A Holy Trinity Academy student-athlete had an impressive year as the quarterback of the school’s provincial championship football team and as a dominant force on the Knights top-10 basketball team.
However, it turns out Ben Leggett had an even better year academically.
Leggett is a recipient of an approximately $40,000 University of Calgary Seymour Schulich Academic Excellence scholarship for engineering.
“I have been blessed with really great teachers at Holy Trinity Academy,” Leggett said. “I am taking this full-year course which combines the Math 30-1 AP and the Math 31 AP as well.
“You take it all with the same class and Mrs. (Crystal) Lepp is an amazing teacher.”
Leggett put up some impressive numbers in the classroom.
When he applied for the scholarship, he had overall average of 97 per cent and a 100 per cent average for Math 30-1 AP and Math 31 AP.
If you tell Leggett a subject isn’t exactly rocket science, he is going to be hugely disappointed.
“I am interested in mechanical engineering and I am really aiming to work with the space program,” Leggett said. “My dad (Don) is an engineering technologist. He designs and drafts pipelines and stuff.
“He is very interested in the drawing aspect of it and I kind of have that too — I like that design and putting things together that comes with engineering.
“I like to think I can help build stuff, spaceships or something cool.”
His mother Julie helps with the humanities side of things. She has a master’s degree in social work from the University of Calgary.
That Holy Trinity Academy teacher Leggett called “amazing” happens to think highly of the academic Leggett as well.
“Ben is one-of-a-kind,” Lepp said. “You never have to worry that he won’t do his best. Whether it’s math, football or basketball.
“Ben would miss some classes (because of football and basketball) and he'd come back and he would be ahead or at least the same pace as the kids in the class.
“He is so prepared.”
In the Lepp household, Ben earned the nickname “Encyclopedia Ben” from the teacher’s daughter, because of his smarts being comparable to legendary teenage sleuth Encyclopedia Brown.
Leggett said being involved in HTA sports helped with his studies, as it strengthened his time management skills.
However, he added, being a good student helped him with his athletics.
“Definitely for football, always wanting to ask questions, as a quarterback wanting to understand how a play works, why am I throwing the ball here, how do I read the defence, it’s like how do I solve this math problem,” Leggett said. “Why do I hand the ball off here if it means we are going to get tackled here? Oh, it’s setting up the next play where we are going to score a touchdown.
“That kind of cause and effect. The strategic planning aspect of it.”
Football also taught him some foreshadowing.
In what has become HTA Knight football lore, after the team lost the 2018 provincial final and had to watch the Lloydminster Barons hoist the trophy in Fort Mac, Leggett told Knights head coach Matt Hassett: ‘we’re getting to this game next year and we’re winning.’’
The Knights did just that, winning in 2019 by downing the Austin O’Brien Crusaders 35-3 in Raymond last November.
HTA football and athletics have been good for the Leggett family.
Leggett’s twin brother Alex – who set a record for sacks in the provincial final - is attending the University of Saskatchewan in the fall where he will be on the U of S Huskies roster along with his older brother Jonathan. Alex is planning to take education while Jonathan is studying business.
As for Ben, he is going to focus on his first year of engineering at the U of C and not worry about football.
“I did have a couple of looks from post-secondary schools, but I decided to just leave that part of my life on a high note with a provincial championship,” Leggett said. “I plan to just focus on my engineering courses next year, especially anticipating the bigger challenge it will pose now that it’s all online."
