Alliyah Rowe, a women’s soccer striker from Cape Breton, and DJ Jackson, a basketball guard for STFX, are the first two finalists for the Lois and Doug Mitchell Awards for the U SPORTS athletes of the year. Atlantic University Sport announced the two as their athletes of the year last week.
2024-25 AUS Women’s Athlete of the Year: Ally Rowe, Cape Breton women’s soccer
A sport and physical activity leadership student from Kitchener, Ont., Rowe was named the 2024 recipient of the Chantal Navert Memorial Trophy as the U SPORTS women’s soccer player of the year.
The fifth-year striker led the country in goals this season with 21 and finished second in game-winning goals with six on the season.
Rowe led CBU to an undefeated, first-place finish in the AUS regular season standings with a 10-0-2 record and was named the conference’s most valuable player for the third consecutive season.
In the postseason, she was named championship MVP after leading Cape Breton to the conference title—the third banner of her AUS career. She led CBU to a fourth-place finish at the most recent U SPORTS national championship. Altogether, she appeared in four national championships.
Rowe is a four-time U SPORTS first team all-Canadian and a five-time AUS first team all-star. In 2019, she took home U SPORTS rookie of the year nods in addition to being named the top AUS rookie.
She wraps up her AUS career having left her mark in the conference record books. Rowe is the all-time leader in career scoring with 77 goals—far surpassing the previous record of 53.
She also holds the AUS record for goals in single season with 25 in 2023. She occupies both third and sixth place in this same category with her 2024 season performance of 21 goals and her 2019 rookie season total of 14 goals.
Rowe also holds the conference record for goals in a single game, having posted six-goal games on two occasions—both during the 2023 season.
She was also the conference scoring champion in all but one of her five seasons, and the U SPORTS scoring champion in her final two seasons.
Rowe was honoured as the 2024-25 CBU Female Athlete of the Year.
Rowe is the fifth Cape Breton athlete to be a finalist for national athlete of the year honours, following Osman Omar (2022), Justin Maheu (2015), Kelsey Hodgson (2010) and Sarah Drake (2003).
2024-25 AUS Men’s Athlete of the Year: DJ Jackson, STFX X-Men basketball
A human kinetics student from Mississauga, Ont., Jackson was named the AUS men’s basketball most valuable player this season, leading the X-Men to a 15-5 regular season record and a first-place finish in the conference standings.
The third-year guard was the 2024-25 U SPORTS scoring champion, averaging 24.4 points per game.
He averaged 7.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game for the X-Men this season, and led the conference in steals, averaging 2.2 per game.
He led the country in free throws made with 124 and was seventh nationally with an 86.1 free throw percentage.
Jackson’s standout season earned him U SPORTS first team all-Canadian nods.
He was also named a tournament all-star at the AUS Men’s Basketball Championship where the X-Men were the 2025 runners up, despite back-to-back 33-point games from Jackson.
He was honoured as STFX’s 2024-25 Male Student-Athlete of the Year.
Jackson is the eighth STFX athlete to be a national finalist, following Sarah Bujold (2017), Emma Taylor (2015), Tyson Beukeboom (2012), Michael Marousek (2011), Ghislaine Landry (2009), Richard Karikari (2003) and Fred Perry (2000).
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The Lois and Doug Mitchell Awards for the U SPORTS Athlete of the Year will be announced on Monday, June 2 at a ceremony in Collingwood, Ont. U SPORTS will profile the Canada West nominees on Thursday, with the RSEQ nominees following on Tuesday, May 27 and the OUA nominees on May 29.