SABRES STANDOUT AN ALL-AROUND STAR
Pontoni earns two awards for combination of athletic feats and community work
Sandwich Sabres senior Alessandra Pontoni showed she’s more than just a great athlete.
On Friday, the 18-year-old Pontoni won the Royal Arcanum Award as the area’s top high school female athlete for large schools. On Monday, Pontoni claimed the Repko Cup as the top female student-athlete for large schools.
“To win both is mind-blowing to me,” Pontoni said. “It just makes me feel really good.”
Pontoni competed in track and field, cross-country, volleyball and soccer and is headed to the University of Detroit on a soccer scholarship where she will study mechanical engineering.
A two-sport all-star, Pontoni also volunteered at a day camp, was a peer helper, tutor, coached Villanova’s junior girls hockey team, helped with a toy drive and grade school cross-country meet — all while maintaining a 93 per cent average.
“My parents have been really focused with me,” Pontoni said. “Have fun with your sports, but school’s your No. 1 priority and I’ve tried to balance both equally. Not easy at all.
“Time management has been huge. I’m really thankful because my coaches inside and outside of school have let me play multiple sports and miss practices if I had tests.”
Pontoni will receive $375 for her post-secondary education along with Brennan’s Chloe Clement, who was named the female winner for small schools, and Hadre Cup winners Thomas Byrne, from St. Anne, who won male student-athlete of the year for large schools, and Assumption’s Paul Mikhail, who won for small schools.
The 18-year-old Byrne put in more than 100 hours of community service with the Optimist Club, Tecumseh Saints basketball, the Stigma Enigma fashion show, tutoring and shovelling snow and doing yard work for seniors.
On top of that, he played volleyball, basketball, badminton, soccer and golf at St. Anne while maintaining a 91-per-cent grade average.
“I feel honoured,” said Byrne, who will study engineering at the University of Windsor. “It’s a big award and a big accomplishment.
“I was just trying to manage time the best I could with tests the next day or homework and having a game that night. I’m just happy I could do good in both.”
Clement competed in cross-country, volleyball, basketball, badminton and soccer and was a two-sport all-star.
“I looked up some stuff on Sandy Repko and what she did and all the different things she did in the community,” said the 18-year-old Clement, who is headed to the University of Windsor to study mathematics. “(The award) wasn’t just one thing and that was cool.”
Clement piled up 410 hours in community service. She created Brennan’s Holy Day of Service where every student at the school did community work on Holy Thursday. She was on student council, a member of the social justice league, a student mentor and a Rotary Club member while maintaining a 95-percent average.
“It’s very nice to be recognized for everything else, but the other stuff, like the volunteer work, I feel like I just do it to do the volunteer work,” Clement said. “It’s not so much for something, but definitely good to be recognized for that and for people to see it’s not just sports and not just volunteer work, that it all kind of goes together, is nice.”
The 18-year-old Mikhail competed in volleyball, basketball and baseball, but was shocked at winning the award.
“I was told I might be up for it and thought, ‘No way I’ll win this,’” Mikhail said. “I looked at the past candidates and there were a lot of really skilled athletes from a lot of different fields. So I really didn’t think I would win. It blew my mind away.”
He volunteered at the Detroit Free Press Marathon and Brennan Tech Summit. He was a member of the We Love Windsor Youth Initiative, collected cans for the school’s annual drive, volunteered at Muskoka Woods and was a presenter for a math workshop. His 76 hours of community service also featured time with the Assumption music program, raising funds for missions, giving away Christmas turkeys and helping the Downtown Business Association while maintaining an 88.5 per cent average in the International Baccalaureate Program.
“I’ve always had a busy schedule and I’m kind of comfortable with that over the years,” said Mikhail, who will study business at Western University. “It’s nice to have those things recognized.”
Two other athletes were recognized for their volunteer work with the Grant Zavitz Award: Catholic Central’s Elias Tokola and Vista Academy’s Sophia Scott. Each receive $200 for post-secondary education.