Hedges Hawks the team to beat

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This article was published 17/03/2015 (4036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hedges Middle School’s Hawks won the Tier 1 championships in both boys’ basketball and volleyball this season.

A huge part of both teams’ success stems from three Grade 8 players who refused to let the past dictate the future.

“This is the first time Hedges has won the boys’ category in either sport for close to 15 years,” said volleyball coach and phys-ed teacher Grant Betz.

Volleyball player Colby Grass even earned a prestigious memorial award.

“I won MVP in our league… it’s the Neil Krebs award,” said  Grass, a left-side hitter. “His parents were there to congratulate me and give me the award so I got to meet them, they shook my hand and we took a picture.”

Together, Grass, Dillon Lambkin and Theo (whose last name cannot be published) have dedicated their spare time throughout the year to improving their volleyball and basketball skills in the gym with other teammates.

Betz calls the three athletes “gym rats” and said its pretty easy to coach boys who are willing to put in the time like that.

“We were in several tournaments with schools with 600, 700 or 800 kids and we only have 200,” said basketball coach and language arts teacher Darcy McCallum.

“So for us, it was just getting over the mental side of things, we belong there, we’ve played as much as these guys and can step on any court with teams from all over the province and compete.”

Theo, a Grade 8 basketball star, scored 38 of the Hawks’ 51 points in the championship game against George Waters Middle School.

He said the Hawks had never beaten George Waters. He chalked the win up to improved confidence paired with many intense practices and drills, such as having to do 17 man-makers in under a minute.

In the final basketball game, Lambkin demonstrated commitment and sportsmanship when he was aggressively knocked down by a player on the opposing team.

He insisted on playing through a swollen knee and managed to get a steal followed by two rebounds at a pivotal point in the game.

“These three guys are the result of the program we have been striving to build here at Hedges and it’s been great to watch them go from Grade 6 to Grade 8 and accomplish this,” Betz said.

McCallum agreed, saying the championships wins helped give the school an identity in the athletic department and inspired more kids to want to get involved with the basketball and volleyball programs.

All three players are looking forward to playing high school sports at John Taylor Collegiate next year.