Ivy Poetker from Central Memorial High School is the 2024 Gretta Schwartz Memorial Award Winner.
This young lady is an inspiration to her teammates and coaches because of her determination, work ethic, knowledge of sport, commitment to being the best that she can be by taking every learning opportunity she is given. She has been an MVP and an All Star both locally and provincially in her two sports of Rugby & Wrestling. In the city championships she had to beat the top Wrestler in her weight group to claim the title and has won the MVP honor in many of her bouts.
However, it is the sport of Rugby where she has made a huge impact and is considered to be one of the very best high school players in Canada, if not the best. In all three years of high school she has been selected as MVP for City, Provincial and Club Women’s Rugby teams. This amazing young lady plays for the Calgary Rams and captained the Alberta Mavericks U18 squad to victory. She was also captain of Team Alberta 2023 and was scouted to play for Team Canada in the same year. After receiving many scholarship offers, our winner has decided to play for the University of Victoria next year and this summer will be travelling to Auckland in August to play in the New Zealand Women’s league. She is also training to be a Rugby Referee so she can help other girls succeed in this sport.
While maintaining an 95% average over three years of high school, our winner still finds time to be very active in her school life. She is a member of the Professional Theatre Arts Program as a technician and as an actress who has stared in several school productions and Lunchbox Theatre. She is a member of Musical theatre and the Drama Club, is on the Grad Committee, is her school’s Class Historian and the Master of Ceremony for the Athletic Awards Banquet.
In the Community, in grade 10 her sister and her ran a Lemonade Stand for runners in the Breast Cancer Marathon. She has worked at the Drop In Center feeding the homeless, was a Santa, delivering gifts to the sick and lonely senior citizens of Calgary, coaching young kids in Rugby at the U11 age group and hopes to become a referee at the Calgary Rugby Union, where there is a shortage. As an International level athlete, the University of Victoria Rugby coach says they considered our winner to be the top Rugby recruit for the 2024/25 season and arguably the top high school Rugby recruit in Canada.
Please join me in recognizing the 66th recipient of the Gretta Schwartz Memorial Award for the Outstanding Female Student Athlete for the 2023 – 2024 school year, from Central Memorial High School Ivy Poetker.
Lawrence King
Awards & Scholarship Chairman