The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2010 37 Oakville's high school athletes of the year Abbey Park Chris McLaughlin was the Eagles MVP in volleyball and basketball... also played soccer for Abbey Park... past year's highlight was almost beating Loyola basketball team in regular-season game... will play basketball at the University of Victoria next season Renee Helmer played basketball, volleyball and boys' baseball... highlight of past year was being starting catcher on school's baseball team... Grade 11 student is also two-time Abbey Park junior athlete of the year... hopes to land an NCAA D1 scholarship Oakville Trafalgar Mike Turnbull won two OFSAA gold medals in skiing... captained the OT rugby team to another Halton championship... also played volleyball... made OFSAA in three different sports... will return to OT next year and plans to eventually go to Queen's University Erica Pearson was MVP of the girls' ski and soccer teams... co-captained OT's field hockey and soccer squads... was also president of student athletic council... will study commerce and play field hockey at Queen's University in the fall Loyola Adam Presutti competed in basketball, volleyball and track... helped Loyola basketball team win second straight Halton title and silver at OFSAA... allstar at several different prestigious basketball tournaments... returning to Loyola next year Megan O'Neill was the Hawks MVP in hockey and cross-country... also competed in track and field... is a two-time Halton and GHAC cross-country champion... former bronze medalist at OFSAA track... wants to play university women's hockey Holy Trinity Eric Labelle was Trinity's MVP and OFSAA representative in cross-country and track... won the GHAC 1,500m and 3,000m titles last month... also played hockey for the Titans... hopes to eventually break a 30-minute 10K and 14minute 5K... off to McMaster next year Kristin Sprukulis was MVP of the Titans volleyball and softball teams... two-time senior athlete of the year... highlight at Trinity was winning the 2010 Halton softball title... also played basketball and badminton... will study social sciences at University of Toronto Oakville Trafalgar's Mike Turnbull (left) and Loyola's Megan O'Neill are two of Oakville's high school senior athletes of the year. T.A. Blakelock Peter Copeland was MVP of the Tigers football team... also played hockey and ran track... will attend Wilfrid Laurier next fall, where he hopes to play football, hockey or rugby... aims to finish university with an A average and be eligible for a business co-op or internship Kelly Hannivan was Blakelock's MVP in softball, basketball and volleyball this season... won three Halton softball championships while at Blakelock... was school's junior athlete of the year in 2008... will attend University of Guelph next year Pick a number, but not just any number By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF King's Christian Cameron Eisses captained King's volleyball and soccer squads... was MVP of the volleyball team... also played basketball... won OFSAA soccer gold in Grade 10... hopes to play soccer at the professional level... will attend Division 1 school Cleveland State in the fall Kristina Marra was captain of the Cavaliers soccer and basketball teams... highlight at King's was competing in OFSAA basketball last year... maintained a 90 per cent average at King's... received a soccer scholarship from Division 1 school Francis Marion White Oaks Brett Fong was named most outstanding player of the White Oaks' soccer team... also named most improved player in volleyball... led Wildcats soccer team to one of most successful seasons recently... will attend University of Guelph in the fall Jillian Bekker was White Oaks' most outstanding swimmer each of the last four years... won two OFSAA swimming medals... also played field hockey and soccer... plans to swim for Brock University next year... hopes to become a teacher Sometimes it has special meaning, sometimes it's a tribute. For others, it has become superstition. And then, for some of Oakville's high school athletes of the year, it's simply a number on their back. Holy Trinity's Eric Labelle, a Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference champion in track, went old school in choosing his number for hockey, saying that many of the game's greatest players, including Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard, donned number 9. But if hockey is Canada's game, it has some competition in Oakville. White Oaks' Brett Fong wore number 14 in both soccer and volleyball in honour of French soccer player Thierry Henry and King's Christian's Cameron Eisses chose 5 for Dutch player Patrick Kluivert. When the number wasn't available for volleyball or basketball, he simply doubled it to 10. King's Kristina Marra's number of choice is 12. "Growing up I watched the Canadian women's team and the centre back -- the same position I play -- is Christine Sinclair. I wanted to be like her so I always wore 12." And when she can't get 12, Marra reverses it and wears 21. For some, their numerical inspiration comes from closer to home. "I've played rep baseball since I was five," said Blakelock's Kelly Hannivan. "When I first started, my brother's number was 10, so I got 10," Loyola's Megan O'Neill wears number 8. "My dad was that number so I've always had that," she said. Some players will go to great lengths to protect their numbers. See Numbers page 38 Iroquois Ridge Adam Polgar was the quarterback of the Ridge football team, pitched for the baseball squad and played forward on the hockey team Christie Park was a guard for the Trailblazers basketball team... also played soccer at Ridge St. Thomas Aquinas Paterson Farrell played volleyball, hockey and soccer for Aquinas... helped the Raiders win OFSAA hockey bronze in 2009... was on STA's honour roll for each of his four years... will study and play soccer at McMaster University next year Lauren Kadet was MVP of the field hockey and badminton teams... captained the hockey team... competed in OFSAA hockey two years ago... hopes to play professional soccer in the future... will attend University of Maryland Baltimore County next year Colleen Hennessy was STA's crosscountry MVP... won several OFSAA running medals at Aquinas, including gold and silver at this year's track-and-field provincials... hopes to qualify for junior nationals... will attend University of Toronto in the fall * Editor's note: no additional information on the Iroquois Ridge athletes was made available