WINDSOR, N.S. — King’s-Edgehill School celebrated its athletes at its annual athletics banquet on May 29, where six athletes won the top eight awards.
“It’s been a great year for athletics here at KES,” says Kevin Lakes, the athletics director for the junior school.
With the annual banquet honouring the top student-athletes, and reminding everyone of just how much they’d done, Lakes says what the staff is most proud of is that all of the students were active.
Lakes, like the rest of the athletics staff at KES, enjoys this annual event because it represents how important physical activity is to the school and to the students.
“It’s one of the pillars of our school,” says Lakes, “and we don’t see athletics as being extracurricular, we see it as co-curricular, because in this day and age an education isn’t just academics; it’s athletics, academics, service, the arts, and more.”
Lakes also talks about the reasons behind why KES students are required to take part in athletics each term.
“Different studies keep showing that young people need to have physical activity in their lives in order to be healthy and happy — and we’re well aware of that. That’s why all of our students do sports every term," says Lakes.
Aside from the physical benefits students gain from taking part in athletics, Lakes says that athletics also gives the students opportunities to try new things, have fun, and meet new people.
“It makes them try things they never would try, and for some of them, it then becomes a lifelong activity,” says Lakes. “You’ve got hockey players trying yoga and loving it, or soccer players getting into softball.”
Lakes adds that “even students that maybe don’t see themselves as athletes get involved daily in athletics, whether it was going to Martock, the swimming pool, or playing badminton.”
Lakes also says that, of the awards students receive, his favourite is the Scholar Athlete of the Year Award, as it honours athletes for their high achievements in both academics and athletics.
“In many ways, the scholar athlete award is my favourite award, because it highlights both aspects,” says Lakes. “And we’ve found in the junior school that it’s often the top students (who) are also the top athletes, because they bring the values and the discipline and the work ethic to both sides of it.”
All of the school’s major award winners participated in at least three varsity sports.
KES Major Award Winners
Junior Male Scholar Athlete — Righo Etou
Junior Female Scholar Athlete — Aria Macdonald
Junior Male Athlete — Righo Etou
Junior Female Athlete — Aria Macdonald
Senior Male Scholar Athlete — Eric Dufour
Senior Female Scholar Athlete — Lea Macleod
Senior Male Athlete — Alex Otto
Senior Female Athlete — Amy Marchand-Dion
