For the second straight year, Dauphin’s Julien Lopez was named Junior Male Athlete of the Year by Rugby Manitoba.

Lopez was just as surprised and grateful this time around as he was last year.

“It’s always an honour to win that,” he said.

Winning the award means a lot to Lopez, who noted rugby is a growing community in the province.

“So it’s cool to win that and, hopefully, it will push other kids to try and win that, as well,” he said.

Lopez recently played for the British Columbia-based MacDowell Rugby Academy at the Global Youth 7s in Auckland, New Zealand.

Lopez said the tournament went pretty well, though he ended up with an injury.

“I still learned a lot with that team as the coaches know what they’re doing and everyone there just helps each other,” he said.

Lopez feels his game has significantly improved over the course of the past year.

“Not just the body growing part, but the smarts, as well. After playing with so many good athletes, you just pick up their skills along the way,” he said, adding he hopes to play college rugby in Victoria.

Lopez thanks all of the teammates he has had and is looking forward to his final year of high school rugby with the Dauphin Clippers.

The Dauphin Lady Mavericks were the recipients of the 2025 Dave Barnes Spirit of the Game Award.

Awarded annually by the Manitoba Association of Rugby Referees, this award recognizes the commitment to the values of rugby and fair play both on and off the pitch.

Cassandra Kostelnyk, who spearheaded the return of the Lady Mavericks learned of the award in early December.

“I was surprised. Not because I didn’t think we deserved the award by any means, but because we played the least amount of games of any league in Manitoba, between women’s, men’s first and men’s second divisions,” she said.

Noting it was voted on by the referees, Kostelnyk felt that made winning the award pretty special.

“And showed how we worked together well as a team on the field. For us to have only played five games and the refs picked us out of everybody,” she said.

The award will boost the team’s confidence as they prepare for next season.

“All of the girls were super, super excited that we won this award,” Kostelnyk.

“It’s going to give us good momentum for years going forward.”