The University of Winnipeg along with the
Canadian Interuniversity Sport Association (CIS) is pleased to announce
that men’s basketball star Matt Opalko has been named the CIS recipient
of the Ken Shields Award and fellow fifth year star Erfan Nasajpour has
been named a Second Team All-Canadian at the CIS Men’s Basketball
Championship banquet held this evening in Ottawa, Ontario.
Opalko, is the first member of the Wesmen to receive the Ken Shields Award since its inception in 1993-94. The Ken Shields award is presented to reward excellence in the student-athlete. The recipient exhibits outstanding achievement in three areas: basketball, academics and community involvement from the Winnipeg Wesmen. The six-foot-six post was second on the team in both scoring (13.9 ppg) and field goal percentage (47.7) in his fifth and final varsity season. Opalko, a four-time Academic all-Canadian has made an ongoing contribution in many areas of the community, as Habitat for Humanity committee member, Boys & Girls Clubs of Winnipeg Volunteer, an “I Love to Read” month volunteer where Opal visited local schools to read and encourage literacy, and spoke about sportsmanship and fair play. He is a student-teacher at Valley Gardens Middle School, where he coaches Grade 6 basketball and teaches social studies and physical education in Grades 6 to 8. He was also involved with the outreach program in the Athletes Village at the World University Games in Thailand last year, and has been involved with many other events in recent years.” It is great to see Matt named as the CIS winner of the Ken Shields Award. He has been a big part of our program, a leader on and off the court and he highly deserves this recognition as a true student-athlete,” said Wesmen head coach Dave Crook.
Nasajpour, a fifth year guard and team captain was the Canada West conference scoring leader with 22.5 points per game, placed third in the Canada West in assists with 4.72 assists per game and was solid on the defensive side of the ball leading the CIS in steals with 3.17 steals per game. He was recently named a Canada West First Team All-Star. The dynamic 5’8” guard averaged 6.0 rebounds per game, and was the fifth best free-throw shooter in the conference. Nasajpour scored a Canada West season high 41 points against Victoria (November 17, 2007). He was named a Wesmen Classic All-Star at the 41st Wesmen Classic. Nasajpour ends his university level basketball as the sixth highest scorer all-time in the Canada West conference with 1856 points. He was named the University of Winnipeg Male Athlete of the Month three times during the 2007-08 season (October, December 2007, January 2008) and was named University of Winnipeg Male Athlete of the Week on three occasions this past season. Nasajpour was recently named a finalist for the Manitoba Male Athlete of the Year. Nasajpour, was named a second team All-Canadian in 2006-07 and was also named a Canada West First Team All-Star in 2004-05 and 2006-07 and a Canada West Second Team All-Star in 2005-06. He was also named the Canada West Rookie of the Year in 2002-03.
For more information...
Sheldon Appelle
Sports Information Coordinator
University of Winnipeg
(204)-786-9823 Office
(204)-795-0720 Cell
(204)-783-7866 Fax
s.appelle@uwinnipeg.ca
