Chan Doubles Up On MVP Honors
Winnie Chan keeps herself busy throughout the school year by competing for three teams at North Branford High School. Winnie, a junior, is a member of the Thunderbirds’ girls’ cross country program, as well as their indoor and outdoor track squads. In the current school year, Winnie has been honored by Head Coach Floyd Parness as the Most Valuable Player for cross country, in addition to indoor track, and now she’s getting ready for her outdoor track season this spring.
“Because I’ve been that before, it doesn’t make it less special,” says Winnie of the indoor MVP nod. “I was sick the day of the banquet and wasn’t even going to go, but it was a last-minute decision where I decided to go. It’s nice because Floyd lists your achievements and it’s exciting to hear all the things you’ve done that season. To be recognized is special.”
Coach Parness says he recognized Winnie as the girls’ indoor team’s MVP due to her stellar performances in the long jump and high jump during the recent winter season. In addition to running the 4x800 relay, 300, and 600, Winnie adjusted to her two jumping events with ease. In the long jump, she recorded her personal-best distance of 14 feet-7.5 inches in a regular season meet, after which she placed eighth for the Shoreline Championship and 18th at the Class S State Championship. In the high jump, Winnie finished second at Shorelines, was 10th at states, and her leap of 4-10 at the conference meet earned her a Second Team All-Shoreline selection.
“During the season, Winnie was very consistent about coming to practice and putting the effort in to become better and be more competitive,” says Coach Parness. “She was always willing to help and support [fellow sophomores] Nina [Robertson] and Joselyn [Streeto], which was reflected in the Shoreline Championship standings. We are counting on continued success at the high jump with a mark of 5 feet next season and possibly breaking the school record in the long jump.”
Winnie started noticing that she was getting better in the jumps during the outdoor campaign last spring and so she started devoting more of her focus to succeeding in those events.
“Outdoor track is when I began to focus more on short distance because my knees hurt and I had shin splints. I also focused more on jumping,” says Winnie. “It’s something I like. Jumping was relaxing, something I looked forward to, and I was better at jumping.”
The highlight of Winnie’s jumping career thus far came at the 2015 Shoreline Outdoor Track Championship. She won the high jump by reaching 4-10 to earn All-Conference honors.
“At first, I didn’t even know that I won the high jump. Another girl and I got out at the same height, but coach told me congrats because I had less faults. I was in shock,” Winnie says. “I was so ecstatic and happy. I never experienced that before even though I’ve been doing sports since middle school.”
Being the Shoreline’s best high jumper last spring gave Winnie even more motivation to work at the jumping events. This way, she could keep herself in the upper echelon of the conference and potentially go further at the state level.
“It definitely made me a little more confident in what I was doing,” says Winnie. “Although it is a big deal, when you see it as a bigger picture, it’s only our conference. I need to work harder to achieve bigger heights and achieve the title again next year. I still need to work hard to maintain that position.”
Although cross country and track largely stem on individual performances, Winnie took on the task of unifying her fellow Thunderbirds when she captained the cross country team last fall. Winnie valued the experience of getting everyone on the same page as they worked toward a common goal.
“It gave me responsibilities I didn’t think I’d have to handle. The cross country team was the smallest it has been in quite a while. At times, it was hard to boost the team’s morale since we had so little members and so many injuries,” says Winnie. “Even so, we were able to do things we hadn’t done in the past. This was our first year hosting Senior Night and I had a lot to do. We were a small team, but we hopefully started a tradition we were able to maintain. We also held two home meets and I feel very lucky and happy that we were able to do that. I didn’t think it’d be possible.”