CFJC's Marty Hastings (centre) with Maria Dancheva (left) and Rida Erlalelitepe (right) of the TRU WolfPack women's volleyball team during a Tattle of Hastings feature (Image credit: CFJC Today).

By Aaron Schulze

Fred “Gus” Collins Media Award

CFJC’s Marty Hastings receives second Canada West media award for TRU WolfPack coverage

May 8, 2025 | 10:21 AM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops sports reporter has been recognized for his work covering student athletics.

Canada West announced CFJC’s Marty Hastings received the conference’s Fred “Gus” Collins Media Award. The award is presented to a member of the media who tirelessly covers Canada West and its student athletes.

In a news release issued Thursday (May 8), Canada West credits Hastings for connecting the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) WolfPack with the Kamloops community over the past 16 years.

“The importance of university sports coverage is underrated,” Hastings says. “You get amazing stories, you find amazing people. In professional sports you might get those canned and unoriginal quotes a lot of the time, and you don’t find a lot of that in university sports. You get a lot of honesty. Generally, I think people are happy to have their sports covered and they’re appreciative that you’re there. You get trusted with subject matter that can be pretty personal.”

Canada West highlighted a story Hastings produced with CFJC’s Anthony Corea in November 2024 during the TRU WolfPack men’s volleyball team’s home opener. The story followed the fatal motor vehicle crash on McGill Road in Kamloops one year earlier that involved three members of the TRU men’s volleyball team. The duo caught up with Riley Brinnen and Owen Waterhouse, and their families, along with the family of the late Owyn McInnis.

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It’s the second time Hastings, a TRU alumnus, received the Fred “Gus” Collins Media Award, having been named a recipient before with the former Kamloops This Week newspaper in 2018-19. Hastings is the second member of a CFJC news team to receive the award, joining former CFJC sports director Earl Seitz who received the honour in 2014-15.

Hastings is now a nominee for the Fred Sgambati Media Award, a national media recognition presented by U SPORTS.