University of the Fraser Valley Brings Home Canada West Sports Information Awards

Posted on by

Another year, and more success for the UFV Cascades and their sports communications department. UFV brought home two awards in this year’s edition: Photo of the Year and Feature Story of the Year.

The former was won by Tanner Geringer for his capture of Manpal Brar and his teammates celebrating after Brar scored his second of the game against his former team, UBC.

The latter would go to Dan Kinvig after he penned “The Luyken Legacy”, a moving article about dynamic Cascades father daughter duo, Aieisha and Anthony Luyken. Anthony was an assistant coach and Aieisha a star player that left their mark on the basketball program at UFV, and that mark lasts to this day.

Kinvig, the Cacades’ Communications Coordinator, has written plenty of articles in his time as a storyteller but this one simply required more attention.

“I ended up spending probably the better part of a month kinda picking away at this article and just giving it the attention and time it deserved. And in the end it ended up being about a 3500 word sort of magazine style feature piece. Just trying to elevate and highlight the incredible selflessness and really cool attitude that they bring to the game of basketball and just giving back to the community and using basketball as an avenue to do that” – Dan Kinvig

While Anthony has since retired from the Cascades coaching staff, Aieisha remains a part of the very group her father helped helm when she played. She is an incredible resource for the Cascades players, using her experience and intuition for the game to help the next generation find success.

Sometimes a simple conversation can create something powerful, and Kinvig recalls exactly that when reaching out to chat about their story.

“In 2021 I ended up setting up a zoom call and interviewing the two of them, and I was kind of originally envisioning an 800-1000 word feature story detailing their involvement with the program but we ended up talking for two hours. We just had this incredible conversation, I just came away really, really just blown away by just the humility and selfless attitude that they brough to their involvement with the game of basketball.” – Dan Kinvig

Since the inception of the Canada West Sports Information Awards, UFV has taken home at least one of the awards every single year. The other awards this year were both won by the UNBC Timberwolves, taking home Video of the Year and Social Media Campaign of the Year.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *