Vikings look to past, future

By SEAN ROONEY on June 14, 2019.

NEWS PHOTO SEAN ROONEY
Crescent Heights High School major award winners Kaden Wagner (left), Litany Bloomfield and Chris Gilham pose following a ceremony at the Medicine Hat Lodge Thursday, June 13, 2019.

srooney@medicinehatnews.com@MHNRooney

Their high school careers may be over, but the major award winners at Crescent Heights’ athletic banquet got one last hurrah before moving on to what’s next.

“It’s probably the biggest achievement I’ve ever accomplished,” said Kaden Wagner, the Lyle Flynn Memorial recipient. “It’s an honour to be part of such a big group of athletes who have received this in the past.

“Now I’m going to have to rent and start an adult life.”

While Wagner is headed to Kelowna to play junior football this fall, the female and male athletes of the year have plans that are remarkably similar to one another. Both Litany Bloomfield and Chris Gilham are heading into pre-pharmacy at Medicine Hat College, and neither will play for a post-secondary team.

They knew what a big deal it was to be honoured for what they accomplished.

“I just feel touched by all my coaches for putting in all the effort to get me here today,” said Bloomfield, a league all-star in both basketball and volleyball. “I really appreciate all the time, all the long hours and frustrating games that helped me get here.”

“I stayed at Crescent Heights because I wanted to leave something for the future,” said Gilham, who led the Vikings basketball team in points, rebounds and dunks. “I’m going to focus on schooling because it’s going to change the rest of my life.”

Both Gilham and Bloomfield pointed to their final volleyball seasons as highlights, with the senior girls getting to provincials and the boys putting up a winning record. As for Wagner, introduced by a choked-up football coach Sean Davis as someone who checks off all the boxes you’d want in a person, it was last month’s baseball league finals that stood out as one of the last things he got to do while representing his school.

He did plenty, starring in football and even badminton as well.

“It was more fun for me,” said Wagner. “I wanted to walk out of high school doing as much as I possibly could, going out on a positive note.”