Serenity Poirier of Lac du Bonnet Senior School was named the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association's Female AA Athlete of the Year Wednesday afternoon in Winnipeg.

"It means a lot," said Poirier shortly after the conclusion of the MHSAA's news conference announcing the Athletes of the Year at Sport Manitoba. "I did not think that I would qualify for it. I mainly play badminton. I do play other sports but we really don’t go to Provincials. There is probably a lot more people who do get to that. It does mean a lot."

Poirier participated in volleyball, basketball, badminton, and fast pitch. She was the captain of her volleyball and basketball teams and won the divisional banner in Volleyball in both 2019 and 2021. She won gold in the varsity girls singles at the Provincial Badminton Championships, and helped her team to the divisional, zone and provincial banner for badminton. She was MHSAA Athlete of the Week and won MVP for basketball, volleyball, and badminton, as well as athlete of the month in those same sports at school. 

"I was excited to get back into sports," remarked the Lac du Bonnet grad who saw the coronavirus shutdown her badminton season and the final three-and-a-half months of her grade 10 year as well as her entire grade 11 year. "Having no sports, it killed me. Sports are my life pretty much so I was very excited to play volleyball and get that team aspect again. I played with the same people for basketball so I felt like we really had a good bond this year for sure with our team. It was a lot of fun. For badminton I was really excited to compete again especially in my club tournaments as well. I was super, super happy and super happy to get good results still after not playing for two years."

"It was such a good feeling, not only for me but for the whole team," said Poirier about their experience at the Provincial High School Badminton Championships this past May in Winnipeg. "I helped get them ready for provincials. Some of us went at the same time in grade nine so we all were really excited to go again and spend time with each other again, especially for our last year. Our girls doubles team (Alicia Maki & Courtney Yerex) medaled too so we were very proud of them."

Back in grade nine Poirier captured the junior varsity girls singles championship and the Chargers won the JV A/AA aggregate title at Northlands Parkway Collegiate in May of 2019.

For Serenity Poirier it took commitment and countless hours of practice in order to become one of the best badminton players in our province.

And her coach and dad Paul has been there every step of the way.

"He's very, very supportive of me. He’s always sending me to tournaments and giving me money to go practice and everything. I thank him so much for just being so supportive and being there for me and seeing my potential in sports and following through with it.’

Poirier, who had to withdraw from the Nationals this week due to a knee injury, also participated in film and photography as well as drama, art, and band. She has helped with Can Skate, kept score for basketball and volleyball, helped with track & field events for grade 7/8 as well as refereed grade 7/8 volleyball. She has helped coach the school’s badminton teams, was involved with the painting of the murals for the school and has also been involved in meetings with town members to discuss what youth in her community need.

"It went by so fast," said Poirier who maintained an academic average of 92% and is enrolled in the Faculty of Science at the University of Manitoba and will be studying microbiology. "It was such a good year. I couldn’t have asked for anything more out of it."

Kindal DeGraeve and Alex Kubinec of Treherne Collegiate are the A category Athletes of the Year, Russell Outhwaite of Killarney is the AA male winner, Sam Ludwig of Westgate and Gwen Bestland of Sanford are the AAA and overall Athletes of the Year and the AAAA winners are Ayva Khan and Udhay Chatha of Vincent Massey Collegiate in Winnipeg.