Hopefully the new school year is finally about to start, so this might be an appropriate time to acknowledge and congratulate local high school students who earned special recognition for their athletic achievements at the end of the last school year.
Due to the labour dispute, some secondary schools did not hold their usual year-end athletic banquet, but most did manage to recognize their top athletes.
At Dover Bay Secondary, awards for top Grade 8 athletes were given to Nathan Pasloske, Colton Goldsbury and Linden Kaps, Cara Dunlop and Sarah Zuccaro. From Grade 9, top athletes were Madeline Hart, Zoe Dendes and Ian Tuck. Jeff Webb, Miles Huynh, Quinn Mirau, Rose Plensky and Elise Angelucci were the top Grade 10 athletes. At the Grade 11 level, winners were Trevor Zonneveld, Christian Wigmore, Thomas Oxland, Peter Oxland and Faye Tuck. Recipients from Grade 12 were Wes Richardson, Rob Calvin, Zack Anderson, Andrew deGroot, Emily Grey and Emily Shires. Leadership awards went to deGroot, Richardson, Calvin, Grey and Cara Frey. Chosen for spirit awards were Nyree McGonigle, Braeden Zimmer, Fran Maestrello and Angel Sunnar-Cartagena.
Over at Wellington Secondary, top athletes from the school’s various sports teams were recognized. From soccer, winners were Cody Butt, Christian Louwers, Lin Proudfoot and Erica Hanna. Top basketball athletes were Tyler Radelja, Victoria Brown, Hayden Jeffrey, Madison Atherton, Megan Zoloryki, Ryder Jenks and Shaylie Jobbagy. Top volleyball players were Zahnil Lal, Kaitlyn Franklin, Mccalli Franklin and Emily Bassett. Nick Crossen was recognized from rugby, Amy Morris and Christian Louwers from cross country and Alyssa Mousseau and Charlie Andrews from track and field. In major awards at Wellington, the Grade 8 athletes of the year were Jenks and Shaylie Jobbagy. Olivia Mjaaland was the school’s junior female athlete of the year. Top senior athletes were Tyler Radelja and Ally Keir.
At Nanaimo District Secondary, top volleyball players were named as Giselle Soares, Rebecca Harder, Clara Temoin, Victoria Behie and Jacob Dean. Soccer awards went to David Cosby, Maddy Dawson and O-Lin Metz and winners from rugby were Sebastien Deggan and Seth Recalma. Top athletes from basketball were Jenna Falkenberg, Metz, Bradley Nelson, Rebecca Evenson, Daniel Bullock, Natasha Jensen and Callum Gemma. Recognized from cross country and track were Miryam Bassett, Emma Rainboth and Thomas Grabher.
Year-end awards were bittersweet at Cedar Secondary last June due to the school’s imminent closure. Named as top volleyball players on the year were Hailey Bradley, Meggan Nicholls, Elise Keeping, Jenna Furtmann, Mahala Grubac and Hope Stewart. Basketball players honoured were Ben Cawthorne, Josh Seward, Stefanie Talboys, Marika Grubac, Matt Skingle, Trevor Olson, Hannah Stannard, Ryanne McLeod, Dominic Boar, J.J. Vickers, Mahala Grubac and Claudia Yaya. Named for soccer were Ayanna Grubac and Hannah Stanard, for track and field were Jessica Katzberg and Stewart and for golf were Kevin Bishop and Brody Jones. Top male and female athletes at Cedar were Dominic Boar and Mahala Grubac from Grade 8, Matt Bishop and Amber Swithin from Grade 9, Colton Lajunesse and Hannah Stannard from Grade 10, Kurt Olson and Marika Grubac from Grade 11 and Braxton Clark and Stefanie Talboys from Grade 12.
Whatever your sport, a reminder in closing to play your hardest, play fair, and show good sportsmanship.