Stemmlers ready to celebrate 25 years

As you walk through the electric sliding doors of Stemmler Meats and Cheese in Heidelberg, one of the first things you’ll notice – aside from the farm-fresh produce and the freshly-cut meats – are the red and white signs that say “Homegrown Ontario.”

The store is on the frontlines of the local-food movement, and has been for more than 25 years.

“We’re very lucky with the area we get a lot of great food here, so it wasn’t too hard to source it locally,” says Kevin Stemmler, son of Gerry and Mary Ann Stemmler who started the company in 1985.

“Twenty-five years ago we did that because we thought it was a better product, and 25 years later people are finally just getting it, which is too bad it has taken that long.”

Next Saturday, May 14, Stemmler’s is marking their 25th anniversary by inviting families and friends to a day-long celebration of local food, and for a company that started in the garage of the family’s St. Clements home all those years ago, there is certainly much to celebrate.

“We stuffed the sausage in the garage, and we had a grinder, and we cut up some pork and that’s how we got started,” laughed Gerry.

“I just wanted to have a butcher shop, and I wanted to have a market stand. That’s all it was.”

They only stayed in the garage for one winter, though, while their first store location – just a few doors down from their current site at 3031 Lobsinger Line – was being completed, and they also operated a stand at the farmers’ market. By Thanksgiving they had moved out of their 200-square foot garage into a 1,500 square-foot shop, and haven’t looked back since.

“Everything grew. The first few years’ sales were doubling, and we continued getting bigger,” said Gerry.

Right from day-one, Kevin said that the company wanted to focus on providing healthy food that was locally sourced. He credits their introduction of gluten-free products – nearly 20 years before it became mainstream – to their longevity in the marketplace.

“We were a young company and wanted business any way we could get it, so the changes came out of necessity to try to exist,” he said.

By removing gluten – which is used to hold the meat together and retain moisture – from the processing of their meat, they could target a large demographic that was not being serviced by their competitors.

Instead of gluten, the company uses anything from rice to corn and even collagen during the processing stage to achieve the same effect.

“We deal with three European spice companies, we have use of their labs and scientists, and we’re learning on the job all the time,” said Kevin. “When we have that kind of expertise behind us it makes things a lot easier, and we challenge those guys.”

The fact that the majority of their meat is processed on site allows the company to remain flexible in what they can produce, as well as keep their prices competitive by acting as their own middlemen.

The meat, including beef, turkey and pork, is sourced mainly within a 50-mile radius. They have since expanded into offering fresh produce, baked goods and gourmet sauces – while still retaining that local flare.

“The produce is off of local farms, and baked goods from local Mennonite bakeries. We think it’s really about families helping families, because these are local families too and they have kids and you want to support the people around you and we’ve always had that philosophy.”

The family has enjoyed success outside of the region as well. Their food is shipped from Windsor to Cornwall, and they have received countless awards. They took home three awards at the 2011 Independent Meat Processors Association; they were awarded the sustainable environmental award in 2010 by The Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce; and they were also listed among the Top 100 Canadian Food and Beverage Processors in the September, 2010 issue of Food in Canada magazine.

The family also moved into a new 6,000-square-foot facility about five years ago, with plans to expand in the future as well.

“We’re a growing company still,” said Kevin, “but we’ve made the conscious decision not to grow too large, too quickly.”

As for the events next weekend, the family just wants to make it a pleasant experience for all of their customers and the members of the community, which they say have been coming into the store for three generations. Food diva Chef Maribel from the Food Network will be there to, as well as the “Blue Thunder” dragster that the company has sponsored for nearly 10 years along with its driver Jeff Moser. There will be other attractions and events for kids and adults alike.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the public for supporting us for all these years. We have to thank them, without them we wouldn’t have been here this long,” said Kevin.

“We have products that travel all over the province, but it was the local people who supported us first.”

Tags: James Jackson

Local candidates try to woo young voters

On Tuesday morning at Elmira District Secondary School, the four candidates for Kitchener-Conestoga reached out not to the voters of today, but to the voters of tomorrow by participating in a round-table discussion in the school’s library.

More than 50 teachers and students sacrificed their lunch period to listen to what Harold Albrecht of the Conservatives, Lorne Bruce of the NDP, Bob Rosehart of the Liberals and Albert Ashley for the Green party had to say in one of their final public meetings leading up to the May 2 federal election.

Candidates were granted a three-minute opening statement and were asked for their party’s position on five questions ranging from the environment to the economy and rising tuition costs, which they had two minutes to respond to.

The meeting was billed not as a debate, but a roundtable discussion between the candidates and the students. It was a laid-back affair, with only one of the candidates – incumbent Harold Albrecht – electing to wear a tie.

For the majority of the talk the candidates stuck to their scripted answers for the five questions asked by student moderators Jacob Nederend and Graham Colby, organizers of the Student Vote campaign at EDSS. Student Vote is a national program aimed at getting students more involved in the election process and to become more aware of the issues that affect them and their communities.

In the room full of students – many of them in their senior year – the first question asked of the candidates was perhaps the most pressing on their minds: how does your party plan to assist youth looking to go on to secondary education?

“I think if you look at a government and its responsibility and its role, we should be doing everything we can to make it easier for young folks to get an education and to graduate from that and get a good job to participate in the economy,” said Bruce, while outlining the NDP platform to direct $800 million to combat skyrocketing tuition costs, and raise the education tax credit from $4,800 to $5,760 per year.

The other three candidates also promised to increase funding for post-secondary education as well as tax benefits for families. Albrecht highlighted the Conservatives plan to make all scholarships and bursaries for students tax-free; Rosehart said the Liberals would give all students an outright grant ranging from $1,000 to $1,500 per year for school; and Ashley emphasized the importance of students exploring their post-secondary options and outlined how the Green party would increase the number of spaces available at educational institutions, while also supporting integrated co-op program placements.

“Having five children that have gone on to post-secondary education, it’s very necessary for you to go on and it’s a great opportunity for you,” Ashley told the crowd.

Another question of particular interest to the students was each of the candidate’s position on restoring Canada’s reputation as an environmental leader around the world.

Bruce and Rosehart each expressed dismay and frustration over how Canada’s environmental record had taken a beating on the international stage under Stephen Harper, with the NDP candidate highlighting Canada winning the ‘Fossil of the Year’ award in Copenhagen last winter.

“I think we should be leading the way, and under the current government and the one before it we aren’t leading the way. We’re becoming a stumbling block to achieve what we need to achieve,” said Bruce.

Albrecht, meanwhile, defended his party’s environmental record over the past five years.

“I’m more concerned about the quality of air that my grandchildren will breath and the quality of water that they’ll drink than whether or not we get some fictitious ‘fossil’ award,” he responded, highlighting the fact that the Conservative government had made inroads in ensuring the major carbon emitters were on-board to reduce their green-house gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol – Canada in particular by 20 per cent in 2020, and by 60 to 70 per cent in 2050 – as well as taking steps to protect the nation’s water supply.

While the candidates could not come to a consensus on most of the subjects discussed on the day, all four did agree that engaging the youth vote in Canada was critical for the long-term health of democracy in the nation.

“I have always referred to Elmira District Secondary School as a model for how we can increase voter turnout once the graduate from high school,” said Albrecht in an interview afterwards. “I believe that if we get them turned on to the idea of voting while they’re a student, then in most cases, that will translate into them continuing to vote down the road.”

Rosehart, meanwhile, expressed fear for the future of democracy in Canada if candidates fail to engage youth before they are old enough to cast their first ballot.

“It’s never too early [to get young voters interested],” he said following the discussion. “Stephen Harper has basically said ‘this election is over and we’re going back to work on Tuesday,’ and with this ultimate arrogance, someone should remind him that voting day is Monday. I think that’s really what it is all about.”

Tags: James Jackson

Winners selected in Elmira Kiwanis Music Festival

The halls of Woodside Bible Fellowship were alive with the sounds of the Elmira Kiwanis Music Festival from Apr. 11-16, a weeklong event that saw some 130 performers from as young as six to as old as 18 play in front of judges in the categories of junior and senior piano, strings and flute.

The festival featured solos, duets, trios, quartets and ensembles ranging from pop to Chopin.

“It was a very enjoyable week, and the students work very hard with the teachers and the parents,” said Sue Brenner, the secretary for the event for more than 20 years. “They just do such a wonderful job and it’s a wonderful way for them to display their talents.”

To perform at the Elmira festival, the students must take lessons in the area, but some live as far away as Fergus, Linwood and Wellesley. The adjudicators – Kelly Lindstrom (strings), Karen Rowell (senior piano) and Sandra Young Tangjerd (junior piano) – were asked to judge the students performances, give suggestions on ways they could improve, and to decide who would win a wide range of scholarships and other prizes for top performances.

More than $1,500 was awarded at the end of the week to 26 winners, all of which was sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Elmira.

The festival has been a mainstay across Canada, and has been in Elmira more than 30 years, Brenner said, adding that she has seen students start at a very young age and make their way up into the older ranks during her time with the festival.

“That’s cool,” she said. “It’s good that they keep involved, especially since there isn’t much music in the schools anymore.”

The individual trophy and scholarship winners for the 2011 festival were:
Scholarship for $100 presented by Kiwanis and a trophy presented by the studio of Jacqueline Wall for Violinistic Excellence – Janna Martin
Scholarship for strings and flute – Veronica Connors and Aidan Reid
The Myrtle Wilfong Memorial Trophy and $200 scholarship for senior piano – Will Allan
$75 scholarship – Evangeline Drost
$50 scholarship – Julia Bowman, Katie Glofcheskie, Henrietta Flach, Abigail Hamann, Danielle Johnson, Thomas Fast-Sittler, Jordan Long, Irian Fast-Sittler, Sam Domzella, Liv Cento, Mercedes Weber, Savannah Weber, Nathan Shuh, Jaron Bowman, Matthew Beaudoin-Hayes, Cameron Beaudoin-Hayes, Sarah Allen, Rachel Reigier, Andrew Flint
The Elmira Kinettes Trophy and $150 scholarship for junior piano – Tony Domzella
The Jack Price Memorial scholarship for $100 – Michelle Lin

Tags: James Jackson

Maryhill ball hockey tournament to benefit local family with two autistic boys

Brothers Brian and Brent Kron, along with Travis and Brandon Bauman, have been playing ball hockey together for as long as they can remember. So when last year they decided they wanted to do something to give back to their community of Maryhill, the solution was close at hand. A community-wide tournament and fundraiser was held last May with the goal of raising about $3,000 for improvements to the Maryhill Heritage Park. The event was a huge success and grew Read more

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Seeking hardware in South Africa

In 16 years, St. Clements resident Norm Green has captured 22 medals at national and international lawn bowling competitions. From May 2-13 he’ll have the chance to add two more to that collection when he competes in the International Bowls for the Disabled tournament in South Africa.

The tournament runs every four years and the last time he was there, in 2002, he won a pair of bronze medals in the singles and mixed-doubles. This year he will be competing against eight other bowlers in his bracket, and while the tournament attracts players of varying disabilities, he will only compete against others with a sight disability.

Green, 69, was left with limited sight after an 18-foot fall onto his head while on a catwalk at work in 1992. Now, Green is categorized as a B2, which means he has less than 5 per cent vision remaining.

A B1 is someone who is completely blind, while a B3 is someone with less than 10 per cent of their vision. Green has no vision in his one eye and only four per cent vision in the other.

Players are allowed to bowl against anyone in the same sight category or higher, but cannot compete against anyone lower, he said.

Green won the right to represent Canada after he captured gold in the men’s singles at the Canadian Nationals in Winnipeg last year – his third Canadian title – and will pair up with the women’s winner, Heather Hanka, for the mixed doubles portion of the tournament.

He will arrive in Africa tomorrow (May 1) and immediately get to work. Over the course of the tournament he could play up to 300 ends, rain or shine. In single play the winner is the first to reach 21 points, while in doubles the winner is decided after 14 ends.

Players will be given one day of practice prior to the start of the tournament – a day Green will certainly need to hone his skills.

“I haven’t picked a bowl up since last September,” he said with a laugh. He bowled in Elmira up until about two years ago, when he moved to a facility in Kitchener. They have both indoor and outdoor bowling greens, but he doesn’t bowl in the winter because of his other passion – curling.

“Curling I really love, I’d curl all year round if they let me.”

Fortunately, the two sports are actually quite similar. In lawn bowling there is a ball called the jack which players throw down the playing green to start the match. It must travel at least 76 feet (23 metres) down the 120-foot (35-metre) green, then players each take turns bowling their four balls – called bowls – in an attempt to get as close to the jack as possible, much like the centre rings in curling.

The only tricky part is that, unlike the centre rings in curling, the jack can move when it is hit.

“You might be lying two or even three, looking good, and I take the jack away from you. Ninety per cent of the time the jack will move backwards,” said Green with a laugh while explaining some of the tactics of the sport.

“So if you get a bowl close, you try to put one a little bit deeper in case it (the jack) moves.”

Green said he relies heavily on his coach, Bill Mayer, and he said he focuses on his coach’s white shoes against the green grass to help line up his shots, as well as directions from his coach once the shot has been made to help him adjust for the next one.

The tournament concludes in the middle of May, but Green and his wife Carol will be staying a few extra weeks to travel around the country and go on safari, proof that he hasn’t allowed his disability to slow him down in the 19 years since his accident.

“Whenever we travel anywhere, we try to make a vacation out of it,” he said.

Tags: James Jackson

EDSS students do their part in federal election

Canadians will head to the polls on May 2 for the 41st general federal election. But students at Elmira District Secondary School, the majority of whom are too young to vote on May 2, will head to the polls five days earlier, next Wednesday, as part of the nation-wide campaign called Student Vote.

Student Vote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that began in 2003 with the aim of building the commitment of young Canadians to participate in their democracy. Identical to the official election process, students will have the opportunity to vote for local candidates in their electoral district, with the student results released on election night just ahead of the official results.

In the eight years since its inception, Student Vote has participated in 10 parallel elections: three federal, five provincial, and two municipal, reaching more than 5,000 schools and two million students, according to their official website.

EDSS students Jacob Nederend and Graham Colby have been hard at work on their first Student Vote campaign since the federal election was announced Mar. 26.

“I got involved because I’m not eligible to vote, so this is the closest I can get to doing that,” said 17-year-old Nederend. “My parents are very passionate about politics, so they’ve always encouraged me to get involved with it and I know that once I am old enough I will vote in whatever elections I can.”

For Colby, the desire to become part of the Student Vote organization stems from poor voter turnout in past elections. Some 59.1 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in the last federal election, breaking the previous low of just under 61 per cent set in 2004.

“Students all over the world fight for this right and it’s kind of disgusting when you look at what our country is doing – we’re trying to free other countries so they can vote, but we don’t want to practice that right at home – so that kind of bugs me,” said Colby, who at 18 is eligible to vote for the first time.

Along with Ian Cotter, a history, social sciences and civics teach at EDSS, Colby and Nederend have spent the past few weeks calling party candidates, putting up posters to promote the vote and trying to get their peers to actually listen to the issues and become informed ahead the election.

But much like the candidates on the campaign trail, the two quickly discovered how hard it is to win the youth vote.

“It hasn’t been very good,” said Nederend of student response to the campaign. “We’ve had posters put up over our posters, so it’s hard, and I can see why the candidates struggle with it. You have to have some respect for them.”

It doesn’t help that the Easter weekend has cut into their planning time, and that student elections are the week after the Student Vote, creating come confusion among the student body over what the vote is really for.

Nederend, Colby and Cotter have also scheduled an all-candidates meeting for Apr. 26 in the schools library at 10:45, and have invited the four leaders of the parties in their Kitchener-Conestoga riding to come and have an open forum for students and teachers and to discuss their platforms.

For Cotter, he hopes more students will take an interest in the election and come and listen to what the leaders have to say.

“This is something we talk about in civics class, one-in-three young people vote when they’re eligible, and part of the problem is they’re just not in the habit of voting and don’t see the importance. Somehow we have to get the message out.”

He also wants to stress that student votes can make a difference – he estimates that about 10 per cent of the 1,100 students at EDSS are eligible to vote on May 2.

According to the Student Vote organization, in the 2008 federal election 4,000 schools and half a million students participated across Canada. The Conservative Party captured 102 seats, the NDP 67, the Liberals 51, the Green Party 41, and the Bloc 33.

Compare that to the real election results which saw the Conservatives capture 143 seats, 77 for the Liberals, 49 for the Bloc, 37 for the NDP and none for the Green Party, and it’s clear that the student vote can potentially have an impact on the overall election.

At EDSS the results were overwhelmingly in favour of Harold Albrecht in 2008, and in the Kitchener-Conestoga riding as a whole the Green Party edged out the Conservatives by just seven votes – 799 to 792.

“That is a powerful symbol to show students that if they actually voted our government could look very different,” said Cotter. “Their vote can have a voice.”

Tags: James Jackson

EDSS students do their part for Japan

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan Mar. 11 attracted worldwide attention and fundraising initiatives to help the country get back on its feet. Locally, the Waterloo Region District School Board has taken a lead in raising awareness among its students and staff. From Mar. 28 to Apr. 4, there was a board-wide program to raise funds for the beleaguered nation, and Elmira District Secondary School made it a Read more

Tags: James Jackson

Making things better, a bit at a time

There is a Haitian saying that goes, “Piti piti, ti pay pay, zwazo fe nich,” which in Creole means, “Little by little, straw by straw, a bird makes her nest.” For St. Jacobs-resident Steve Sider that saying ideally sums up the way he believes rebuilding efforts in the impoverished nation of Haiti must proceed in order to successfully pull the Caribbean nation out of the depths of poverty. Read more

Tags: James Jackson

Kings drop first two games in Sutherland Cup series

With about seven minutes left in the second period of Wednesday night’s 4-2 loss to the St. Thomas Stars, Kings forward Lukas Baleshta – minus his left glove after being shoved to the ice by a Stars defender – skated to the bench on a line change and smashed his stick against the boards.

It was an obvious sign of frustration, and one that was indicative of the teams play through the first two games of the Sutherland Cup round-robin series against Niagara Falls and St. Thomas. The Kings lost game one of the series 6-3 in Niagara Apr. 15, and followed it up with a disappointing 4-2 setback on home ice Wednesday night in front of more than 1,100 people at the Dan Snyder Arena.

“You get frustrated every game, but you have to battle through it and keep your head up and keep doing what you have to do to win,” said Baleshta, who scored the Kings’ second goal late in the third period on a tipped point shot.

“They better be (frustrated),” said head coach Geoff Haddaway after the 4-2 setback. “We lose a couple games, and they all know what’s at stake.”

The loss drops the Kings record to 0-2 in their four-game round-robin series, an unwelcome wakeup call following their thrilling six-game Cherrey Cup win over Listowel back on Apr. 8.

Niagara Falls is currently 2-0 while St. Thomas – which lost 7-3 to Niagara on Apr. 17 – is now 1-1, and only the top two teams advance to play each other for the Sutherland Cup title.
Game one against Niagara Falls did not start out the way the Kings envisioned in their bid for the finals. They surrendered the first goal just 45 seconds into the game and never recovered, trailing 3-0 after the first 20 minutes, including a powerplay goal with Niagara on a 5-on-3.

“That’s a pretty dangerous thing to do against a talented team like Niagara Falls especially in their own barn,” said Haddaway of the slow start.

Niagara would add another 5:04 into the second to take a 4-0 lead before Cass Frey, assisted by Andrew Smith and Nic MacEachern, cut into the lead at 7:33 to make it 4-1.

Niagara would add another before the end of the period to restore the four-goal cushion.

In the third Elmira took control of the game, outshooting the Canucks 11-8 and outscoring them 2-1 on goals from Brad Kraus (Brady Campbell and Wade Pfeffer) just 56 seconds in on the powerplay, and from Colton Wolfe-Sabo (Josh MacDonald and Pfeffer) at 11:04 to make it 5-3.

Elmira would surrender a sixth goal at 19:22 to ice the game, 6-3. Matthew Smith took the loss in net making 16 saves on the night.

In game two of the round-robin schedule, the Kings seemed to carry that momentum from the third period against Niagara into their match against St. Thomas.

Ryan Clarkson opened the scoring at 12:57 of the first on a nice give-and-go from Josh MacDonald and slid the puck in the empty net. Spencer MacCormack picked up the second assist on the goal.

“I thought we came out really strong and had a really good first period,” said Haddaway of his teams effort to start the game, “but their goaltending was outstanding tonight.”

Following that goal the Kings got into the same penalty trouble that plagued them in game one against Niagara, taking five straight penalties in the first and into the second period.

St. Thomas tied the game at 18:48 of the first period with their first of two powerplay goals on the night when Brad Kraus took an ill-advised roughing penalty in the St. Thomas end after Elmira had placed tremendous pressure on the Stars.

Brennon Pearce and Andrew Smith would each take a penalty at the 19:30 mark of the first to put the Kings down by two men for a full two minutes.

The Stars would score on that 5-on-3 just 26 seconds into the second when Dylan Thomas scored into a wide open net to give St. Thomas a 2-1 lead.

“I’m not sure if in a championship series five penalties in a row are warranted, but that’s the way it happened, and we had to deal with it,” said Haddaway of the Kings’ penalty trouble in the game.

Down 2-1, that was when the Kings’ frustration started to show. St. Thomas goaltender Torrin Lauziere stood on his head all night, making 36 saves for the win and stymied Kings shooters again and again, including Josh Woolley and Brady Campbell on two separate breaks that could have tied the game at 2.

Riding their hot goaltender, St. Thomas used their speed to score two more quick goals at 14:52 and 17:35 of the second to take a 4-1 stranglehold on the game.

Baleshta scored a late powerplay marker with the extra attacker at 19:16 of the third to make it 4-2 from Wolfe-Sabo and Jordan Benton, but it was too little too late, and now the Kings have dug themselves an 0-2 hole and face a must-win situation in their remaining two games.

Nick Horrigan finished with 34 saves in the loss.

The Kings play game three of the round robin tonight (Saturday) in St. Thomas, and close out the series at home the following night against Niagara Falls. Both games start at 7 p.m.

Haddaway said the secret for the Kings to make it past the round robin is clear.

“We’ve got to win. It’s simple, we’ve got to win,” he said.

Baleshta echoed his coach’s words.

“We’ve done it the hard way all year, so this doesn’t change anything. We know what we have to do, we have to win these next two games and see what happens.

“We’re OK, we just have to stay positive and do the things that we’ve doing all year to get us this far.”

Tags: James Jackson

TC Bantams claim league championship

The Twin Centre Bantam Rep hockey team ended their season on Apr. 7 – an incredible stretch of 71 games including regular season, playoffs and tournaments – but after the success they enjoyed this season, you could forgive them if they didn’t want it to end.

The team capped off a tremendous year by winning their league championships against their arch-rivals, the Tavistock Titans, in a close four-game series.

This season was one to remember for the coaches and players as the team also captured first place in tournaments in Ridgetown and Aylmer, won both the Regional Silver Stick Tournament in Kincardine back in December and the International Silver Stick Tournament in Port Huron in January, and managed to make all the way to the OMHA semi-finals before bowing out to the eventual champions from Ennismore.

Their most recent victory, the league championship, certainly didn’t come without a fight though.

After tying game one 2-2 on a late goal by Tavistock, Twin Centre rebounded by shutting out the Titans 3-0 on the strength of goaltender Bradley Reitzel’s 23rd shutout of the season.

They fell flat in game three, however, surrendering a 4-3 decision to set up a one-game final for the championship on home ice.

The team rode the strong play of captain Mark Lebold (two goals) and the goaltending of Reitzel to a 4-3 win in that game to claim the league championship.

“I think some of the good things that we did this season was play as a team – it was a collection of some good talented players, not a collection of individuals,” said head coach Callum McKee of his team’s enormous success over the course of the year.

He said that balanced scoring and solid defence in front of Reitzel was another major contributor. The team boasted six 20-goal scorers, with three tallying 30 or more by the end of the year.

“There was no big number-one for us, our goalie is very strong there is no doubt about that, but when you come to the rest of the team we all worked together,” he said, adding that all the 30-goal scorers were spread out over all three lines, making it difficult for their opponents to keep their scoring in check.

McKee said that losing in the OMHA semifinals to Ennismore – who went on to win the provincial championship in three straight games over BCH – definitely gave them some extra motivation to come back and win their league championship.

It’s a good thing, too, because next season’s team will have a very different look than the championship squad of 2011. Many of the older players on the Bantam team this year will be moving up to the Midget level next year, and leaving the first-year players behind, said the coach.

“Some of our guys will be going into their first year of Midget and playing against second and third-year players, so it will be an entirely different matchup,” he said.

But despite the uncertainty for next year, they are just enjoying their achievements for now.

Even the coach admitted that their overall success this year was a pleasant – and somewhat unexpected – surprise.

“Knowing the kids and what they could do, I would have said (we would rank) in the top four, maybe – but not at number one. They played very well.”

Tags: James Jackson