Vanessa Friesen of Green Valley School in Grunthal is the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association’s Female “AA” Athlete of the Year.

“Honestly sports take up all my time,” said Friesen. “The year just kind of went fast even though a lot of people say it goes slow. It sped by this year because I was so busy.”

Friesen competed in volleyball, basketball, fastpitch, ultimate frisbee, dragon boat and track & field.

The highlight of her grade 12 year.

“By far it would be winning volleyball provincials,” answered Friesen who was the Players Choice Award recipient in Stonewall where the Pirates captured their first ever AA championship banner. “We were kind of back and forth with Niverville the entire season. I think our key component with our team was that we were very connected. There was no drama – nothing like that. We were very connected and I think that helped us pull through and win.”

Friesen, who will play volleyball at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg this fall and study psychology, won gold in the 100 meters, long jump and triple jump as well as silver in the 200 meters at the Zone 13 Track & Field Championships in Beausejour earlier this month.

“It was actually very exciting. I hadn’t gone to track practices for the past two practices so I was nervous and I’m like, ‘Oh no, this isn’t going to go well.’ On the bus ride there, Mr. (Justin) Hart said, ‘Vanessa, relax, you’ll be fine.’ I took a breath and I’m like let’s do this. Let’s do our best and that’s what I did and the outcome was amazing.”

 

The Pirates beat the Niverville Panthers in the Provincial AA final


Vanessa Friesen explained how she found out she was the MHSAA’s Female AA Athlete of the Year


Friesen, who had an academic average of 85%, was also involved with scorekeeping and refereeing younger grade athletics, was the driving force for Tin for the Bin challenge between the varsity girls and boys volleyball teams and was in charge of painting the grad mural at school.

The MHSAA's Athlete of the Week for June 5th reminisced about her grade 11 year and the day gym teacher Sheldon Hill, who was coaching the grade seven girls volleyball team, asked her to come out to practice.

“It was a great opportunity to teach others all the knowledge that I’ve gained throughout all the years of playing sports. I was happy to pass on my knowledge. Those girls were great. They listened and we had fun. It was good.”

Friesen’s volleyball coach Doris Wiens says it's a red-letter day for Green Valley School.

“It’s an incredible honour for our school because these awards, as we know this is our first GVS student to ever win this award so it’s an incredible feeling for the school community and I guess the whole entire community because it doesn’t happen very often and it’s very hard to attain both academically and in the sports world.”