For the third consecutive year the plaque on the Holy Trinity Academy Senior Boys Athlete of the Year award will read “Reid”.
On June 14 Reid Watkins was named the recipient for the 2011-12 school year — the third consecutive year he has won the award at Holy Trinity Academy (HTA).
Watkins capped off a week of school athletic banquets, which also included Foothills Composite and Oilfields high school on June 7 and 8 respectively.
Watkins, a Grade 12 student, played on the school’s provincial medal wrestling and rugby teams. He was also a member of the silver medal winning football team and fourth in the 100m Senior boys hurdles.
“Rugby is the most significant one because I am sharing it with the boys,” Watkins said. “I have been playing with guys like Ryan (Hassler), James Read, Peter Hillman for about five years — almost my whole career.”
The HTA Knights rugby team won the Tier I provincial championship — the top league in the province.
Watkins was selected to play for the Canada U-17 rugby team in 2011. However, it is wrestling for which he is most known.
Watkins won the Alberta high school provincial championship at 76kg in March.
He then won the Canadian Juvenile championship at 76kg in April — the third straight year he has won a national title.
Watkins is undecided as to where he will attend school next year, however, he is leaning toward either Simon Fraser University or the University of Alberta.
The Knights Senior High Girls Athlete of the Year wound up coming to Holy Trinity Academy from High River for its International Baccalaureate program.
Although the school slowly began to phase out the IB program, Emma Bibault stayed and shined in athletics as well as the classroom.
Bibault played on the Knights girls soccer, rugby, cross-country and track teams. She finished fifth in the Senior girls 4,000m race at the high school cross-country championships in the fall, but then kicked into gear for the track season in the spring. She took home the silver medal in the 800m at the provincial high school track and field championships on June 1. In addition, she leaned at the tape to win the 1, 500m against Jenna Westaway — a runner she had never beaten before.
She said while joining a track club helped her, it was Knights coach Kirby Coderre who gave her the confidence to beat Westaway.
“He helped me with my mental training and fighting through nerves,” Bibault said. “That is what I have always been bad at.”
She wasn’t nervous when the nominees for the athletes of the year were announced. She didn’t think she was going to win.
“I was surprised I won, I felt Melissa (Bass) was more deserving,” Bibault said.
“She played so many sports and is such a good athlete.”
Bass gave Bibault a congratulatory hug when the award was announced.
Bibault plans to attend the University of Victoria next year and run track and field.
Peter Hillman won the Knights Senior High Boys Coaches’ Choice Award. Hillman said it was an honour to be selected and to play with a group of young men who had arguably the most success in HTA’s history.
Hillman plans to attend the University of Calgary to study engineering in the fall.
Kalisse Barwich of HTA’s Senior girls basketball team was the co-winner of the Senior High Girls Coaches Choice Award. She plans to attend Trinity Western University in British Columbia.
She shared the award with Senior girls volleyball player Josie Leduc who will attend St. Mary’s University in Halifax and play volleyball.
Foothills Spirit
The Foothills Falcons Grade 12 Female Athlete of the Year also has plenty of spirit.
Noelle Reboul was not only named the school’s top senior female athlete on June 7, she also won the Falcon Spirit of the Youth Award at the school’s graduation ceremony earlier in this spring.
“It was a tremendous honour,” Reboul said. “It is going to be a bittersweet moment when I leave. I have so many good memories here, but now I am starting a new adventure in my life.”
She supplied plenty of memories for Falcons fans over her three-year career at the Composite. She was the female athlete of the year in both Grade 10 and 11 as well.
“The highlight for me was definitely winning zones in both basketball and volleyball this year,” Reboul said. “Oh and definitely beating HTA in the league final in basketball.”
She said she is proud of how the team came together in basketball and improved as they year went on. Reboul was also a member of the Falcons rugby team which went to provincials. She also participated in track and plans to attend the University of Lethbridge in the fall.
The Grade 12 Male Athlete of the Year at Foothills was definitely surprised — he hadn’t even been on the ballot before.
“This was the first time I have ever been nominated,” Tyler Grigor said. “There have always been so many great athletes here.”
He said his Grade 12 year was the best of his career at Foothills.
“It was great to be playing with all my friends my final year and going out with a bang,” Grigor said. “The highlight was definitely beating HTA in the league final in the FAC final. We were tied after the third period and then we just turned it on.”
If Grigor was shocked to be athlete of the year, he was downright astonished about his performance in the track and field provincials in which he finished fourth in the Senior boys javelin.
“Just going to provincials was a surprise, but to finish fourth just shocked me,” Grigor said.
He plans to work until attending his mission for the Jesus Christ Church of Latter-Day Saints and then attend post-secondary school.
The Grade 11 athletes of the year were Taylor Armsworthy and Cassidy Barnert while the Grade 10 Foothills athletes of the year were Cody Thompson and Maddi Turbach.
Driller pride
You have to have pride in a small school to hang in there when its numbers are down.
Oilfields High School had limited Senior boys sports teams this year, but its co-winners of the Grade 12 Male Athletes of the Year at the Driller Ball on June 8 certainly hung in there.
Cody Goss had to play for the Foothills Falcons Senior boys volleyball team because the Drillers didn’t have enough players.
“It was disappointing not to have a volleyball team (at Oilfields) but I had fun playing with Foothills,”
Goss said. “I wanted to stay here even if they didn’t have as many teams because all of my friends are here and there are great teachers.”
Goss plans to attend Olds College next year where he will likely play volleyball with Colton Short, who won the Male Athlete of the Year at Oilfields two years ago.
Goss shared the award with Calvin Crighton who hung in their despite not getting a chance to play the game he loves, basketball in his final year of high school.
However, he fell in love with another sport.
“I loved rugby,” Crighton said. “It helped me get over not getting a chance to play basketball.”
However, Crighton was not totally away from the hardcourt working as an assistant coach on the Drillers JV basketball team.
The Drillers Grade 12 Female Athlete of the Year has mixed feelings about leaving school in the High Country.
Carly Hoar attended Longview School since kindergarten — along with Goss — before going to Oilfields.
She will play basketball with Red Deer College in the fall.
“I am excited to be leaving to try new things,” Hoar said. “But I am also a little sad.”
Hoar has Driller black-and-gold running through her veins.
She played basketball, volleyball and badminton this year.
She is most proud to be part of the South Central Zone winning Senior girls basketball team.
“I thought about going to a different school when I was in Grade 8 or 9 because we didn’t even have a Senior girls team then,” Hoar said. “But I love it here and I have a lot of friends. I truly believed we could win — and we did.”
