KINGSTON, Ont. — It was a special night for both Nate Beauchemin and Liam Reid at the annual U SPORTS banquet leading into this weekend’s Vanier Cup.
The 21-year-old Beauchemin has been named winner of the Presidents’ Award, which goes to the top Defensive Player in U SPORTS football who is not a defensive lineman. The award is voted on by a committee of eight coaches from the four U SPORTS conferences.
Winning the award means Beauchemin is also a U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian.
Beauchemin becomes the first Dinos football player to win a national award since 2018 when both quarterback Adam Sinagra won the Hec Crighton Trophy as the Most Outstanding Player and Tyson Philpot won the Peter Gorman Trophy as Freshman of the Year.
Beauchemin also becomes the first Calgary player to win the award in 39 years, when defensive halfback Darcy Kopp was honoured in 1985.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound native of Kelowna, B.C., had a superb 2024 season, leading Canada West with four interceptions, including returning two for touchdowns. He was also a solid player on special teams.
Beauchemin was a unanimous Canada West All-Star free safety, recording 41 tackles, one forced fumble and one blocked field goal in addition to his four interceptions.
Beauchemin recognizes many of the coaches that helped him along the way such as Kendall Groves, Chris Cartwright of the Kelowna Secondary School, Trent Schumland (former University of Calgary All-Canadian), and position coaches Marcello Rapini and Mike Edem (former Presidents’ Award finalist with the Dinos).
“This is biggest honour I have ever received,” Beauchemin said. “My goal at the start of the year was to be an All-Canadian, but getting the Presidents’ Award is an incredible high honour,” stated the fourth-year kinesiology student who has been a U SPORTS Academic all-Canadian for the past two years. “To do this for the Dinos program is an incredible honour and I take pride in being a Dino.”
“I am ecstatic for Nate,” said head coach Ryan Sheahan said. “It’s a well-deserved award for a very talented football player and an extremely hard worker. Winning this award is a culmination of a lot of hard work. He was easily the best player on the field every time he was out there.”
Reid started the season impressively, recording a fumble recovery on the first possession of the year against the Regina Rams and never looked back.
The 22-year-old native of Vernon, B.C., was a unanimous conference all-star at defensive end. He recorded 20 solo tackles along with nine assisted tackles, four quarterback sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery in eight conference contests.
The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Reid is in his fourth year in the Haskayne School of Business.
Reid becomes first Dinos defensive lineman to be named an All-Canadian since 2019 when J-Min Pelly earned the recognition.
“Being an All-Canadian means a lot,” said Reid. “It was a personal goal I set at the beginning of the year. It is cool to be recognized at the national level.”
Reid was quick to pay tribute to former players who were all drafted in the Canadian Football League Draft recently and were starters on the 2019 national championship team.
“Charlie Moore, Grant McDonald, and Josh Hyer showed me the effort it takes to get to where they got when I joined the program,” Reid stated.
Calgary defensive line coach Chris Anstey worked with Reid for two years and believes Reid he is well-deserving of the recognition.
“Liam is a as tough as leather. He has a really diverse skill set with zero intimidation factor on the football field and is ultra-prepared.”
Laval and Laurier will meet in the Vanier Cup on Saturday.