Grade 10 Notre Dame High School student Zackary Jansen has received recognition as a track and field athlete.
He was named athlete of the month in April by The Alberta Sport Development Centre-Central (ASDC-C) for his participation in sports, while of course maintaining his grades.
ASDC-C provides sport development opportunities for athletes and coaches in Central Alberta. Jansen was recognized for his emergence in track and field.
As a track athlete, he competed at the 2016 Alberta Summer Games and received a gold medal in three events, including pentathlon, triple jump and 200 metre hurdles.
“It’s a real honour to get that opportunity and I’m really glad that I’ve joined ASDC and having the support from them really brought a lot of acknowledgement to my achievements in the Summer Games I didn’t have before,” said Jansen.
This track season he will be training with the Red Deer Titans Track Club with goals to make it to provincials.
The 16-year-old student is also active competing in athletics including volleyball, baseball, team handball, hockey and badminton.
Jansen is a member of Notre Dame’s junior volleyball team, and he and his team captured the league championship.
Both his parents played a lot of sports, his mom in track and his dad being a big hockey player, which helped him to become interested in sport.
“My mom would take me out back and we’d do running drills we’d practice running.”
What attracts Jansen most to the sport of track and field is the competitive aspect of it.
“I really like the straight up competing. A lot of other sports it’s more technique whereas in track its a lot of just pure athletic ability.”
Through track Jansen does the hurdles, sprints, long, triple and high jump.
He will be competing in his school’s track meet in regionals and then provincials. He will then have some summer track meets with the Titans coming up.
Although heavy into the world of sports, that doesn’t mean Jansen slacks in his academics. It’s actually quite the opposite. Jansen maintains an honours with distinction grade point average of 90 plus at school.
After high school he hopes to get a scholarship to university and hopes to continue participating in the sport of track and field.
