EDSS suffers first loss of the season

Despite suffering their first loss of the season on Tuesday during the Premier League qualifying playoff round, the Elmira District Secondary School boys’ soccer team can still advance to the Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association (CWOSSA) playoffs with a win later next week.

After cruising through the lower-tiered First Division regular season with a perfect 7-0 record and not allowing a single goal, the Lancers had their first test of the season on Tuesday against the Bluevale Knights of the Premier League, falling 2-1 in penalty kicks and knocking them out of the Waterloo County Secondary School Athletic Association (WCSSA) playoffs.

Team captain Cole Martin scored the first goal of the match for an early 1-0 lead, but the game went into extra time after a Knight’s cross went off a Lancer defender’s head and into the net.
“We didn’t even get scored on, we scored on ourselves,” said head coach Chris Finnie. “We still haven’t had anyone score on us properly this season.”

Elmira will play Southwood Secondary School on Tuesday for the final berth in CWOSSA after Southwood fell 3-2 to Waterloo-Oxford this week. Waterloo-Oxford finished third in the First Division this season, well behind Elmira, but Finnie knows Southwood still presents a tough test.

“Last season Southwood was very strong and they got promoted this year and they seem to have done alright,” said Finnie. “They’re a tougher division up top, and they’re young and good defensively, but hopefully we can continue to play as well as we have.”

The Lancers sported a 7-0 record and outscored their opponents 21-0 en route to top place in their division, and Finnie credits their success to a well-balanced team and a strong effort on team defence. That balance was apparent when starting goaltender Mike Weber suffered an injury and backup Tyler Seguin sported back-to-back shutouts earlier this year.

Despite that dedication to defence the players also know what to do offensively when the opportunity arises, averaging three goals per game during the regular season.

“Our midfield is very good at dominating the ball, and our strikers are very skilled as well and can take advantage of mistakes that the other team makes,” the coach said.

The mix of players from all grade levels also bodes well for the team next season, as they will be moving up to the Premier League and will rely on that extra experience and ability to compete in tight matches.

“We have a very complete team, so when we get bumped up to the top league next year, we should be in good shape.”

The boys face Southwood Tuesday at 3 p.m. at 30 Southwood Dr. in Cambridge.

Time for attaboys and goodbyes

A band of brothers gather around a small table inside the Waterloo Rod and Gun club where they hug, laugh, share stories and reminisce about days past. The very recent past, in fact, as the this group of Elmira Sugar Kings put the cap on the 2011-12 season at their annual awards banquet May 6.

Accolades and trophies were handed out in healthy measures.

Although the team was eliminated from the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs in the second round against Stratford, head coach Dean DeSilva believes his team had a good year on and off the ice.

“People may look back and say we did not have a successful year because we did not win our last game but if you judge success on that, there are 25 teams in our league that did not have a successful year. I dare you to say that to teams that made it to the playoffs for the first time or went further than they have ever gone in the playoffs,” said DeSilva.

Over the course of the season the Kings broke many long standing club records, including starting the season with a 14-0 winning streak. The team had 40 wins over a 51-game season, earning 82 points to set a new club record.

“These guys worked very hard everyday they were at the rink, it was incredible. They played through bad shoulders, bad backs, wrists, knees, everything and never once made an excuse for it,” said DeSilva. “Success is measured in different ways and the guys here need to take some time and appreciate some of the success they have had.”

In the month of November the team raised $5,500 for prostate cancer, only three hockey teams across Canada and each of those are major Junior hockey clubs with a lot larger fan base, raised more money than the Kings.

There are eight players leaving the squad this year and they are either heading to the CIS, OHL or the NCAA and that is a huge success for the organization, said DeSilva.

In celebrating the season, the Kings also said goodbye to some key individuals.

Those leaving the team include goaltender Nick Horrigan, who played 111 games as a King. Forward Brad Kraus played 153 games in the league, while forward Riley Sonnenburg wore a Kings jersey for 170 games. Scott Nagy racked up 192 games, forward Andrew Smith played 196 as a King, while forward Lukas Baleshta played 206 games for Elmira, putting up more than 200 points. Brett Priestap played 230 games in the league for Elmira and Cambridge. Captain Colton Wolfe-Sabo successfully played 266 games in the league between Waterloo and Elmira.

“This has been an incredible run playing four years in the league, the last two with Elmira,” said Wolfe-Sabo. “I will say that the support from the community in Elmira is phenomenal: it is so good here, especially for a smaller town you could not ask for more from a community. I will miss the guys, for sure, and playing in the rink, but I have to say the fans in Elmira are the best in the entire Junior B league.”

After all the awards were handed out DeSilva spoke to his team with an emphasis on the players leaving the squad.

“Opportunities don’t come along everyday and when they do you should embrace them, acknowledge them, be willing to change for them and don’t ever take them for granted because it is not how long you do something that matters but what you do while you are doing it that counts,” he said.

“The guys that are leaving us should be able to look back on their time playing in the league as a success. When they look back at their time with the Sugar Kings, I know they will smile,” said DeSilva. “All these guys will have success in everything they do.”

This weekend the club is holding its annual spring training camp at the Cambridge arena where officials will be looking for the next generation of Kings.

It will be a rebuilding season next year and DeSilva will be looking for players that have a hard work ethic and discipline on and off the ice.

“I am basically looking for a team of Cass Frey’s,” said DeSilva, who offered the vacant captaincy to the 19-year-old Frey last week. “We are looking for players that come in, work hard and never give up.”

There are more than a few holes to fill in the team next year and DeSilva said that players coming to the training camp will have a lot of opportunities to impress him and the other coaches.

“We will be getting back to old-fashioned Sugar King style of hockey next year.”

Jacks, one last chance to reflect on season

The Wellesley Applejacks closed the book on their 2011-12 season at their annual year-end awards banquet on Apr. 27 by paying homage to up-and-coming as well as departing players. Meeting at the Khaki Club just outside of Wellesley, the management and coaching staff thanked their players and their scores of volunteers for all their work in what was, at times, a trying season.

“The Jacks had one of those seasons that you might call a roller-coaster ride,” said Rick Grebinski, a member of the team’s executive.

“We got off to that 5-0 start and we were up in the clouds where it was sunny and everything was good in Jacks land, and then we had an injury here, a suspension there, a bad bounce here, and before we knew it we were down.”
The Jacks finished with a record of 19-14-2, fifth in the McConnell Conference standings. Playing a tough Ayr Centennial club in the first round, the Jacks were ousted in five games, with three of those matches requiring overtime. The final loss came on Mar. 1 in Ayr, a 5-4 overtime final.

Grebinski made mention of the competitive nature of the league this past season, and that any team was capable of winning on any given night.

“I don’t think there was any night where a team could go into a game and say ‘these two points are ours.’”

The team recognized the past, the present and the future of the Applejacks throughout the evening, taking time to recount the history of each trophy and who they were named after.
“You look over at these awards and there is a lot of history with this organization,” said head coach Kevin Fitzpatrick. “A lot of great stories and a lot of great kids.”

In total eight players walked away with awards on the night, with the top award of the evening – team MVP – going to goaltender Josh Heer in his first season with the team.
Heer gave the team a chance to win on most evenings, playing in 24 games this season and finishing with a record of 13-10-0-1 and one shutout, .907 save percentage and a 3.17 goals against average. Heer was also one of four Jacks to represent the team at the all-star game, along with Geoff Parr, Corey Way and trainer Al Jones.

Other awards included rookie of the year (Reid Denstedt), the Martin Nowack Memorial unsung player award (Trevor Olender), the most improved player award (Derek Lebold), the Don Green Memorial trophy for most sportsmanlike player (Connor McLeod), the Coaches award (Josh Herd), the Ralph Jantzi award for most valuable local player (Shawn Fitzpatrick) and the John Egli award for top defenceman (James Mildon).

The team also gave some insight into next season, a year in which the team will be moved up to Junior C following the merger with the Junior D league announced last month, and Grebinski also informed the crowd that the team will be sporting new jerseys next season, with a preview available at their booth at the Wellesley Home and Garden Show from May 2-4.

Despite the early end, Fitzpatrick said it was a fun season and that the group had represented Wellesley well, and that their parents and families should be proud.
“We didn’t achieve our goals, but unfortunately only one team can do that,” he said at the end of the evening. “We’re looking forward to some big things moving forward.”

EDSS girls’ soccer team gets a decent start

Last season the EDSS girls’ soccer team only played a handful of games because of poor weather. Record-setting levels of precipitation last spring caused delays across the region as games were not permitted on the outdoor fields because the ground was so wet.

This year Mother Nature has been kind, allowing the regular season to kick off without a hitch.

Unlike last year, the high school team only has a few Grade 12 students and a trio of Grade 11s, but so far the team is off to a reasonably good start. They managed to tie Glenview Park in their first game, 3-3, but a 5-1 loss to Preston High on Tuesday left EDSS with one point so far this season, placing them fifth in the standings. That’s not a bad start to the season seeing as the team has a large number of Grade 9 and 10 players, said coach Jennifer Amos-Harrison.

Given the number of young and smaller players on the field, Amos-Harrison is happy with the way her team is performing.

“I think we’re doing very well; I think we just have to believe in ourselves a little bit more,” she said. “This year I think we have a chance to do quite well and stand to do even better the following year.”
This year the team is playing in the second or blue division.

The girls tend to play strongly for the first half of the game, but lapses in the second half have left them  playing catch-up. Amos-Harrison would like to see them work on their ball control for the remainder of the season, as that is the area where they tend to second-guess themselves.

“We have two very strong forwards this year with Grade 11 striker Kristen Wiens and Grade 9 Kacie Martin, as both have proven themselves on the field and are showing good leadership.”

Although Martin is playing her first year with the team she does not let her smaller size deter her from taking much larger Grade 12 opponents as she is feisty, has great ball control and playmaking skills, said the coach.

Goaltenders Grade 11 Serena Cressman and 13-year-old Michelle Wang replace Yi Wang, Michelle’s sister, who graduated last year. Both netminders have maintained strong performances between the goalposts, showing they are quite aggressive.

“They know when to pick the right moments to challenge for the ball; they are both developing quite well. The goals they’ve had against them have been well placed shots,” Amos-Harrison said. “(Wang) is still very small and is up against some 19 year old girls but she is handling it very well.”

Despite the zero in the wins column, the girls don’t criticize or lose their enthusiasm for the game, she added.

“It is still very early in the season and it doesn’t matter, win, lose or draw, the girls are always happy and positive.”

Major Atoms take third in OHF

Playing in a home-game atmosphere all weekend, the Woolwich Major Atom AA team secured a third-place finish on the Ontario Hockey Federation finals last weekend in Kitchener. The boys were seeded second in the four-team tournament following the round-robin portion of the competition with a record of 2-1-1, but lost in the semi-final matchup to the North York Knights.

“It was bittersweet, but the kids really held their heads high,” said team trainer Tim Rollins. “To finish third overall in the province is pretty fantastic.”

Rollins said that the competition was fierce and that by the end of the weekend the boys were both physically and mentally exhausted. The tournament consisted of three periods of 15-minutes each, compared to 10-10-15 in the regular season and 10-15-15 in the Ontario Minor Hockey Association playoffs.

“Over the span of five games and two days, that’s a lot,” said Rollins.

The tournament started on Friday morning where the team earned a tough 2-1 win over North York, but dropped a 4-1 decision to the eventual champion North Bay Trappers that afternoon.

The team then secured a 3-2 win over London and a 2-2 tie with the Kitchener Jr. Rangers to earn a second-place seed after the round robin.

The team couldn’t put it all together in the semi finals against North York as they fell 3-1. North Bay would go on to beat North York 2-0 in the finals to take the title.

Rollins noted that the crowd for all of their games was incredible as friends and family made the drive from Woolwich to watch the team compete, making all of their games feel like they were being played on home ice – even in the match against the hometown team from Kitchener.

“We can’t thank the fan support we got enough, it was incredible, and they were home games for us,” said Rollins. “We were so excited, the boys in particular, to see the crowd and to see all the kids that came out.”

With their season now over, the team is already looking forward to next year and Rollins said the coaching staff are excited by the fact that most of the players from the current squad are planning to return next year and hopefully mount a defence of their OMHA title and make a return to the OHF finals.

And despite not coming home with the gold, the players understand just how much they actually accomplished this season.

“Although it was bittersweet losing they will remember this for a long time and I think that most of the boys by the time they left the dressing room were holding their heads real high,” said Rollins.

“They did Woolwich really proud.”

Softball league opens registration in advance

With the hockey season winding down and what little snow we had now a distant memory, the Elmira Minor Softball Association is looking to put baseball on the minds of Elmira’s young athletes and their parents.
The group hopes to boost enrolment for its house league teams, and is searching for a few more sponsors, coaches, and a convener for the league.

“After we got all the warm weather earlier this year we did start to get a lot of calls, but now since it’s gotten colder things have quieted down,” said Cathy Mendler, one of the EMSA’s organizers.

House league softball is co-ed and has four separate divisions: t-ball, which is for players born in 2007 and 2008, rookie ball (2005-2006), junior ball (2002-2004), and senior ball (1999-2001). Teams play twice a week, except for t-ball, which is only on Tuesdays.

The EMSA also has a boys’ travelling rep team that plays in the North Waterloo Rural Minor Softball League comprised of peewee (1998-1999) and bantam (1996-1997) aged players.

The house league teams had about 85 players in all last season, but so far only about 45 have signed up for the 2012 season. The EMSA did have two signup days last month, Mar. 8 and 10, but Mendler said because the township spring information booklets didn’t hit the streets until after their signup days had passed, that may be why enrolment is down.

The league is also looking for a convener after long-time volunteer Greg Brubacher chose to step down this year because of family reasons, Mendler said.

“We want to thank Greg, who got things going again in house league three years ago, for all the hard work he’s done.”

The responsibilities of the convener range from dividing players into the different teams, to arranging the diamond times with township staff. Mendler said that she and her husband, Brian Blaxall, would help the new convener until they learned the ropes of the position, as he is the convener for the rep league.

“Some of the stuff is already basically in place it’s just a matter of making a few phone calls or emails,” Mendler said.

After a decade-long hiatus in Elmira due to low registration numbers, softball returned in 2009 thanks to the efforts of Brubacher in the form of the EMSA.

As Elmira began to grow, Brubacher noted an increasing interest in the renewal of a softball league for young players, and Mendler said this interest continues to this day and they’ve had some great success along the way, noting the midget rep team qualified for the Eastern Canadian Championships last year.

“Kids will gravitate back to a sport if that’s what they like. We’ve had kids play ball, go to soccer, and then they came back. It really depends on the kid.”

Anyone interested in enrolling their children in the Elmira Minor Softball Association, in becoming the league convener, or in sponsoring a team, contact Mendler at (519) 669-1377. The cost to register for a team is $70, or $80 after Apr. 18, and the season runs from the beginning of May to the middle of July.

Twin Centre goes 3-for-3 at OMHAs

It was a historic year for Twin Centre Stars minor hockey as all three teams in the finals captured the Ontario Minor Hockey Association title as the best team in the province, the first time that three teams from Twin Centre have won the Ontario title it in the same year.

The Novice Rep team (7-8 years old) wrapped up their series against South Huron on Mar. 31 to take the series in four games, the Atom AE team (10-11 years old) finished up their series on Mar. 23 with a 5-0 win over Centre Hastings, and the Bantam Rep club (13-14 years old) finished off Blenheim on Mar. 27.

“That’s just amazing,” said Steve Krulicki, head coach of the Atom team. “To have three teams win in one year was amazing. There was a lot of excitement and a lot of buzz and lets hope the success continues and the fun continues next year.”

For the Novice Rep team the win finishes off what head coach Jamie Hislop called “the triple crown” of achievements for the 2011/2012 season. The team won the regional silver stick tournament late in 2011 and captured the international silver stick title in January in Michigan with a 5-0 record. The final component was the OMHA title, which they secured in front of a jam packed and enthusiastic home crowd last weekend.

“We really focused on a team atmosphere,” said Hislop. “The listened to everything we taught them and just went out and executed.

“It was a total team effort.”

The Atom club also had the opportunity to finish its series on home ice to a crowded arena, and didn’t disappoint, capping off a successful season that saw them finish with a record of 17-4-1 in the regular season and a perfect 15-0-0 in the playoffs.

“It feels great, it’s amazing,” said Krulicki, who won an OMHA title 20 years ago while playing in Kitchener and whose team was allowed to use the Applejacks’ dressing room during the game.

“Winning it as a player is amazing. You kind of forget over 20 years, but it was great to be a part of this and help the kids grow and get better.”

The road to the OMHA title wasn’t an easy one for the Bantam club. In their 13 playoff games, the team was either losing or tied heading into the third period on eight occasions, but managed to battle back for a 7-0-1 record in those games.

Head coach Brock Gerber said the team’s “never say die” attitude was apparent nearly every night.

“It was a great year of hockey with a dedicated group of players,” he said. “You’d need some luck, but I think it was mostly hard work by the kids and determination.”

Elmira’s Erin Zach

Elmira resident Erin Zach helped make NCAA history on Mar. 17 when her Rochester Institute of Technology teammates captured the school’s first Division III women’s ice hockey national championship. “It’s an indescribable feeling. It was amazing,” said an elated Zach from her parent’s home in Elmira, where she is recovering from an illness. The RIT Tigers scored three third-period goals in front of a home crowd of nearly 1,200 fans to snap a 1-1 tie and defeat the defending national championship team from Norwich University. Zach also said the presence of her parents, who make the three-and-a-half hour drive to Rochester for almost all of her games, was a big boost.

“The fans were amazing and it was great being at home and not having to travel and everyone was cheering so loudly when we won,” she said, adding it was nice to get revenge on the Norwich team that had beaten RIT in last year’s championship game.

Although she was kept off the scoreboard in the final game, the title caps off a strong season for Zach in her second year of play for the Tigers.The forward finished with six goals and eight assists in 27 games this year, helping RIT set a Division III record for wins with 28.

In the finals Zach said the coaches and players stressed keeping the game simple and just continue to play their own style of game.

“We just talked about how we should play our game and not take any dumb penalties,” she said. “Just keep up the good work that we had done all year, and go out and do what we can do.”

“This is a team that played hard thoughout the season. Going into the third period tonight at 1-1, we knew we weren’t losing,” said RIT head coach Scott McDonald. “We wanted it more, blocked shots, got in lanes, did all the little things that allowed us to win.”

The Tigers are now 54-3-3 over the past two seasons and shortly after the championship win announced they would be moving up to Division I play starting next season. Normally a two-year process, the team was admitted due to Niagara University dropping its women’s hockey program, a move announced last week.

Zach said that her coaches and teammates are taking a realistic approach to the move to the more competitive level of hockey. They’ve just won the national championships but are hard at work training for next season, she said.

“It’s definitely going to be different,” she said. “We’re hoping to be at least in the middle of the pack. It’s going to be hard but we’re in spring training right now and doing some hard lifting to hopefully bulk up a little bit and play on the big stage.”
Now in her second year of studying media arts and technology, the sophomore was accepted to RIT on financial assistance after starring for the Cambridge Fury and the EDSS Lancers, and was named the Central Western Ontario Secondary School Association MVP in 2010.

Jacks undergoing a major rebuild

When Andrew Richard of the Ayr Centennials beat goaltender Josh Heer of the Wellesley Applejacks at 18:01 of the first overtime period back on Mar. 1, the Game 5 victory sealed the fate of the Jacks for another year, as they were ousted from the Sothern Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs.

The finish was a frustrating one for players and management alike, as they had hoped to not only avoid a repeat of last year’s opening-round five-game defeat (also at the hand of the Centennials), but advance to the second round for the first time in more than four years.

It was not to be, however, which has forced management back to the drawing board for the 2012-2013 season a little earlier than they had hoped.

“We’ve talked to a lot of players for next year, and there are a few that we’re really interested in,” said Jacks head coach and general manager Kevin Fitzpatrick earlier this week. He said that the recruitment process was an ongoing on, and that they had targeted a handful of players that they are pursuing for next season.

In the Junior hockey ranks, the process of planning for “next season” is a perennial one, with the uncertainty surrounding call-ups to more competitive leagues, players leaving for school or work, and the ever-present reality of age.
With 19 players on the current roster 20 years of age or older in 2012, next year’s team will have a much different look than the squad that left the ice a month ago.

Each team is only permitted four over-age players, and while they carried two this past year, Fitzpatrick said they will certainly fill all four positions for the upcoming season – though he gave no indication of who those players might be.
Another source of uncertainty is the proposed merger of the Junior D and Junior C leagues, and Fitzpatrick is on that merger committee. He said they plan to meet a couple of times in April, and that there are about 25 points that need to be worked out, with league alignment being the biggest issue, but the list also includes league rivalries and potential rivalries, transportation costs, and the scheduling of home games.
“There are still a lot of variables,” Fitzpatrick said.

The timing for training camp for next season still has to be finalized, as it hinges on the outcome of the merger discussions, but as always, Fitzpatrick said the Jacks will ice a competitive team that can hopefully build on some of their success earlier this season.

Major Atom AA squad capture OMHA title

The Woolwich Major Atom AA hockey team laid claim to their second consecutive Ontario Minor Hockey Association championship thanks to a three-game sweep of Whitby on Mar. 23. The team is virtually the same lineup as the Minor Atom A team that took home the OMHA title last season, one of four Woolwich teams to make it to the finals. “It’s nice to put a bit of a stamp on this year where we were maybe a bit of an underdog,” said head coach Tony Code. The team made the jump to the AA level of play this season, and Code said many teams may have overlooked Woolwich with the assumption that they were in over their heads.

The team responded to the higher level of competition by wrapping up the OMHA title in just three games.

“We were able to prove people wrong and that’s a testament to what kind of commitment and the hard work that these guys put together every day,” said Code.

The coach said the two teams were actually quite evenly matched, and that is reflected in the score of the opening two games played in Elmira. In Game 1 on Mar. 17 Woolwich managed a 2-0 win with both goals coming in the second period courtesy of Lukas Shantz and Justin Taylor. Goaltender Cyrus Martin had the shutout.

Not to be outdone, Martin’s goaltending partner Riley Demers had his own shutout in Game 2 the next day in a 1-0 win over Whitby, and the lone goal came off the stick of Brody Waters.

In Game 3, with the teams tied 1-1 after the first period, Woolwich responded with two goals in the second and two more in the third to seal the 5-1 win and the 3-0 series sweep. Goals came courtesy of Josh Martin, Lukas Shantz, Griffen Rollins, and a pair from Jake Code.

For the head coach, sealing the deal in Game 3 was important, because in the semi-finals against Oakville the Woolwich team managed to erase a 2-0 series deficit by winning the next three to advance to the finals.
“From a coaching standpoint it allowed me to talk to that and say ‘you can’t take your foot off the gas against this team because we were down and somebody allowed us to get back into it,’” said Code.

Remarkably the team’s season still isn’t finished. They are now preparing to compete in the Ontario Hockey Federation finals that will see them faceoff against the best teams in the rest of the province from Apr. 13-15 in Kitchener. The OHF is the largest of three Hockey Canada branches that govern hockey in Ontario.

“We’re still going. It was a big deal to win the OMHA’s but hopefully we can get re-focused and continue on.”