What a bunch of do-it-alls One multi-sport Winnipeg high school athlete plays on 11 different teams, others play on as many as six or seven. And one finds time to sell rat leashes between games By: Mike Sawatzky Posted: 2:07 PM CDT Friday, Oct. 6, 2023

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This article was published 06/10/2023 (734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s nothing casual about the way Payton Cvetkovic embraces the sports culture at her high school.

The 16-year-old performs at a high level on 11 sports teams at Dakota Collegiate and always seems to be looking for something different.

“I love trying new things,” says Cvetkovic. “When I came to high school, there were a lot of opportunities. So, I just joined a bunch of different sports and tried out for a bunch of different things. I like the aspect of being on a team and I love representing my school.”

Lacrosse, perhaps her biggest passion, could be her ticket to an NCAA scholarship, but she also participates in volleyball, basketball, indoor and outdoor track and field, cross-country, indoor and outdoor soccer, rugby, team handball and badminton.

“I wouldn’t say I have a favourite,” says Cvetkovic, the daughter of former Blue Bombers long snapper Chris Cvetkovic. “I’m trying to go to college for lacrosse and so I’m starting to talk to colleges… but I do enjoy everything I do.”

In an era of specialization, she isn’t the only local high-schooler playing in multiple sports. Here’s a look at the Grade 11 student-athlete and four other Manitoba standouts:

Payton Cvetkovic, Grade 11, Dakota

A right side on the varsity volleyball team, Cvetkovic was a starting guard on last year’s junior varsity provincial championship basketball team and she will be debuting with the varsity team in 2023-24, which will be heavily favoured to three-peat as provincial champion.

In Grade 10, she also helped the school’s team handball squad win a Manitoba title.

“I don’t know how she does it,” says Lancers varsity girls basketball head coach Eric Sung. “Even last year, she had some injuries and she managed to figure out time to rehab and rest and recover.

“It’s pretty great here at the school — all the coaches work together to manage when you have seasons running at the same time — just kind of sharing and figuring out what’s best for her. Ultimately, it’s her decision. She just kind of decides where she needs to go.”

At last spring’s track and field provincials, Cvetkovic captured JV gold in the 400 metres and silver in the pentathlon, which combines high jump, long jump, 100 metres, 800 metres and shot put.

In summer, the midfielder had a tryout with the national U20 lacrosse team, while also appearing at lacrosse showcase events in New York and Chicago. This past weekend, she travelled to Minneapolis to play in a tournament with the Minnesota Chill lacrosse club.

How does Cvetkovic handle her academic load while managing her various athletic pursuits?

“I just make time during my spares,” she says. “If I have homework, that’s when I’ll do it. Or in between my sports I manage it, but I just try to manage my time in class so I don’t have to do homework.”

Dakota athletic director Ryan Hudson has never seen commitment like Cvetkovic’s.

“Her time management is elite and she works hard,” says Hudson. “You can tell from being around her she had that motor… she’s pretty elite in every sport she does, too, so we’re pretty proud of her.”

“We don’t want them just playing one sport and quitting everything else and then the injury rates go up that way. With all the specializing too early in terms of the long-term athlete development model, we want our athletes to be just like Payton. I think she takes it farther than anyone else probably would.”

 

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Sydney Boughton, Grade 9, Sturgeon Heights

Boughton has gone through a rocky introduction to high school volleyball. Recently, she landed awkwardly on the referee’s stand and strained her left ankle.

The injury has temporarily relegated the 14-year-old to a walking boot but it hasn’t dampened her enthusiasm for the game — she hopes to return to the court shortly while also returning to practice with the school’s hockey squad.

Curiously, a hockey/volleyball combo athlete is not unusual at Sturgeon Heights. Two members of head coach Ryan Vermette’s provincial AAAA varsity girls volleyball champs in 2022-23 also played hockey.

The 5-9 Boughton is one of her team’s main attackers, playing left side on the No. 2-ranked JV girls volleyball squad.

“She’s extremely athletic,” says Vermette, who is coaching Boughton’s team. “And in the sport of volleyball, she’s a complete player. Her attack, her passing and serve are all above average…. She’s just a good all-around team player, she includes all the girls and she’s an athlete who gets it, on the court and off the court.”

Boughton aspires to play at the U Sports level when she graduates from high school, reaching a level played by her cousin, former University of Winnipeg star Taylor Boughton.

“She’ll have to grow a little bit to be an outside hitter but if that’s not her avenue, she’s so good with her footwork, defence and passing that she could also be a potential libero one day,” says Vermette.

Boughton’s youth won’t limit her playing time with the varsity hockey team.

“She’ll be one of our top players this year,” says head coach Erin Johnsrud. “As a Grade 9, she’s pretty skilled. We’re lucky to have her… she’s a very fast player and sees the ice very well. Even in drills, the way she’s moving on the ice she seems to have a very good hockey IQ.”

 

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Madison Schettler, Grade 12, Garden City

She’s an ace cross-country runner, starting left side on the varsity girls volleyball, a starting guard on the basketball and budding entrepreneur — Madison Schettler seems to do it all.

The 17-year-old won the first two cross-country races of the Kilcona Peguis Athletic Conference season and she’ll be a key member of the Gophers team that will be pressing to return to the Manitoba AAAA varsity hoops final.

All but one starter returns from the team that lost to a Dakota juggernaut in the championship game.

“I’m definitely excited to see what we can do this year — we’re definitely going to try to pull out the win in provincials, but it’ll take a lot of hard work,” says Schettler.

Schettler leads by example on and off the court.

“She’s super committed and she balances all of it quite well and she also does quite well academically,” says Garden City phys-ed teacher Jacqueline McDonald. “She’s very organized, very mature. We have a very strong group of Grade 12 female athletes right now and I think also there’s a bit of an accountability piece amongst them.”

In last spring’s track and field provincials, Schettler anchored the school to gold in the medley relay, silver in the 4×400-metre relay while earning a fourth-place finish in the varsity girls 1,500 metres and fifth in the 800 metres.

“It’s something I really enjoyed doing,” says Schettler. “It became more important last year during track season and it’s something that I want to consider doing in university.”

Varsity girls basketball coach Roberto Campanella Jr. says Schettler’s footwork is impeccable, owing in part to the variety of training she takes on.

“Her endurance is there, her cardio is there, she can run up and down the court and not even show that she’s tired,” says Campanella. “She’s one of our better defenders. So, it definitely carries over to what we’re trying to do as a program.”

Schettler isn’t all about sports. During the pandemic, she was inspired to start her own online business, Mad About Rats.

“It’s kind of interesting — most people laugh – but I sell rat leashes. I own rats…,” says Schettler. “People across Canada, the U.S., even people in France or Germany (buy them). It’s actually more successful than people would think.”

Rat leashes for owners who want to walk their pet rats go for $11 apiece.

“Many people have ideas about them: they think, ‘Oh, street rats,’ but they’re actually cute and good pets,” she says. “They’re very well behaved and they can do tricks and stuff, too.”

 

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Kal-El Wilson, Grade 11, Neelin

In the fictional planet of Krypton, Superman’s birth name, Kal-El, translates to “Star child.”

Kal-El Wilson, a 16-year-old Brandonite, is getting accustomed to a starring role.

“My dad’s a really big Superman fan and he grew up loving it and so he decided to name me Kal-El,” explains Wilson, who runs the 1,500 and 3,000 metres on the track and plays for the school’s volleyball, basketball, badminton, baseball and golf squads.

Wilson might be on the gridiron, too, if lower enrolment numbers hadn’t forced Neelin to disband its football program two years ago.

Last summer, Wilson pitched and played multiple infield and outfield positions for the Brandon AAA Marlins baseball team.

“He’s a kid that has potential — and a lot has to happen between now and Grade 12 — to compete at another level,” says longtime Neelin teacher and basketball coach Don Thomson. “But he has that potential right now that people are kind of keeping an eye on him.”

Wilson could be due for a breakout year.

He grew two inches to 6-4 in the months after helping Neelin to a provincial junior varsity volleyball title and a third-place finish in basketball.

“Volleyball was kind of just natural for me and I got better as the time went on in basketball,” says Wilson, a left side in volleyball who took up basketball in Grade 9. “Mr. Thomson has been teaching me how to play and it’s only been getting better and better as the time goes on.”

Thomson believes Wilson is a prime example of the upside of playing multiple sports.

“He was just trying to figure the game out but got better and better because he’s just such a natural athlete,” says Thomson. “That’s an old issue when it comes to multi-sport kids. I had a junior hockey coach that really encouraged multi-sport, but multi-sport in his mind didn’t affect his hockey season. In other words, if you’re gonna play golf in the spring when hockey is over, that’s great.

“But at the end of the day, the kids we’re talking about here are mixing seasons together which is, to be honest, really difficult. But it’s quite a feat when you think about it.”

 

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Paige Schatkowsky, Grade 12, Vincent Massey

Schatkowsky is a woman on a mission, deftly combining a demanding academic program with outstanding achievement on the court and on the field.

The 18-year-old, who averaged 20-plus points and 12 rebounds per game in 2022-23 for Massey’s varsity girls basketball team, plays middle on the volleyball team and capped the school year by helping the Trojans to a berth in the provincial team handball final.

Oh, and if time permits, she’ll challenge the province’s best throwers in the shot put.

“I’d say the adjustment’s pretty easy,” says Schatkowsky, who was ranked No. 3 in the Free Press basketball coaches’ poll last season.

“I mean, basketball will demand a bit more out of me physically with cardio and everything and I’m doing a bit more running than I am in volleyball. But with the jumping and the physicality, the requirements are the same.”

With the high school basketball season still more than two months away, Schatkowsky fine-tunes her game with early morning workouts with the Evolve basketball club.

The 5-11 forward plans to follow her older sister Julia into the U Sports basketball ranks.

“She’s pretty meticulous,” says Stacy Hawash, who coaches Schatkowsky in basketball and team handball. “Her average is 95 per cent. She’s an all-around really smart, tough kid — one of those athletes that you don’t have to worry about. They’re just going to do what they need to do.”

Schatkowsky relished the opportunity to add team handball to her repertoire last spring.

“It actually helped me a lot with my footwork and my accuracy for sure,” she says. “And then the cardio and the training was the same and it worked out well with my schedule. I really liked it, actually.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca