Nighthawks honour athletic greatness for 2021-22

Reid and MacKinnon earn NRHS athletes ofawards

WESTVILLE - Northumberland Regional High School (NRHS) recently celebrated a season of athletic greatness on the ice, track, court, field, and whatever other surface sports are played on.

“It’s great to finally get together and give the students the recognition they deserve,” athletic director Jackie Fitt said about the opportunity to hold an awards ceremony after a couple of years impacted by COVID.

“It has been a trying couple of years so it’s nice to be able to open back up and give them a sense of normalcy, especially for the Grade 12s. This has been a lovely evening.”

Along with numerous team awards, major athletic awards were handed out near the conclusion of the event.

Taking home the NRHS Nighthawks female athlete of the year was Brooke Reid.

“I’ve been working hard throughout my life to be in a position to receive this award,” Reid said.

She counted the rugby team’s performance of finally getting by rival North Nova Education Centre (NNEC) and earning a trip to the provincial championship as a major highlight of her 202122 year.

“That feeling of accomplishment and then to finish third in the province, that was awesome,” Reid said.

Next season, the River John resident will be suiting for the Acadia Axewomen on the rugby pitch and pursuing a degree in science/biology.

“It was an honour to be a Nighthawk and a lead player in the sports that I played," Reid said. “You can tell the younger student-athletes look up to you and that’s an awesome feeling.”

Male athlete of the year, Stellarton’s Cameron MacKinnon, echoed Reid’s comments.

“It means a lot to be a face for the school in sports,” he said. “It’s a big role to play in the school, so being awarded as the top athlete is a good feeling.”

MacKinnon also talked about putting in a lot of work to get to a point of being selected NRHS’s male athlete of the year.

“So getting this award means a lot to me,” said MacKinnon, who also took home the Don Dorrington Memorial Award as most valuable player on the Nighthawks’ hockey team.

He talked about the hockey team’s accomplishments as being his highlight for the season.

“Taking the hockey team to the provincials meant a lot … and we did well,” he said, adding as Reid did with rugby, it was nice to get the upper hand on their cross-county rival NNEC.

“We always beat North Nova every time we played them this year,” he said.

MacKinnon plans to take a gap year before pursuing a lineman course and, while still being in Pictou, he hopes to compete for the Trentonbased junior B Scotians.

“We are very lucky, we have numerous athletes to choose from,” Fitt said, adding the quality makes selecting two for athletes of the year “difficult.”

“They’re wonderful,” she said about Reid and MacKinnon. “Very skilled and dedicated.”