Osei named Outstanding Woman of Laurier

WATERLOO, Ont. (March 25, 2015) - Lee Anna Osei, a fifth year guard with the women’s basketball team, was named the 2015 Outstanding Women of Laurier award recipient on Wednesday evening during a dinner at the Waterloo Inn Conference Hotel.

Osei, a native of Toronto, was one of three nominees for this year’s award which included teammate Sam Jacobs of Enniskillen, Ont., and women’s soccer forward Emily Brown of Waterloo, Ont.

“Lee Anna embodies everything that this award represents,” said Peter Baxter, Laurier’s director of Athletics and Recreation. “Over the course of her three years with the Golden Hawks, she has excelled on the court, in the classroom and in the community and is a very deserving recipient of this honour.”

Osei, a fifth year history major, becomes the second consecutive women’s basketball player to receive the award and the third overall since its inception in 2006. Former teammate Bree Chaput took home last year’s award while Jillian Ritsma won the honour back in 2007. 

"I’m ecstatic,” said Osei who received her award in front of 330 people, the largest crowd to attend the event since 2008. “It still really hasn’t hit me yet. I’m honoured to have been standing up there with Samantha Jacobs and Emily Brown, they’re awesome student-athletes. There’s dozens of other females who could have been up there with us tonight. I’m so thankful for the turnout, and I think this is just a blessing from God. This is something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life, and something I’m going to take with me moving forward in life." 

Originally recruited to the NCAA, Osei returned to Canada to join the Golden Hawks for the 2012-13 season and quickly established herself as one of the top point guards in the province. In just three seasons with the purple and gold, Osei set the team record for most assists in a season with 98 in 2013 and finished her career with 217 assists, the third most in school history.

The two-time CIS Academic All-Canadian concluded her career this season by being named an OUA Second Team All-Star and also captured the OUA nomination for the Joy Bellinger Award, presented to the student-athlete who excels in academics, athletics, and community service. 

A coach for the past eight years at various levels, Osei has worked with youth at all ages and skill levels, including coaching and training current NBA players Andrew Wiggins and Nik Stauskas. She also created the website “Get Recruited Canada”, an outlet whose sole purpose was to promote and endorse female athletes across Ontario and Canada.

Laurier launched the Outstanding Women of Laurier award in 2006 to recognize female students who combine athletic and academic achievement with an active commitment to the community through volunteerism.

The event included an inspirational keynote address from Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, the 2010 Olympic Gold Medalists and the 2014 Olympic Silver Medalists in Ice Dance. The event was hosted by Susan Cook-Scheerer, Host and Associate Producer of Waterloo Region’s favourite talk show, daytime on Rogers TV

This year’s event raised approximately $25,000 to help support women’s athletic initiatives, scholarships and the mentoring program at Laurier.

The event was made possible by leadership sponsors RBC Royal Bank, RBC Dominion Securities, Enterprise, Miller Thomson LLP and Parkway Lincoln. Contributing sponsors included Pepsi, the City of Waterloo, the City of Kitchener, as well as a number of Wilfrid Laurier University departments. In-kind sponsors included Robin’s Goldsmithing.