The Ottawa Sports Pages’ 2023 High School Best Series profiles some of the top student-athletes graduating from local high schools this year and moving on to next-level sport.
The Series is presented by the Sports-Études Program at École secondaire publique Louis-Riel – the local leaders in combining athletic and academic excellence since 2005.
Starting June 23, we’ll post a new story each day on OttawaSportsPages.ca to tip our caps to these great grads. You can also follow along here on this webpage.
Achol Akot cleared enormous hurdles to earn an NCAA basketball scholarship
Every school day for more than two years, Achol Akot took the train and the bus for over two hours from home in Ottawa’s west end to Cairine Wilson Secondary School in the east end. When her school day was finished, she’d stay at school for another two hours and do her homework. READ MORE…
Artistic swimmer Sonia Dunn to reunite with champion duet partner & friend at McGill
When Sonia Dunn committed to McGill University, she had her eyes on joining the school’s renowned artistic swim team. But there’s an added bonus, too: she’ll also join her close friend and past teammate Clara Thomas, who’s one year older and competed for McGill last season. READ MORE…
Coaching experience helped inspire rhythmic gymnast to study to become a teacher
Sarah Dixon has experienced just about everything the Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club has to offer. She’s loved her journey in the sport since she started at age four and she’s carrying a large collection of lessons and memories forward into the next stage of her life as she finishes high school. READ MORE…
Sens trio will stay teammates with St. Lawrence Saints NCAA women’s hockey
Having three players from the same team make it to the NCAA level is a rare feat on its own, but Ottawa Sens U22 Elite graduates Kassidy Lawrence, Mackenzie Clarke and Jill Hennessy took it one step farther, with the close friends choosing to attend St. Lawrence University together. READ MORE…
Daniel Adeleye mirrors older brother’s path into hurdling, varsity track
Following in the footsteps of his older brother David, Daniel Adeleye plans to become the second university track-and-field athlete in his family this fall, and there may well be a third sibling ready join them in a few years’ time. The family tradition began somewhat unexpectedly. READ MORE…
COVID forced Sean James on long road to Mercyhurst, but he discovered he wants to teach
Sean James graduated from Almonte District High School in 2020. In two months, he’ll make the journey to Erie, Pennsylvania to begin studying at Mercyhurst University as an athletic scholarship student . He’s enrolled in the education program and will play for the Lakers men’s hockey team. READ MORE…
Glebe grad Martin Popp remains a Gryphon with berth on Guelph varsity soccer team
Martin Popp will take a giant stride in his academic career in two months with an entrance scholarship in his back pocket to study science at the University of Guelph. But in reality, the fresh Glebe Collegiate Institute graduate has been living that dream for most of this year. READ MORE…
Diver Kate Miller aiming to convert gap year into Olympic year
Most high school grads who take a gap year before beginning university take time to travel or gain some work experience. Kate Miller will do those things in her gap year, but she also wants to make the Olympics and she’ll have her first chance to book a ticket to Paris 2024 in July. READ MORE…
Nerve disorder kept QB Alex La Vecchia out of tackle football until age 16, scrambles to UBC
The time had come for Alex La Vecchia to play tackle football. He was a little late arriving, but three years ago at age 16, La Vecchia was cleared to play contact sports for the first time in his life. From the time he was five years old, he had been dealing with a painful nerve problem called Vagus. READ MORE…
Family sport propels Maia Hembruff to Rhode Island U on rowing scholarship
When members of the Hembruff family wanted to choose a summer sport, they pulled together to go in the same direction. There was no either oar about it as rowing would get them moving forward, while travelling backwards. “Our whole family rowed at one point,” said Maia Hembruff. READ MORE…
Future Concordia Stinger drove 2 hours every day to play soccer with Ottawa TFC
There probably aren’t many who know every dip, turn and bump on Highway 17 east of Ottawa better than Mackenzie Curran. Except maybe her parents. Just about every day for her whole career in high school, Curran would travel an hour from Hawkesbury to play with Ottawa TFC Soccer Club. READ MORE…
MVP Maddy Lamothe races to prom right after 400 metres; next stop Nipissing volleyball
Maddy Lamothe is always on the move. Frequent destinations for the Winchester, ON resident are school in Russell, volleyball practice in Ottawa and track-and-field meets all over Eastern Ontario, though one of her biggest recent races was getting to prom after running the 400 metres. READ MORE…
Katrina Renon follows sisters into varsity basketball, in rival colours
Three sisters. Three basketball players. Three Louis-Riel high school grads. Three exceptional students. And three different universities. Alana, Ava and Katrina Renon are super similar siblings, but their choice of destination as varsity student-athletes is one thing they don’t share in common. READ MORE…
Future Ravens rugby player Ella Dunn helps Woodroffe special needs students in sport
The COVID-19 pandemic was a major disruptive force in people’s lives over the past three years. Woodroffe High School student-athlete Ella Dunn fully understands that. But she also was able to find a huge positive from that troubling time and it changed her life, she recalls the 18-year-old. READ MORE…
Grade 12-age guard Cassandre Prosper impresses in early start to NCAA career
University of Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey has coached at her alma mater for 15 of the past 16 years and watched hundreds of young women run the court, drive the basket and shoot from every conceivable spot on the floor during her recruiting trips. But two years ago, she got the shock of her life. READ MORE…
James Budrow wins Canada Games para-alpine silver in his first real competition
The first day James Budrow got back on skis following the amputation of his foot, he figured he’d go for one run, hopefully learn what he’d need to do to adapt to skiing with a prosthesis so he could get back into the sport he loved, and then come back another day to try again. READ MORE…
Roar like a Lion first for Amelia Van Brabant, then fly like an Eagle
A Lion is about to become an Eagle. This is not a magic trick. The reality is Earl of March Secondary School Lions’ Amelia Van Brabant has verbally committed to accept a full athletic scholarship to Boston College to study environmental geo-sciences and run cross-country/track for the Eagles. READ MORE…
Utah Utes’ Ty Hamilton made impression at Ottawa’s Canadian Futures Showcase
When Ty Hamilton isn’t at the baseball field, catching flies in the outfield and pumping a top-tier curveball and changeup past hitters, he’s doing one of three things: fishing, hunting or playing video games. Right now, he’s playing a lot of MLB The Show 22, with a side of NBA 2K23, on his new PS5. READ MORE…