Congratulations to Kevin Jones and Sim Lakhyan!
The CDSRA Executive would like to congratulate Harsimrit (Sim) Lakhyan & Kevin Jones on receiving the 2021 Silver Badge and Golden Whistle awards respectively at the Alberta Soccer Annual General Meeting this past Saturday.
Kevin Jones - Golden Whistle Award
The Golden Whistle award is presented to an individual who has made long-standing contributions to officiating in Alberta. Kevin moved to Canada in 1994 and was appointed to the National List of referees in 1995 and in the late 1990s served on the Alberta Referee Development Committee (RDC).
In 2002 Kevin was appointed to the National List of Assessors and was assigned to the Canadian Referee Committee until his resignation in 2021. Throughout his time on the Committee Kevin assisted with the Referee-instructor-assessor development across Canada. Kevin has also been the Supervisor of Officials at numerous National competitions – All Stars, Club, College, University Summer Games.
Kevin gave a lot of his time and had a deep devotion to ensuring these competitions were a success for the officials. His strong, honest opinions & spot-on attitude benefited many officials and ensured they left these competitions with the skills they needed to assist with their referee development.
Harsimrit Lakhyan - Silver Badge Award
The Silver Badge award is presented to a Referee whose age does not exceed 28 years who has demonstrated dedication, loyalty, leadership and support for other officials this past year with aspirations of further developing their referee career.
Sim has been secretary for the Calgary District Soccer Association (CDSRA) since April 2021 where she has carried out numerous responsibilities including helping to schedule education, distributing referee group orders, and other administrative functions which have benefited soccer referees of all levels in the Calgary community. She has volunteered many hours of her time for the betterment of referees and in 2021 also became a youth referee mentor, working with and encouraging brand new youth entry level referees.
On the field Sim is an aspiring national list referee and has been a provincial referee since 2020. She represented Alberta Soccer at Canada Soccer's female referee symposium in August 2021. She was also appointed to represent Alberta Soccer at the 2021 CCAA Women's National Championships in November where her performances on the field earned her the appointment and privilege to referee the 2021 CCAA Women's National Championship gold medal game.
Congratulations to both of these Calgary officials on these tremendous accomplishments!