photo provided: canada snowboard

HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of Ottawa Community Sports SportsOttawa.com Vol. 3, #6 March 2014

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NEPEAN ENTERS RECORD BOOKS

CAPITAL’S NEWEST GOLDEN GIRL

P. 3

P. 11

P. 4

Margarita Gorbounova and Caroline Bis-son combine work for the government with Paralympic nordic skiing & biathlon.

The Nepean Wildcats made local hockey and league history by finishing with the most-ever PWHL regular season points.

Team Canada goalie Geneviève Lacasse brought a prized possession home with her as she landed in Ottawa from Sochi.

RETURN TO PODIUM REQUESTED

P. 2Marc Dorion and Ben Delaney are hungry to bring the Canadian sledge hockey team back to its golden ways in Sochi.

John Leslie will be part of history as he competes in the Paralympic Games’ first snowboard event. The 21-year-old is one of five Ottawa athletes who will take part in the March 7-16 Paralympics in Sochi, along with para-nordic skiers Margarita Gorbounova and Caroline Bisson, and sledge hockey players Marc Dorion and Ben Delaney. Read profiles on each of them in our Ottawa at the Paralympics special section.

OTTAWA

PARALYMPICSAT THE

JOHN LESLIESNOWBOARD

Age: 21Local Club:

Ottawa Akademy# Paralympics: First

Medal threat:

Friday, March 14Para-Snowboard

Cross – Men’s Standing3 a.m. ET

He’s at the top of his game. In a matter of days, John Leslie could be at the top of his sport.

March 14 will mark the sem-inal race of the 21-year-old snow-boarder’s budding career. The Ottawa Akademy club athlete will don Cana-dian colours by the Black Sea, com-peting in the first-ever Paralympic snowboard cross event.

Leslie will enter the Games ranked sixth in the world, but with three bronze medals from his four World Cup races this season, the Arnprior-raised athlete is on a defin-itely upswing heading into Sochi.

“It’s kind of all coming together and I’m super stoked,” says Leslie, who has setup shop in B.C. to train for the Paralympics. “I’m peaking right when I should be, so I’m ready

to go over and kick some ass.”2014 has already been the best

season of Leslie’s young career. The World Cup medals were the first he’s won, in his fourth winter competing internationally.

Just as Leslie has had his sights set on a Paralympic push all year, his Canadian coaches have tailored their training to a Sochi-specific focus.

“The way they’ve set it up is sup-posed to make it so that on the day of our race, March 14, our muscles are peaked and ready to go, and our fatigue levels will be low,” explains the Algonquin College business stu-dent. “We’ll be out there in the best possible state to race.”

With his sport’s arrival on the Paralympic stage, Leslie isn’t alone amongst athletes who have upped their games.

“Everyone’s been pushing it so hard and progressing so well,” notes the athlete who was hampered by medical issues last season. “It’s going to be interesting to see who the top three guys are, because it’s definitely not the way it’s been in seasons be-

fore. This year, it’s been all over the map, so it’s going to be cool.”

PARALYMPIC JOURNEY SURPRISE

Chasing Paralympic gold is a relatively new dream for Leslie. A hockey player growing, Leslie lost the bottom portion of his left leg to cancer at age 11.

He managed to return to compet-itive hockey, but eventually dropped it in favour of snowboarding since it ate up too much of his time in high school and the NHL wasn’t in his fu-ture.

Leslie was a strong athlete for Arnprior District High School’s snowboard team, but again didn’t see a competitive future in the pursuit until his coach, the Akademy’s Cas-sandra Smith, learned that he had an artificial limb – much to her surprise.

Smith connected Leslie with Canada Snowboard, and soon enough he was competing internationally as a teenager. By 2012, his sport was added to the Paralympic alpine pro-gram, and with it came a newfound commitment to a high-performance

athlete lifestyle, and a cross-country move to the para-snowboard national team’s base at Big White Ski Resort in Kelowna.

Now he’s gained a fair amount of notoriety, appearing in TV commer-cials throughout the Olympics for Petro Canada’s FACE program – an initiative that supports rising athletes financially so they can train more in their quest for the podium – alongside future Olympic snowboard hopeful Tayler Wilton.

“I think it’s going to be something that 10 years down the road, when I look back on my life, it’s kind of like, ‘Wow. I love snowboarding, it’s my favourite sport in the world, and I was a part of the first-ever Paralympic snowboard team. That is really cool,’” Leslie indicates. “I think it’s going to be a pride that develops over time.”

The next decade could bring un-foreseen highs to Leslie’s snowboard career. As the preamble to Sochi fades away, though, he has just one goal in mind: peaking on March 14.

“I hope to make everybody proud,” he says.

First career World Cup medals boost Leslie ahead of Paralympic debut

By Nick Faris

MARC DORIONSLEDGE HOCKEY

Age: 26Local Club: Sledge

Hockey of Eastern Ontario# Paralympics: Third

Medal threat:

Sat., Mar. 8CAN vs SWE

4 a.m. ETSun., Mar. 9CAN vs NOR

5 a.m. ET

Tue., Mar. 11CAN vs CZE

1 p.m. ETThu., Mar. 13Semi-finals6 a.m. ET &

1 p.m. ETSat., Mar. 15

Medal matches6 a.m. & 1 p.m. ET

BEN DELANEYSLEDGE HOCKEY

Age: 17Local Club: Sledge

Hockey of Eastern Ontario# Paralympics: First

Medal threat:

Sat., Mar. 8CAN vs SWE

4 a.m. ETSun., Mar. 9CAN vs NOR

5 a.m. ET

Tue., Mar. 11CAN vs CZE

1 p.m. ETThu., Mar. 13Semi-finals6 a.m. ET &

1 p.m. ETSat., Mar. 15

Medal matches6 a.m. & 1 p.m. ET

Still young at age 26, Marc Dorion has a long career ahead of him, but the Ottawa sledge hockey player also has a long career behind him. Sochi will be the 11-year national team mem-ber’s third Paralympic Winter Games.

“I still kind of find it weird to say I’m 26 years old and I am a veteran on the team,” Dor-ion underlines.

Originally hailing from Bourget east of Ot-tawa, Dorion was born with spina bifida, caus-ing paralysis in his legs. He first started playing sledge hockey at age 4 with the Ottawa Lasers.

“I’ve always enjoyed hockey, I always knew that I wanted to play hockey, but at a young age you realize that you might not be able to do it quite like you see on (television) just because of the disability itself,” recounts the west-end resident. “When I found sledge hockey, I fell in love right then and there.“

Dorion made his way through the Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario ranks until he was competing alongside past Ottawa Paralympians Hervé Lord, Jean Labonté and Todd Nicholson. He joined the national team as a 16-year-old.

In Torino, he was the rookie being guided by veterans en route to a gold medal victory. For 2014, his role has flipped and he’s now guiding inexperienced players into their first Games, centreing a line with Paralympic rookies Dominic Larocque, 26, and Kevin Rempel, 31.

“I’m hoping that they’re not going into the games too nervous,” Dorion states. “Anything that I can do to relieve that nervousness and help them perform at their best, I think that’s mostly my role at this point.”

Dorion is a big-game player who is both a clutch goal scorer and a penalty kill specialist. He was Canada’s #2 goal scorer at the Van-couver 2010 Paralympics.

“Someone like Marc, he’s such a tenacious player. He comes to play for every game,” says Team Canada head coach Mike Mondin. “That’s such a cliché but he exudes that cliché. He can be trusted in every situation.”

The coach is particularly fond of Dorion’s penalty killing abilities, where he uses what Mondin refers to as “deceptive speed” to knock opponents off the puck before they develop a scoring chance.

“I am known for my special teams play and I still pride myself on that,” Dorion indicates, quickly returning his thoughts away from him-self and back to his team. “We are going over there to win gold and that’s our focus. I want to be at my best and I want my teammates to be at their best as well.

“I do know for a fact this team is ready. We’ve been preparing for the past four years.”

While Dorion reflects on the Vancouver Paralympics as a great experience for himself and his sport, the team’s heart-breaking fourth-place finish has served as fuel for the Canadian players in the lead-up to 2014.

Canada recently rattled off a 16-game win-ning streak in international matches – includ-ing victories at the 2013 world championships, the Four Nations Cup Sochi test event this past September, and Hockey Canada’s World Sledge Hockey Challenge in December – before a pair of defeats to close an exhibition series against the U.S. in the lead-up to Sochi.

Although winning gold is the goal, Dorion’s motive for playing is no different than it was when he was four years old.

“Here I am 22 years later,” he smiles, “and I still love it every single day that I’m out there.”

FATHER & SON SHARE SLEDGE ADVENTURE

Many hockey players will attest to the im-portance of their fathers in their development, but not many get to share the journey day-to-day in quite the same way as Marc Dorion, whose father Roch has been the Canadian sledge hockey team’s equipment manager since 2006.

“It’s such an unbelievable experience to say that I have my dad on the team with me,” Dorion reflects. “My parents have been absolutely amaz-ing when it comes to my sledge hockey career.”

The equipment manager role for the Cana-dian Paralympic team isn’t simply an easy job given to Roch so he can tag along with his son for the ride; Team Canada coach Mike Mondin calls Roch “the best sled technician in the world.”

Dorion wants back on top of podium in 3rd Paralympics

By Jamie Shinkewski

Preparing to compete in the Winter Games for the first time is a stressful adventure for any athlete, but Ottawa sledge hockey player Ben Delaney had one extra challenge on his plate in the lead-up to the Sochi Paralympics that most others didn’t – homework.

“It was difficult. I was missing a lot of school,” highlights the Grade 11 St. Pius X Catholic High School student who was working on assign-ments up to the last minute before boarding his flight to Sochi. “It was tough getting all my work together, but my school has been very under-standing, which has made it a little easier on me.”

Being a Canadian national team sledge hockey member is now a full-time job – meaning that players

make their living by training to be at their physical peak. The fact that Delaney still at-tends high school, has just over three years experience in the sport, and is three years younger than anyone else on the roster, speaks to the potential Team Canada sees in the 17-year-old’s future.

“I started to develop really quickly,” recounts Delaney, who played stand-up hockey prior to hav-ing his leg amputated at 12 due to bone cancer. “I was pretty skinny not too long ago, then I just started work-ing out a lot and I started bulking up.

“I needed to get bigger because I’m competing with guys who are in their 20s and some in their 30s, so they’re obviously a lot bigger than me. That was a big challenge for me.

“But my speed really started to pick up. I started to bulk up quicker. And I had a lot of guys around me who said I could it, and I just started believing that I could.”

Ottawa’s Marc Dorion is amongst that group of mentors.

“I’ve gotten a lot of tips from him, a lot of advice,” Delaney underlines, noting many other national team play-ers have also helped him along. “All

of my coaches and some fellow team-mates in Ottawa have helped me get to this point.”

Dorion, now 26, joined the na-tional team when he was 16, al-though that type of story has become much more rare with elevated com-petitiveness in the sport domestically and internationally.

D e l a n e y cracked the Team Canada lineup in time for the Sochi test event last September – scoring in his national team debut – and then played several games at December’s World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Toronto, where Canada won its third consecutive in-ternational tournament title.

But he still had to wait on pins and needles to learn if he’d made the final team roster for the Paralympics.

“I was relieved,” Delaney recalls, explaining that the tryout period las-ted six months before the final cut was made. “I was pretty stressed for a long time and I was really happy to know that I made it.”

Although his age is sure to turn some heads, the Paralympic rookie doesn’t carry illusions about a starring role just yet.

“I’m going to skate as hard as I can, and not make any silly turnovers,” Delaney pledges. “I just go out, play hard and get off. I leave the pretty stuff for the first liners.”

Down from an average age of over 30 in Vancouver compared to 26 for Sochi, Delaney is part of a young lineup eager to make up for the fourth-place finish on home ice in 2010.

“I think we have great chemistry and I think we’re going to do just fine,” signals the Sledge Hockey of Eastern Ontario player. “We have a really good team, but there are a lot of other really good teams that can give us a good run for our money, so I think every game will be a challenge.”

High school student Delaney rises rapidly onto top sledge stage

By Josh Bell

file photo

photo: matthew murnaghan / hockey canada images

2

3Age: 29Local Club:

Kanata Nordic# Games: Second

Medal threat:

Sat., Mar. 84:05 a.m. ET

Biathlon 6 kmMon., Mar. 106:20 a.m. ET

15 km classic

Tue., Mar. 117:30 a.m. ET

Biathlon 10 kmWed., Mar. 124:28 a.m. ET

1 km sprint free

Fri., Mar. 148:20 a.m. ET

Biathlon 12.5 kmSun., Mar. 164:40 a.m. ET

5 km free

Meshing full-time work with training to be amongst the world’s best para-nordic ski-ers is always a challenging juggling act for Margarita Gorbounova, but the 29-year-old from Ottawa is nonetheless ready to tackle the biggest test of her career yet when she returns to her Russian homeland for the 2014 Paralympic Games.

While the Paralympics will bring Gor-bounova back to the country of her birth, it won’t exactly be a trip back home.

“I grew up in St. Petersburg,” she notes. “That’s 2,500 km north of Sochi.”

Gorbounova’s moved to another vast white country when her family emigrated to Canada in 1999. She’d started skiing at age 8 back in Russia, put it aside while living in Toronto before picking it up again with the Kanata Nordic Ski Club when they moved to Ottawa in 2005.

“My dad taught me to ski,” recounts Gorbounova, who was born with cataracts and is legally blind. “There was a lot of fall-ing at first.”

Both of Gorbounova’s parents are also visually impaired and accomplished ath-letes. Olga Nazarenko won gold in para-nor-dic skiing at the Tignes-Albertville 1992 Paralympic Winter Games, while Mikhail Gorbounov won multiple European cham-pionships medals in running.

Carrying on the family’s Paralympic tra-dition hasn’t been a piece of cake. Squeez-ing in training alongside her full-time job as a federal government translator, is the toughest part, details Gorbounova, who was not an official national team member earlier this year, which means less financial sup-port.

“I don’t drive,” adds the skier who com-petes in the B3 class for athletes with the most vision out of Paralympians. “I take the bus to Mooney’s Bay or I beg rides from everyone else to give me a ride to Gatineau Park. I text everyone.”

Though she often skis on her own without a partner, Gorbounova rarely has the luxury of training with her guide for competitions.

“Andrea Bundon is my high-perform-ance guide,” explains the Ottawa Soth res-ident. “She only goes to my international races because she does not live here. She is usually in Canmore, but she is in the UK for school right now.”

Despite the challenges, Gorbounova has produced several fairly solid results. The highlight so far this season was a sixth-place finish at a Jan. 17 World Cup event in Ger-many, which cemented her spot in Sochi.

“I really had a good 15 km skate,” Gor-bounova recounts. “It was a bit surprising because I usually don’t do so well with the longer distances. The gap just opens up. That’s why I prefer the 5 km skate.”

Gorbounova has also qualified to com-pete in the biathlon, where athletes with visual impairments use laser rifles and aim using different sound tones.

The University of Ottawa grad made her Paralympic debut at the Vancouver 2010 Games, earning a top result of seventh place. She says that she was a relative new-comer in Vancouver, but is now determined to ski with the other athletes rather than be-hind them this time around.

“Normally, I work full-time so I can’t train as much as professional athletes,” Gor-bounova highlights. “But the outlook is to do better than at Vancouver.”

With three races in each of the biath-lon and cross-country ski disciplines (plus a possible relay), it could be a busy Games for Gorbounova. Her favoured race, the 5 km skate, will be her final event in Sochi on March 16.

Skier combines work & play to earn Paralympic trip to native Russia

By Anne Duggan

MARGARITA GOURBOUNOVANORDIC SKIING

CAROLINE BISSONNORDIC SKIING

Age: 39Local Club:

Chelsea Nordiq# Games: FirstMedal threat:

Sat., Mar. 83 a.m. ET

Biathlon 6 kmMon., Mar. 105:55 a.m. ET

15 km classic

Tue., Mar. 116 a.m. ET

Biathlon 10 kmWed., Mar. 123:57 a.m. ET

1 km sprint free

Fri., Mar. 145:30 a.m. ET

Biathlon 12.5 kmSun., Mar. 164:23 a.m. ET

5 km free

When Caroline Bisson started feeling shoulder pain in March 2007, it took a number of doctors, and years of tests, before she was told she had contracted a rare form of bone cancer.

After multiple surgeries needed to save her life over the span of seven months, and the eventual loss of her entire left arm and shoulder, Bisson decided to strap on her cross-country skis once again to help take her mind off everything her body was going through.

Five years later – and just two years into training for international competition – Bisson will represent Canada in both cross-country skiing and biathlon at the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi.

“I would go out and ski between my surgeries as a way to stay healthy and keep control of my body and to recover,” the 39-year-old recounts. “After that, I just kept on skiing re-

creationally.”Bisson was an active person be-

fore she ever had designs to com-pete in international sport, running half-marathons and playing on a semi-competitive ultimate Frisbee team. Learning a new sport, with a different body, presented a major challenge, she notes.

“To be honest, I’ve been skiing for two years competitively, and on the technical front, I still have a lot of work to do to have better technique – I am not where I would want to be,” highlights the Francophone athlete who grew up in Ottawa’s Lowertown neighbourhood. “Any skier that trains to go to the Olympics trains for 15 years to get the perfect technique.”

Bisson says that keeping her bal-ance remains the most difficult hurdle. She uses a lot of visualization to get a sense of what’s happening with her body. Coaches have helped her learn the technical aspects of the sport, but figuring out precisely how she should move her body remains somewhat of a mystery.

“I’m missing 15 pounds and I weigh 105, so it’s almost 15 per cent of my body weight that I’m missing,” Bisson underlines. “Skiing is all about

weight transfer, so that’s my biggest challenge is to be able to execute the movements properly.

“The other element – your body works in sym-metry, where if you swing your arm back, your leg goes forward, so moving my left leg forward is my second biggest chal-lenge.”

Although her athletic pursuit is still a bit of a work in progress, Bisson managed to qualify for the Canadian Paralympic team thanks to her per-formance at a December World Cup event in Can-more, Alta., where she recorded sixth-place fin-ishes in both cross-coun-try ski and biathlon races.

She calls qualifying for the Paralympics her “biggest milestone” to date.

“For me, with just two years of training, I’ve progressed so much,” emphasizes Bisson, an Elections Canada communications advisor.

“2014 is an achievement to be able to go [to Sochi], but it’s just an experi-ence for me at this point because of the challenges I’m still facing.”

Still learning new sport and new reality, Bisson fast-tracks Paralympic plan

By Michael Lapointe

OTTAWA STAFF BACK CANADIAN PARALYMPIC TEAM’S DRIVE

Along with the five local athletes set to compete in Sochi, there are a num-ber of Ottawa coaches, managers and staff working to support the Canadian team for the Paralympic Games.

Included amongst that group are: Paul Kristofic (VP sports, alpine ski-ing), former Olympic rower Alison Korn (press chief & para-snowboard media attaché), Tony Carbonette (sledge hockey athletic therapist), Roch Dorion (sledge hockey equip-ment manager) and Jamie Kissick (sledge hockey team doctor).

John Monteith (team operations), Anna Johnson (team services of-ficer), Julia Forbes (communications home team), Martin Richard (Chief of Communications, Media Con-sortium and Broadcast), Matthew Murnaghan (photographer) and Scott Grant (photographer) are members of the mission team, while Canadian Paralympic Committee staff include: Karen O’Neill (Chief Executive Of-ficer), Laurie Cairns (Executive Dir-ector, Corporate Services), Eric Pa-terson (Senior Coordinator, Special Events and Projects), Derek Farrow (Coordinator, Development Path-ways), Stacey Thorne (Sr. Coordin-ator, Finance & Human Resources) and Shelley Clark Chennette (Execut-ive Assistant to the CEO).

—Dan Plouffe

photo: steve kingsman

photo: dave mcmahon

OTTAWA AT THE OLYMPICS4

In terms of pure drama, it would be hard to find a more thrilling moment at the Sochi 2014 Olympics than the Canadian women’s hockey team’s unexpected escape from a 2-0 hole against USA in the gold medal game. Unexpec-ted for most, except for the Team Canada play-ers, clarifies gold medalist Geneviève Lacasse.

“It was incredible we were able to come back, but we stuck together,” the 24-year-old goaltender recounted upon returning home from Russia at Macdonald-Cartier International.

“I don’t think anyone on our team ever doubted it,” she said of the comeback that began with goals at 3:26 and :55 remaining in the third period and culminated with Marie-Philip Poulin’s golden goal in overtime. “What we’d been through this year, and crazy bike rides for boot camp in British Columbia, riding 120 km in a day, uphill – if we can get through that, who says we can’t score two goals in the last five minutes of the game? I think the girls really believed nothing was impossible.

“In the locker room before the overtime, everyone looked at each other. It was real seri-ous, but everyone was pumped, and we kind of knew we were going to win. It wasn’t in a cocky way, but we just knew we were going to go out there and get the job done.”

Lacasse had a front row seat for all the ex-citement. She would have preferred to be in the crease herself, but had been told at the team’s pre-tournament camp in Austria that she’d likely be #3 on the depth chart behind Charline Labonté and Shannon Szabados, who she calls

“great, veteran partners.” “It’s not something you like to hear, but I felt

that this year, I really left it all on the ice, and played my best, so it was out of my control,” signaled Lacasse, who put herself in the running to play with several impressive starts against USA in the lead-up to the Olympics. “All I could do after that was help my team.”

Lacasse – a Kingston native who now calls Limoges home and trains in Ottawa when hockey doesn’t take her elsewhere – was with the team in the locker room before all games and at intermissions, acting as the team’s DJ.

Collecting her gold medal – which she slept with the first night – and hearing O Canada played was another treasured moment.

“It was unbelievable,” Lacasse smiled, not-

ing it was special to have many Canadians, other Olympians and of course her teammates inside the arena in Sochi. “I was extremely happy. It’s just a dream come true.”

MCEWEN STRIKES CURLING GOLD

Ottawa native Dawn McEwen, who now lives in Winnipeg and plays lead for Jennifer Jones’ curling rink, felt like she was living a fantasy as well in Sochi, and that was even be-fore her team triumphed 6-3 over Sweden in the final to take home gold.

“To be in the gold medal game is just bey-ond everything I had ever hoped for when I star-ted curling,” McEwen wrote in a Canadian Curl-ing Association blog entry following her team’s semi-final victory, their 10th of a perfect 11 in a

row. “I’m in awe as I write this. And I’m just so excited that I get to do it with these girls... It’s a dream come true to be in this position.”

BOBSLEDDER ITCHES TO RETURN FROM CRASH

Ottawa bobsledder Cody Sorensen’s Olympics weren’t much of a dream, it was more like a nightmare. On pace for the second-best time about two-thirds of the way through the course in the second run of the four-man com-petition, his sled tipped going into a corner, end-ing his hopes of a podium performance.

“I figured as long as I performed to the best of my abilities and we pushed well as a crew that there’d be a sense of closure,” explained Sorensen, who was expecting Sochi would be his first and only Olympics prior to the Games. “Seeing how close we could have been – the, ‘what if?’ – now that I’m back in Ottawa, I find that itch is still there. I’m not totally convinced that I’m done at this point.”

OTTAWA OLYMPIC RESULTS ROUND-UP

Speed skater Ivanie Blondin helped Canada to a fifth-place finish in the team pursuit, and was 14th in the 5,000 metres and 24th in the 3,000 m.

In his Olympic debut at age 19, fellow Gloucester Concorde Vincent De Haitre finished 20th and 33rd in the men’s 1,000 m and 1,500 m.

Nakkertok Nordic’s Perianne Jones missed out on the women’s team classic sprint final by one position to place 11th in her strongest event, was a quarter-finalist in the free sprint and was 14th in the 4x5 km relay.

Ottawa native Paul Bonifacio Parkinson was 27th in men’s figure skating and placed fourth in the team event for Italy, his mother’s homeland..

Former Carleton Ravens captain and now women’s hockey assistant coach Sara Seiler placed seventh overall with Germany.

See SportsOttawa.com for more details.

Goalie kept on believing during improbable comebackBy Dan Plouffe

photo: steve kingsman

Team Homan will enter their second consecutive Ford World Wo-men’s Curling Championships March 15-23 in St. John, NB on a definite high. The Ottawa Curling Club rink of Lisa Weagle, Alison Kreviazuk, Emma Miskew and Rachel Homan showed they’re back in business in a big way with their undefeated per-formance at February’s Scotties Tour-nament of Hearts in Montreal, earning the first perfect record at the women’s national championships since before any of them were born.

“We weren’t looking to set any records, but the fact we did it while having fun and winning is great,” says Miskew, the team’s third. “We were able to come out and have some fun out there, which, after the trials, was difficult.”

Earlier this season, the curlers, all in their mid-20s, were stung by a third-place finish at the Canadian Olympic team trials.

“We all made major sacrifices in our lives for that one event,” notes Miskew, referencing the time they

took off from their day jobs. “You put so much into something and then it didn’t go as well as we had hoped.”

After an intense fall leading up to the trials, Team Homan took a break around the holidays, and found re-newed life rather quickly thanks to re-latively low-pressure events in Banff and then Las Vegas.

“Your love for the sport just comes back,” Miskew describes. “We needed that break just to reflect and let it sink in that we weren’t the Olympic team, but we still have a lot to look forward to. It takes a little bit of time, but we always have to remember that this is a game and we’re doing it be-cause we love it.”

At the Continental Cup in Las Vegas, the Homan rink got to know Canada’s Olympic representatives on a more personal level as they joined forces to play for Team North Amer-ica in the Ryder Cup-style competi-tion.

“I think they were definitely the best rep this year,” signals Miskew, stating that there’s no substitute for experience, and offering a mature perspective on what was a crushing

defeat for her team months earlier.“It would have been really stress-

ful going to the Olympics,” she adds. “Jones did such a good job. She has so much experience. She’s been at a few world championships. For her, she was able to relate back to past ex-periences. I think it was really good for her to be able to represent Canada.

“Looking back now, I think we would have been pretty stressed out there. The extra experience at this year’s world championships I think will really help us leading into the

future when hopefully we’ll be able to wear that maple leaf during the Olympics.”

For the moment, Team Homan is excited to don Canadian colours in their own country for a world cham-pionship for the first time.

The Ottawa-bred quartet owns an excellent record recently when they’re the home team. They won their first Scotties title last year while com-peting as Team Ontario in Kingston, and while they technically weren’t the home team at this year’s Scotties,

the proximity to Montreal meant that many Ottawa supporters drove down on the weekend to back them.

Miskew recalls that the atmo-sphere in Kingston did provide her team with a lift.

“The crowd was amazing,” un-derlines the Brookfield High School and Carleton University grad. “There were cheers all the time, which was awesome. There was so much energy. I feel like curling is going to make more of a turn in that direction – not just lightly clapping for a made shot, but the crowd went wild. That was so much fun. It was jam-packed. And this year was similar, just in a differ-ent setting.

“Being the hometown team is def-initely a lot of fun.”

After a tough defeat in the semi-fi-nals of last year’s world champion-ships, Team Homan was thrilled to rebound and win a bronze medal, al-though they’d like to better that result this time around, Miskew indicates.

“This year we just want to do one better and get through that semi-final game and hopefully bring back gold for Canada,” she says.

Team Homan makes history, has home history on their side entering worldsBy Dan Plouffe

photo: cca / andrew klaver

SPORTSOTTAWA.COM EXCLUSIVEHear Ottawa bobsledder Cody Sorensen’s full reflections on his Olympics, which ended with a crash following a last-minute team lineup change.

Emma Miskew Alison KreviazukLisa Weagle

Rachel Homan

Gold medalist Geneviève Lacasse meets a new fan at the MacDonald-Cartier International Airport.

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OSU Force Academy ZoneW h i l e

young local soccer play-ers dream of an early thaw so they can get back

on the field earlier, Ottawa South United’s Ronan Kratt will be living out a dream as he takes to a Spanish pitch for the April 14-16 FC Barcelona Escola International Tourna-ment.

“I’m looking forward to it a lot,” says the Grade 5 student who’s been kicking the ball around in the snow recently at St. Leonard Catholic School in Manotick.

Kratt found out that he’d been invited to the exclusive tournament when his parents called him into his room before school to show him the note they’d received from the famed La Liga side.

“It was really exciting,” recalls the 10-year-old. “I was pretty happy – if you saw the video my dad was taking.”

Ronan’s father smiles at the memory.“It took him awhile to realize what was

happening,” recounts Martin Kratt, who will also make the trip to Catalonia for a week around Easter. “And then he started jumping up and down, screaming, ‘I’m going to Bar-celona!’”

TRIP TO MESSI STOMPING GROUNDSKratt calls himself “a really big fan of FC

Barcelona” and is keen to play in the event at the club’s training grounds.

“It’s exciting just to go to Barcelona. Not many people get to go there,” notes the du-al-footed striker who owns a juggling record of 419 bounces. “I really like their players, like Messi and Neymar, and their style of play.”

Kratt was the lone player from OSU to attend an FC Barcelona camp last July in Tampa, FL. Over 2,500 players took part in the sessions at several points in the U.S., including some from as far as Mexico, Venezuela and Belize.

“It was cool. I got to look at how different countries play,” highlights Kratt, who enjoyed the opportunity to learn from the Barcelona coaches. “They obviously knew a lot about soccer. It was really great to take on their knowledge.”

Feeling a bit nervous initially, Kratt realized within his first few hours of training that he stacked up pretty well compared to the other camp attendees.

“It was a bit easier than my club, I would say,” details Kratt, whose OSU team plays in the top regional league possible against an age group a year older than them.

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE PRODUCTKratt credits OSU Head Coach Paul Har-

ris, formerly a coach for Everton FC’s youth academy, for playing a big part in his suc-cess.

“He really encourages me to try things in games,” signals the athlete who attends twice-a-week practices with Harris at OSU’s Centre of Excellence. “He tells me to try something exciting.”

Kratt feels “proud” to have earned the chance to play in the tournament that will feature FC Barcelona academy teams, Barcelona’s Escola teams from elsewhere in Spain, and other entries from around the world such as South Korea, Poland, United Arab Emirates, China, India, Japan and Egypt. He’ll be one of two Canadian players – and the only one in the 2002/2003-born age group – to dress for the four sides as-sembled from the U.S. camps.

“We’re exceptionally pleased to see a player from our club earn this opportunity to compete in front of one of the world’s most renowned football franchises,” states OSU President Bill Michalopulos. “We look forward to having Ronan represent OSU and our con-tinent on this big stage and showing off the talent developing here in Ottawa South.”

OSU player selected from 2,500+ to play in FC Barcelona tourney

GORAVENS.CA

It sure didn’t take Ottawa native Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson long to settle in to her new surroundings.

Making her debut at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Swimming Championships for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds Feb. 20-22 in Toronto, the 18-year-old swam to a silver medal in the 200-metre backstroke, and four gold in the 200 m individual medley, the 200 m butterfly, the 4x200 m free-

style relay and the 400 m IM, where she established a new CIS re-cord time of 4:34.76.

“It was just a flutter of excitement,” describes Selten-reich-Hodgson, who started swim-ming competitively at age 10. “The whole experience was just fantastic.”

The accolades continued to pour

in for the John McCrae Secondary School grad as she was named CIS rookie of the year, and swimmer of the year.

““It’s one thing to be named rookie of the year,” Selten-reich-Hodgson highlights. “But being named swimmer of the year too, that was just the icing on the cake.”

The UBC women’s swim team won its third consecutive national title and a CIS-lead-ing 19th overall. With a com-bined score of 802.5 points, the team set a CIS record for the largest margin of victory – 397.5 points ahead of the second-place Montréal Ca-rabins. The storied history of the swimming program at UBC – also a national team training base – was what at-tracted Seltenreich-Hodgson to head west to Vancouver.

“The program here has such a great reputation and in the end, I just felt it was the right move for me,” explains the athlete who competed in the FINA senior world cham-pionships last summer.

Adjusting to life in a new environment wasn’t too bad, adds Seltenreich-Hodgson, who’s enjoying the luxury of the pool being next door, un-like her experience in Ottawa.

“I’m just really enjoying it here,” she underlines. “It is different, but the people here are great.”

Nevertheless, Ottawa re-mains close to her heart.

“Ya, I miss my family a lot, I miss home for sure,” says the former Nepean-Kanata Barracudas and Greater Ottawa Kingfish swimmer. “I don’t get to see them a lot, but I get to talk to them and Skype with them as much as I can, so that helps.”

A fourth-place finisher at the 2012 Canadian Olympic team trials at age 16, Selten-reich-Hodgson owns quite the swimming resume, with one ultimate goal in mind.

“The Olympics for sure,” states the former world junior medalist. “I am just going to keep working at it until I can get to that point.”

Rookie rewrites record booksBy Anil Jhalli

UNIVERSITIES

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees’ Caitlin Hodge won a CIS silver medal in the women’s 800 m free, while Robert Bonomo took bronze in men’s 200 m back.

GGS STUN BASKETBALL RAVENS

Local basketball fans were left saliv-ating at the thought of a dream rematch to conclude the March 7-9 CIS Final-8 Tournament at Canadian Tire Centre after the Ontario University Athletics men’s basketball championship between the Gee-Gees and Carleton Ravens was decided in the final seconds on March 1.

The Gee-Gees upset the Ravens for their first victory against the defending national champions in the past 18 tries, with Johnny Berhanemeskel hitting the winning bucket with half-a-second left

to play for a 78-77 triumph at the Mat-tamy Athletic Centre in Toronto.

“Just talking about it gives me goosebumps,” Berhanemeskel said in a Gee-Gees press release. “Having the chance to play with these guys and ex-perience this is the best feeling I’ve felt in my life.”

The Algonquin Thunder women’s basketball team claimed its record fourth consecutive Ontario college champion-ship on March 1, Ottawa native Steve Delayen won a CIS wrestling bronze medal for his Concordia Stingers in the men’s 65 kg category, and the Ontario silver-medalist Gee-Gees women’s vol-leyball team bowed out in the first round of their nationals.See SportsOttawa.com for more details.

Erika Seltenreich- Hodgson.

file photo

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JOIN OUR SUMMER YOUTH DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE PROGRAMS IN 2014!FC Capital United offers Developmental Soccer Programs & Summer Camps that combine fun skills development for kids from 4-11 years old. Under the direction of our National B Licensed Club Head Coach, Traian Mateas, this program is delivered by only experienced qualified coaching staff with the objectives to teach essential skills and aptitudes that allow young players a lifelong enjoyment of soccer at the recreational, competitive or Elite levels.

NO WAITING LIST! PLAYERS WILL NOT BE TURNED AWAY!

Summer Youth League Program – May 17th-Sept 6th

4-5 years old: 1 session/week. Cost: $125, incl. full uniform set & soccer ball6-11 years old: 2 sessions/week. Cost: $175, incl. full uniform set & soccer ball Location: Pauline Vanier Soccer Fields, 1500 Beaverpond Dr. (near Blair & Innes)

Summer Camps4-5 years old – cost: $75 (half day). 6-11 years old – cost: $125 (full day).Weekly – Month of July. Location: Gloucester High School / Trillium Park.

Want to know more?FC CAPITAL UNITED Tel.: (613) 695-2832 Email: info@fccapitalunited.com www.fccapitalunited.com

Ottawa pair join Whitecaps academyELITE

It’s not quite the case of two old buddies going off together to conquer fresh frontiers, but owning matching hometowns has now brought Ottawa natives Hayden Simmonds-O’Grady and Vana Markarian closer to-gether as they settle in to their new lives as members of the Vancouver Whitecaps under-16 soccer academy.

“He always played on the rival team,” explains Sim-monds-O’Grady, who savoured any time he got the best of the “tough” battles with Markarian’s Ottawa South United side.

“We’ve got a lot closer now,” adds the FC Capital United product who also dressed for the Ottawa Fury locally. “We’re two new guys and we don’t know many faces, so we just talk to each other.”

When they joined the Whitecaps in late January, the pair were greeted by a third local face in Vancouver, former Fury goalkeeper Aidan Aylward, who now rooms with Markarian.

“(Aylward)’s made it a lot easier for me here – getting to know everyone and everything and getting used to the life here,” Markarian notes. “It’s not easy.”

Twice a week, the players have early-morning training ses-sions before school, followed by their regular practice until 6 p.m. after school, usually held outdoors on turf fields except when the west coast city re-ceives a rare snowstorm.

“It’s exhausting. It’s a very long day,” highlights Markarian, a former St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School student. “And being away from your family and not seeing them everyday, it’s something not many people are used to, and it’s really difficult.”

Most don’t imagine leav-ing home at age 16, but doing it before others should prove beneficial long-term, indicates the 2013 Ontario Youth Soccer League-champion midfielder.

“I’ve got a head-start,” Markarian maintains. “And I’m in such a good environment that’s not only going to help me grow as a footballer but as a person.”

The players live with a host family in Vancouver, but the real-ity is different than at home, with chores like laundry to take care of, and simply devoting their full energy to being the best possible every day in a pro club academy, Simmonds-O’Grady concurs.

“You have to get used to it,”

says the midfielder who scored in his debut to lift the Whitecaps to a 1-1 tie on the road against the L.A. Galaxy. “I miss my home, and old habits. But you have to change to get what you want in life.”

It was a big decision to move across the country, de-tails Simmonds-O’Grady, but he was inspired to make the move by his older brother Sheldon, a former Algonquin Thunder soc-cer player who was killed last year at age 18.

“A lot of it had to do with my brother,” explains the former St. Patrick Catholic High School student. “My brother had a big impact in my life. He was al-ways pushing me. He knew I could possibly go somewhere with soccer. He wanted me to pursue it with the talent I had.That gives me a big edge and makes me want to work harder.”

For Markarian, the diffi-cult decision was made easier when he came to realize that the backup plan for an academy looks pretty good even if he doesn’t go on to make it as a pro

player with the Whitecaps.“If worse comes to worse, I

go off to an amazing university and follow my dream that way,” says the Ontario national all-star championships gold medalist. “There’s no losing situation here.”

Another plus is the White-caps’ close link to Team Canada, note the players who joined the youth national side in Qatar be-fore arriving in Vancouver.

“The national team, they expect everyone to be in a pro club,” Markarian explains. “It’s easier to monitor for them, and that’s how you’re going to grow most as a player.”

To suddenly be in a pro academy and playing for Canada represents a remarkable journey for an athlete who only got his first shot with the provincial team program this past season.

“It’s kind of weird to look back. It’s crazy that it’s happened in such a short period of time,” Markarian marvels. “It’s pretty cool. One thing led to another and next thing you know, I’m living across the country.”

By Dan Plouffe

photo provided

Hayden Simmonds- O’Grady (left) & Vana Markarian.

FAMILIAR FURY FACE

Orleans’ Chad Bush became the first Ottawa native to sign with Ottawa Fury FC in February. See next month’s Sportspage for more as Bush and his Fury prepare for the club’s first NASL home game April 19.

photo: steve kingsman

photo: steve kingsman

A week before earning a fourth-place finish at the Ontario Winter Games, Matthieu Daigle of the National Capital Region ski team competed in a Feb. 23 moguls event as Camp Fortune hosted a Freestyle Ontario Timber Tour event featuring nu-merous up-and-coming freestyle skiers from the region and the province.

Flippin’ forFortunefreestyle

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Spring is just around the corner. Our Ot-tawa Knights players are already down in sunny Fort Pierce, Florida for their spring training. Back in town, we’re now focusing on Ottawa’s only elite competitive baseball pro-gram for players born between 1999-2003: the Ottawa Royals.

WHO ARE THE OTTAWA ROYALS?The Ottawa Royals focus on developing

competitive baseball players aged 10-14. The Royals are now entering their seventh season. At the end of the 2012 season, they joined forced with the Ottawa Knights, who had fielded competitive teams for players aged 15-18 for over 20 years. Since there were no conflicts, the fit with the Ottawa Knights was perfect!

As the Royals & Knights program grows continuously, it provides an avenue for play-ers to progress in developing their skills and preparing them for even higher levels of play.

The Royals program now runs 10 months per year and includes winter camp, regular season and the Sambat Fall Ball.

HOW ARE THE ROYALS DIFFERENT?The Royals are a member of the Ontario

Baseball Association, the provincial affili-ate to Baseball Canada. The strong major-ity of programs in Canada follow Baseball Canada’s development model as opposed to Little League recreational programs or other community-based initiatives. Baseball Canada is the governing body for the sport of baseball in Canada.

The difference fundamentally boils down to the Royals development model. It’s all about season-long player development. We select teams in late March/early April and from that point until the end of the August, all of our players experience a practice to game day ratio of 1:1.

Q. How many times have you watched your son or daughter play a ball game and not touch the ball? How does that improve their skills?

Baseball is a sport of repetition, and the way players develop their skills and improve is through practicing. Season-long develop-ment, as opposed to a two-season concept, allows coaches to spend the needed time to make the players better.

On top of the amount of practices, we play

in extremely c o m p e t i t i v e leagues and tournaments that allow our players to compete against the best baseball players in Ontario, Quebec and the U.S. These are a few reasons why we are the fastest growing program in the region.

WHAT LEAGUES DO THEY PLAY IN?The Ottawa Royals field a number of com-

petitive teams that compete with the elite players in the following leagues:

> PEEWEE TEAMS - Ligue de Base-ball de l’Outaouais (LBO) & Association de Baseball Excellence de l’Outaouais (ABEO): www.baseballoutaouais.com

> BANTAM AAA TEAMS - Ligue de Base-ball Inter-cite Metropolitaine: www.lbicm.ca

HOW MUCH TRAVEL IS THERE?PEEWEE: At the younger Royals levels,

the travel is minimal as the teams play in Gatineau. The peewee teams will play in a number of tournaments and the occasional exhibition series against out of town teams, but compared to our older programs the travel is primarily local.

BANTAM: There is a misconception that our Bantam teams are on the road all the time. Our two Bantam AAA Royals play in the Montreal league, which requires only 3-5 trips to Montreal over the course of the season. Additionally, there are three tourna-ments where travel is required.

WHERE’S WINTER PRACTICE HELD?The program recently partnered with the

OZ Dome facility in Stittsville where we con-duct winter training, try-outs and practices unit the fields open in May.

HOW CAN I JOIN THE ROYALS?> Registration will be open until March 22nd and can be found on our website:www.ottawaroyalsbaseballclub.com> Ottawa Royals Tryout Schedule (at OZ Dome):

Saturday, March 22, 29 & April 5Bantam (2000, 1999): 3-4:30 pmPeewee (2001, 2002, 2003): 4:30–6 pm

Region’s only elite competitive baseball program for ages 10-12 takes offRoyals Report & Knights News

SPRING PROGRAMS START ON MARCH 17! REGISTER NOW!

Lucinda Nowell is loving her new life and all the new experiences she’s now living as a member of Canada’s national group rhythmic gymnastics team.

The 2013 senior national silver medalist in individual clubs made her competition debut with the Ca-nadian team at the Feb. 14-16 Elite Canada event in Edmonton and will head to Portugal and Italy next for World Cup competitions in April.

“It’s exciting to travel, and if I was in individual, I probably wouldn’t get to go outside Canada, except maybe for an invitational,” notes Nowell, a long-time member of the Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club. “I feel really excited. It’s really cool. It’s nothing that I ever thought I’d get to do.”

Nowell’s path to group rhythmic began when she attended a tryout last June in Toronto.

“We sort of weren’t expecting that I’d make it and it’s just a good experience to have, and a chance to go in front of judges,” recalls Now-ell, who then received an invitation to join the team two weeks later. “I wasn’t really waiting and anticip-ating anything. When it came, we were kind of shocked, but it was really exciting.”

Nowell uses the collective “we” when she speaks because her family represents an instrumental extension of her athletic pursuits. With no way to practice as a group except by be-ing together, Nowell had to move to Toronto to join the Canadian team. Nowell’s mom, Helen, now lives with her in a Leaside apartment.

The former Earl of March Sec-ondary School student switched to Leaside High School for her senior year and has just two courses left to take in the winter semester, which is a big help with a training sched-ule that eats up around 30 hours per week at the Kalev Estienne Rhythmic Gymnastics Centres.

“It’s hard, but at the same time,

it’s rewarding,” Nowell says. “I’m really glad we decided to come.”

The toughest part of adaptat-ing to group rhythmic for Nowell has been the increased emphasis on power and precision in her throws so that she can have clean exchanges of apparatuses with her teammates.

“It’s almost like a whole new sport,” signals the athlete who placed fourth all-around in the senior national category at last year’s Ca-nadian championships. “They’re the same basics, but it’s all different things to learn, and prioritize.”

The group rhythmic rookie has been helped along by her veteran teammates, including two London 2012 Olympians and three others who have all represented Canada in-ternationally.

“For them, it’s nothing new,” Nowell notes, explaining that her teammates provided a calming in-fluence at Elite Canada. “I thought I would be a lot more nervous than I would be for individual, thinking that I don’t want to let them down and be the one who screws up, but I found that I was less nervous, and just excited. Because it feels normal for them, it just feels normal for me.”

Nowell achieved a pre-season goal of hers by securing positions in both of Canada’s routines for the World Cups (only five of the six na-tional team athletes get to particip-ate in each event), and now wants “clean and precise” performances in those competitions.

With the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games and Rio 2016 Olympics on the horizon, Nowell plans to put herself forth to be on the Canadian group team again come next season.

“Because we try out, it makes it hard to make (long-term) plans, but I’m just going to keep going as long as I can,” she pledges.

A+ AT ARTISTIC ELITE CANADA

A small handful of other local athletes competed in the early-Feb-ruary artistic gymnastics Elite Canada meet in Gatineau.

National Capital’s Samuel Zak-utney, owner of numerous national titles in youth divisions, carried on his dominance in his new junior men’s high-performance category, winning the all-around crown.

Making her debut in national competition, Julie Anne Fiset put in a performance that qualified her for the novice women’s high-perform-ance stream, a first for her Tumblers Gymnastics Centre club.

“I was really happy and proud of myself,” says the 12-year-old who will compete at May’s Canadian Gym-nastics Championships in Ottawa.

Also in February, a trio of Tum-blers found themselves side-by-side on the podium as they swept the top-3 all-around positions in the Level 8, Age 10-11 category at the women’s artistic provincial championships qualifying meet in Muskoka.

“We’re all super-duper close,” notes Jordan Faig, who placed third alongside teammates Maya Rana (second) and Alexandra Cameron (first). “We usually push each other to try new skills and complete our routines and encourage each other.”

In her return to competition after suffering a broken leg high jumping last year, Beth Webster won all-around gold in Level 9, Age 12-13.

Other local all-around champs at provincial qualifiers included OGC’s Elizabeth Mckee, Emma Vecchio, Maddison Kelle-her-Radey, Bella Musca and Bradey Rosettani, Corona’s Piper Veloso and Danielle Doan, Julina Benjamin and Fiona Leclair Robertson from Les Sittelles, National Capital’s Nathanael Teng, OGC’s Justin Khalil and Spring Action’s Kelsey Ducharme.

Visit us online at SportsOttawa.com for more details.

Gymnast finds new life in group rhythmic

By Dan Plouffe

COMMUNITY CLUBS

Ottawa nat-ive Lucinda Nowell (right) with Canadian group rhythmic gymnastics teammates Teija Korjus and Sarah Hui.photo provided

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The Glebe Gryphons proved they’re as fast on snow as they are on grass at the Feb. 25-26 OFSAA high school provincial nordic ski-ing championships.

Following podium placements by their girls’ and boys’ teams in the overall standings during the fall cross-country run-ning championships, many of the same athletes helped Glebe sweep the combined cross-country ski boys’ and girls’ standings junior and senior standings in Tim-mins.

“I wasn’t surprised at their performances,” in-dicates Glebe coach Anne Rimes, who nonetheless can’t recall an occasion where her school won both

combined titles in the same year.

Having a big number of athletes is one reason for the success, she notes. About half the team are “skiers-first” who compete for the Nakkertok Nor-dic Club and train for the Ontario Cup circuit, and can be counted on for top-10 finishes at OFSAA. And then there is a large crop of strong athletes – many who continue their running train-ing through winter on skis – who can place in the top-20 or top-30 and lift their school to a team triumph.

But the biggest factor, Rimes maintains, is the en-grained culture of success in the two cross-country sports that’s caught on at Glebe.

“The students really feel pride in that,” she explains.

“They’ll encourage each other early in the season: ‘OK, let’s get a team to-gether, let’s train as a group, let’s make sure we have enough people,’ and if they don’t have enough, they’ll go out and recruit.

“They’ll say, ‘You should come to cross-coun-try running or cross-coun-try skiing because we need more people and we’re go-ing to go to OFSAA.’”

Alison Pouw – who was also set to compete in the OFSAA swimming cham-pionships on March 4 – was the national capital’s lone individual champion, win-ning the junior girls’ race.

See SportsOttawa.com for more details on OFSAA nordic as well as other high school sports provincial championships.

Glebe sweeps OFSAA nordic

By Dan Plouffe

HIGH SCHOOLS

OFSAA nordic-cham-pion Glebe Gryphons junior combined team.

photo provided

The Ottawa National Diving Club is set to host the country’s top junior divers for a national qualifying event March 20–23 at the Nepean Sportsplex. Over 150 athletes will compete for the chance to represent Canada at May’s Youth International Games in Dresden, Germany.

A pair of Canadian championships are headed to the Ottawa area this summer. The Madawaska Kanu Centre will host Canoe-Kayak Canada’s Whitewater National Championships from Aug. 26-29 in Barry’s Bay, as well as the Canadian Wildwater Team Trials from May 10-11.

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

ALGONQUIN THUNDER’S YOULDON REPEATS AS ONTARIO VOLLEYBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

2 NATIONALS GO TO MADAWASKA KANU CENTRE

OTTAWA WRESTLERS GOLDEN AT ONTARIO WINTER GAMESLiam Macfadyen and Sandrine Thomassin of Tsunami Academy were two of Ottawa’s gold medalists at the 2014 Ontario Winter Games in Muskoka. The wrestlers won the cadet men’s 58 kg and cadet girls’ 43 kg classes respectively at the Feb. 27-March 2

event that saw over 3,000 youth athletes from across the province compete in 27 sports.

MAJOR NATIONAL DIVING MEET HEADED TO SPORTSPLEX

Algonquin College’s Philippe Yeldon was named the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association men’s volley-ball player of the year for the second straight season in February. The Ottawa native averaged 5.5 points per set to lead the league.

Alaine Chartrand of the Nepean Skating Club was officially named to Canada’s team for the March 10-16 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. The 17-year-old placed eighth at her world juniors debut last year.

NEPEAN SKATING CLUB ATHLETE HEADED BACK TO WORLD JUNIORS

OTTAWA SPORT COUNCIL SEEKS COMMENTS ON MUNICIPAL SPORT STRATEGYThe Ottawa Sport Council is seeking input and ideas from the local sports community as it sets out to establish a municipal sport strategy in collab-oration with the City of Ottawa’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department. Topics include space to play, partnerships, access to sport, vo-lunteers and tourism. Thoughts can be submitted online until March 14 at: http://sportottawa.ca/imagine-ottawa-sport-excellence/

photo: danielle

earl

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--By Colin Walker, SportsCanNew parents always want to know: what

should my baby be able to do in terms of movement? And what can I do to help?

The Canadian Sport 4 Life website ( cana-diansportforlife.ca ) provides some insight

with the table below.Please note the “normal age range” is of

much greater importance to determining whether a child is learning proper develop-mental movements than the “average age”, since each child will have their own develop-mental time-table.

Don’t worry if your child is unable to do a single skill (or even a couple of skills) until they are beyond the age when 90% of the children can do them. If a child is behind that 90% mark in most or all skills, inform your

health care provider.To support your child, you should provide a

safe and stimulating environment for them to explore their movement potential. Encourage them as they try new skills for the first time. Tailor your child’s experiences to their unique developmental needs.

Use the chart to see if your child is learn-ing the normal age-appropriate skills of early childhood. Seek help only if the child is very late on all or most skills. Even if the child is late in all the skills shown here, it’s quite pos-sible they’ll rapidly catch up once their body matures. Just give the child time and lots of opportunity for physical play!

If you have concerns or want more inform-ation, contact our Sportscan LTAD experts at: info@sportscan.ca or see sportscan.ca .

Activity Milestones - Your Child’s First Four Years

The ONDC will host this prestigious National

& International Qualifying Event

March 20 - 23

at the Nepean Sportsplex

COME WATCH CANADA’S

TOP JUNIOR DIVERS

OttawaNationalDiving.caVisit our website for more information and registration.

FOR

FIRST CH ICE DIVING

OTTA

WA’

S

PRE-COMPETITIVECOMPETITIVE

We offer 3 skill levels:

Spring Registration begins March 1

Classes: March 26 @ The SportsplexMarch 29 @ Walter Baker & Bob Mac

NEW

It was a feat that narrowly eluded her in rough fashion last year, and the year before as well, but Ottawa native Isabelle Weidemann will at last achieve a career-long goal when she makes her debut at the World Ju-nior Speed Skating Championships March 7-9 in Norway.

“It’s a little bit nerve-racking, but it’s really exciting – more exciting than anything,” signals Weidemann, who qualified for the event by win-ning the all-around women’s title at the Jan. 24-25 Canadian Junior Long Track Speed Skating Champi-onships in Saskatoon.

“I was definitely thinking about last year,” adds the athlete who skated poorly at last year’s trials and missed making the team by one position. “You try to keep it out of your head, but sometimes you think about it.

“I was really nervous for that competition. It was stressful. But it was good to have finally done it and just be relaxed for the rest of the year. I was so excited to make it.”

Bolstered by a background train-ing on rough ice locally at the Brewer Park natural oval, Weidemann is a force on outdoor ice, which made

Saskatoon the perfect venue for her trials. Alongside second-place fin-ishes in the 1,000 metres and 1,500 m, Weidemann set a track record and an outdoor personal-best time in the 3,000 m.

“It was a little bit surreal, and definitely really cool to get my mark on it,” says the Gloucester Con-cordes club athlete who will skate in all distances at the worlds. “It was a really nice bonus to making the team.”

Set to make her first trip over-seas, Weidemann is unsure of the competition she’ll face, but would like to place in the top-10, or even better, the top-8, since that would automatically clinch a spot on the national development team.

“It’s going to be really differ-ent, but I’m so excited. I really can’t wait,” enthuses Weidemann, who’s also looking at the event as a “learn-ing experience” since she and all the other Canadian team members are eligible to return as juniors next year.

The junior worlds will be the final event of Weidemann’s season, which will complete her first cam-paign after moving to Calgary and the national long-track team’s home at the Olympic Oval.

“It’s been a long season,” high-lights the first-year University of Calgary student. “Especially at this point, I’ve been at the oval for eight months, and it’s starting to get nice outside. Nobody really wants to be inside any more.”

A former standout cross-country running and track-and-field compet-itor at Colonel By Secondary School, Weidemann came to Calgary nurs-ing a sprained ankle and strained lig-aments from a steeplechase injury, which still bugs her a little. She’s carried on run training with the Di-nos varsity team, while balancing a full course load in geology, and of course her high-performance speed skating pursuits.

“Sometimes it’s a lot, but it’s pretty manageable out here,” says Weidemann, who was glued to the

TV every m i n u t e w a t c h i n g C o n c o r d e s c l u b m a t e s I v a n i e Blondin and Vincent De Haitre and the Canadian O l y m p i c team com-pete at the Sochi 2014 W i n t e r Games. “My team keeps me pretty sane.”

Speed skater at last hits jr. worldsBy Dan Plouffe

ELITE

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Isabelle Weidemann.

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The Ottawa Sportspage is a volunteer-driven newspaper devoted to shining a spotlight on local amateur sport.

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Team of the Month: Ottawa Gloucester Hornets U13 Girls’ AcademyTeam Members: Players Cassandra Eliodor, Kayza Massey, Emily Hume, Natasha Page, Shaelyn Stanton, Marissa Sellars, Danika Deschenes, Perla Khoury, Isabelle MacInnis, Claudia Iglesias and Julia Barlas, Coach Winston Bonnick and Assitant Coach Pilar Khoury.

About: The Hornets 2001 girls earned a perfect record to win the Ontario Indoor Cup in Vaughan on Feb. 8-9. Gloucester went the entire way through the tournament without conceding a goal, earn-ing victories over Darlington, Guelph and Milton, and a scoreless draw against North Mississauga, prior to the championship game against Milton, which they won 1-0 thanks to a goal by Julia Bar-las. Visit SportsOttawa.com to hear their full story.

Athlete of the Month: Claire SmithSport: Cross-Country Running

Club/Team: Ottawa Lions Track & Field Club

School/Grade: Grade 11 Glebe Collegiate Institute

About: Wearing Team Canada colours for the first time in her young career, Claire Smith enjoyed a standout debut at the 2014 North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association Cross-Country Running Champion-ships on Feb. 22 at Mount Irvine, Tobago. Racing mostly against athletes two years her senior, the Grade 11 Glebe C.I. student won a bronze medal and helped Canada to a podium sweep and team title in the junior women’s event.

To nominate Stars of the Month, go to SportsOttawa.com and follow the link on the right-hand bar under the Stars of the Month feature. Courtesy of the Ottawa Sportspage and the YMCA-YWCA of the Na-tional Capital Region, the selected Athlete of the Month will receive a free one-week Family Pass to the Y, while each member of the Team of the Month will receive free one-visit passes.

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The Ottawa Sportspage is printed on the first Tues-day of the month by Ot-tawa Sports Media, the locally-owned and op-erated publisher of the Ottawa Sportspage newspaper & SportsOttawa.com. Local sports news from high schools, universities, com-munity clubs and elite ama-teur sport is the name of our game. We’re at The Heart-beat of the Ottawa Sports Community.

Contact:Editor: Dan Plouffe

613-261-5838Editor@SportsOttawa.com

It was a historic campaign for the Nepean Wildcats as they estab-lished a new record for most points in a season in the Provincial Wo-men’s Hockey League.

The Jr. Wildcats posted a spark-ling 32-3-3 record against Ontario’s best Intermediate ‘AA’ women’s teams, but what makes the feat even more remarkable was the club’s re-cord just two years ago: 6-18-10.

“It’s really exciting,” says Nepean captain Lindsay Eastwood. “We’ve never been this far. It’s Nepean his-tory – coming from the bottom and now we’re here. It’s awesome.”

Eastwood was a member of the

bottom-feeding squad, breaking into the league at age 14. After that first campaign, the 6’ 1” defender figured she’d have to jump ship and join an-other team if she ever wanted to win a title, but a major transformation began that off-season.

“We had a bunch of great girls come in and we all collaborated,” Eastwood recounts. “Once you start winning, it makes it more enjoyable and people want to come to hockey.”

The club’s leadership changed, with Jody Campeau coming on board as general manager, along with a new coaching staff headed by Bruce MacDonald. A new philo-sophy, with an elevated level of commitment expected from every-

one, became a pillar.“It’s been a culture change, simple

as that,” MacDonald underlines. “Has it gone quicker than we anticipated? There’s no doubt about it.”

All the pieces fell into place for the Wildcats this year, the coach adds.

Nepean, which allowed just 40 goals in 38 regular season games, re-ceived great goaltending from Kira Bombay (20-1-1, 9 SO, .82 GAA, .954 SV%), who played Midget ‘A’ hockey last year, along with Halhed.

A strong force defensively, the team’s blueliners were also the league’s top-scoring defence.

“If you build from the goal out, you’re going to win a lot of hockey games,” MacDonald highlights.

Up front, Katryne Villeneuve, Sam Cogan and Addi Halladay fin-ished Nos. 3, 4 & 6 in league scoring with 55, 53 and 52 points each (Rebecca Leslie, the captain of the seventh-place Ot-tawa Senators, also registered 52).

“It’s the chem-istry they have to-gether,” MacDon-ald explains. “They know the game really well and they read off each other. They’re big, strong girls too. They’re really hard to handle. When they get going, it’s very tough for the oppon-ent to stop them.

“And our de-fence is strong, so they use our defence really well too.”

Thanks to a pair of home-ice victories on March 1 and 2, the Wildcats were poised to move past their be-st-of-5 playoff series with Toronto Leaside into the PWHL single-elimination fi-

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Say the words Real Madrid and images come to mind of Ronaldo, Raúl, Beckham and Zidane working their magic for one of the world’s most storied

soccer clubs, boosted by a passionate fan base of followers stretching from Spain to around the globe.

This summer, Ottawa will have a chance to taste a little bit of Spanish flavour as the Real Madrid Foundation brings a week-long camp to the capital, in conjunction with the West Ottawa Soccer Club and the Toronto-based Soccerworld group.

“It’s an exciting opportunity to bring a premium-level camp to Ottawa,” signals WOSC CEO Bjorn Osieck. “Real Madrid is a very powerful football brand. It gives special quality to this.”

The full-day camp will take place from Aug. 11-15 and is open to U8-U14-age players, who will all receive a Real Madrid jersey, shorts, socks and ball.

COACHES OF FAMED SPANISH SIDE Real Madrid-certified and UEFA-licenced

coaches will lead players through sessions of at least two hours per day.

“They’ll take them through different meth-odologies applied in Madrid, tailored to dif-ferent age groups,” explains Soccerworld’s Robert Ortali, noting the teaching extends beyond just the drills. “It’s a whole different approach to the game of soccer, which is a much more holistic approach.”

The Real Madrid Foundation reaches over 80 countries worldwide, with camps adjust-ing their focus to match identified regional needs. Many of the coaches who travel internationally for the Foundation are also linked to China’s Guangzhou Evergrande F.C. academy, an impressive school with 52 soccer fields for 2,500+ kids aspiring to be part of Italian World Cup-winning manager Marcello Lippi’s Asian Cup-champion profes-sional team.

The academy features 22 coaches from Spain who roll out the Real Madrid meth-odology in China, four of whom will make the trip to Canada this summer. After a pair of popular camps in Toronto and Markham

last year – which were coached by a former Real Madrid player and a past youth coach of Valencia FC – the camps are being offered in seven Canadian locations in 2014, including Ottawa.

“The feedback was incredible last year,” Ortali indicates. “We were pleased, the parents were pleased, and the kids were pleased – everyone was very, very excited.”

Ortali says that partnering with WOSC to facilitate the camp locally was a no-brainer.

“We like their progressive nature and how they work,” he emphasizes. “The overall pro-fessionalism is very refreshing for a youth not-for-profit club. Their approach is very un-usual in soccer, and that’s one of the things that elevates them to the top of the podium.”

WOSC is similarly enthused to add the Real Madrid opportunity to its stable of camps that run throughout the summer. It could be a great chance for WOSC players to cap off their summer camp adventures, Osieck notes, or for any players in the re-gion, regardless of affiliation, to experience a special opportunity.

“This is really about our desire to create more of a football culture in general,” Osieck highlights. “Real Madrid, being a world-renowned brand, will surely spark interest from people all across the region. It will be a great addition to the Ottawa football land-scape.”

A $50 early-bird registration discount is currently available. For full details, see: http://www.frmcanada.ca/product/ottawa- august-11-15/

West Ottawa Soccer ScoopReal Madrid Foundation summer camp headed to Ottawa in 2014

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Wildcats make PWHL history

By Dan Plouffe

JUNIOR LEAGUES

The Nepean Wildcats finished atop the Provincial Women’s Hockey League standings – a club first – with a record point total this season.

photo: dan plouffe

nal-8 event April 3-6 in Oakville. There’s a break in the middle of the

playoffs to accommodate the under-18 world championships. Nepean owns several candidates to dress for Team Canada, including Cogan, a national U18 gold medalist for Team Ontario Red, and Eastwood and fellow defender Josiane Pozzebon, national silver medal-ists with Ontario Blue earlier this season.

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While the Wildcats’ U18 worlds hopefuls – along with the Senators’ Leslie and Amanda Titus, both na-tional gold medalists – wait on pins and needles for the final Canadian roster to be announced, one Ottawa team member already has her place confirmed for the

March 23-30 event in Budapest.Chantale Lussier will act as Team

Canada’s mental skills coach, a role she’ll especially treasure after being forced to miss last year’s worlds. Three weeks before the 2013 championships, Lussier had an ultra-sound and dis-covered a solid mass on her kidney, eventually receiving a cancer diagnosis.

In June 2013, the University of Ott-awa grad underwent successful surgery to remove her left kidney, and has now bounced back cancer-free.

“I was a very, very lucky person,” says Lussier, who was overwhelmed by the support and encouragement she re-ceived from the hockey community.

Visit SportsOttawa.com to read more on this story.

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A pair of Nepean Nighthawks field hockey players are in line to represent Canada at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China following their performance at Feb-ruary’s Pan American Youth Field Hockey Championships, with a third Nighthawk also in the running.

“There’s a lot of guys who want to be part of this, it is such a big deal,” notes Rohan Chopra, who helped Canada qualify for the Youth Olympics with their second-place finish at the Pan Ams. “I want to be one of those guys that is there rep-resenting his country. I am going to train harder and work harder to get this chance.”

Goalkeeper Liam Manning also played an instrumental role in Canada’s run at the Pan Am compet-ition in San Juan, Puerto Rico, help-ing his team to an undefeated record leading up to the final, where they fell to Argentina.

“We did really well but came up short at the end,” Manning recounts. “But still, for a team that didn’t have practice times or training times like some of the other teams, we were happy to come out as high as we did.”

Braedon Muldoon had also earned a place on Canada’s nine-man

Pan Am roster, but was unable to travel with the team due to a concus-sion from ice hockey.

“I was just happy I was chosen, it was a big honour and I was really proud,” he highlights. “I’m upset I couldn’t go and play, but the guys played really well. I am happy I could get another chance to play for Canada and really show my skills.”

ICE HOCKEY BACKGROUNDS

Each carrying experience in ice hockey, the 16-year-olds explain that the transition to field hockey spurred from a desire for a new challenge.

“It is really unique and it is really different. I was just getting good at it so I decided to start playing it,” recounts Rohan, whose father, Sandeep, has over 40 years of field

hockey experience as a player and coach. “It is challenging and really exciting and I have a blast playing it.”

The Nighthawks teammates plan to continue pushing one another to-wards their goal of competing in the Youth Olympics come August.

“We all want the same thing and we are all going to work hard to get there,” Manning emphasizes. “Qual-ifying and playing for that team was so surreal and a tremendous feeling, and now, it is time to pick things up.”

Another Nighthawks player is also set to don Canadian colours. Algonquin College student Gurtej Dhaliwal will play for Canada in a March indoor series against USA in Waterloo to prepare for April’s World Cup qualifier in Uruguay.

Nighthawks poised to make Youth OlympicsBy Anil Jhalli

COMMUNITY CLUBS

Rohan Chopra (left) and Liam Manning.

photo provided

They aren’t your typical image of snow-birds, but 10 youth ath-letes from the Ottawa River Canoe Club es-caped to Florida during winter nonetheless for a month-long camp on water in March, since ice and snow still rule their local training grounds.

Recently-hired head coach Joel Hazzan is leading the group, who collectively represent a bit of a new vision to-wards a high-perform-ance culture at the club, based next door to the Bonnenfant Y Outdoor Education and Leader-ship Centre in Dunrobin.

“The club wants to see athletes on ju-nior worlds teams,” emphasizes Hazzan, an Ottawa native who left his coaching job of five-and-a-half years with Team Ontario to come back home. “The club has given away too

many good athletes, and I think it’s time the club starts keeping those ath-letes, building those ath-letes, and taking them to the time that they’re with the national devel-opment team as Ottawa River athletes.”

Thanks to several national medals won by the Florida-bound group against Canada’s best, the ORCC became eligible for a coaching grant from the Ontario government’s Quest for Gold program that supports high-perform-ance sport development. The club will receive $60,000 in total over three years, with the amount declining each year in order to encour-age to make the position self-sustaining over the long haul.

“Growing the pro-grams so that I have a job after Year 3” is a main objective, laughs Hazzan, a former national team paddler himself.

The club carries many plans for growth, he adds, such as build-ing a clubhouse with a paddle pool, increasing the seasonal crossover with the Kanata Nordic Ski Club – another or-ganization based in the same area where entire families can participate in the activity – creat-ing a para program in association with a spinal cord injury group, and creating an environ-ment for the club’s elite athletes to stay and ex-cel while inspiring the younger athletes as role models.

“There’s tons of opportunity to grow the whole club and all the programs,” Hazzan in-dicates. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Quest for Gold grant brings new high-performance coach, attitude to Ottawa River Canoe Club

By Dan Plouffe Joel Hazzan.

photo provided