For the final time in his career, basketball sensation Rayvon Higdon, was recognized for his efforts on the court as a member of the Redeemer Royals. 
 
Higdon was named the Redeemer Royals Male Athlete of the Year on Friday night at the 2017-18 Redeemer Royals Athletic Reception and Ceremony. The ceremony was held at the Holiday Inn in Burlington. Receiving his second nod as Male Athlete of the Year (2016-17-2017-18), Ray now ends his career at Redeemer as the greatest basketball player in program history and arguably Redeemer's greatest league sport athlete of all-time.
 
In his final year, Higdon led the Royals to a 19-1 record before bowing out in the playoffs in the Championship semi-finals. He finishes his career as a 3x OCAA All-Star, 2x OCAA Player of the Year, and 3x CCAA All-Canadian. Ray also broke Redeemer's career scoring record despite playing just 3 seasons for the red and white.
 
Joining Higdon with top honours was Women's Basketball star Jessica Bosma. Bosma took home this years Female Athlete of the Year award.
 
After her best season on record, Bosma led the Royals to the first round of the OCAA Playoffs. She finished as the OCAA West Division Scoring Champion with 19.1 ppg. She also ranked 4^th in the OCAA in rebounds with 10.9, averaging a double-double this season.
 
Bosma was named an OCAA 2^nd-team All-star and was Redeemer's Women's Basketball Most Valuable Player.
 
As one of the top performers in the classroom as well as on the court, Bosma was named a CCAA Academic All-Canadian, the CCAA's most prestigious student-athlete honour.

Past volleyball standout David Klomps was inducted into the Royal Road to Victory (Redeemer Hall of Fame) for his incredible career at Redeemer. Klomps played from 2010-2014 for the Royals and won multiple all-star awards, was a 2x medalist, a CCAA Academic All-Canadian, and Redeemer Athlete of the Year. David led the Royals to one of their best seasons ever, earning a #2 National Ranking and finishing the season 14-4. 

Former Head Coach Wayne Harris shared a few words about Klomps before David addressed the crowd and accepted his Hall of Fame award. 
 
Redeemer also handed out a number of other top awards Friday night including the Male and Female Scholar Athletes of the Year, the Outstanding Character Award, and the Overall Rookie of the Year honour.
 
Graduating athletes Rachel Hoekstra (Cross Country) and Eli Tolkamp (Men's Volleyball) were named the Female and Male Scholar Athletes of the Year. The award recognizes Redeemer athletes who have had great seasons as an athlete as well as in the classroom. Hoekstra was Redeemer's top women's runner in 2017-18 while Tolkamp helped led the Royals to an OCAA Bronze medal as a libero. Tolkamp broke the OCAA record for career digs in this final season.
 
Maurice Brown took home the Outstanding Character award for his time spent with Liberty for Youth (an at-risk youth program in Hamilton) as well as his dedication to working with the boys and girls clubs at the YMCA.
 
After being named the Men's Basketball Rookie of the Year, Elijah Lostracco took home Overall Rookie of the Year. Lostracco had an impressive season for the Royals in his first year including a career high 30 points in the OCAA Championship Semi-final, and being named to the OCAA All-Rookie team.
 
As well as the awards handed out to the top individual athletic performers, in total, 36 Redeemer athletes received awards celebrating their academic achievements while playing a sport at Redeemer. 31 athletes were named OCAA All-Academic award winners, 3 athletes (Jeremy Petrusma, Jessica Bosma, Pearson Stiller) were named CCAA Academic All-Canadians, and 2 athletes, mentioned above, were named the Scholar Athletes of the Year.
 
In his final season behind the bench of Redeemer's Badminton team, head coach Benno Kurvits received Redeemer's Coaching Excellence Award for his career success with the program. Benno put Redeemer badminton on the map both in Ontario and in the Country. He was well respected and had the success to back it up, winning 7 medals in 7 years. One of the major highlights from his career was coaching his son, Owen Kurvits, en-route to Redeemer's first ever National Championship. 
 
At Friday's event, Redeemer also launched a new online historical timeline on their website. Many past athletes were in attendance to celebrate including members of the 1988 Women's Volleyball Gold medal team (30 year anniversary), the 2008 Men's Indoor Soccer Gold medal team (10 year anniversary), Hall of Fame members, OCAA Career Record breakers Curtiss Straatsma and Jesseca Brown, 2010 CCAA Coach of the Year Wayne Harris, and 2015 National Champion Owen Kurvits.
 
The full list of awards presented at the 2017-18 Athletic Awards Ceremony are below.
 
Women's Soccer
Rookie of the Year – Julia DeWeerd
Most Valuable Player – Serena Dejong
 
Men's Soccer
Rookie of the Year – Joshua Sloots
Most Valuable Player- Daniel Grootenber
 
Cross Country
Rookie of the Year – Rebecca Kooy
Most Valuable Player – Rachel Hoekstra
 
Badminton
Rookie of the Year – Sam Hong/Jay Min
Most Valuable Player – Ryan Phan
 
Women's Volleyball
Rookie of the Year – Abby Sluys
Most Valuable Player – Rebekah Nash
 
Men's Volleyball
Rookie of the Year – Daniel Wolfert
Most Valuable Player – Linden Bontkes
 
Women's Basketball
Rookie of the Year – Shania Graham
Most Valuable Player – Jessica Bosma
 
Men's Basketball
Rookie of the Year – Elijah Lostracco
Most Valuable Player – Rayvon Higdon
 
Women's Indoor Soccer
Rookie of the Year – Rebecca Kooy
Most Valuable Player – Serena Dejong
 
Men's Indoor Soccer
Rookie of the Year – Jonathan de Kat
Most Valuable Player – Matthew Shonemaker
 
OCAA All-Academic Honours
Cassie Heidbuurt
Catherine Gallagher
Daniel Wolfert
Enzo Guerra
Erin Lowen
Hailey Stulp
Jenna Noordstra
Jeremy Petrusma
Jessica Banninga
Jessica Bosma
Joel de Wit
Joelle Tuininga
Jonathan Thiessen
Joshua Sloots
Kristina Renwick
Kyle Maerz
Lauren Tamming
Maurice Brown
Mitchell Harris
Monika Couperus
Nicole DeRaaf
Pearson Stiller
Rachel Hoekstra
Rebecca Powell
Rebekah Oosterhof
Reuben Middel
Serena Dejong
Wes Schilstra
Zacc Burke
Zach Kingma
Zach Angus 

CCAA Academic All-Canadians
Jeremy Petrusma – Men's Soccer
Jessica Bosma – Women's Basketball
Pearson Stiller – Men's Volleyball
 
Redeemer Coaching Excellence Award
Benno Kurvits - Badminton
 
Overall Rookie of the Year
Elijah Lostracco – Men's Basketball
 
Scholar Athletes of the Year
Rachel Hoekstra – Cross Country
Eli Tolkamp – Men's Volleyball
 
Outstanding Character Award
Maurice Brown – Men's Basketball
 
Athletes of the Year
Jessica Bosma – Women's Basketball
Rayvon Higdon – Men's Basketball