Golden Hawks receive two national football awards

WLU Golden Hawks quarterback Taylor Elgersma at a team practice on Sept. 18, 2024. (Colton Wiens/CTV News)

Ahead of Saturday’s national championship for university football, two Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks received major awards at the U Sports Vanier Cup gala on Thursday night.

Quarterback Taylor Elgersma won the Hec Crighton Trophy as the Most Outstanding Player in U SPORTS football. Elgersma is the first back-to-back Ontario University Athletics MVP in Laurier program history. This season, he led the team to its first undefeated season in 19 years. It was also the eighth time Laurier has ever gone undefeated in the season.

Elgersma is a fourth-year kinesiology and physical education major from London. He is also the second Golden Hawk to win the Hec Creighton Award after Bill Kubas won it 30 years ago.

Head Coach Michael Faulds was also honoured Thursday night. Faulds received the Frank Tindall Trophy, for the U Sports football Coach of the Year.

Since taking the helm as head coach in 2013, Faulds has become the third ranked all-time winning coach in the program’s history, with 62 wins. He is also the first Laurier head coach since Gary Jeffries to win back-to-back OUA Coach of the Year awards

Laurier takes on Laval in the Vanier Cup on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Kingston.