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King, Krentz and Williams capture top prize at Trojan Awards

After a highly competitive year of athletics, the coaching staff of R.D. Parker Collegiate had a tough time picking winners during the 2018 Trojan Awards ceremony June 13.
Dennita Cameron (middle right) and members of the senior girls’ basketball team shared the Ultimate
Dennita Cameron (middle right) and members of the senior girls’ basketball team shared the Ultimate award during the 2018 Trojan Awards ceremony.

After a highly competitive year of athletics, the coaching staff of R.D. Parker Collegiate had a tough time picking winners during the 2018 Trojan Awards ceremony June 13.

In some cases, they even allowed more than one student to attach their name to the coveted title of “athlete of the year.”

This came to pass during the presentation of the senior male athlete of the year award, which was shared between the duo of David King and Murphy Krentz.

Coach Eric Gallo-Paskey justified his decision by saying that these two have been an unstoppable badminton doubles team for the past couple years and finished off their best season yet in 2018 by capturing gold during the regional zones tournament and finishing in fourth place at provincials.

“Even in practice, there was nobody who was really giving them a run for their money,” Gallo-Paskey said in a May 15 conversation with the Thompson Citizen. “So in order for them to improve we had to get community players to come in who’ve been playing badminton for numerous years.”

Ashley Williams also impressed during this year’s badminton season and was named senior female athlete of the year largely because of her performances in soccer, volleyball, track and field and especially basketball.

Outside of being named the female Manitoba all-star basketball team, Williams also helped lead the senior girls’ basketball team to their third provincial title in the past four years.

Kale Mayor and Erica Anderson rounded out the rest of the top individual awards by being named junior male and female athlete of the year, respectively.

Coach Jeff Paradis described Mayor as “hardworking, dedicated” and an “all-around great guy,” while Karl Paterson recognized Anderson for excelling in soccer, volleyball, basketball, badminton and lacrosse.

Even though Dennita Cameron didn’t nab the plaque for senior female athlete of the year, she still made a big impression through her participation in the recent track and field provincials, where she won a gold medal for high jump by clearing a height of 1.56 metres.

However, this was far from Cameron’s best track performance, having been hampered by ankle injury earlier in zones.

Because she captured a provincial championship in spit of this injury, Cameron won the Ultimate award, which she shared with members of the senior girls’ basketball team.

The RDPC coaching staff also couldn’t decide on who displayed the best overall sportsmanship throughout the school year and decided to split the Spirit of Sport award between Emma Tomchuk and Chenelle Preston.

Graduating student Jonna McDonald, who collected a bronze medal in discus at  the track and field provincials, also took some time on Wednesday afternoon to remind the crowd that this year’s glut of athletic achievement wouldn’t be possible without the guidance and encouragement of the school’s coaching staff.

“I’m sure we can all agree that without the coaches … a lot of us would not be able to stand here saying that we are back-to-back divisional champions, that we’ve gone undefeated in zones or finally broke Flin Flon’s 10-year winning streak in soccer.”

“None of us would be here celebrating if it wasn’t for the coaches taking time out from their personal lives to help us become the best athletes we can be.”

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