Movers and Shakers: The Unsung Heroes of 2015

Sport at its highest levels involves pursuing perfection and completion in action, as impossible and unattainable as that might sound. We get a hint of that with a Milos Raonic service ace, say, or an artful Andrew Wiggins reverse dunk, or just about every time someone raises a championship trophy.

But it’s also about improvements, some of them so gradual as to be almost imperceptible, that lead to momentous changes in the pursuit of those goals: about service of a different kind, out of the brightest spotlight, that sets a stage to make those moments of sporting nirvana possible, or simply blazes a new trail for others to consider.

For every superstar, there are many more lights that showed them the way -- unsung heroes, we call them, like Curt Harnett, who in his role as chef de mission for the Canadian team at this past summer's Pan Am Games was a mentor, a motivating force and a forceful, yet quiet advocate for the Games and the host country’s athletes. And although they can be found in each and every community in the country, coaching and refereeing youth teams, building organizations, funding new initiatives, we’ve narrowed the field and come up with these Unsung Heroes of 2015.

They won’t make any highlight reels, but perhaps they should. Click on the photo above to start our slideshow of this year's Unsung Heroes.

Movers and Shakers 2015 series:

Dec. 29: The Unsung Heroes

Dec. 24: The Top 5 in Canadian Sport

Dec. 23: Nos. 15-6 in Canadian Sport

Dec. 22: Nos. 25-16 in Canadian Sport

Wednesday: People to Watch in 2016