by Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
Photo/Micheal Rios
Photo/Micheal Rios
On Thursday, April 2, the annual awards banquet was held to recognize the Heritage Hawks basketball players. This year’s banquet took place at Alfy’s Pizza in Marysville. All the Hawks and Lady Hawks players attended, accompanied by their family and friends who cheered them on throughout the basketball season.
Each player from both the Hawks and Lady Hawks teams received a participation award congratulating them for playing varsity basketball. A second award was given to each player that was specifically personalized to commemorate something special they did on the court or brought to the team.
Cyrus “Bubba” Fryberg, Lady Hawks coach, opened up the girls’ awards ceremony by thanking each and every one of his players for making the best out of their season, “First of all I’d like to thank everyone for being here and taking the time to come and finish up the season. The girls worked really hard and played really hard and we had fun. Practices were really fun and I thought we really gave the effort I expected. Early in the season there really weren’t many girls playing. We only had five Lady Hawks for our first several games, so we had to really start recruiting girls to come out and play. After we did that, then we had a full team and really started to play. It took a few week to build up that sense of team with all the new girls, but they all played hard. I really want to thank my girls for all their hard work, especially the seniors.
“Going into next year, for the girls coming back, we are going to keep working hard and to continue focusing on improving as a team. We have six girls coming back and we expect to add more girls onto the team. I just want to thank you all for doing what I asked on the floor and off the floor and for making this season a fun one for the players and the coaches. I really appreciated all the hard work we put in to improving and we’ll continue to work on doing better things next year.”
The following list is the name of each personalized award handed out to the Lady Hawks and the player who received the award.
Awards:
Rookie of the Year: Larissa Menser
Most Coachable: Shaelynn Sanchey
Most Dedicated: Cyena Fryberg
Most Inspirational: Mikaylee Pablo
Best Defender: Jaylin Rivera
Most Rebounds: Nina Fryberg
Captain’s Award & Miss Hustle: Myrna Red Leaf
Captain’s Award, Best Offensive Player & Most Outstanding Player: Michelle Iukes
Marlin Fryberg, Hawks coach, opened up the boys’ awards ceremony by saying, “I want to thank all the families who are here to support your children, and I want to say thank you to all the high school faculty staff who are here for our kids. To my players, I hope you all recognize that the time and work you have put into this game together has created a friendship and bond between you all that will last the rest of your lives.
“This season was a mediocre one. We all know that it could have been better, that we could have been better. We’ll use this season and learn from it so that we can continue to develop the team for next year.”
The following list is the name of each personalized award handed out to the Hawks and the player who received the award.
Awards:
Rookie of the Year: Nashone Whitebear
Most Improved: Anthony McLean
Most Rebounds: Willy Enick
Mr. Hustle: Dontae Jones
Captain’s Award: Jessie Louie
Captain’s Award & Best Offensive Player: Robert Miles, Jr.