Pontiac High School brought back its annual sports banquet and award ceremony last Thursday. This is the first time the banquet has been held since 2013.
Over the course of the event, awards for hockey, track and field, basketball, overall athletics and sportsmanship were given out across age and gender categories.
“We’re pretty excited to be doing this. We’re back trying something new at night like this. It’s a great atmosphere in here and a lot of people which is awesome,” said teacher Chad Davis, during his opening remarks.
Physical Education teacher and host Darcy Findlay started off the event by thanking the coaches, volunteers and parents for all their help and sacrifices in making the various sports programs at PHS possible.
He then moved on to give an overview of the changes the school has seen to its sports program during the 2022-2023 school year, which include the newly reopened fitness gym and soon-to-be-built multisport court on school grounds that will be open to the community.
“This fall we were fortunate to have some former students of Pontiac High School donate some money that allowed us to renovate the Petty-Holmes Fitness Gym. We were able to raise over $12,000 and created a new fitness gym, which is directly off our gymnasium so that the kids have access to it every day,” said Findlay. “As soon as the school year ends, we’re fortunate as well to have partnered with our school board, the Municipality of Shawville, the Municipality of Clarendon and the Shawville Lions Club to revitalize the tennis court area into some multi-sport courts, which would include basketball, floor hockey, badminton, tennis, pickleball, you name it, you can do everything in one area. So that’s going to be a great project.”
A special video message from PHS alumnus and Panther Hall of Famer Teena Murray was then played for the student from the Pittsburg Penguins locker room.
During the message, she discussed her past ambitions of competing with boys in both hockey and basketball and how her career ultimately led her to the NHL as the Senior VP of Integrated Performance for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Overall she extolled the virtues of hard work over everything else as the key to success.
After that, the award ceremony began. The coaches presenting the awards spoke of the hard work, dedication, and attitudes of every recipient.
After the awards concluded, all recipients were congratulated.
Here’s a list of the winners not pictured below:
Charlie Ouellette
Senior Boys Basketball Rookie of the Year, Track and Field Top Male, Grade 10 Athlete of the Year
Cameron Bernier Winner of Grade 7 Athlete of the Year Award, Junior Boys Basketball Sportsmanship Award
Morgan Barr Senior Boys Basketball Most improved (1) Award
Ryder Lemay Senior Boys Basketball Most improved (2) Award
James Weston Heart of a Panther Award
Tristan Chales Senior Boys Basketball MVP (1)
Faith Hamilton Grade 8 Female Athlete of the Year Award
Issac Graham, Cross Country Most Improved
Hudson Sheppard Junior Boys Basketball Hustler Award
Ashton Deschenes Junior Boys Basketball Dedicated Award
Josephine Hutton Junior Girls Basketball Sportsmanship Award
Bryce Hudson Winner of Male Hockey Defensive Player of the Year Award
Brett Thoms
Shawville May 18, 2023
