Duncan Christian School’s Senior Male Athletes of the Year for 2016-17 share a lot of connections.
Mike Brandsma and Adam Kapteyn won the same award together a year ago, and were teammates on the Chargers’ senior boys basketball, volleyball and ball hockey teams this year. They are also two of 10 members of their graduating class to spend their entire run from kindergarten to Grade 12 at DCS.
Both athletes admitted that winning the award in their final year at the school was a goal, even if it was just in the back of their minds.
“It definitely comes up at the end of the year more than the beginning,” said Brandsma, who was also on the school’s golf team. “But I was definitely working towards it.”
“It means I’ve worked hard and I’ve achieved something,” said Kapteyn, who also represented the school in badminton. “It was something I wanted to do, to be on top.”
Brandsma was named MVP of the school’s senior boys basketball and volleyball teams, and was named an Island all-star in both sports. The highlight of the season for him, however, was extending the school’s string of Island single-A basketball titles to six. Brandsma and Kapteyn have played on the last five championship teams.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” Brandsma said. “The last couple of years, we were down coming out of the first half, and we struggled to get back into the game.”
Brandsma was also one of a select number of athletes across the province to get a scholarship from the BC Boys Basketball Association, getting the $700 Bill Popowich Memorial Scholarship.
Kapteyn was named MVP at the Island single-A volleyball and basketball championships, was a provincial second-team all-star in volleyball, and was picked as MVP of the DCS badminton team. All-in-all, he represented the school at five provincials for basketball and three for volleyball, a legacy he was proud to be part of.
“The Grade 12s when I first joined pushed everybody,” he said. “And we’ve passed that along, Grade 12 to Grade 12.”
Next year, Brandsma will go to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., on a Div. III basketball scholarship, while Kapteyn will attend Vancouver Island University for volleyball.
The DCS Sportsperson of the Year is Morgan Cook, another of the select few who attended the school from kindergarten to graduation. A member of the school’s senior boys soccer team, Cook was instrumental in helping DCS host the single-A basketball provincials, and served the school in a variety of capacities over the year.
The Junior Male Athlete of the Year was Ben Kapteyn, while the Junior Female award was shared by Morgan Nederlof and Anna Corbett, who also won a Jack Boersma Junior Athlete Award from the B.C. Christian Secondary School Athletic Association, recognizing athletic and academic success, leadership and character, and participation in school, church and community. The Grade 8 Athletes of the Year were Jaymie Brandsma and Nathan Powell.
