Lucas Punkari
They were the top two athletes at Fort High this year, but both Chelsea Hill and Justin Anderson seemed stunned to receive the athlete-of-the-year crowns at the Muskie athletic awards banquet last Wednesday evening at the Townshend Theatre.
“I wasn’t expecting anything other than a Letterman award,” Hill noted.
“I was pretty surprised and happy to get all of these honours,” added Hill, who also won the Patti-Jo Reid MVP award for senior girls’ basketball.
“I didn’t expect this at all because I had only played basketball and volleyball, prior to playing soccer this year,” echoed Anderson, who also took home the MVP trophies in both senior boys’ basketball and volleyball, along with Letterman honours.
But if you ask FFHS athletic director Shane Beckett, it wasn’t that much of a surprise that both Anderson and Hill were considered to be the school’s top athletes.
“Justin is such an athlete, and he’s so coachable that it’s very easy to have a guy like that on your team,” said Beckett, who coached Anderson on this year’s NorWOSSA champion boys’ soccer squad.
“I personally never had the pleasure of coaching Chelsea but just from watching her, you could see that she was a dominant force,” Beckett added.
“And she is one of those athletes that is not only graced with size, but also has the ability to use it.”
Yet it wasn’t just their athletic abilities that made both Anderson and Hill worthy recipients.
“With Justin, he takes your comments to heart,” noted Beckett. “He understands constructive criticism and applies that to his game.
“Whether it was in basketball or volleyball, Chelsea is a team leader and the girls rally around her in both sports, and that showed tonight by the amount of cheers that she received when she came on stage,” he added.
On the court, Hill’s final season as a Muskie didn’t quite have the satisfying end she was hoping for. The senior girls’ basketball team fell in the NorWOSSA final to Dryden while the senior volleyball squad also lost to the Eagles in the NorWOSSA title game and then dropped their second chance at a berth in OFSAA against St. Ignatius.
Despite those setbacks, Hill said she wouldn’t take anything back.
“I loved it all, and I wish I could do it all over again,” enthused Hill, who is heading to the University of Ottawa this fall to study biomedical sciences.
“I have had so many great memories during the last four years,” she added.
As for Anderson, he had a banner year as a returning Grade 12 student. He was a member of NorWOSSA championship teams in basketball and soccer, and also played on the third-place senior volleyball squad.
But what sticks out in his mind is two heart-breaking losses to Superior in the NWOSSAA basketball finals, which prevented Fort High from making a trip to the all-Ontarios.
“Not going to OFSAA and losing NWOSSAA for the fourth time was really tough,” admitted Anderson, who is off to Laurentian University in Sudbury this fall to take sports administration.
“But being able to go to OFSAA as a soccer player was a great experience,” he added.
“Everything was awesome,” he enthused. “From the late nights to all of the trips, and I would recommend it [Muskie athletics] to anybody.”
Also garnering multiple awards last Wednesday was last year’s female athlete-of-the-year recipient Sara Roach, who took home the girls’ soccer MVP trophy, Letterman honours, and the William George Reid Memorial Award for academic and athletic achievement.
“Sara is someone who has been an outstanding contributor to Muskie sports,” Beckett noted.
“I think it takes a really special person to be able to not only be one of the best on a team but in the classroom, as well, and she has done exactly that,” he lauded.
“Sara was definitely someone I was happy to see get an award as she is a really amazing athlete and she has been on every team I have ever been on,” Hill remarked.
Other multiple award recipients were Jeff Gustafson (Douglas Morrow Memorial Trophy for academic and athletic achievement, and an athletic certificate for participation in eight sports) and Sydney Ward (the Golden Plunger award from the Muskie Sports Association for outstanding contribution and co-MVP in cheerleading with Kristina Robertson).
The rest of the award winners included:
•Anniss Seid—athletic certificate
•Braedon Keast—athletic certificate
•Chris Legg—Letterman award
•Sarah Glover/Alyssa Windego—jr. girls’ volleyball MVP
•Caleb McIntosh—jr. boys’ volleyball MVP
•Megan Veniot/Mikaela Kroeker—sr. girls’ volleyball MVP
•Alanna Walsh/Wynonna Kavanaugh—jr. girls’ basketball MVP
•Colton Craig—jr. boys’ basketball MVP
•Jennifer McDowall—sr. girls’ basketball most improved player
•J.J. Fiset—jr. badminton MVP
•Spencer Pearce/Robert Stevens—sr. badminton MVP
•Pam Theriault/Madison Allen—cheerleading rookie of the year
•Taylor Hartlin—girls’ curling MVP
•Isaac Keffer—boys’ curling MVP
•Luke Esselink/Karleigh Wright—mixed curling MVP
•Dexter Fichuk—track and field MVP
•Courtney Roach—girls’ soccer outstanding contribution
•Gavin Moorhouse—boys’ soccer MVP
•Dave Chambers—boys’ soccer outstanding contribution
•Donovan Taylor—male swimming MVP
•Katja Sutherland—female swimming MVP
•Emma Keeler—figure skating MVP
•Michael Nelson—figure skating special recognition award
Tim Metke—Brent Ogden Memorial Trophy (sportsmanship and perseverance)
•Maryam Seid—female rookie of the year
•Braedon Caul—male rookie of the year
