Therapist Sarah Ditmars (Photo by Amy Deroche / OJHL Images)
The Ontario Junior Hockey League announced that Sarah Ditmars of the Trenton Golden Hawks has been named the 2016-17 recipient of the OJHL Trainer-of-the-Year Award.
Wrapping up her fourth season with the Golden Hawks organization, Sarah Ditmars is the epitome of a professional in her profession, juggling her role with the club along with numerous other extracurricular endeavours. Previously named runner-up for the award in both 2014-15 and 2015-16, Ditmars becomes the first female to win the award that was first presented in 2011-12.
Graduating from Brock University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Kinesiology and in 2013 with her Master of Arts Applied Health Science, Ditmars immediately joined the team that summer. During her six years at Brock, she would work for numerous teams and events both on-and-off campus, including men’s and women’s rugby, cross country, cheerleading, basketball and of course hockey. Her final two years from 2011-13 were spent as the student therapist for the Brock University Badgers women’s hockey team prior to returning home to join the Golden Hawks. Ditmars would be named the recipient of the Tom Kearney Athletic Therapy Award at Brock in 2012-13.
Since joining Trenton in August of 2013, Ditmars has integrated herself into the team and community in many different aspects. Since 2014, she has been one of the organizers, as well as the dryland instructor, for the Trenton Golden Hawks Hockey School, assisted with many of the club’s charitable initiatives, and most recently she became the co-director of the organizing committee for the 2017 Dudley-Hewitt Cup, which will be hosted by the Hawks from May 2-6, 2017.
Along with being named back-to-back runner-up for this award, Ditmars would be named the therapist for Team OJHL Coffey that fell to the eventual champion QJHL in the 2015 Eastern Canada Cup All-Star Challenge held in Cornwall, Ontario and was the Head of Medical Services for the Team Canada West versus Team Russia exhibition game for the 2015 World Junior ‘A’ Challenge that was held in Trenton. During her tenure, the Hawks have won three consecutive East Division titles, as well as back-to-back North-East Conference regular season championships, and she was part of the club’s 2015-16 OJHL and Dudley-Hewitt Cup victories, including a trip to the 2016 RBC Cup, National Junior ‘A’ Championship that was held in Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan.
The native of Batawa, Ontario started-up Sarah Ditmars Sports Performance in May of 2014 and has been assisting local athletes ever since in their pursuit of excellence.
The OJHL Trainer-of-the-Year Award is awarded to the trainer, therapist or equipment manager that is adjudged to be the best at his profession for his/her member club throughout the course of the regular season, while past experience and time served will be taken into consideration.
