Four Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School (PSO) students were honoured with sports awards on Tuesday, June 23.
Emily Machado received the Junior Female Athlete of the Year, Darlyssa Chretien received the Senior Girls Athlete of the Year, Robert Waldner received the Senior Male Athlete of the Year and Mohamed Omer received Junior Male Athlete of the year.
Omer said it feels awesome.
“It was a surprise. I was just chilling at home, playing video games, and then I get a text saying I won some athletic award at the school. That was pretty cool.”
Sean Glanville, one of the physical education (PE) teachers and soccer coach, says it was probably the best year of athletics in his six years at PSO.
“Thanks to all the community coaches we had a full range of basketball, volleyball, track, cross-country, rugby, soccer.”
In the past, they only had a few sports go, says Glanville.
“To have several go was nice. We had a lot of success. We had the boys soccer team; we almost won a couple of tournaments this year (and) medalled at zones which was nice to not just be a participant. The cross country did really well and boys basketball was resurrected.”
Kam Taylor, one of the PE teachers and the rugby coach, says the four had the heart and determination to get the job done.
Machado says she worked really hard for the award, including cleaning up afterwards.
“I did extra to show them that I deserved it because I bombarded them to get it too.”
According to Chretien, it was exciting and different to win an athletic award as opposed to an academic award.
Machado was given the award for girl soccer and rugby, Chretien for cross-country running and girls soccer, Waldner for basketball and soccer and Omer for basketball and soccer.
Waldner put a lot of emphasis on being a student first and challenged other students to try and take the award from him next year.
Sheldon Anholt, the PE department head, says it was quite easy to pick for senior for the senior boys because Waldner excelled at both of them and was a leading force in getting the boys basketball team together.
It was a great year except for COVID-19 happening, according to Taylor.
“It was one of the highest participation levels of students that actually participated in sports this year,” he says. “I’m looking forward to coaching next year.”
Anholt and Glanville took jobs in Williams Lake. Glanville says that Taylor has done a really good job with the rugby and they’ve recruited some really good community coaches and have put them in place to fill their roles.
“We’ve got some good people and I think that this crop of athletes is keen and excited and they’ve got a taste of travelling and being a part of something and hopefully the success will keep breeding more success.
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