To say that the three Princess Margaret students who received the Senior Athlete Above and Beyond Award last week didn’t see it coming would be an understatement.
“It was a big time surprise, I didn’t even know that this award existed,” said Colton Van Camp, while the two other recipients, Kenzie Haberstock and Taylor Corrie, laughed and nodded in agreement.
This isn’t the first time the trio has shared some hardware, having won the Robin Muir Inspirational Award together two years ago.
“I wasn’t really expecting it,” said Haberstock, who played volleyball, basketball and was on the swim team this year. “It was kind of cool that we all won it again together.”
Along with the recognition of the senior athlete award, Corrie took home a school record this year participating on the most sports teams. Corrie donned the Mustangs jersey for volleyball, basketball, soccer, tennis and badminton, as well as being one of three recipients of the top Grade 12 girls athlete award.
“Sports have always been one of my favourite things to do,” Corrie said. “It’s a great honour, it’s been amazing going to this school for the past four years and it was really great to receive it.”
She said her big draw towards athletics is working with a team and that tennis provincials were a highlight this year, with the Mustangs coming in 10th.
Van Camp, who was also one of the recipients of the top Grade 12 boys athlete award, said tennis provincials was a favourite moment this year and coming in third in the province in volleyball.
“Getting third was a big moment for us,” Van Camp said. “Getting most sportsmanlike team in tennis was pretty cool because we just went out there to have fun.”
Despite not knowing the award existed, it was still a good feeling to get his name called.
“It feels awesome. I don’t know, I just love to play sports. I wasn’t looking for an award or anything. I was just having fun, doing what we do, and it’s nice to be recognized,” Van Camp said.
The top athletes by grade, who were given awards on June 11 at a ceremony held at Princess Margaret are Maxwell Smeltzer, Grade 9 boys; Simran Sidhu, Grade 10 girls; Prabhpreet Chahal, Grade 10 boys; Shinaaz Johal and Madison Cook, Grade 11 girls; Jacob Winstone, Grade 11 boys; Corrie, Megan Admussen-Blair and Kendra Penner, Grade 12 girls; Van Camp and Kohl Linder, Grade 12 boys.
Jivraj Grewal and Reece Haberstock received the Robyn Muir Inspirational Award for Grade 10 athletes.