Colfax High School athletes receive awards

COLFAX — Coaches old and new along with athletic director Wes Grambo presented awards to Colfax athletes during the annual athletic banquet held April 27  in the high school gym. The banquet was sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club.

The evening began with spring sports coaches updating the crowd on the current season which is almost half over before announcing awards from the 2015 season. Boys’ golf coach Vince Ross named Trevor Seston as the Most Valuable Player while Andy Buckley was the Most Improved. This year’s new baseball coach Kirk Secraw covered for Tim Wilson who retired as the head coach after 23 seasons leading the Vikings and announced Nate Leibfried was the Most Valuable Player and Jarrod Rudi was the Leading Hitter. For softball, coach Rich Meredith recognized Lakken Meredith and Kori Buchanan as co-MVPs and Most Improved was Natalie Dworak. Track and field coach Ryan Krall named Dempsey Fogarty as the Running MVP, Marianne Scharlau as the Field MVP, Katie Christoffel  the Running Most Improved and Scharlau and Alexis Rudi as the Most Improved Field athletes for the girls. Boys winning awards were Andrew Adix for the Running MVP and Ben Kragness the Field MVP along with Jelani Smit as the Running Most Improved and Isaac Lee as the Field Most Improved.

Moving on to the 2015-16 fall and winter season, volleyball coach Pam Meredith stated Lakken Meredith and Marianne Scharlau were co-MVPs, Serena Secraw Most Improved and Bryana Buchanan the recipient of the Do or Die Award.

Girls’ golf coach Kim Myers distributed awards to Hannah DeMoe as the MVP and Amanda Christianson as the Most Improved.

Matt DeMoe, who will take over as the new varsity football coach next fall, presented awards in place of departing coach Mark Maloney. Jarrod Rudi was named Most Valuable Player, Ben Christianson Lineman of the Year, Mitch Kiekhafer Back of the Year and Zach Meyer Best Defensive Player.

Joe Doucette made his first appearance of the night as the cross country coach and named Courtney Dressel as the girls MVP and Tucker Hovde as the boys MVP. Ally Heidorn and Abbagail Schotter were chosen as co-Most Improved  for the girls and Zack Arvold Most Improved for the boys.

Bloomer-Colfax co-op wrestling coach Jim Poirier discussed the overall season and recognized Brady Simonson as the MVP. Simonson placed second at the state meet and ended his career with the most wins in school history for any Colfax wrestler with 154.

With a Sis-Boom-Ba, Missy Prince, the cheerleading advisor, presented Kassie Jackson with the Outstanding Football Cheer award, Abby Klueckmann the Outstanding Basketball Cheer award and Kaitlyn Albricht was the Most Improved.

Dance team coach Vicki Seston recognized Hannah Yingst as the MVP and the Best Choreographer while Angel Woodford was the Most Improved and Caroline Dworak won for Best Showmanship.

Garrett Maas announced the awards for his boys’ basketball team which included Kedar Davis and Brett Prince as co-MVPs, Aliymu Davis as the Best Defensive player, Isaac Lee the Most Improved and Jacob Larson the Top Rebounder.

Doucette made a return trip to the podium as the girls’ basketball coach and after putting the crowd in stitches with one of his always humorous jokes, recognized Dempsey Fogarty as the team MVP and Best Defensive player. Ally Heidorn was named the Most Improved and the Top Rebounder award went to Savannah Henricks.

Wes Grambo recognized former Colfax Messenger sports reporter Marlys Kruger for her coverage of the Colfax sports teams the past five years, Grambo then continued on with the major awards of the evening.

Sid Hoke was chosen as the Loyal Fan of the Year, and Courtney Dressel and Tucker Hovde won the Female and Male Most Coachable athlete award respectively, which is voted on by the coaches. Chosen by members of the Lettermens Club, Dempsey Fogarty was named  Female Athlete of the Year while Isaac Lee was the Male Athlete of the Year.