SPORTS BANQUET: Toler is Girls' Outstanding Senior Athlete
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A day after the boys received their awards for the 2010-11 athletic season, Du Quoin High School's Girls' All-Sports Banquet was held on Wednesday evening in the commons area at Du Quoin Middle School, and Kelsey Toler took home the night's top honor as the 2011 Outstanding Senior Athlete.
In volleyball, Toler made All-tournament teams in Benton and Massac County, was two-time All-tournament team in Marion, team Most Valuable Player her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons, and All-Conference and All-South for her senior year. On the softball diamond, Toler has been named to the All-Conference team each of the past two seasons. She was also a member of the four-time state champion Indianettes dance team.
"I want to thank all my team members, and my family, and all my coaches for just believing in me. I couldn't be anywhere without them," Toler said at the podium.
2009 award winner Micah Ward and 2010 winner Chelsea Hill were among those in attendance at DMS on Wednesday.
Following the banquet dinner, guest speaker Marti Rider spoke of "finding 'I'm possible' in impossible," and delivered a special message to the girls from a friend of hers in show business, Dot-Marie Jones, famous for her roles as Coach Kelly on Lizzie McGuire and more recently Coach Shannon Beiste on Fox's Glee.
Rider graduated from Elverado High School in 1988 after achieving All-Conference honors in softball along with becoming the Most Valuable Player of the Black Diamond Conference. She was also an All-Conference athlete in basketball.
Indianettes coach Latasha Baxter followed Rider by fighting back tears as she addressed the senior class of her four-time defending state champs.
Toler, Carleigh Cook, Lauren Payne, Mackenzie Schallom and Megan Taylor then said their farewells to Baxter before the awards presentation began.
Emcee Jason James then introduced the 83 student athletes that were recognized for participating in either volleyball, softball, basketball, track, cheerleading or Indianettes. Seniors honored were Kara Baker, Cook, Curry Emling, Steffanie Gates, Payne, Tiffani Poe, Schallom, Taylor, Toler, Ashley Ward and Gabrielle Weis.
One of the other two main honors of the evening, the Kris Stacey Academic Award went to Curry Emling, who excelled in volleyball, basketball and softball during her four years at DHS while maintaining a 3.98 grade point average.
The award is named after Kris Stacey, a breast cancer victim and the first recipient of the Outstanding Senior Athlete award back in 1979. Winners of the award must have a 3.5 GPA or above and participate in DHS sports.
The Kris Stacey Scholarship Award then went to Ashley Ward, who was also active in volleyball, basketball and softball while accumulating a 3.2 GPA.
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