The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Though high school has only been a part of Creighton Community School for five years, the athletics program has grown to be a positive aspect of the school. This past school year, the athletes of Creighton Community School earned 10 banners to hang on their walls. Jason Straile, head of the athletic department, says the school has come a long way since the start of the high school athletic program. "We've come a long way," he said, "from barely being able to compete in our first couple of years to winning, now, not only at the single tournament level, but also at the district, regional and conference level as well as the provincial level." This season alone, the Kodiaks brought home 10 banners in four sports: track and field, wrestling, basketball and volleyball. In previous years, Straile says the most the school has earned was roughly six banners. "This has been the best year we've had, athletically speaking," he said. In total, Creighton Community School has 25 banners to its name. This year alone, the Kodiaks won three of a possible four conference banners. The school was able to host a conference in September for AAAA Girl's Volleyball Ð which they won. In the 2008-09 athletic season, the Kodiaks said goodbye to a number of their athletes. Ryan Trumbley, a coach and teacher at Creighton Community School, said there was talk about how the Kodiaks could be hurt with the loss of those students. But he said the younger athletes really stepped up to the plate and took the challenge. This year, roughly 10 athletes graduated from the school Ð leaving the Kodiaks in a similar situation this fall. "It will be a matter who how quickly (the athletes) can adapt to being the leaders rather than the followers," Trumbley said. "We lost a lot of leaders this year that have been around, played high school athletics for three or four years," said Straile. Both Trumbley and Straile said the younger athletes are going to "have to take the reigns and step up." "They're not only going to have to play well, but they're going to have to become the leaders that we've lost," said Straile. Looking back to the start of this season, Trumbley says it's "amazing who steps up" when it's go-time. Both coaches for the school, they agreed that next season is going to be interesting. "It depends on who and how many people step up," said Straile. "Whether or not they are willing to put in the work and the effort that it takes to compete at the high school level" will show the coaches where things are going. The athletic department of the school comes with high standards for the students. "I think we've set pretty high standards for the students," said Straile. "They've been able to meet and exceed those standards. "Most of them look forward to the challenge. I think that's going to happen again." Not only does Creighton Community School seem to produce top athletes, but Trumbley says they are very bright students academically. "A lot of our athletes that graduated this year were 80-90 per cent students," he said. "They should be proud of themselves." Both Trumbley and Straile know that the athletics program couldn't happen if not for the coaches and the students. "It's important to...credit the kids," said Trumbley. "Being a small school, it's pretty much the same kids that are doing every sport. "They aren't just dedicating themselves to three months of volleyball, they're dedicating themselves to 10 months of athletics." Because of this, Straile said the school didn't have just one top sport this year. "We did well in everything," he said. Trumbley added that "we were a multi-sport school this year." "Overall, this has been our best year. We couldn't even pick out a top sport that we can say was 'our sport,'" said Straile. "In the past, we could have easily said volleyball, but we've become a good multi-sport school." Straile gave credit to the coaches Ð as he said they put in countless hours to be at the school and on the road with the athletes. "The students make it easy by the amount of work they put in," he said, "but on the same token, those coaches are putting in hundreds and thousands of hours of their volunteer time." Creighton Community School won banners in the following sports for the 2009-10 athletic year: Brittney Holland - Track and Field (Javelin), Regional Wrestling Champion, Provincial Wrestling Bronze Danny Suchoplas - Track and Field (Shot Put) Krystal Kawa - Track and Field (Javelin and Long Jump) Lia Nasselquist - Track and Field (High Jump) Senior Girls - Volleyball and Basketball Senior Boys - Basketball
