Youth Sports Alliance's annual Circle of Excellence awards ceremony at the Canyons Base of Park City Mountain with co-emcee Carl Roepke. Photo: Michele Roepke

PARK CITY, Utah — Local athletes competing on the global stage came home to Park City on Sunday to attend the Youth Sports Alliance’s (YSA) annual Circle of Excellence awards ceremony at the Park City Mountain Canyons Village. The ceremony recognizes achievements from last winter and gathers athletes together before the youth sports community goes forth and conquers next winter.

Emily Fisher is the YSA Executive Director. She told TownLift,

“We’ve lucked out once again with beautiful weather for this fantastic event as we recognized 156 athletes this year for their journey in sports on so many levels and in so many creative ways. That’s the longest list of names we’ve ever had for the Circle of Excellence. We couldn’t be more proud to represent them as they travel around representing Youth Sports Alliance. Our generous sponsors, thankfully, continue to provide opportunity for these young people to grow and learn via sports.”
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While podiums exist to praise results, YSA’s Circle of Excellence exists to praise the magic and the minutiae of what goes into being a well-rounded person who happens to participate in sport. An excellent example of that can be seen in Park City Ski and Snowboard, Park and Pipes athlete 15-year-old Izzy Worthington, a student at the Winter Sports School.

Worthington had a bad crash on skis last year. Broken vertebrae meant she was off her skis and out of competition until doctor’s orders would bring her back onto the hill. Her medical diagnosis didn’t keep her team spirit down. Worthington was nominated for the Sam Jackenthal Showstopper of the Year Award. “My coaches liked my positive influence on my teammates when I couldn’t actually ski. I was getting out there and supporting them in their camps and competitions even though I couldn’t join them on course,” she said.

She is looking forward to competing again when the snow flies in just a couple of months at Park City’s International Ski Federation (FIS), Slopestyle, Continental Cup (COC), and the doctors gave her the thumbs up. “Competing is my favorite thing to do.” Worthington said, “It brings joy to me and to everybody.”

The Spirit of Service Award went to Jan Alsobrook Mitchell
The Hall of Fame inductees were Rosie Brennan and Jon O’Brien
The Leadership Award went to Chloe Taurel
The Live Like Sam Award went to Jack Tooley
The Breakthrough Performance of the Year Award went to Brynn Roberts

The upcoming Jan’s Winter Welcome is one of the ways that YSA supports athletic endeavors for Summit and Wasatch County families.

Another way is offering simple ways for everyone in the community to get involved by clicking here to purchase YSA Opportunity Drawing tickets for a chance to win a luxury Mexico vacation.