Farhan Lalji wins B.C. Scholastic coach award

New Westminster Hyacks head football coach Farhan Lalji has been awarded the scholastic provincial coach of the year award.

The award, given out by the B.C. Lions football team, was presented to Lalji at Friday night’s Orange Helmet Awards dinner at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

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Photo contributed by Alan Wardle/THE RECORD

By: Alfie Lau, The Record

“I found out a couple of weeks ago, and what makes this special is George Oswald and Larry Reda were the ones who nominated me,” said Lalji.

“George is one of the first people I talked to when I became head coach of the Hyacks, and he’s one of the deans of B.C. high school football. Larry has done so much for high school football, and it’s an honour to be nominated by him.”

Oswald is the head coach of the Notre Dame Jugglers, a squad which often features many North Burnaby students, including all-star running back Steve Spagnuolo, while Reda is the provincial championship coordinator for high school football.

Lalji was also thankful to former Simon Fraser University athletic director Lorne Davies, who served on the selection committee for the award.

“I worked for Lorne for three years, and whenever someone tells me it must have been hard to set up the football program for New Westminster, I tell them that Lorne had to set up an entire athletic program at SFU,” said Lalji.

Lalji had actually nominated two of his assistants, Chad Oatway and Ryan Leslie, for the scholastic football and community football awards.

“Any honours I receive have to be shared with Chad and Ryan because I know how much they do to help me,” said Lalji. “Everything we do with the Hyacks is done collaboratively with Chad and Ryan.”

Lalji said he’s also honoured that his former coach at Burnaby Central, Alex Reid, will be present at the ceremonies.

“Alex is my mentor, and the whole reason why I got involved in coaching football was because I wanted to be around this man,” said Lalji. “He is truly my mentor.”

Lalji, who helped revive the Hyacks football program in 2003, has taken his squad to consecutive semifinal appearances at the varsity level.

The seventh-annual awards, presented by Scotiabank, has raised more than $305,000 in support of grassroots amateur football.

This year’s event had former B.C. Lions wide receiver Darren Flutie as the master of ceremonies and his brother Doug as keynote speaker.

© The Record (New Westminster) 2010