If there is a template for the perfect qualities for district high school female athlete of the year, you needn’t look any farther than Amanda Zacharuk.
The New Westminster Secondary School grad has been the consummate scholar/athlete, beginning as a Grade 8 freshman.
Last year, the all-round athlete became the first-ever student in the history of NWSS to amass more than 250 points in the school’s graded point system that determines its annual top athletes on a total per-sport basis.
Only one other New West student, Catrina Guglielmucci in 2009, has ever amassed more than 200 career points.
“In high school, I decided to pursue the athletic route. I just wanted to be part of a team and to work for other people,” said Zacharuk, who surpassed all past NWSS grads as the all-time career points leader.
A career athlete in cross-country, volleyball, track and field and five consecutive years on the senior varsity basketball team, Zacharuk was awarded a special necklace from the school to represent her unique record total.
“I like to have a full and busy life,” she added. “I just wanted to be involved in everything because I have a fear of missing out. It’s all about friends and memories.”
In her high school career, Zacharuk went to a provincial championship tournament four times in track and field and three each in cross-country and basketball.
The highlight for the former Miss New Westminster was a gold medal in her final high school sporting event – the girls’ 4x400 metre relay.
“We PB’d in the heats and in the 100m, and that kind of fuelled our 4x4 to do really well,” she said. “Just before the race, we were focusing on how far we had come as a team. When it came down to race time we felt we could rely on each other to run our best. We felt we could make the podium, and when I watched Raquel (Tjernagel) run that last leg, that was just amazing.”
New Westminster went on to win the program’s first-ever women’s and overall aggregate provincial banner at the B.C. track and field meet.
“To achieve that with a team was special,” Zacharuk said. “To win two banners and win gold in the 4x4 was just the perfect way to round my high school career. It was amazing, just incredible.
“I felt like we won it for them, for our school, our community and past grads. It was an honour and a pleasure.”
Zacharuk’s record point achievement was accomplished despite missing most of her junior year through a knee injury.
But that did not slow down the active teen.
“I didn’t want the injury to consume me. So I decided to strive through,” she said.
Zacharuk got involved in the Miss New Westminster pageant, volunteer coached high school sports teams, helped outwith the Little League provincials and the B.C. Senior Games, and at the Red Cross equipment loans department, where she got her leg brace.
“I guess it shows my passion for sport, I’m always smiling. … Definitely hardships say a lot about who we are and how we cope. Why focus on the bad when there are so many positives to focus on? They are what I like to remember the most.
“I think it is a part of who I am. … It helped me push past things and helped me get better,” she said. “I’ve just learned to focus on the right things. It just seemed the better way to go.”
Indeed, Zacharuk seems to have accepted each challenge set in front of her with similar aplomb.
From stepping on to the hardcourt as an intimidated first-year bantam to improving her game on regional and provincial teams, Zacharuk learned how to cope with stresses and, more importantly, how to overcome them.
“I learned that every contribution counted,” she said. “I try to see myself as an equal and not just a leader. … I’m nice, but there are times when it’s ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.’”
Zacharuk will be moving on to Burnaby Mountain to begin her post-secondary career at Simon Fraser University, where she hopes to pursue a career in sport physiology.
What she will discover about herself up there is still an unwritten page in Zacharuk’s next chapter in life. But she already has volumes of memories to look back on.
“I really enjoyed my time (at NWSS), and I’ll look back on my career here and smile,” she said.
