Mack, Salmon named Talons’ top athletes
Cole Mack and Jasmin Salmon stole the show on Wednesday night at the Medicine Hat Lodge.
The pair of varsity athletes each took home four awards at Eagle Butte High School’s athletics banquet, including male and female athletes of the year.
“It means a lot,” said Mack, who also earned the title of boys basketball MVP, shared the boys volleyball MVP with Hayden Klaiber and split the AAA Award with Hailey Hill. “It’s a big encouragement boost and really shows how much work I’ve put into everything and how it’s paid off.”
While it was a night dedicated to their achievements, Salmon couldn’t help but see the evening as bittersweet, as it truly marks the end of an era for the school’s Grade 12 athletes.
“It’s nice to be recognized but I think all the teams feel that it’s kind of heartbreaking knowing we’re not going to be playing together in the gym again,” said Salmon, who was named the girls volleyball and basketball MVP, shared the senior cross country MVP title with Noah Auger and Hailey Hill and helped earn the team academic award with the girls basketball squad. “I’ve played sports for the past three years and had many different coaches and they’ve all been amazing. They’re all such a huge support and they’re a reason a lot of our girls are going to play at the next level.”
Both Salmon and Mack have plans to move on with their sporting careers. Mack earned himself a scholarship to compete on the volleyball court at Lethbridge College, along with his Talons teammate Klaiber, while Salmon hopes to take the pitch with the Medicine Hat College Rattlers soccer team in the fall.
Eagle Butte also recognized its rising talent, with a handful of awards going out to the team’s junior varsity players. Abby MacQuarrie and Brandon Becker won the girls and boys junior varsity volleyball MVP titles, respectively.
Abbi Thorimbert and Triston Duscherer earned the girls and boys basketball MVP nods, Carter Simpson and Thorimbert won the junior cross country MVP titles and Trevor Mickey and Shelby Schmidt took home the intermediate cross country MVP awards.
Mickey went on to win the senior boys badminton MVP, Ty Jans took the intermediate title. Duscherer and Lexie Waldbauer took badminton’s junior MVP awards.