Camryn Bonia recipient of inaugural Bernie Chisholm Award

The name Bernie Chisholm is synonymous with running excellence at St. Francis Xavier University.

After the former cross country and track & field coach of 32 years retired after the 2018-19 season, an athletic financial award was established in his honour.

The Bernie Chisholm Award supports an undergraduate student-athlete on the varsity cross country/track team who is in good academic standing and gives back to their community. An endowment fund was created for the annual award.

Current cross country/track coach Eric Gillis was happy to announce the inaugural recipient of the Bernie Chisholm Award for 2020-21 - Camryn Bonia, a first year runner from St. John's, Nfld. The Human Kinetics student notes, "Being the first recipient of the Bernie Chisholm Award is an honor that I am very grateful to have received. Bernie Chisholm was a well-respected former coach, holding a great history with the running culture here at StFX, making this award very special."

She continues, "Being a student-athlete, track and field holds a large part of my experience and overall development at StFX. Receiving this award assists me as a student-athlete because it provides me with a sense of motivation and support that builds a strong foundation for individuals like myself. I am very appreciative to be the first recipient of this award in Bernie's name."

Likewise, Coach Gillis - himself a prodigy of Coach Chisholm – had nothing but kind words to speak of regarding his former mentor.

"To have this award affiliated with Coach Chisholm is a special honour to our program," says Gillis. "Bernie has built a running legacy at StFX and in the Town of Antigonish that all are grateful for. The Bernie Chisholm Award will help in attracting new keen runners to our program and continue on Bernie's legacy of StFX University being a destination of choice for athletes looking to achieve academic and athletic success."                  

Under Coach Chisholm's 32 years of guidance, his cross country teams won 17 AUS conference championship banners including eight titles for the women and nine for the men. Eleven individual runners won 14 AUS titles, including three-time Olympian and 2003 CIS individual champion Eric Gillis, his coaching successor.

Chisholm guided the X-Women cross country team to a 2007 national CIS bronze medal, a men's CIS silver medal in 2008 and bronze for the men in 2010. Bernie coached and developed numerous StFX runners who have gone on to achieve national and international success. Chisholm also coached the StFX track and field team for more than 15 years, building the X-Women and X-Men programs into AUS contenders, as evidenced by the first X-Men's AUS championship banner in 2014.

A member of the Nova Scotia and StFX Sport Hall of Fame, Chisholm was recognized as the AUS cross country coach of the year on 18 occasions, eight times with the women's team and 10 times with the men's. He received the AUS track and field coach of the year award three times and upon his retirement, the AUS men's cross country coach of the year award was re-named in his honour.

When speaking to the recent distinction of the Bernie Chisholm Award at StFX, the long-time coach and educator notes, "It is an honour to have an award called after you but, what is much more important is that it gives financial assistance to a worthy student-athlete and hopefully help Coach Gillis in his recruitment."

Chisholm was able to meet up recently at the StFX track with Coach Gillis and Bonia to congratulate her in person on her acceptance of the inaugural award.

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Bernie Chisholm congratulates Camryn Bonia on being the inaugural recipient of the athletic financial award named in his honour.