For the first time in almost 20 years, a member of the York University Lions football team has received the highest honour in the country – a U SPORTS first-team all-Canadian award.
 
Lions kick returner Alfred Olay was among a select group of elite-level football student-athletes to earn the distinction in 2022-23, the national governing body announced Thursday night at the football all-Canadian banquet in London, Ont.
 
Olay, a fifth-year student studying engineering, had a year to remember for the York Lions. The native of Courtice, Ont. was an elite special teams option, tallying 35 kickoff returns for 739 yards and 26 punt returns for 349 yards.
 
Olay led his team in all-purpose yards with 1,377 and produced one of the highlight-reel plays of the entire OUA season when he returned a missed Carleton field goal 119 yards for a score in a matchup on Sept. 10.
 
The award represents the 10^th Lion in football program history to receive the distinction of first-team all-Canadian, but it has been a long time coming in recent iterations of the program. The last time a Lion was named a first-team all-Canadian was Andre Durie, who received the award nod in 2004.