By: OttawaREDBLACKS.com
WINNIPEG – In what turned into an incredible night for Ottawa in the Canadian Football League, five trophies were presented to representatives of the Ottawa REDBLACKS at the 2015 CFL Awards, which were held at the Club Regent Event Centre.
Quarterback Henry Burris led the way, named the league’s Most Outstanding Player and also the recipient of the Tom Pate Memorial Award.
Also receiving accolades were receiver Brad Sinopoli as Most Outstanding Canadian, offensive lineman SirVincent Rogers as Most Outstanding Lineman and head coach Rick Campbell, named CFL Coach of the Year, becoming the first head coach from an Ottawa CFL team to win the honour since George Brancato in 1975, and the first son to win the award also won by his father (Hugh Campbell won Coach of the Year in 1979 with the Edmonton Eskimos).
Burris, an Oklahoma native and Temple grad, manufactured one of the finest efforts of his storied CFL career in 2015.
Burris set a career high with 5,703 passing yards and established a new CFL record for completions in one season with 481, guiding the REDBLACKS to a 12-6 mark and first place in the CFL East Division.
Included in Burris’ list of amazing accomplishments in 2015 was a 45-completion performance during a victory at TD Place on October 1 against the Montreal Alouettes, setting a new league record.
Burris also completed 70.9% of his passes, threw 26 touchdown passes against 13 interceptions. and ran for seven majors, the second-highest total of his career.
This is the second Most Outstanding Player honour for Burris, who collected the designation in 2010 as a member of the Calgary Stampeders.
Burris, who wife Nicole and young sons Armand and Barron were on hand to witness the awards ceremony, was named recipient of the Tom Pate Memorial Award, presented by the Canadian Football League Players Association to a player displaying outstanding sportsmanship along with providing significant contributions to his team, to the community and the CFLPA.
The award is named in memory of Tom Pate, who died of injuries suffered in a 1975 game while playing for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Burris becomes the third player from an Ottawa CFL team to receive the Tom Pate Award. The others: Bruce Walker in 1984 and Jim Coode in 1980.
Sinopoli, a Peterborough, ON native and former quarterback with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, collected 1,035 receiving yards, leading all national players in the category. He also had three touchdown catches and led the CFL with 471 yards after catch.
He was one of four receivers on the REDBLACKS this season to achieve 1,000 receiving yards, joining teammates Chris Williams, Enrest Jackson and Greg Ellingson.
The four receivers became just the third group of teammates to gain 1,000 receiving yards in the same CFL season since the Montreal Alouettes accomplished the feat in 2004 and 2005.
This is the second major individual football award for Sinopoli, who was selected the Hec Crighton Trophy recipient in 2010 as the top player in Canadian university football after an outstanding season at quarterback for the Gee-Gees.
Rogers, a Houston native who played collegiate football for the University of Houston Cougars, joined the REDBLACKS as a free-agent acquisition last February. He started all 18 games at left tackle this season and was lauded for his ability to protect his quarterback’s blind side.
Campbell, a native of Spokane, Waashington, led the REDBLACKS to a 12-6 record and first place in the East Division and a berth in the 103rd Grey Cup presented by Shaw on Sunday in Winnipeg.
The 12 wins set an all-time standard for victories in a regular season by any Ottawa CFL team.
Campbell, in his second season as a head coach in the CFL, but his 16th in the league, made his CFL debut in 1999 with the Edmonton Eskimos as defensive secondary and special teams coordinator, before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 2005.
In 2009, Campbell moved to Winnipeg and joined the Blue Bombers as a defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator before returning to Alberta to joining the Calgary Stampeders in 2010, where he first served as running backs coach.
In 2011, Campbell returned to Edmonton to serve as assistant head coach and special teams coordinator, but returned to Calgary in 2012 as defensive coordinator where he stayed for two seasons before accepting his current position in Ottawa.
He was announced as the first head coach of the REDBLACKS on December 6, 2013, just days ahead of the 2013 CFL Expansion Draft.
Prior to the CFL, Campbell worked as a graduate assistant with the University of Oregon Ducks.
Campbell and his wife, Jeri, live in the Glebe, an Ottawa neighbourhood next to TD Place and Lansdowne Park. They became Canadian citizens on July 1, 2011 during a ceremony in Calgary.
The REDBLACKS, winners of the Eastern Final in dramatic fashion last Sunday at TD Place in Ottawa against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, will compete against the Edmonton Eskimos in the 103rd Grey Cup sponsored by Shaw on Sunday at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg.
