Swain athletes honored at Athletic Awards Ceremony

Larry Griffin

lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com

If nothing else, the Swain County High Athletic Awards ceremony held Tuesday night, May 24, at the Swain Arts Center and lasting over 3 1/2 hours, proved how many stellar athletes have participated in games this past year.

The culmination of the night was the recognition of the girls’ track and field team, which won its third straight state championships for spring track in a row last week. That was also the seventh consecutive win when taking into account the other two running seasons every year – which puts the girls in an exalted category, Coach Ian Roper said.

Roper said the achievement was rare enough to have only happened a few times in the last century.

“The first time it happened was at Alamance Friendship High School between 1914 and 1920,” he said, inviting surprised laughter from the crowd. “The second was in Durham between 1945 and 1951. That’s your company. For a little bit more perspective, those Durham seniors who won back then have just turned 90 this year.”

That got another sprinkling of laughter.

“The run you’ve been on hasn’t even been generational,” Roper said. “I hope you can appreciate what you’ve been a part of.”

For girls’ track, Arizona Blankenship got the Most Valuable Runner award, Amelia Rogers took Most Valuable Field Events and Amaya Hicks got the Leadership Award.

Boys’ track saw Connor Brown getting Most Valuable Runner, Matthew Gray for Field Events and Austin Jenkins getting the Leadership Award.

The big individual awards

Several Lady Devils and Maroon Devils were the recipients of the individual academic awards handed out at the end of the night – Amelia Rogers was the recipient of the Tyler Bowman Memorial Scholarship.

Amaya Hicks won the 2023 Maroon Devil award, which is given out to the athlete who, in the minds of the coaching staff, “represents everything that Swain County High School Athletics is all about,” and “bleeds Maroon and White.”

The Swain County Academic Athlete of the Year awards went to Matthew Gray, who has a GPA of 4.6, and Amaya Hicks, with her 4.4 GPA.

And Arizona Blankenship was praised as the “most decorated athlete” in Swain County High history for the various sports she’s excelled in.

Best of the teams

Soccer coach Scott Cline praised the Lady Devils’ run over the spring season, in which they only lost in the second round of the playoffs after a tumultuous game against Cornerstone Charter where a tie led to numerous overtime plays to decide their opponents as the winners.

“I enjoyed coaching this great group of young ladies,” Cline said, saying they had met several goals over the course of the season including beating Highlands two times and getting more than five shutouts (they got 10).

“Even though we lost at the end, there was tremendous improvement,” he said. “They’ve come a long way.”

Rose Carson and Emmie Fuller both got ‘most improved’ awards for girls’ soccer.

Baseball coach Mike Varano said he was proud the team had beaten Murphy both times they played them, and that they made it to second place in the Smoky Mountain Conference. They lost in the first round of the playoffs, but Varano said it had been a strong effort anyway.

“It didn’t end up like we hoped, it was a tough loss in the playoffs,” he said. “But we saw a lot of improvement over the season. I hope the team learned you can handle anything life throws at you. They will be a force to be reckoned with for a long time.”

Carter Hayes was named the Smoky Mountain Conference Player of the Year, and Ronnie Griggs and Gabe Lillard got co-MVP awards.

For women’s basketball, Amaya Hicks was Player of the Year while Kiersten Smith was Defensive Player of the Year.

Varsity football saw three Captain Awards to Blake Sain, Joshua Collins and Austin Jenkins.

Volleyball saw Maddie Spates winning the Leadership Award and Kiersten Smith getting the “Maroon Strong” award.

For wrestling, Coach Adam Jaimez gave special mention to Tyce Neadeau for his heavyweight championship win this season.

He said the picture of Neadeau after the win, which will join other photos in the school gym, only showed a little bit of the story.

“[The team was] after the pursuit of the picture,” he said. “The pursuit of that picture binds you forever as teammates. You’ll see Tyce victorious in that moment, but you don’t see the moments where he wasn’t that guy yet, or where he was not where he wanted to be. And that’s so hard for kids nowadays to hear. Sometimes that’s not what they want to hear. I appreciate his willingness to stay with me and say ‘we’re gonna get to where we need to.’”

Golf coach Josh Crisp said the golf team this year “took it to heart and committed,” and was excited to see how they could push one another, looking forward to 2024.

He praised senior Braylon Aldridge for being the ‘most improved’ of the year.

“He was always out there early,” Crisp said. “Working on his game. He always had a smile on his face even when he made a bad shot.”

Meanwhile, Skeet Cook was given the ‘Most Valuable Player’ award.

Honoring the staff

The beginning of the ceremony saw Athletic Director Neil Blankenship and Coach Jeff Marr recognizing some of the staff for their hard work over the seasons, too.

They recognized Joanna McMahan, who will be retiring this year. McMahan is a strong supporter of Swain’s athletic program and regularly takes pictures at the games for the school system to share via social media.

Blankenship said she had “probably taken more pictures than anyone” and was a “miracle” for Swain County High.

“It’s impossible to replace her,” he said, adding that she’d have a lifetime pass to any Swain athletics game she wanted to attend after she left her job.

Then Marr threw the spotlight on Blankenship, praising him for wearing many hats in life: “coach, teacher, a loving husband and father, mentor, psychologist.”

“I want to take the time to honor my friend,” Marr said. “He’s a very talented guy. He can do almost anything.”

Blankenship then took the stage and added that Swain would get to keep the Wells Fargo Conference Cup. The cup is given to whatever school earns the most points during the conference, totaled at the end of the year.

“It was back-to-back wins,” he said. “It stays with us.”