Winning the award for the most outstanding female athlete for Estevan Comprehensive School is one thing but to be able to share it with your best friend through high school is something even more special.
That’s what Morgan Fichter and Tatiana Dutka were able to accomplish as co-winners of the award last week at the ECS Elecs athletic awards night.
“It feels pretty good to be recognized with my best friend since we’re both great athletes and role models,” said Dutka. “I wouldn’t have wanted to win it with anyone else.”
“It feels great to share it with my best friend,” said Fichter. “We really worked hard together over the past four years.”
John Sasi was named the school’s top male athlete of the year Thursday at the awards ceremony.
Both Dutka and Fichter are off to athletics in post secondary school and Fichter will take with her some strong memories of her time as an Elec.
“I’m going to take away all the knowledge of what I’ve learned, especially on the basketball team and all the life skills our coach has taught us,” said Fichter, a provincial gold medal winning triple jumper who will be at the University of Toronto.
Dutka will be at Medicine Hat College in the fall playing for the Rattlers.
“I’ve learned a lot from all my coaches and they’ve taught me so many things, no just sports,” said Dutka. “My coach Jessie Smoliak was a huge influence on me in basketball and I’m going to take everything my coaches taught me in life skills and how to be a really good person in life.”
The Elecs made it to the gold medal game at Hoopla this year, and Dutka herself won a silver medal in the senior girls quad and a gold medal on the golf team.
Each of the school’s coaches handed out awards for excellence, commitment and success, in addition to the big awards handed out at the end. One of the things learned from the evening is the value of hard work and dedication.
“Hard work doesn’t go unrecognized,” said Dutka.
Fichter said she will take with her a lot of team memories.
“Travelling in the van and the hotels and all the team functions we have together,” she said. “I’ll really remember them.”
Sasi was a bit of a surprise star on the basketball team with a great performance in the home leg of the McLeod Series this year.
“Playing again on the senior team in my last year is a great honour,” Sasi said. “All glory to God.”
Sasi saw success at the provincial track as well, taking 15th in the high jump, and also saw success in badminton. He and the Elecs basketball team fell short at regionals but he enjoyed his time with the team.
“When we went to regionals it was a tough loss, but through the years playing with the team it was a huge honour to play with them,” Sasi said. “We had a great friendship. I’ll never forget those moments, practice, tournaments and games.”
Also winning the school’s awards for sportsmanship were male athlete Carter Davenport and female athlete Jean Rose Be.
