The Burnaby Central Wildcats capped the high school year last month with its athletic banquet, celebrating the best of 2015-16 season.
This year’s Male and Female Grade 12 athletes of the year are Nathan Mah and Reesa Wright.
Mah’s accomplishments reflected his dedication to his sport and school work, as the track and field star will continue his pursuit at Simon Fraser University. He won silver at the provincials in the senior 200-metre dash, and anchored the Wildcats’ third-place finish in the 4 x 100m relay. An ankle injury, suffered while posting the quickest time in the qualifying heat, resulted in a fourth-place showing in the 100m dash. At the regionals, he won both the senior male 100- and 200m dashes.
“Nathan was a stand-out track and field athlete who is going to be running for SFU next year,” remarked athletic director Curtis Hodgson. “He anchored the 4x100 (relay) to a third-place finish at provincials… (Mah is ) also an outstanding leadership student at Central.”
Wright was involved with three sports – basketball, soccer and ultimate. She was the MVP of her senior soccer team and served as an athletic community role model.
“Toughness. High basketball IQ. Leadership. Words bantered about so generously they have lost some of their lustre,” noted Central senior girls basketball co-coach Peter van den Hoogen. “In Reesa’s case though, they are iron clad statements about her character and ability. Coach Chris Ducharme and myself hold Reesa in the highest regard because she is a tremendous athlete, school ambassador and fierce competitor, but most importantly because she gives back to the game, and is a good-hearted kid.”
Burnaby Central’s list of athletic award winners also saw wrestler Ansel Hait pick up the Male Grade 11, while a quartet share the Female Grade 11 award – Sara Brinkac, Danielle Labreche, Christine Lin and Jennifer Mascardo.
Brinkac’s award recognized her accomplishment in wrestling – establishing a school-first for winning a provincial 60-kg gold title. She pursues the sport at a high level, representing Canada at the Cadet Pan Am championships in Peru last week, finishing seventh overall.
Collecting the Grade 10 Athletes of the Year honours were Charles Yu (male) and Sylvia Ly (female), while the Grade 9 awards went to Keegan Chao and Richard Culleton (male) and Bethany Lim (female).
Connor Jung, for Grade 8 boys, and Maneesha Dhaliwal, Grade 8 girls, rounded out the major recipients.
