Spring Sports Recap 2024
PICS had another busy sports season. Badminton, Senior High Soccer, and Track and Field ran this spring. It is such a blessing that we are able to offer so many different programs for our students. This year in Badminton we ran a busy junior high badminton program with three tournaments and our senior high athletes had the opportunity to play to go to provincials. This year, our 7-9 Badminton group had 29 players! The season was very fast and short, only lasting a month and a half (although to some of us, it seemed like a long season). Our first tournament was a huge 14-school tournament at M.E. La Zerte School. Friday was a long day with lots of waiting in between games, but it was worth it! Our school left with a couple medals and ended up placing 9th out of 14 at this tournament, which was amazing considering it was our first year competing! Next up was our cities qualifier tournament, which not everyone was able to attend due to limited spots. Through match up after match up in practices and stats, players were chosen to compete for our school. This tournament was quick, and some players qualified for cities! At the end of cities, Renee deVries and Kaelyn deGraaf left with 1st place medals for Senior Girls Doubles! Our season ended the same way it did last year with a more fun, laid-back tournament against CCRS in Neerlandia. It was another quick tournament and it was a fun way to end the season!
Grades 10-12 were a smaller group. This was the first year of 10-12 so it was a learn as you go season. The zones qualifier tournament came up very quickly in the first week of April. Again, due to limited spots there were several games and stats looked at to determine who got to take which spot. There were three boys’ singles entries, and 1 mixed doubles entry. It was a hard-fought tournament but resulted in the end of our season very quickly.
It was amazing to see the level of growth from multiple players this season. It shows great promise for the badminton program to continue! Thank you to all the parents who volunteered their time to drive, watch games, etc. this year. It was very much appreciated! Thanks to Conrad Van Dyk and Kayleigh de Boer who also stepped up to help coach this extremely busy season. Also, a huge thank you to Liam de Boer for volunteering his time again this year to help coach! God’s blessing as you graduate and go forward to future studies.
The senior girls’ team had new coaches this year. Amy Harmata and Melissa Hillmer stepped up to run the team! This year in senior girls’ soccer, they worked hard to build a team they were all proud to be a part of. The team started with some uncertainty due to numbers and experience, and as the season progressed the team grew in its enthusiasm towards the sport and excitement in the athlete's ability to compete with larger schools. The scores did not reflect victory, but they didn't always reflect defeat. The team felt more success than the story the scoresheets told. As a team they often discussed the importance of working hard at all times, for themselves, for their teammates and to God's glory with the abilities they’ve been given. They discussed the importance of being the player on the field that everyone wants to play with because of attitude, commitment and character. They would ask themselves: Are we building the team up, or passively participating? Who do we want to be? The team worked hard to learn the many complexities of the game, and is excited for next year, Lord willing, to pick up where it left off. Thank you to all the girls who participated this year and thank you to all the fans who cheered the team on!
The PICS Senior Boys began their soccer season in mid-April. The team was coached by Luke Van Bostelen and Manny Veening. This year’s soccer team was a young team and was composed mainly of grade 10 and 11 students, with one grade 12 student. The team started the season with some early morning gym practices, where the boys focused on improving their ball control skills and getting back into the groove of soccer.The boys progressed into learning how to play their positions, and by the end of April they were having practices out on the PICS soccer field. Their first game was an exciting 1-0 win. The team continued improving throughout the season and found themselves competing well against some very talented teams. In particular, the team’s playoff game was very exciting. Although the boys found themselves down 1-0 in the first half, they continued battling and playing hard the entire game. With around 5 minutes left, they scored to tie the game 1-1. The boys had several chances to take the lead, including one shot that went off the crossbar. Unfortunately, the boys lost the game 2-1 in extra time after the opposing team scored on a tough bounce. However, the team was proud of how they played and competed.
Throughout the season, the team would open and close every practice and game in a word of prayer and do devotions together as a team. The boys continued to remind each other to show good sportsmanship and to display a positive attitude. Teammates encouraged each other to use their talents to honour and glorify the Lord and recognized that sports allow them to show Christ’s love to others. One of the opposing coaches noted to their coach that he could tell that the PICS team was a group of “fine young men.” The PICS Senior Boys soccer team learned a lot this season, and next season there will be many returning players and a good foundation to build upon. Thank you to all the parents, friends, staff, and community members who supported the team this year!
Track and Field is always a short but busy season, and the team has a have a lot to be thankful for. The team had a large amount of junior high athletes sign up this year and a smaller contingent of senior high athletes. It was the second year for Team Shirts for all participants which they all wore proudly to every event, and the second year for Team Captains. We had Deandra Dewitt leading our throwing team, Daniel Guesebroek leading our distance runners, and Jarren Leffers and April Kippers leading our sprint, hurdles and jumps athletes. Once again, the team was blessed to be able to hold some practices at Fowler Athletic Park in St. Albert at the start of practice season, and the team was also able to use the St. Albert Mustangs equipment, so they didn’t have to haul it all the way from PICS and back. A big thank you to the St. Albert Mustangs for doing this! Track and Field also had a great group of volunteers (from all sports not just track) to help build our brand-new long jump and triple jump runways and pits. A special thank you to Brandon Kobes for measuring out the pits, to Casey Leyenhorst last fall for digging the pits and runway trenches, to Les Van Assen for doing the bulk of the framing work until late Friday night, and to Gerald Kolkman for showing up with a skidsteer on Saturday to help move material where it needed to be. Great work everyone!
For the junior high group there were five grade 7 girls, two grade 7 boys, eight grade 8 girls, three grade 8 Boys, eight grade 9 girls, and two grade 9 boys who competed at the Edmonton City Zone Meet on May 25th.Of those 28 junior high athletes, there was one Grade 7 girl, four grade 8 girls, three grade 9 girls, two grade 7 boys, and three grade 8 boys qualified for City Championships. Notably we had three athletes qualify in multiple events, Renee Devries in the 200- and 400-meter sprints, Hannah Begin in Long Jump and 200-meter sprint, Kaitlyn Geusebroek in High Jump and the 400 meter sprint, and Simon Stadt in the 800M and 1500M runs.Thankfully this year did not have any meet cancelations due to smoke and rain, and our Jr. High City Championship meet happened on a different week than while the grade 7s were on their annual Jarvis Lake trip. This is the first time in years that the grade 7s were around to compete at City Championships.At City Championships the team finished 3rd overall in Team points with 41 in Teir 3 and our school was represented well. Noemi Koning picked up the lone medal for PICS. She won Gold in Girls Intermediate Javelin with an incredible throw of 30.16 meters and set a new school record. Along the way through the season there were several Jr. High Records broken and lots of new personal bests set by our athletes. Congratulations to all the Jr. High Track & Field athletes on a great season!
Onto the senior high team. It was again smaller than the junior high team, but it was a great group of enthusiastic and talented athletes who were not afraid to get out of their comfort zone and try some new events as is often the case with grade 10 athletes who now have the option to participate in up to four events whereas in junior high an athlete can only do two events!There were two grade 10 girls, four grade 10 boys, two grade 11 girls, two grade 11 boys, and two grade twelve girls who competed at Divisionals on May 14th. Of those 12 athletes competing, there were three boys and five girls who advanced to Zones/City Championships on May 23rd. A highlight at Divisionals was April Kippers breaking an 18-year-old City Record in Pole Vault with a Vault of 3.30 meters.At City Championships there were many great performances with two of them being Individual City Championship performances. April Kippers with Gold Medals in 80M Hurdles and Pole Vault competitions. As a team, the school placed second in 2A, our total team point score was 44.5. Of the athletes competing in City Championships, there were two athletes who advanced with three event entries to Provincials which was held here in Edmonton on June 7th and 8th.
Going into Provincials as defending Champions with only two athletes and this being our first year in 2A, the team knew their chances would be slim to repeat. The athletes worked extremely hard in tough weather conditions. April Kippers had a successful first day with a Silver in the 80M Hurdles, her highest finish ever in the Hurdles at a provincial level and also set the school with a time of 13.07. Saturday saw rain and cool temperatures for April and Kendra Dehaan. Kendra was coming into provincials as the 11th seed out of 12 entries and had an incredibly gutsy performance throughout her events and finished in 8th place. The Pentathlon is a new challenge for Kendra and with limited practice time as well as splitting her time with spring soccer, she performed extremely well. Looking forward to seeing what she can accomplish next year with more time to work on individual events. April competed in the Pole Vault competition on Saturday. Thankfully the rain held off for the majority of the event and she was able to clear 3.25 meters and take home her first Individual Provincial Gold Medal! She has been blessed over the years to have been part of two Provincial Gold Medal winning Basketball Teams, but this was her first individual gold medal achievement. She finished her PICS Track and Field career with two bronze and one silver medal in hurdles, and two silvers and one gold in Pole Vault. She will continue her athletics journey at the U of A next year competing for the Pandas in Pole Vault, Hurdles, and possibly High Jump…?
Throughout the season there were multiple PICS High School Track & Field records broken as well as one Edmonton City Record.
Thank you to all the athletes, parents, and coaches for working hard, driving, setting up and taking down tents, cheering and just showing up in general! Thank you all for your support.As we say goodbye to the Class of 2024, we would like to thank April Kippers and Deandra Dewitt for their contributions to Track & Field at PICS and for inspiring the younger grades and those around them to perform at their peak to the glory of God.As you continue your journey remember what it states in 1 Timothy 4:8: “For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
PICS has been truly blessed this year! We have had such an amazing team of coaches who have volunteered their time to help our athletes grow in character, leadership, and athletic ability. Thank you for all your hard work! Thank you to the community who comes out and supports all our different teams! Most of all, thank you to our Heavenly Father who has provided all these things for us!
Have a wonderful summer! Looking forward to seeing so many of our athletes continuing to grow and challenge themselves as we will be heading into the 2024-2025 school year!
Brittany Larson