Former Viper Ullrich Named 2009-10 Male Athlete Of The Year:

This is posted on the ACAC Website:

Trojans’ Ullrich skates into the spotlight as ACAC’s 2009-10 male athlete of the year

Mike Ullrich now has the much-deserved trophy trifecta.

Ullrich, the second-year forward with the SAIT Trojans men’s hockey team, had already won the 2009-10 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference scoring race on Feb. 14, and helped to hoist the provincial championship hardware on March 21 when the Trojans downed the Concordia Thunder in the fifth and deciding game of the ACAC’s championship series.

Now comes news that Ullrich is the ACAC’s overall male athlete of the year for the 2009-10 season. The hospitality management student from Banff, Alta., was honoured with that distinction on Wednesday.

“Mike is well-deserving of the award,” says longtime Trojans head coach Ken Babey. “Mike is an impact player in the league. He has a strong skill set, but is also one of the hardest working players I’ve seen here, and in the ACAC.”

Ullrich, who was also the ACAC’s player of the year in men’s hockey, nabbed the conference’s overall male athlete award ahead of NAIT’s Joey Vandervet (badminton), Mount Royal University’s Brett Kobe (basketball), Lethbridge College’s Willy Kimosop (cross-country running), Lakeland College’s Neil Bratrund (curling), MRU’s Phil Kondrak (golf), MRU’s Kyle Yamada (soccer), and Red Deer College’s Mitch Irvine (volleyball).

Ullrich was also part of a SAIT sweep on Wednesday, as shooting guard Kim Lee of the Trojans women’s basketball team was named the ACAC’s overall female athlete for 2009-10.

After posting 47 points and finishing five back of MRU’s Josh Zimmer for top spot overall in 2008-09, Ullrich cranked it up another notch this season, topping the ACAC in production with 53 points, including 17 goals, in 28 regular-season games, while incurring just eight minutes in penalties.

Ullrich, who’d played his junior hockey with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes and the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers, also added four goals and nine points in eight playoff games as the Trojans won their fourth consecutive ACAC title.

The NAIT Ooks of 1983 through ’87 had previously been the only team able to make such a claim.

A first-team ACAC all-star this season, Ullrich also went the extra mile in the classroom, maintaining a grade-point average above 3.0.

“Mike is an excellent student and a model citizen,” says Babey, who’s now coached the Trojan men’s hockey squad for 23 years. “He was one of the top players in playoff scoring, and played well defensively.

“He took a beating all year long (on the ice), and kept on going. I respect him for the pounding he took.”

The 2009-10 season was the most successful in SAIT Trojans history, with five teams winning ACAC medals (gold in men’s hockey, gold in women’s basketball, gold in men’s volleyball, silver in men’s soccer, and bronze in men’s basketball) and two of those squads going on to earn Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) medals at the national level (silver in men’s basketball, silver in men’s volleyball).