Muskie athletes handed awards

Fort Frances High School held its athletic awards banquet last night at the Ukrainian Hall and a number of students picked up plenty of hardware to remember their days wearing the black-and-gold.
Garnet Cornell took home the Male Athlete of the Year award to go with a Letterman award (played on 10 or more sports teams during his high school tenure) and a Most Outstanding Contribution for boys’ soccer.
Lauren Pierce earned the Female Athlete of the Year award to go with MVP honours for girls’ hockey while Mike Sande reeled in the biggest haul with his MVP award for boys’ soccer, the Brent Ogden Memorial Trophy (for sportsmanship and perseverance), and a Letterman award.
The Strains had a good showing. Jeremy netted MVP honours for senior boys’ basketball to go with the Douglas Morrow Memorial for Academic and Athletic Achievement.
His younger brother, Josh, who went to the all-Ontarios in track earlier this month, was an impromptu winner after FFHS principal Gord McCabe announced a new honour for Most Outstanding Track Athlete would be introduced before the end of the school year and awarded to Strain.
It originally was reported that Strain had placed fourth in the high jump at OFSAA, but he admitted to finishing fifth.
He managed to complete the same height as the fourth-place finisher, tying him at 1.80 metres. But Strain faulted on his first attempt while his competitor, Greg Morrow, made the height on his first try.
Chris Legg was the boys’ court star, netting MVP honours for both junior boys’ volleyball and basketball. Taylor Meyers received the MVP nod for her outstanding goalkeeping for the girls’ soccer team, and also took home Most Improved award for senior girls’ basketball.
The other multi-award winner was Jamie Jensen, who won the Horban Award for MVP of the senior boys’ volleyball team as well as co-MVP in senior badminton with teammate Tim Desjardins.
See Wednesday’s Times for a complete list of all the award winners.