P.O. Box 5
Afton, NY 13730
607.639.8200

From
The Tri-Town News January 15, 2003

Quiet leadership and a perfectionist attitude are qualifications that can make an athlete's performance stand out. They are also qualities beneficial to life beyond the playing field.

Two such individuals, both at Afton Central School, display these traits on a daily basis, and have been honored with the holiday edition of the WCDO/SFCU "Athlete of the Week" award.

Senior Josh Winans and junior Renee Kemmerer became the first pair from the same school to be affirmed during the holiday season. This is the 17th anniversary of the WCDO radio show, sponsored by the Sidney Federal Credit Union.

Both are leading scorers for their respective teams, and they're natural leaders, too, according to their coaches.

"With Renee, she's not real vocal, although sometimes I wish she would be," said coach John Simonds. "After a game, I'll look at the scorebook and see 20 points for Renee and wonder how she got them. She's quiet, but she's a hard worker and leads my team by example."

"I think Josh does what he does because of heart," Dick Winans, coach and father, said, referring to Josh's ability despite his lack of size. "The other team always needs to know where he is because he can hurt you with or without the ball."

Josh earned "Most Valuable Player" honors in both of Afton's December tournaments. The first, in Deposit, came after both rounds were postponed due to snow. Then came the annual Tubby Crane Tournament in Afton, held with only three teams.

Perhaps the best game of all so far was Afton's January 8th victory over Delhi, the defending Midstate Athletic Conference champions. Led by Josh's 21 points, Afton scorched a perfect 14 for 14 from the foul line and relied on a deep bench to record their first win over the Bulldogs in at least ten years.

An admitted "gym rat," Josh Winans will play anywhere at anytime. He's been on AAU teams tours of Oneonta as well as the Gus Macker 3-on-3 tournament.

Josh is leaning towards running Cross Country in college. He had a successful fall season at Afton, running in the NYS Class D Championships at Sunken Meadow State Park. This spring he'll return to his shortstop position and bat leadoff for the Afton baseball team.

The honor for Renee Kemmerer is two-fold. In November, she played in the National Field Hockey Festival in California with her Empire State Games teammates from the Central Region under jan Conover, who is Renee's coach at ACS.

During that series of games against the country's finest scholastic players, Renee earned recognition on the All-North Region squad of High School All-Americans, made up of 16 players from New York, Vermont and Rhose Island.

What distinguished her play in California is best described by Coach Conover. "Renee played center midfield for us and was absolutely outstanding," Conover beamed. "In our game against Pocano, she took a penaly stroke with about 1:30 left. She made it (easily), but what I didn't tell the girls was that the Pocano coach was also head of the All-American selection committee. So I think that stroke influenced her decision to put Renee on the All-North team. No doubt she deserved it."

Currently Renee paces her basketball team in every facet, from rebounding to scoring to defense. Despiter a depleted roster and a brutal earlt schedule (Afton played four state-ranked teams, three in Class C), most feel that the team will challenge for both the MAC Division 2 and Section IV Class D championships.

Let's not forget that Renee has been part of four state softball teams, the last two as NYS champions. But it all seems to come back to her quest for perfection.

"No matter how well she may have played," Coach Conover said, "she's not staisfied. She seeks perfection every time and that is quite an attribute to an athlete."

Josh Winans and Renee Kemmerer are fine examples of what high school student-athletes should be. Their success is evident from their performance. Even if you din't hear them, you always hear about the.

And that's the way it should be.

Josh Winans profile in The Binghamton Press: High School Spotlight: 1/24/03.