Monday, May 12, athletes, coaches and families of athletes gathered together in the Shadow Ridge Theater for Shadow Ridge High School’s annual ESPY awards. The ESPY awards is an athletic award show that acknowledges the top and rising athletes at Shadow Ridge and the athletic achievements of the school year.
Coach Kalah Williams was the one to begin the tradition of the annual ESPYs, seven years ago.
“I attended Eastern Oregon University as a college athlete and they had something called, ‘The Mountie Awards’. It was an athletic award show for the college that highlighted the most elite athletes. In 2018, I decided to bring our own version to Shadow Ridge,” Coach Williams shares.
Since 2018, the ESPY awards have been recognizing the star Mustang athletes with their own award ceremony and the recognition they deserve.
“I started coaching women’s soccer here at Shadow Ridge in February of 2010 when I was 20 years old. I spent 13 years coaching girls soccer and stepped away from coaching in 2023,” Williams explains. “It was an extremely hard decision, but the ESPYs allows me to still be involved in Shadow Ridge Athletics in some capacity, which I am thankful for. I was a Special Education instructor here for 8 years and have been the girls PE teacher here for 4 years.”
The winners of ESPY awards are voted for by Shadow Ridge’s very own students, parents, and staff. A few weeks before the ceremony, a form with a list of nominees for each section is sent out for people to vote for who they think deserves each award.
Winners of each category were announced at the ESPY Award ceremony on Monday. This year the winner of the “Team of the Year Award” went to the Women’s Cross Country Team, Men’s Track and Field State Meet won the “Game of the Year” award, Mark Jimenez won the “Coach of the Year,” Kayla Alia won “Assistant Coach of the Year,” and Mustang parents Mike and Katrina Hughes won the “Mustang Elite Award.”
Shadow Ridge’s student winners are Emoni Young as the “Individual Athlete of the Year,” Bridger Johnson as “Coach’s Male Athlete of the Year,” Elaina Smith as the “Coach’s Female Athlete of the Year,” Ashley Cottino as “Scholar Athlete of the Year,” Jaylani Palmer as “Female Athlete of the Year,” Andrew Torres as the “Male Athlete of the Year,” Makayla Power as the “Rising Star Athlete of the Year.” Lily Butler also received the “Hillary LaVoie Award” and Jacobi Gledhill got the “Mountain Mover Award.”
