CANMORE – Provincial champions, vocal captains and a clutch goal scorer were among this year’s elite crop of high school athletes of the year in Canmore.
At the annual award ceremonies, Grace Pigott and Elliot Jantz of Canmore Collegiate High School (CCHS) Crusaders received female and male athlete of the year awards, and Mikaela Holthuis and Ben Murphy won the Knight of Honour awards.
For Our Lady of the Snows (OLS) Avalanche, Camilla Faehndrich, Meagan Lang, Corey Banks and Isaac Wilson were the top senior and junior athletes.
Jantz, who earned MVP of his senior boys basketball team, was instrumental in leading the school to its first provincial football championship as a rookie quarterback with the Canmore Wolverines.
“I really think it’s a team award,” Jantz said of his athlete of the year nod. “We went all this way and it was a full team effort.”
In addition to the Wolverines inspirational provincial championship, the team’s head coach, Wade Buckley, was named CCHS Coach of the Year.
Jantz, a senior, impressed during the Wolverines playoff run and was trusted to run the offence that mixed of running the ball himself and big gain passing.
This summer, Jantz will quarterback with the Calgary Colts of the Canadian Junior Football League.
Pigott, an ironwoman in high school athletics playing on four different teams, found her biggest team success with the Banff Bears girl’s rugby team, winning at zones and placing fourth at provincials. Pigott was the go-to conversion kicker for the Bears.
She thinks her persistence to be better helped win the athlete of the year award.
“My parents were super proud of me and to see my neighbours Gary and Kay [Anderson] up there giving me that award, it really meant something to me and I was super happy,” she said. “I feel that most of it was for my attitude and my love of the sport, rather than my skills and what I can bring.”
Banks, a captain on three OLS sports teams, had a thrilling game-winning goal in the junior handball provincial championship, scoring with 14 seconds left on the clock to give the Avalanche a one-goal victory over the Sherwood Heights Cougars.
“I knew I had good season and all, but I didn’t know if I was going to get [athlete of the year], so I was on edge,” he said. “I always tried to do better and play my best.”
Wilson dreamed of becoming athlete of the year since entering high school, and through persistence and hard work, the Grade 12 found success in his final year at OLS.
“It was my goal since junior high to become athlete of the year, so it’s pretty exciting,” Wilson said.
The multiple team captain stepped up where he was needed in basketball, handball and volleyball.
“This year, I took a leadership role and was captain for all three teams [I played on],” he added.
Faehndrich helped bring zones silver to the OLS girls’ basketball team. A two-time OLS athlete of the year winner, she credited her senior athlete of the year award to her coaches and teammates.
“You just develop that relationship,” she said. “I think having a coach and having those people around you, that makes you – it’s all about team work and I feel like everyone else pushing me and the coaches giving me the insight, which is kind of what helped me throughout the whole year.”
Getting that first big goal in handball was Lang’s top memory this season, but after the award ceremonies, she had a new one.
The junior athlete set a goal at the beginning of the 2018-19 season to have her best sports year and was “through the moon” to have won athlete of the year.
“It’s been really rewarding,” she said. “I think my leadership within all my teams and reliability [helped me win the award]. The coaches asked me to step up.”
