A fifth-year volleyball player and the first-ever four-time national badminton player of the year were named Douglas College's top athletes for 2012.
Burnaby North grad Jeff Taylor and RuiLin Huang of Burnaby won the Royals male and female athlete of the year awards at the Douglas College year-end awards banquet in Coquitlam on Thursday.
Taylor helped the Douglas men's volleyball team to a silver medal at the Canadian Colleges' Athletic Association national championships.
Huang won an unprecedented fourth straight national college women's singles championship title and was also named the PacWest player of the year.
Taylor, an outside hitter on the PacWest champion Royals, was also honoured with a first team provincial all-star and as the provincial tournament MVP following a four-set win over Vancouver Island University.
Taylor was also a CCAA All-Canadian and national tournament first all-star.
"I wasn't really expecting it, but I thought on the off-chance ... I'm pretty happy. It's my last banquet," said Taylor.
The highlight of Taylor's volleyball career is working with this group of friends. The disappointment of losing the gold medal at the recent nationals to Humber College may never go away, he confided.
"I'll probably know these friends for the rest of my life, and I'll probably look back 10 years from now and think this was a pretty awesome team.
Huang helped Douglas capture its seventh consecutive provincial team championship.
"I am happy," said Huang after winning her fourth straight athlete of the year honour at Douglas.
Asked whether she will return for a fifth year, Huang answered "As long as they need me, I'll be back. ... I have no other choice."
