WHITEHALL — The 2023-24 school year for the West Michigan Conference featured plenty of fireworks when it comes to achivements of the student-athletes and teams representing the 14 member schools.
CatchMark SportsNet set the stage for the grand finale Saturday night (June 22, 2024) at Whitehall High School.
Rather than a banquet following each of the fall, winter, and spring seasons as we’ve hosted in the past, CatchMark SportsNet put on a bigger celebration for all seasons that also included a new twist: Senior Athletes of the Year.
You can watch a replay of the livestream in the video above and see several images at the bottom of this story.
From a meal in the Viking Center to awards ceremony in the auditorium, it was a wonderful gathering to celebrate so many of the fine student-athletes as well as their parents and coaches.
Jordan Durga, Justin Durga, and Justin’s son, Carson, represented Durga Insurance Group, title sponsor for the 2023-24 CatchMark SportsNet WMC Player of the Year series.
Student-athletes were recognized in seven fall sports, seven winter sports, and seven spring sports — three finalists, including the award winner, in each sport.
At the end of the ceremony, 10 finalists on the female side and 10 on the male side were announced for the new Senior Athlete of the Year awards. Fremont’s Jessica Bennett and Whitehall’s Kyle Stratton were unveiled as the respective award winners. They’ll both receive $1,000 gifts for their respective colleges, courtesy of donations made by our generous sponsors for the award: Durga Insurance Group and Chris Wenk, realtor for Century 21 Trophy Class.
Scott DeCamp, CatchMark SportsNet lead, emceed the event. Conner Raeth, who will be succeeding DeCamp as CatchMark SportsNet lead, assisted on stage during the awards presentation. Amy Yonkman, Digital Marketing and Media lead, took photos. Courtney Jimison, digital media specialist, set up the livestream. CJ Bennett, tech intern for CatchMark, ran the livestream.
As you can see, it required a total team effort by CatchMark to pull off the banquet.
More about POY finalists and winners
For each season, here are links to info on the finalists as well as the the winners and poll results:
Unlike the CatchMark SportsNet WMC Players of the Year, which are 100 percent determined by fan votes, the Athlete of the Year awards were determined by fan votes and those votes coming from a four-person panel. The panel included CatchMark SportsNet lead Scott DeCamp and Athlete of the Year sponsors Jordan Durga and Justin Durga (Durga Insurance Group) and Chris Wenk (Century 21 Trophy Class).
Here is the story with the final voting tallies for the fan poll portion of Senior Athlete of the Year: