Coach of the Year award.
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Amateur Athlete (Matt Cimetta):
Cimetta, a gifted hockey offensive defenceman, won numerous trophies in Ontario and Michigan minor campaigns on his way through the ranks.
In 2011 he was the OHL Cup leading scorer among rearguards.
As a member of the Sarnia Legionnaires Jr. 'B' club he was named the Western conference most outstanding first year blueliner and Legionnaires rookie of the year.
Still more honours followed, including Legionnaires top scoring defenceman and most dedicated player.
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Special Achievement (Ross Helps):
This award is for a person who over a number of years has made significant contributions to sports in such fields as media, coaching, training or as an official.
Helps worked as a volunteer for the Mooretown Juvenile Silver Stick Tournament for 41 consecutive years. He also helped out with Sarnia Silver Stick events as well.
On top of that, Helps managed minor hockey teams, volunteered as an off ice official for the Sarnia Sting and coached minor baseball.
He was also involved in the startup of the Moore Gymnastics Club and was a volunteer announcer at Sarnia Highland Games dancing competitions.
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Earl MacKenzie Award (Pete Kaija):
The Earl MacKenzie Award is for people involved in sports for at least 30 years.
Kaija was a head basketball coach for both boys and girls St. Clair Secondary School teams for more than three decades, winning many championships.
He was also an assistant basketball coach at Northern Collegiate and a women's head coach at Lambton College.
In 2021 he won the Pete Beach Award, which is for teacher/coaches who are a source of discipline, a mentor and a friend to student athletes.
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Bud Morrison Award (Joe Birch):
This award recognizes people who have made significant contributions to young people in their sporting endeavors.
Birch joined the Ontario Hockey League head office in 2006 where he worked in marketing and communications, brokered contracts, dealt with players and parents, developed fan growth and led the league's scholarship program, among other things. Later, he became a certified player agent.
He was twice named by the Hockey News as one of the top 100 people of power and influence in the sport.
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Builder (Lisa Bennett):
Bennett has won this award for her 45 year years of volleyball involvement.
She is perhaps best known for her coaching of both elementary and high school students. She was also involved with college volleyball.
On top of that, she has been heavily involved in curling.
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Team (1993 St. Pat's Fighting Irish Senior Football Team):
The team became the first non-Toronto area high school club to win the prestigious Metro Bowl.
The Irish were only invited to the event after a meningitis scare forced some Toronto schools out of the tourney.
St. Pat's, which was considered a heavy underdog going in, defeated Peterborough Crestwood 20-6 in the quarterfinal, upended defending champion Scarborough West Hill 29-12 in the semi-final and beat perennial powerhouse St. Michael's 20-6 in the final.
This historic victory was made all the more remarkable because a teachers' strike had forced the cancellation of the Lambton Secondary Schools Athletic Association's football season that fall.
The Irish kept practicing five days a week in the hopes that the strike would end and were rewarded with an unexpected chance to play in the Metro Bowl.
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The enshrinement dinner will be held October 18 at the Dante Club.
Tickets are available from any of the hall's board of directors or by calling President Pete Coenjarts at 519-542-4095.