Kimball High has started another new tradition at the three-year-old school by naming its first-ever Senior Athlete of the Year in girls and boys sports.

Montanna Bradley took the female honor while Beau Lawrence received the award for top male athlete during a presentation May 9, in Kimball High’s theater.

Each senior began their sporting careers with Jaguar athletics during their sophomore years.



Montanna Bradley

Bradley was already a standout athlete as a freshman at West High when she decided to transfer to Tracy’s newest school in the fall of 2009. Bradley said she could have stayed at West, but the opportunity to be member of the new school’s first graduating class was too exciting to turn down.

“I wanted to help start traditions at Kimball and really get the school going,” she said. “Not everyone is excited about going to a new school because a lot of their family members have gone to West or Tracy. I really wanted to promote Kimball and show them that they could still have fun at a new school.”

Bradley has played three years of volleyball and softball at Kimball, and has made the All Valley Oak League team in both sports as a varsity player. She was also the Jaguar mascot at Kimball football games. Bradley added that just being on teams with other girls at the school is an honor.

“I'm really involved with the school and with sports, but I didn't think that I'd receive the award,” she said. “There a lot of other people who deserve it too. I'm excited to get the award. We're the first students ever at Kimball to get the award. Our names are first on the banner and I think that's really cool.”

She added that sports have been at the core of her high school experience.

“Athletics is really important to me because it keeps me in touch with the school. I feel a lot more involved,” she said. “It's like a hobby for me. I like to represent Kimball.”

She isn’t sure if she will be involved in college athletics, and intends to focus on child development studies when she enrolls at Las Positas College in Livermore this fall semester.



Beau Lawrence

Lawrence said that athletic competition is the how he has met some of his best friends. He has played football, basketball and tennis for three years at Kimball.

“It's pretty much the main fun part of high school, being out there with your teammates and working hard to accomplish a goal,” he said. “That's how it will be later in life too, we'll have to work hard to accomplish our goals.”

He thinks of his Senior Athlete of the Year award as acknowledgement of the work it takes to balance varsity sports and school work.

“Time management is the key, trying to work on homework as well as doing your sport every night,” he said, adding that it has all been worthwhile.

“I would encourage every student to try it out.

Lawrence said playing sports in an experience all high school students should have.

“The friends you make in sports are the friends you'll have for life,” he said, adding that his teammates from his three teams will always support him.

“There are so many good athletes at this school. It's an honor to be mentioned in the same class as them,” he said.

Lawrence heads to San Diego State University in the fall where he plans to study kinesiology.