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Bowness

- Sheila Iversen Award -

About Sheila

Sheila was an excellent student athlete at William Aberhart High School where she participated in basketball, field hockey and track & field. She graduated in 1963 and was honoured by the Calgary Booster club and the CSHSAA with the Gretta Schwartz Memorial Award for the top female student athlete that school year. Sheila attended Brigham Young University, where she earned her B.Ed degree in 1970 and her Masters degree in 1975. During her graduate studies she coached women’s basketball and took the BYU girls field hockey team to the NCAA National Championships. She returned to Calgary and taught physical education at Van Horne, James Fowler, Queen Elizabeth and William Aberhart High Schools. During that period, she distinguished herself as a coach in volleyball, basketball, field hockey and track & field. One of her volleyball teams made it to the Provincials and she also had a City Champion team in field hockey. While at BYU Sheila became interested in athletic training and received her National Certified Athletic Trainers certificate. This one event ended up having a major impact on the Calgary High School system, as Sheila was the one responsible for starting the sports medicine programs in our system while she was at William Aberhart. She was also a P.E. Consultant for 2 years with the Calgary Board of Education, Principal at Bowness High and Principal of Lester B. Pearson High School. During her outstanding career she received many honours, with a few of them being the CBE Order of Merit, the YWCA Woman of the Year in 1995 and the Mayors Excellence Award in 1996 for Business Partnerships in Education. After an illustrious career she retired so she could spend more time with her hobbies, which include golf, skiing, gardening, reading and travel. This award has been named in her honour.

Honoured Recipients

Starting in the 2016/17 school year, the scholarship awards program was revised, and each award was assigned to a specific school; to be awarded at the school, based on criteria set by the school. Additional scholarship awards were created at this time, so that all CSHSAA member schools had an award assigned to them to award to their students.

Previous Honoured Recipients

  • 2015-16 – Georgia Bignold, Bishop Carroll
  • 2014-15 – Sarah Kinzner, Bishop Grandin
  • 2013-14 – Jill Girgulis, Bishop Carroll
  • 2012-13 – Sydney Olsen, William Aberhart
  • 2011-12 – Janessa Kerr, Dr. E.P. Scarlett
  • 2010-11 – Larissa Costella, Ernest Manning
  • 2009-10 – Robin Bessemer, Henry Wise Wood
  • 2008-09 – Kirsten Sjonnesen, Western Canada
  • 2007-08 – Molly Beckel, Queen Elizabeth
  • 2006-07 – Shirley Ho, Western Canada