Cardinal Athletes Recognized

WAITSBURG - Seventy- three student athletes from Waits­burg, Prescott and Jubilee schools were honored at this year's fall sports awards ceremony Mon­day night at the Waitsburg High School auditorium.

Participants in cheerlead­ing, cross country, volleyball and football were honored. A separate event honoring soccer participants was held Tuesday at Prescott.

Cheer coach Vickie Hamann led off the festivities introducing her fall varsity and junior varsity cheer squad. Margaret Potolic­chio, of Waitsburg, and Blanca Quiroz and Selina Benito, of Prescott, attended the ceremony for the junior varsity squad. Ya­jaira Barragan was absent. All members of the varsity squad attended, including Katy Hofer, Samantha Moss, Maddy Witt, Chelsey Brannock, Jessie Hop­kins, Heidi Miller and Bailey Edwards.

Miller took the award for most improved cheerleader. Moss and Hofer split honors for most inspirational, and Hofer was named squad MVP.

Harrier coach Joanna Lan­ning came to the podium next to honor her seven-member high school cross country team. The middle school team, which trained alongside them this year, joined them onstage.

Cross country team mem­bers in attendance included team MVP Seth Deal, of Waits­burg, Coach's Award winners Tewedros McDowell and Jacob Dinefield, of Jubilee, Corey Braxton-also of Jubilee, and Trent Hafen, of Waitsburg. E.J. Meserve won Most Inspirational and Kevin Kamel won Most Improved. Neither was in at­tendance.

Upon giving the MVP award to Deal, Lanning joked about her standout senior.

"He overlooked my short­comings as a coach, and in return I overlooked the fact that he had no shortcomings," Lanning said.

Volleyball climbed to the stage next with head coach Angie Potts and assistant Wendy Rich­ards doling out honors. Richards first introduced her small junior varsity squad composed of Cait­lyn Mohney, Caitlyn Jones, Josie Tyler, Jada Stansell and Paige Wood in attendance, and Mikala DeRuwe and Kassidy Kuykend­ahl in abstencia. Potts called the varsity roll next, starting with Jones and Wood who floated up to varsity part-time. Potts then announced the rest of her squad in class order: freshman Jaidyn Brown, sophomores Analise Salazar, Stacia Deal and Saman­tha Fedderson, juniors Haley Dorman and Enedina Fuentes, and seniors Krystal Harris, Rhi­annon Chapman, Adriana Benito and Jennifer Nichols.

Potts proclaimed Fuentes Most Improved, Chapman and Fedderson shared Most Inspira­tional honors, and Krystal Harris was named MVP. Potts pointed out that the MVP award was not based on team votes, but on which player is statistically the best on the team. Harris was at or near the top of every statisti­cal category this year. Potts also introduced all-league honorable mention Fedderson, and first team all-league selection Harris.

Finally, the WP football coaching staff strode center stage to announce the letter winners and participants from this year's squad whose season is the only one still going. Bartlow first in­troduced the five members of the WP squad who earned all-league honors-Chance Leroue, Danny Stansell, Roy Ebong, Ben Shafer, and Dalton Estes. Next, Bartlow announced frosh participants Jason Carter, Kobie Brown, Aus­tin Lockard, Levi Hatfield and Tristan Newman. Lockard was named Freshman of the Year.

Sophomores Jada Alfred, Ty­ler Shafer, Stansell, Leroue, Talen Larsen, Luke Alexenko, and Owen Lanning took stage next. Juniors Nick and Chad Pearson, Dalton LaRue, Trent Kitsel­man, Nate Bartlow and Corey Brownlee followed. Lastly, the large senior class of Thompkins, Stevens, Alleman, Keith Lake, Estes, Matt Hoilman, Alex Dill, Ben Shafer, Stirling Eastman, Keanu Pang, Roy Ebong and Jesse Rawson gathered behind coach Jeff Bartlow at the podium.

Bartlow noted that the seniors' career record in high school foot­ball games is a whopping 46-4.

Shafer was named Lineman of theYear. Ebong earned the title Most Improved.And Leroue was honored with the Mr. DefenseAward.

Estes claimed a triple crown of awards. He was proclaimed Most Inspirational, Special Teams Player of the Year and Cardinal of the Year.

Special teams coach Mark Hauck called Estes, "the toughest kid, I've ever met, and I've been working at Jubilee for the past seven years!"

Lines coach Allen Wilson marveled at Shafer's advance­ment from only starting football as a sophomore to becoming the best lineman on the team two years later.