BY IAN THORPE
With the heat of the summer now behind us and holidays over with, it’s time for the Thorpe Report to return to a regular routine. Time also for students in local schools to do the same as they begin another year of academics and athletics.
That being the case, we look back this week and give belated recognition to secondary students who earned top athletic awards at the end of last school year…
Let’s start at Dover Bay Secondary, where Grade 8 athletes of the year were Olivia Lundman, Maria Patenaude and Tynan Palfrey. From Grade 9, female winners were Olivia Ory and Cassidy Byrne, while male recipients were Cyrus Urbanowicz and Fraser Van Allen. Grade 10 athletes of the year at Dover were Shannon Kearey, Delaney O’Toole, Jack Harrison and Jordan Khakh. Named as Grade 11 winners were Cara Dunlop, Candan Nixon and Thomas Wright. From the graduating Grade 12 students, athletes of the year were Madison McDonald, Madeline Hart, Rhys Foster, Nathan Ziemanski and Ryan MacDonald.
Also recognized at Dover Bay Secondary were Emily Hoppe, Maddie McDonald, Sophia Fan, Zerai Vaughan and Madeline Hart as co-winners of the Bruce Mitchell athletic leadership award. The Neal McCormick spirit of sport award was shared by Hailey Zonneveld and Lindsey O’Donnell. My thanks to Dover Bay athletic coordinator Josie Webb for passing along the information.
From Wellington Secondary, athletic director Nicole McRae sends word the school’s annual athletic banquet saw Madison Paugh and Ethan Vichert recognized as Grade 8 athletes of the year. Outstanding junior athletes were Jillian Jeffrey and Justin Goodman. The senior male athlete of the year was Alex Staniforth, while the senior female athlete of the year was Hassy Fashina-Bombata. The Coach’s Award was shared by Nicole Scherr, Yas Tsuda and Taylor Eshelby and the Academic Athlete of the Year award at Wellington went to Scherr and Graham Sexton.
Glenn Johnson was athletic coordinator as Nanaimo District Secondary last year and he passed along information from the year-end awards ceremony. Following presentations to top performers in various school sports, major awards were given to top overall athletes. Honoured as top Grade 8 athletes were Cam Laturnus, Jackson Ali and Ava Alexander. Junior athletes of the year were Finn Bradbrooke and Jayden Saywell. Reece Maddison, Anders Cederberg and Taylor Olsen were named as NDSS senior athletes of the year.
In addition, the Coaches’ Award was presented to Laura Greene, Alex Behie and Rajbir Parmar. Sharing the Towel Award for a combination of sports and school service were Jenna Falkenberg, Ismael Ndiaye and Maren Bradbrooke.
From John Barsby Secondary, principal Deb Marshall relates that the school places a high value on multi-sport participation. Demonstrating excellence in more than one sport during the school year were Shae Postema as outstanding Grade 8 female, Fabian George as outstanding Grade 8 male, Kenya Hunnealt as outstanding junior female, Zach Taylor and Steen Rasmussen as outstanding junior males, Hope Stewart as outstanding senior female and Ibrahim Herwi as outstanding senior male. With major overall awards, winners were Jessica Katzberg as the school’s most outstanding female athlete and Andrew Ranftal as Barsby’s most outstanding male athlete.
Congratulations to all award winners and to the many volunteer coaches and sponsors who supported school athletics.
Whatever your sport, a reminder in closing to play your hardest, play fair, and show good sportsmanship.