Annie Lloyd’s list of achievements and awards is a long one, but being named Orillia’s 2018 Athlete of the Year is one of a kind.
“It’s a special one just because it’s my hometown and I’m being recognized where it all started,” said Lloyd, 19, a lacrosse player who picked up the Athlete of the Year trophy Monday night at city hall. “It’s unique and different.”
Lloyd was up against multi-sport athlete Teddy McCollum-Kuntz, Orillia Cricket Club athlete Hemant Patel and rower and water skier Bob Wink.
“I wasn’t expecting (to win),” Lloyd said. “The competition was good. We’re all competing in different things at different levels.”
Lloyd has left her mark on the sport of lacrosse. She was co-captain of the winning Team Ontario at last year’s National Women’s Field Lacrosse championship. As a member of Queen’s University’s women’s lacrosse team, she also won the Ontario University Athletics championship and was named Ontario University Athletics Offensive Player of the Year.
She will continue to play lacrosse for Queen’s and has been named team captain for the next season.
Going pro isn’t necessarily the goal for Lloyd when she graduates. She wants to continue coaching young athletes in the Orillia Lady Kings program — which she will again do this spring and summer — and, in the meantime, help build the sport’s profile in Kingston.
She is passionate about coaching, as she “had some amazing coaches in lacrosse growing up.”
She said it was an honour to be nominated for Athlete of the Year by Mark Obee, a trainer with the Orillia Lady Kings program.
“It’s really nice for him to recognize me in this way,” she said.
All of this year’s nominees “have shown dedication, leadership, self-sacrifice and character,” said Chris Gammon, the city’s sport program supervisor.
Lloyd is the 59th winner of the Orillia Athlete of the Year award.
