Abbey Vogt:
Sport – Soccer, track and field
School – Burnaby South

Olivia Bortolazzo:
Sport – Gymnastics.
School – St. Thomas More

Robert Couzens:
Sport – Boxing.
School – Burnaby North

Reynaldo Morales:
Sport – Football.
School – St. Thomas More

That earned them a spot in the U18 national championship in Sydney, N.S., with most of the Royals actually eligible as U17s. They made the year complete by defeating the Woodridge (Ont.), Strikers who had previously captured U14 (2001) and U16 (2003) national titles and laden with 18 year-olds, 2-1. Liam Miller scored the winning goal on a volley from 16 yards out in injury time. When it was over, the organizing committee stated the BC team, which won the Canadian U14 title in 2002, was the best club team they had seen in the last thirty years.

Manny Sobral founded the North Burnaby Boxing Club with a partner in March 2004. The club, which at first was based at the old Burnaby Heights Junior High School at Willingdon Avenue and Albert Street before moving to Revs Bowling near the Holdom SkyTrain station, went on to grow to 125 members.

Its pugilists won more than 20 championships including bronze, silver and golden gloves, Alberta golden gloves, Tacoma golden gloves, BC Provincial Championships and Canadian National Championships. One of his boxers was Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame scholarship recipient Robert Couzens, a three-time national champion.

The club closed in March 2020 when Covid-19 restrictions were implemented and has not reopened.

Sobral was the recipient of the Harold Mann Award for lifetime achievement for his contribution to boxing in British Columbia.

Sobral also taught in the Burnaby school system, and in 2007 was named BC’s boxing coach of the year.

His background in coaching comes from experience. He was a three-time Canadian amateur champion, competed at the 1988 Olympics and as a professional, compiled a 29 win, two-loss record as a Canadian super welterweight and IBO world super weight championship.

Frank Palmieri has been a volunteer soccer coach in Burnaby since 1979 when he started coaching with Cliff Avenue United. He also served on the Burnaby District Soccer Association for 15 years, five of those as chair.

At the time of his induction, Palmieri’s teams had won nine coastal and provincials cups and national championships. Palmieri has spent countless hours donating his time and effort to benefit the community and in particular the sport he loves, soccer. He has received many awards for his contributions including recognition from the BC Soccer Association and the Burnaby District Soccer Association.

Lynn Mason was a founding family member of the Burnaby Winter Club. In 2009, he was inducted as an honorary member for his many contributions. An accomplished curler, he played a major part in organizing senior hockey at the club, including one of the most amazing tournaments in the world… a tournament for players 75 years and older, first held in 2009.

Organizing this kind of tournament was nothing new to Mason who had been doing that sort of thing since the early 1960s. The beginning of senior hockey has grown throughout the province and Lynn Mason played a major role in it.

Alex McKechnie’s our gain and Scotland’s loss. After the Glasgow native graduated from Leeds School of Physiotherapy, England in 1974, Alex migrated to Vancouver and to SFU where he accepted the position of head physiotherapist for the varsity athletic program. It was at SFU that he cut his teeth in sports medicine overseeing all the school’s sports team.

After four years at SFU, he opened a private practice in Burnaby and the beat went on. He became a consultant to the Vancouver Canucks, physio to various soccer clubs at the national level and Burnaby lacrosse teams. McKechnie treated weekend warriors and sporting stars alike, the latter including American tennis legend Jimmy Connors, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria, Hockey Hall of Famer Paul Kariya, Canadian national team goaltender Craig Forrest and former Canadian/English soccer player Owen Hargreaves.

McKechnie became the team physiotherapist for the Vancouver Whitecaps of the North American Soccer League and then later with the Vancouver 86ers. He was team physiotherapist for the 1976 Canadian Olympic soccer team and the CONCACAF Gold Cup Champions in 2000.

His reputation grew to the point where he caught the attention of NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal in the late 1990s. His work with Shaq led to being hired by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000. He was there for 11 seasons during which LA won five NBA championships. In 2011, McKechnie joined the Toronto Raptors as its director of sports science. His rehab techniques, particularly in determining ‘load management’ for the team’s star, Kawhi Leonard, played a large part in helping the Raptors with the 2019 NBA championship.

McKechnie was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2018. In 2026, he was placed on the list of nominees for possible selection to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

How about this for a record: 80 wins, 13 losses? That’s what Des Archer did in the boxing ring. 

Coached by another Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame member, the late Harry Twist, Archer began boxing at age 13 across from the old Burnaby Oak Theatre. He would go on to win Diamond Boy, provincial bronze and silver, and Golden Gloves titles both here and throughout the Pacific Northwest. In 1953, he won his weight class at the Canadian championships.

Following in the footsteps of his mentor, Archer joined the RCMP in 1953 but continued to box on amateur cards and continued to win titles as well as coach. He retired from both in 1964. He died in June 2020. He was 86.