Athletic honors distributed

Viking and Valkyrie athletes, as well

as coaches and fans, received awards at the end of the year

assembly Thursday at Bigfork High School.

The majority of the awards were voted

on and selected by the high school coaches, as is the case

annually.

Doug and Nancy Mahlum and the Montana

Athletic Club were named Community Fan of the Year. The Student Fan

of the Year for 2010-11 is Ron Loudermilk. The honor of Viking of

the Year went to Travis Knoll and Quinci Paine earned Valkyrie of

the Year. For the second year in a row head football coach Todd

Emslie was given the Coach of the Year Award.

Additionally, Bigfork High School

activities director Matt Porrovecchio and faculty member Robin

Shanks presented a new award at the assembly. The Activities

Service Award was given to Ryan Gembala for his consistent

volunteer efforts. Gembala will be the only person to receive the

award with that title. Going forward the title of the honor will be

Ryan Gembala Award in his honor. It will not be an annual award,

but rather an award given when there is an apparent deserving

recipient.

This year’s Wall of Fame inductees were

also honored at the assembly. In order to earn a spot on the

Bigfork High School Wall of Fame students must earn first team

All-state honors in a team sport, be a state champion in an

individual sport or Montana High School Association sanctioned

activity, be a National Merit finalist or champion in a national

academic competition or be selected to a national choir or band.

The candidate must also be a Bigfork High School graduate, though

exceptions are made when a member of a championship relay team has

a mix of seniors and underclassmen.

There are nine students who will be

added to the wall this year.

They are Jacob Sefcak, 2009 and 2010

Humorous Duo state speech champion; James Vale, 2010 Humorous Duo

state speech champion; Caitlin Charlebois, All-state soccer 2008,

2009 and 2010 and All-state basketball 2010 and 2011; Mallery

Knoll, All-state basketball 2010 and 2011, All-state volleyball

2010 and 2011, 2011 300-meter hurdles state track champion and

member of the 2011 1600-meter relay state track championship team;

Travis Knoll, All-state football 2010 and member of the 2010

400-meter relay state track championship team; Christian Ker,

All-state basketball 2010 and 2011; and Quinci Paine, Jenna Egdorf

and Emily Moxley, members of the 2011 1600-meter relay state track

championship team.