Avery Ritchie (Grade 11) and Kyle Tomchuk (Grade 12) earned athlete of the month status for contributing to R.D. Parker Collegiate’s 2018-19 senior basketball program in their own unique ways.
Ritchie served as the senior girls’ rock from their first tournament win in mid-December to capturing a bronze medal at the recent AAA provincial championships in Winnipeg.
“She was the most consistent throughout the entire season, the only one on the stating line that didn’t get hurt or was sick,” said coach Christine Sim. “There were some weekends she literally played 120 minutes of basketball and didn’t come off the floor.”
While the senior boys’ squad wasn’t as successful, getting knocked out of the regional Zone 11 championships in early March, Tomchuk said he found this season personally gratifying.
Having lost 10 of their 12 returning players from last year, Tomchuk was happy to close out his last season of RDPC athletics by mentoring the new blood and planting seeds for future iterations of the team.
“These guys have learned what it is to work hard and what it is to lose and experience how much harder they need to work to win,” he said. “They’re a great group of guys and they’ll definitely figure it out.”
Coach Derek Barnett also said Tomchuk truly came into his own as a leader this season, which made him an easy choice for athlete of the month.
“His leadership was infectious to the rest of the team in that sense,” he said. “Not to mention his experience having been through zones and provincials the year prior and passing down that wisdom to the younger players was really valuable for us.”
Despite getting honoured together in March, Ritchie and Tomchuk have radically different plans for their next respective school years.
Once she enters Grade 12, Ritchie wants to bring the senior girls’ basketball team back to provincials and win that coveted gold medal.
“I think we’re going to do really good in provincials next year,” she said. “We’re going to have the same group of girls.”
Meanwhile, Tomchuk is set to graduate in June and has his eye on post-secondary education in the fall.
Even though he isn’t sure if he’ll be playing sports at college or university, Tomchuk said he’s still proud of all the work he put into his RDPC athletics career, having already received athlete of the month status for soccer and junior basketball.
“I’m grateful for everything I’ve accomplished through sport,” he said. “I just want to take some time off, focus on school, scholarships, things like that.”
