West Kings honours athletes
Breckon, Abriel named senior athletes of the year
For Jenna Breckon, the appeal of playing with a team was enough to prompt her to hang up her figure skates and pick up a volleyball.
The 17-year-old Kingston girl was named the top senior female athlete at West Kings in June. Along with senior male athlete Jadon Abriel and 134 other student-athletes, she was honoured at the school’s athletics banquet, which handed out over 50 awards.
Breckon played volleyball and softball and participated in track at West Kings prior to graduation, but before that, she was a figure skater.
“I kind of started playing volleyball late – I used to be a competitive figure skater and went to nationals. Then I was asked to play volleyball in middle school,” she said.
That changed everything for Breckon, who has developed a passion for playing volleyball that she hopes to continue next year at Saint Mary’s, where she intends to try out for the team.
“I like that it’s a team sport,” she said. “When I was figure skating, it was just me, not a team. With volleyball, there’s a whole team behind you. I like travelling with my team, going to camps to meet people from other teams and competing against them.”
Breckon puts the time into her sport – she already plays in weekly camps, helped the West Kings team to second place at provincials and plays on a club team in Sackville that went to nationals in Alberta in May.
Multi-sport athlete
For Abriel, the sky was the limit on the number of sports he could play at West Kings. Soccer, football, baseball and multiple track events – the 400-metre, high jump, triple jump, and relays – were all highlights of his senior year.
“I always played a lot of sports,” he says. “Now I’m just used to it. They’re all at different times of the year, mostly, although there is some overlap sometimes, when the end of a season and the beginning of another season overlap.”
It’s hard to choose, but the 18-year-old’s passion for one sport outweighs the other.
“Baseball is my favourite – I’m not really sure why – but I’ve really gotten into playing it a lot more,” he said.
Receiving the award, the Kingston resident added, was a big honour.
“I wasn’t sure if I would get it or not – a lot of people expected I’d get it, because there aren’t a lot of people who would play so many sports,” he said. “It felt good to get it. I kind of thought I might’ve gotten it before now, I got one like it at Pine Ridge in Grade 8. Guess I saved the best for last.”
Abriel plans to attend Holland College on PEI this fall, where he plans to consider what sport teams may be available to join.
Intermediate athletes of the year were Brooklyn Bishop and Jaden Perry.