Cleve Dheensaw, who has covered sports for the Times Colonist since 1981, received a national honour — the Fred Sgambati Media Award — Wednesday in Toronto.
Dheensaw is the first Victoria reporter since 1975 to win the award, which recognizes coverage of Canadian university athletics, branded as U Sports.
“From the field to the court to the water or the track, Cleve is sports reporting in the city of Victoria,” said Ali Lee, communications officer for the UVic Vikes and a former Canadian international athlete.
“He is like a human encyclopedia of Canadian sports history.”
Dheensaw has covered nine Olympic, Commonwealth and Pan-Am Games. He has covered high school, college and university sports, such as Victoria’s most recent national championship events, the 2016 women’s rugby and 2017 women’s basketball U Sports championships.
In May, Dheensaw — a graduate of the University of Victoria and a Vancouver Island native — was awarded the 2016-17 Fred “Gus” Collins Award for his coverage of Canada West sports.
“I was fortunate my reporting career at the Times Colonist coincided with the start of a blockbuster run for UVic sports,” said Dheensaw.
“It was a golden era that included basketball players like Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski, Kelly Dukeshire and Karla Karch creating a basketball dynasty at McKinnon Gym and UVic rowers like Silken Laumann and Olympic gold-medallists Dean Crawford, Grant Main, Kevin Neufeld, John Wallace, Derek Porter, Kirsten Barnes on Elk Lake.
“Then I would take my notebook to the UVic fields and watch Vikes rugby players like Gareth Rees and Mark Wyatt go on to captain Canada in World Cups and field-hockey players like Nancy Charlton, Lynne Beecroft and Milena Gaiga go on to play in the Olympics.”
Dave Obee, editor-in-chief of the Times Colonist, said the award is a reflection of the high quality of Dheensaw’s work.
“He is also one of the most prolific writers at this newspaper.”
Brian Drewry, sports editor of the Times Colonist, said Dheensaw understands the importance of varsity sports at UVic, and what the school means to the community and the province. “His coverage of the Vikes, whether it be basketball, soccer, field hockey or track and field, is always thorough and entertaining for our readers.”
Dheensaw is the second Island sports reporter to win the Sgambati award.
Jim Crerar of the Victoria Daily Times won it in 1975.
The award is named for Fred Sgambati, who as a reporter and broadcaster was a great supporter of university athletics in Canada. A former University of Toronto athlete and a football official, Sgambati was the radio voice of the College Bowl (now the Vanier Cup) for its first 13 years.
