CANADA WEST HONORS MBB PLAYERS NASAJPOUR AND OPALKO
Tuesday, February 26, 2007- The University of Winnipeg and the Canada West Universities Athletic Association would like to announce that men’s basketball star Erfan Nasajpour has been named to the Canada West Men’s Basketball First All-Star Team and fellow fifth year player Matt Opalko has been named the Canada West nominee for the Ken Shields Award.
Nasajpour, a fifth year guard and team captain was the Canada West conference scoring leader with 22.5 points per game, placed third in the Canada West in assists with 4.72 assists per game and was solid on the defensive side of the ball leading the CIS in steals with 3.17 steals per game. The dynamic 5’8” guard averaged 6.0 rebounds per game, and was the fifth best free-throw shooter in the conference. Nasajpour scored a Canada West season high 41 points against Victoria (November 17, 2007). He was named a Wesmen Classic All-Star at the 41st Wesmen Classic. Nasajpour ends his university level basketball as the sixth highest scorer all-time in the Canada West conference with 1856 points. He was named the University of Winnipeg Male Athlete of the Month three times during the 2007-08 season (October, December 2007, January 2008) and was named University of Winnipeg Male Athlete of the Week on three occasions this past season. Nasajpour was recently named a finalist for the Manitoba Male Athlete of the Year. Nasajpour, was named a second team All-Canadian in 2006-07 and was also named a Canada West First Team All-Star in 2006-07 and 2004-05 and a Canada West Second Team All-Star in 2005-06.
Matt Opalko, recently completed his fifth and final season with the Winnipeg Wesmen is the Canada West conference nominee for the Ken Shields Award. The Ken Shields Award is presented to reward excellence in the student-athlete. The recipient exhibits outstanding achievement in three areas: basketball, academics and community involvement from the Winnipeg Wesmen. Opalko, a four-time Academic all-Canadian has made an ongoing contribution in many areas of the community, as Habitat for Humanity committee member, Boys & Girls Clubs of Winnipeg Volunteer, an “I Love to Read” month volunteer where Opal visited local schools to read and encourage literacy, and spoke about sportsmanship and fair play. He is a student-teacher at Valley Gardens Middle School, where he coaches Grade 6 basketball and teaches social studies and physical education in Grades 6 to 8. He was also involved with the outreach program in the Athletes Village at the World University Games in Thailand last year, and has been involved with many other events in recent years.” It is great to see Matt named as the Canada West nominee for the Ken Shields award. He has been a big part of our program, a leader on and off the court and he highly deserves this recognition as a true student-athlete,” said Wes men head coach Dave Crook.