2014 Chatham-Kent Female Athlete of the Year: Bridget Carleton

After more than two weeks of voting, the Chatham-Kent Sports Network readers have selected Chatham’s Bridget Carleton as the 2014 Chatham-Kent Female Athlete of the Year. This is Carleton’s second straight Female Athlete of the Year selection, as she was also CKSN’s 2013 Top Athlete.

In 2014, Carleton represented Canada twice, once at the Cadette level, and once for Canada’s National Junior women’s basketball team.

The John McGregor Secondary School student was dominant on the local stage, regularly scoring more than 30-points per game with her JMSS Panthers senior girls basketball team, leading the Panthers to a LKSSAA and SWOSSAA title, before bowing out early in OFSAA.

Carleton also made it to OFSAA in the spring of 2014 in girls doubles badminton, winning the Kent title with partner Ashley Herfst.

On the international stage, Carleton captained Canada’s Cadette basketball team at the U17 World Championships, leading Canada with 14.4 points per game, and almost 6 rebounds per game.

Later in the summer, Carleton helped Canada’s National Junior basketball team to a silver medal at the U18 FIBA Americas, helping Canada qualify for the 2015 World Junior Championships in Russia.

Also playing for the JUEL’s London Ramblers, Carleton committed in 2014 to play next season for the NCAA Division I Iowa State University Cyclones.

With more than 2000 votes cast for the 2014 Athlete of the Year, Carleton received an impressive 37% of the vote to capture her second straight honour.

The runner up for Chatham-Kent’s 2014 Female Athlete of the Year was Emily VanDamme who took 27% of the vote. VanDamme won a National lacrosse gold medal with Team Ontario, being named a tournament all-star. As well, VanDamme won a gold and silver at the provincial level with the Wallaceburg Griffins boys and girls intermediate teams. On top of her other accomplishments, VanDamme also became one of the first women ever to play OLA Junior B men’s lacrosse, suiting up for the Wallaceburg Red Devils on multiple occasions.

Congratulations to all of the 2014 Chatham-Kent Female Athlete of the Year nominees, including runner up Emily VanDamme and the 2014 Chatham-Kent Female Athlete of the Year, Bridget Carleton.