Romero, Mans named Welland athletes of the year
Myrna Romero comes by her fighting abilities naturally.
The 17-year-old, Grade 11 student at Notre Dame has two older brothers, Anthony and Simon Romero, who are Mixed Martial Arts fighters so it was no surprise when Myrna displayed an interest in combat sports.
“I started jiu jitsu when I was three and all my siblings are fighters, Simon’s a fighter and we all kind of followed in Anthony’s footsteps. I just don’t like to get punched in the face so I just stuck with wrestling,” she said. “I think it’s a really great way to get into the sport at first.”
Myrna Romero started her wrestling training in September 2023 with the Brock Junior Badgers and with the help of her Badger coaches, her sister-in-law Samantha and Notre Dame principal Andrew Boone, was able help start a wrestling team at the school, volunteering to coach with both her brothers.
“A lot of schools had a team, so I really wanted to start one and get a lot of people involved,” she said. “I think it’s a really good community that we brought together.”
While she was organizing and helping coach at Notre Dame, Myrna Romero was also excelling on the mat where she won several medals in high school wrestling tournaments, as well as gold medal at the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) championships. She also took home gold medals at the Junior Badgers Tournament and the St. Thomas Moore High School Tournament in November.
That resume was more than enough got earn her the Welland Female Athlete of the Year award, which she accepted Friday night at the 51st Annual Welland Sports Award Night banquet held at the Case Dante.
“I was super excited,” she said. “My mom told me about this. She always puts me and my siblings in just to get our name out there and everything. Tell everyone what we’re about and our background and everything, so it was really exciting.”
Myrna Romero, who also coaches at Genius Fitness in Port Colborne, also won a Contribution to Sport Award Friday.
Next up are Team Canada trails in Edmonton next month with the Badgers.
“I just want to focus and continue to see where the sport goes,” she said. “Just keep living.”
Mans is the Man
It would be hard to top Kevin Mans’ 2024.
The 50-year-old Welland native competed both locally and internationally in 11 Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments and achieved 11 gold medals, including a gold at the World Championships in Greece. His competitions took him to Indianapolis, Atlanta, New Orleans, Orlando, Chicago, Europe, and Greece. He won the Ontario Provincial Jiu-Jitsu Championships in December, and in June 2024, won the Canadian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
That impressive run earned Mans the Welland Male Athlete Of the Year.
“Some of my students had mentioned they were going to nominate me and I thought it was kind of like, alright cool, awesome, but I didn’t think I would win,” he said. “I thought there’s a lot of great athletes in Welland. Welland’s a hockey town and I wasn’t sure if jiu-jitsu was going to be on the radar. But yeah, it was a really big surprise.”
Mans, who owns BJJ Canada Academy with locations in Welland, Niagara Falls and Dunnville, said he wanted to show his students what can be accomplished with hard work.
“I was in the military for 23 years and I always thought lead by the front,” he said. “I said to myself last year I’m going to go out there and compete as many times I can and I’m going to win my first world championship and it just all came to fruition.
“It’s just the icing on the cake for me now, I guess.”
Mans, who was working as an army reservist in 2010, took up the sport at the urging of one of his soldiers.
“The first day I was hooked and four years later I opened my own academy,” he said.
Mans, who plans to take most of the year off to heal his body and build a new home, will compete in Boston in April and likely at the World Championships in Thailand.
Mans loves that his hometown honours their athletes.
“Welland does a really good job recognizing athletes and the sports,” he said. “Welland has a great sporting community. Between all the NHL players that have played here, all the kids hockey teams, Welland’s always represented the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community really well and the MMA community really well.”
Long time Welland journalist Joe Barkovich was named the winner of the H.L. Cudney Award as the Welland sportsperson of the year. Barkovich had previously been profiled by BPSN. https://www.bpsportsniagara.com/no-ordinary-joe-6/
The 2024 Welland Wall of Fame class was announced at the banquet. Recipients will be inducted Sunday, May 4 at 2 p.m. at the Seaway Mall.
This year’s inductees are: Bernice Hopkins (golf), Dave Burkholder (hockey, baseball), Donald Burns (builder/coach), Ed Burkholder (builder in hockey) and Matt Ellis (hockey).
Following the announcement of the inductees, a moment of silence was held for the late Gary Talosi, who served for many years on the Wall of Fame committee. Talosi passed away in February.
The following are the City of Welland Sports Awards Night certificate recipients.
Female Athlete Award
Winner: Myrna Romero (wrestling)
First runner up: Sasha Protsenko (dance)
Second runner up: Parker Van Krimpen (track and field, wrestling, dance, soccer, cross country, volleyball).
Male Athlete Award
Winner: Kevin Mans (Brazilian jiu jitsu)
First runner up: Matteo Romano (wrestling)
Second runner up: Santiago Palacios (boxing)
Masters Male
Terry Zorgel (marathon running)
Masters Female
Lynda Lemon (running)
Outstanding Achievement
Taylor Reuter (boxing)
Sport Volunteer
Mike Frank (soccer)
Contribution to Sport
Anthony Romero (wrestling)
Simon Romero (wrestling)
Myrna Romero (wrestling)
Anthony Vadacchino (soccer)
Melissa Heil (soccer)
Outstanding Coach
Winner: Scott Jutras (Brazilian jiu jitsu)
First runner up: Rhiannon Zahorchak (rowing)
High School Team Senior
Winner: Welland Centennial Cougars baseball
First runner up: Eastdale Eagles boys basketball
Junior Team
Winner: Welland Tigers 11UA hockey
First runner up: Welland Wizards girls 15U soccer
Second runner up: Welland Wizards boys 10U soccer
Senior Team
Winner: South Niagara Canoe Club Canal Dragons
First runner up: Welland Tigers U18A hockey
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