The Ottawa Sports Pages’ 2025 High School Best Series profiles some of the top local student-athletes graduating from high school this year and moving on to the next level in their sport or studies.
During late June and early July, we’ll post stories on OttawaSportsPages.ca to tip our caps to these great grads. You can also follow along and read each story on this webpage.
Champion OSU Force forward Francesca Mureta to join champion uOttawa Gee-Gees
There’s no better way to get better than competing with the best of the best. Ottawa South United forward Francesca Mureta knows that first hand from her four consecutive championship runs with OSU, and will continue to contribute to a winning culture in 2025 as she joins the three-time defending OUA women’s soccer champions at the University of Ottawa. READ MORE…
Offensive lineman Max Vivier decides one year early to commit to UConn
Learning to play football is challenging enough as young players work on skill development, remembering the playbook and communicating in the language of the game. But when you immerse yourself into the combative sport having to use your second language, that makes getting a grip on it even more difficult. Max Vivier totally understands that double dilemma. READ MORE…
Rideau Canoe Club’s Julia Price combines paddles & prom in packed weekend
Julia Price got to know all the turns, detours and potholes between Ottawa and Montreal this past weekend with a double round trip. The 18-year-old Rideau Canoe Club paddler was competing at the national team trials from June 27-29 at the Montreal Olympic basin. But her two worlds were colliding since her high school prom was on Saturday night back in Ottawa. READ MORE…
Samaya Khosla will row at highly-ranked University of Texas in 2026-27
Sports was an important part of growing up for Samaya Khosla as she learned all about soccer with the Ottawa Internationals, alpine skiing at Camp Fortune, tennis on neighbourhood courts and dance. But when the COVID-19 pandemic landed with a thud, all sports stopped as teams and athletes couldn’t come together to train and test their skills. READ MORE…
Upward trajectory takes Molly Barber to swimming world juniors, Boston University
The first time Molly Barber went face-to-face with a swimming challenge, she was brave and determined to conquer the beast. There was no medal and podium ceremony for this test, no scoreboard timing and definitely no modern, 10-lane pool. At age seven, Barber wanted to start swimming without wearing a personal flotation device in Lake Huron. READ MORE…
After only starting in Grade 9, Maya Bukovcan emerges as NCAA & Team Canada player
COVID meant a dead end to many youths’ participation in sport, and while the virtual version sapped Maya Bukovcan’s enthusiasm for one sport, it ultimately launched the start of another journey that’s led her to play NCAA volleyball at High Point University. Bukovcan was in Grade 7 and focused on dance at the time when the pandemic hit. READ MORE…
BGC was ‘a seed that sprouted everything’ for Lakehead-bound Lucky Lubangi
Born and raised in Ottawa, Lucky Lubangi has always been part of a loving and supportive family, whether at home, living in the Woodroffe neighbourhood, or playing basketball at BGC Ottawa. The name Lucky came from his parents, who were eager to have a son alongside the five daughters in a row they had. Lucky was the last of the three sons to be born. READ MORE…
Late switch from paddling to rowing sends Henrik Neuspiel to Dartmouth College
Henrik Neuspiel is a natural athlete. Pick a sport and he has likely given it a try and had success. Sport was a natural avenue to follow as his father Victor competed in three world championships in kayaking and his mother Margaret Nelson Neuspiel played for Canada’s women’s water polo squad. For 12 years, he’s played hockey in the winter and paddled in the summer. READ MORE…
Hugo Djeumeni taking his impressive running game to Yale University
Fifty years ago this August, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band released their third studio album called Born to Run. Fifty years later, there’s an Ottawa athlete who deserves to have that title stitched on his jersey to summarize his high school football career. If you put a football in the hands of Hugo Djeumeni, stand back, he was born to run and run and run. READ MORE…
Kaiya Woodcock plans to represent University of Guelph Gryphons in soccer, athletics
When Kaiya Woodcock wasn’t using her blazing speed to accomplish this, that and everything at various sports venues, she would stop to think about her future. There was a time she wanted to go to university on a basketball scholarship. She played point guard for the West Ottawa Hornets, loved the team aspect of the game and used her acceleration on fast breaks. READ MORE…
Syracuse Orange fulfilled Nissi Ogbebor’s quest for an NCAA football scholarship
Sometimes older brothers can learn from younger brothers. Nissi Ogbebor will confirm that. He was only attracted to tackle football because his younger sibling Rohi was enjoying all aspects of the game. “My younger brother started to play when he was 11 or 12. I saw how much fun he was having and I said I should give it a shot,” Nissi said. READ MORE…
Ella Beltran looks to ‘eat, sleep, breathe rugby’ with Queen’s University Gaels
When Ashbury College grad Ella Beltran heads to Kingston next season, the Queen’s University Gaels will add more than just a gritty scrum half to their roster, they’ll be gaining a player with rugby in her blood. Love of the game runs deep in Ella’s family, with both of her parents having played rugby in high school. She’s got Ashbury in her veins too. READ MORE…
Christos ‘The Big Greek’ Zigoumis excited to join the Dog Pound with UConn Huskies
The moment that shaped the trajectory of Christos Zigoumis’ young athletic life came on a tykes football field. His Orleans Bengals were down by two points at the end of the fourth quarter in their under-10 contest and his team scored a game-winning touchdown. The thrill of that early victory has stayed with Zigoumis throughout his career. READ MORE…
St. Louis-bound CCA player Jahda Denis’s dawg mentality ‘comes from love’
Jahda Denis was sitting in the back seat of coach Fabienne Blizzard’s van. For the second consecutive season, their Capital Courts Academy had had their hopes quashed by their arch-nemesis at Crestwood Prep, this time by a humiliating 94-55 scoreline in the championship game. But Denis had an epiphany in that moment. READ MORE…
Daniel Cova earns 3 gold at NCSSAA track finals, NCAA scholarship
On a cold and wet final day of the NCSSAA track and field championships at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, it continued to rain records for athletes from the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club. Daniel Cova wasn’t among the record-setters, but the Louis-Riel Rebelles distance runner made a valiant attempt at one of the most stubborn records on the books. READ MORE…
Quinn Beauchesne’s tough season concludes with uplifting world U18 hockey gold
In the end, the light at the end of the tunnel could not have shone brighter for London Knights top student award winner Quinn Beauchesne during his 2024-25 hockey season. The 18-year-old defenceman from Ottawa had only played four games before an injury knocked him out of the Guelph Storm’s next seven Ontario Hockey League contests. READ MORE…
U18 gold medal win over USA a ‘dream come true’ for Team Canada’s Alex Therien
There was no better way for Alex Therien to kick off her career wearing the maple leaf than by beating USA for the gold medal in the final game of the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship on Jan. 12 in Vantaa, Finland. “It was just a dream come true and something we have all been dreaming about for so long,” reflects the 17-year-old. READ MORE…
Alex Fletcher grew out of hockey, but into being a football all-star
Alex Fletcher was like most young boys with a passion for hockey. He wanted to grow up and play in the National Hockey League. His career seemed to be going in the right direction as he climbed to the top AAA level with the Rushforth Selects Hockey program. But then the defenceman started to grow and add weight to his frame. READ MORE…
Inspired by her older sister, Purdue-bound Bianca Hanisch kicks her way to NCAA soccer
Growing up in a soccer-loving family where matches were a constant on the TV every weekend, Bianca Hanisch knew that it was the sport for her from a young age. And watching her oldest sister Bella pursue and accomplish her goals in high-level soccer showed her she can go down that same path and succeed too. READ MORE…