HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 3, #8 May 2014

MADAWASKA KANU CENTRETHE WORLD COMES TO MADAWASKA KANU CENTRE for our whitewater instruction, resort atmosphere and learning environment—you can too!

In town, the ice had barely even given way, but four local whitewater paddlers were already taking part in one of the globe’s biggest canoe sla-lom events of 2014 when they dipped down under for the April 23-27 ICF Under-23 World Championships in Australia.

“Competing in April is almost impossible for us to prepare for,” signals national team head coach Michal Staniszewski, whose athletes all missed the top-10 cutout for finals. “Ya, we tried, but the athletes didn’t perform. It was just a little too early.”

While there weren’t medals to bring home, the added training time on water early in the year was a big help, Staniszewski adds, in advance of a season that will feature June World Cup events in England, Slov-

akia and Czech Republic, August World Cups in Spain and Germany, and the Sept. 17-21 senior World Championships in Maryland.

The local paddlers first have to survive their May 17-18 national team trials in B.C., but the young Ott-awa River Runners products are keen to continue their rise on the interna-tional stage after claiming five of 15 senior or under-23 national team po-sitions last year – an impressive rep-resentation likely unmatched by local athletes in any other sport.

“The (Pumphouse) facility def-initely helps to promote the sport,” explains Staniszewski, who’s non-etheless hoping the long-desired clubhouse project at the eastern edge of Lebreton Flats comes to life soon.

“But there’s a lot more behind (local whitewater athletes’ success),” continues the 2000 Olympic silver

medalist who moved to Ottawa from Poland to coach the River Runners in 2001. “There’s a club with some history, and they changed this venue from being a dump to a whitewa-ter training facility for Canadian Olympians. And there are a lot of good coaches and dedicated people involved in the community.”

CAMERON & LIAM SMEDLEY

Cam Smedley is the eldest mem-ber of the group of local national team members. He’s the only one no longer eligible to compete at the U23 level, hav-ing graduated to the senior level just this season. A 12th-place finisher at the U23

worlds in 2013, Cam, 23, was hoping to have his younger brother Liam, 20, at his side this season for the World Cup campaign in Europe, having just launched a new Smedley brothers web site with the help of “Smedley Canoe Team Manager” (and sister) Alison Smedley.

But that all changed in a second when Liam dislocated his shoulder just moments after finishing his heat in Australia.

“Before Liam hurt his shoulder, I was kind of looking over my shoulder, so to speak,” Cam notes. “He’s nipping at my heels now.”

In training, Liam would post better splits on particular course segments, although he hasn’t quite caught up to the brother he joined in paddling.

Ottawa home to a third of 15-member Canadian Senior & U23 whitewater canoe-kayak team

CANOE-KAYAK continues on p.15

By Dan Plouffe

Kayak attack

photo: dan plouffe

RARIN’ UP FOR A REPEAT RUN

SWINGING FOR SUMMERTIME

P. 7

P. 9

After winning the first youth provincial championship in Ottawa history last year, local soccer teams are hungry for more.

A “Baseball Day in Ottawa” event & Ot-tawa Knights double-header got the sea-son started early at Ottawa Stadium.

CONCENTRATED ON CANADIANS

P. 10After a year’s absence, Ottawa will have 3 women’s artistic representatives at the May 26-31 nationals at Carleton U.

Cam Smedley is one of sev-eral local paddlers gearing up to make some noise in-ternationally this season.

2 ELITE

Along with clubs, hoops, balls, ribbons and ropes, Lucinda Nowell and her senior women’s national rhythmic gymnastics team have been bringing determination to their recent practices and competitions.

The Ottawa native made her World Cup debut in April, compet-ing in a pair of meets in Portugal and Italy. It was an experience Now-ell will never forget, she says.

“It was really exciting. I mean, I’ve seen those competitions on youtube!” details the former Earl of March Secondary School student, noting the crowd of several thou-sand was very supportive for her first international event in Lisbon. “I was really worried about being nervous but it was actually the least nervous that I have ever been. Just excited and calm.”

But, for Nowell and her team-mates, disappointment was just a quick pirouette away from the moment of pride that comes from wearing the maple leaf. The results from the World Cups were deflat-ing: Canada placed seventh of eight teams in Lisbon and 17th of 19 in Pesaro.

“We didn’t perform really

great,” notes Nowell, who moved to Toronto to train with the group rhythmic national team program last summer. “It was our first time as a team. But there were lots of com-ments from the judges.”

Athletes in rhythmic gymnastics are intimately familiar with the pursuit of perfection, down to the smallest detail – from the turn of a head to the catch of an apparatus. Since returning home in mid-April, the team has been using the judges’ feedback to completely rework their choreography.

“As a team, our ele-ments, turns, balances and jumps needed the most improvement,” she ex-plains. “That’s what those judges were saying.”

RARE RETURN TO TOWN

The team put the needed changes in place immediately and got a chance to try out the new routine at the May 3 Koop Cup International at

Mattamy Athletic Centre (formerly Maple Leaf Gardens).

Although they won’t be in a competition at the Cana-dian Gymnastics Champion-ships, Nowell will soon get the chance to perform with her team in front of a homet-own audience May 26-31 at Carleton University.

It will be a treasured trip home for Nowell, who rarely gets a break from training to

visit back in Ottawa, where her ca-reer began as a seven-year-old at the Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club.

By 14, she added two or three practices a week at a Montreal club in order to compete at the national level. At last year’s Canadian Cham-pionships, Nowell placed fourth overall and won a silver medal in clubs competing individually.

After being offered a place with the group rhythmic national team, Nowell, along with her mother

Helen, made another big move down to Toronto to join the Kalev Estienne Rhythmic Gymnastics Centres-based group.

The Grade 12 student will graduate from Leaside High School come June, and plans to continue her studies next year at the Univer-sity of Toronto in humanities. Now-ell’s first month of university will be quite a bit different than most students – she’ll barely even be on campus.

“September will be filled with training camps and preparing for the World Championships in Turkey,” indicates the reigning Ottawa Sports Awards rhythmic gymnast of the year. “Then I will re-audition for the team in October.”

Putting aside frosh week is a small price to pay for the type of experiences Nowell gets to have com-peting on the world stage, which she says she’d like to live over and over again.

“Last time it all felt unreal,” says the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games hopeful. “There were Rus-sians, Ukrainians. And, there I was representing Canada. It was all so exciting.”

World Cup debut leaves gymnast hungry for moreBy Anne Duggan

photo provided

Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club

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Kanata Rhythmic’s Lucinda Nowell (second from top) com-peted in her first career Group Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cups in April in Portugal & Italy.

Local gymnasts brought home plenty of hardware to show off from competitions both in town and away in the past month.

Part of the haul came from the April 26-27 Ontario Trampoline Championships in Whitby, while others were from a May 2-4 local meet where almost 300 athletes took part in the 25th anniversary edition of Les Sittelles’ Envol gymnastics competi-tion at their Shefford Rd. facility.

Seven athletes from the host club earned division titles at the Envol event – Fiona Leclerc-Robertson (Level 9, Age 12), Julina Benjamin (L8 11+), Fredéricke Beaulne-Séguin (L7 13+), Jessica Reddin (L7 11-12), Vanessa Laporte (L6 12-13), Hannah Ashford (L6 10-11), Valérie Guil-bault (L5 13).

GYMNASTICS continues on p.10

photo & text: dan plouffe

Silver jubilee jump

Being totally blind apparently wasn’t enough of a challenge, so race organizers loaded up Jason Dunkerley with a 7-lb. vest as well, but he still couldn’t be stopped from posting the fastest 5 km time at the Alive to Strive race on Sunday, April 27 at Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

In reality, the extra weight wasn’t cruel and unusual punishment, but rather to raise awareness for kidney disease by simulating the amount of water dialysis patients retain in their bodies between treatments.

“For me, it’s close to home, of course,” notes Dunkerley, who gave a kidney to his wife, Colleen Hayes, in

March 2013. “It’s an amazing event. There’s so little information and awareness about kidney disease and what people with kidney disease go through.”

Hayes also took part in the 5k, walking the distance with her dad.

“We’re feeling great, both of us,” Dunkerley indicates. “We’re fortunate to be out and active and able to do this.”

The five-time Paralympic medal-ist was one of a dozen celebrities to don the weight vest. Dunkerley was the 5k race champ in 18 minutes and 2 seconds, followed next by Tim Tier-ney (who strangely managed to jump ahead of Ottawa City Council col-league Mathieu Fleury in the official

results despite arriving at the fin-ish line several minutes later).

“Our plan was just to run steady, but you kind of get com-petitive when you’re in a race,” recounts Dunkerley, who was guided by Ryan Grant at the event.

Dunkerley’s regular competi-tion guide, Josh Karanja, cruised to victory in the 10k race by over five minutes in 30:52.5. The pair plan to compete in several 5,000 m races on the track this season, in hopes of developing more in the event they picked up about a year before winning 2012 Para-lympic silver in London.

“There’s no major champion-ship this year,” highlights Dunkerley, who’s currently studying towards a world literatures and politics Master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, which he hopes to complete in August. “This year is about racing well and getting strong and building towards the next couple years.”

There is of course a major inter-national event this year, but the lone Commonwealth Games track-and-field event that will be held in Glas-gow, Scotland for athletes with visual impairment is the women’s 100 m. Para-sport competitions are included alongside able-bodied competition at the Commonwealth Games (unlike the Olympics and Pan American Games,

which hold separate competitions for para-sport afterwards), but the number of Commonwealth para events offered in each sport pales in comparison to the other major Games.

“It’s not fully integrated,” Dunker-ley says. “I’d like to see an event there, for sure. The distance events for blind runners are very competitive, so it would be great to have one more chance to be there and show what we can do. I hope it might change down the road, but for now, it’s not offered.

“We can just advocate and ask for different events and hopefully that will come about in time.”

The exclusion may offer a net be-nefit for the 36-year-old, however.

“The last few years have been very

busy in terms of races and champion-ships,” signals the fifth-place finisher in the T11 men’s 800 m at last year’s International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championships. “It’s nice to have a year where we can work on little things and build up a good base of fitness while not having the pressure of everything else.”

The 750+-athlete event supported the not-for-profit Alive to Strive or-ganization’s Kidney Fitness Project, which provides grants to kidney dis-ease patients to take part in exercise activities and make it possible for them to receive a transplant, while raising awareness about the import-ance of physical activity in treating kidney disease.

3

Youth, depth, fitness and a strong heart were the keys to a historic first title for the cardiac kids known as the Ottawa Ice, who captured the club’s first National Ringette League crown at the championship tournament in Regina.

“We had 16 players and all 16 made significant contributions – nobody got left out,” highlights Ice coach Al Bateman.

Playing eight games in five days, the Ice survived numerous one-goal games at the April 7-12 event. Being able to consistently roll their lines throughout nationals was critical, Bateman maintains, saluting his third line of Brittany MacDonald, Jenna Love and Chloe Laframboise for their solid production.

The squad preserved just enough energy to get them through the final game against the heavily-favoured Cambridge Turbos, the defending NRL champs. The Turbos posted a 25-1 record in 2013-14, with the sister act of Jacqueline and Jennifer Gaudet tying for the league lead in points at 161 apiece.

“In the last period against Cam-bridge,” recounts Bateman, whose team trailed 4-3 after three quarters, “we had the upper hand because the other team was out of gas and our tri-angle continued to take space away

from Gaudet sisters.”With a little bit of gas left in the

tank, the Ice produced four goals in the final period to complete the up-set and overcome a final bout of ad-versity – a theme that had carried on throughout the competition.

Aside from a 10-1 blowout win against Montreal, each game Ottawa played went down to the wire.

Jenna McBride broke a 1-1 tie with just minutes left to lift the Ice over their capital counterparts, the seventh-seeded Gloucester Devils. Later the same day, Ottawa trailed Waterloo 6-3 before three goals brought them into overtime, set-ting the stage for Jennifer Hartley’s game-winner.

The Ice then fended off Edmon-ton 3-2 in the semi-finals to reach the championship game just one season after they’d lost in the first round of league playoffs to miss the national tournament outright.

The triumph was a product of the team’s youth-oriented approach, signals Bateman, whose roster fea-tured six players aged 21 or younger, although veterans Jayme Simzer, 24, Hartley, 26, and Katie Lugg, 29, lead the way offensively with 15, 15 and 13 points respectively at the national tournament.

“We envisioned three years ago that we were going to develop young players,” Bateman adds. “It’s really paid off.”

Ice capture club’s 1st NRL crownBy Josh Wegman

ELITE

photo: andre vandal/ringette canada

--By Colin Walker, with Jeff Mooney, SportsCanOver my 25 years+ of coaching, I have

seen many athletes come through my gym doors. The majority of these athletes were great kids. One of the big factors I have no-ticed over that time that separates the elite from the rest was accountability.

How many times in life does a child refuse to accept responsibility for their action and point the finger at others instead of looking in the mirror first? It happens every day. How often do you hear players and parents say one of these after their team loses a game?

• The referee/umpire was terrible!• The field/ice was awful!• I didn’t play well because I had too much

homework last night and I was tired!• Our coach isn’t very good and he doesn’t

like me! He doesn’t teach us anything!• I have lousy teammates!What is the common theme of these state-

ments? These statements are excuses! Accountability (accepting responsibility) is

a major aspect of being mentally prepared to play a sport, or conduct anything in life. It’s about having the proper frame of mind, and that starts with being mentally and physically prepared. These principles not only help with sports, but also are transferrable life lessons.

The most important message that comes across is that individuals need to take re-sponsibility for their actions, which allows them to learn what is needed to be the best

in their sport and in life. We need to recognize when we make mis-

takes and not make excuses so that we can learn from them.

ADMIT MISTAKES TO MOVE AHEADThose who have gone on to achieve great

success have no problem admitting their past mistakes. Instead, they are in constant pursuit of revealing them, for it is their ability to identify those mistakes and their passion and strong character to confront them with change that fuel their success.

It is their desire to challenge that exact same situation that they struggled with pre-viously – but with a new and improved re-sponse – that sets them apart from all others.

As outsiders looking in on an individual’s success, we are blind to countless struggles and obstacles that the individual was faced with along their route to success. We are of-ten only witness to the favorable end result and the glory associated with it.

The reality is that the number of struggles always outweighs the number of successful outcomes. However, for those who enjoy continual success, it is those countless struggles that make each individual success well worth the journey.

It is why those who continue to succeed embrace the very moments that most others run from, for in the end we are all owners of our final outcomes.

OTTAWA’S LTAD LEADERS FOR OVER 10 YEARSNUTRITION - STRENGTH & CONDITIONING - MENTAL TRAINING - VIDEO ANALYSIS

SPORTSCAN.CA

The Difference Between the Best and all the Rest?: Being Accountable for your Actions.

Being accountable for your actions and not making excuses is key to learning what is needed to be your best in sport, and in life. For the record, the guy on the right lost the game.

Dunkerley & guide shine at Alive to StriveBy Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

National-champion Ottawa Ice.

Jason Dunkerley (left) and guide Ryan Grant.

Even a broken jaw, broken C6 vertebrae, a concussion and a pile of missing teeth won’t stop Ottawa native Alex Cataford from getting back on a bike.

Ever since he got his first road bike at the age of 12, Cataford fell in love with cycling. Now, even after an accident that could have left him severely injured to the point of paralysis, the six-time Canadian junior national champion is more determined than ever to get back to training, and eventually, back to competing in the sport he fell in love with as a teenager.

“I feel like I’m getting better every day,” says Cataford, who was supposed to be traveling with Italian pro team Amore & Vita at this time instead of sitting at home and getting fitted for dentures. “I’m working to get back, slowly but surely. But I’m coming back for sure. There’s no question. I just love it too much.”

Back in January, while training for the up-coming cycling season in Arizona, Cataford col-lided with a car that turned out in front of him on a downhill, causing some serious injuries.

It wasn’t too long after that he was back on a bike – despite his injuries and jaw surgery – competing in races in Europe. But he had an-other bad crash, and realized that he was hurt more than cosmetically.

“I came back way too soon. My head wasn’t feeling great and I just thought, ‘Well, my jaw isn’t fully healed, so it could’ve been that,” re-counts Cataford, who was also scheduled for an

MRI in town. “But it is the head, so we have to be careful, so now I’m just taking it day by day and not pushing too much.”

The Earl of March Secondary School grad is hoping he’ll be cleared to return to action in time for the June 26 start of the Canadian Road Cycling Championships in Lac Megantic, Que. That would give Cataford a chance to qualify for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

“I knew the risks going in,” adds the 20-year-old who participated in the April 28 Queen’s Baton relay on Parliament Hill. “You work hard at anything there are always risks and

for this sport, for this, I’m willing to take the risks. I want this to be my career. That’s my ul-timate goal.”

Also a Commonwealth Games hopeful, fellow Ottawa native and Amore & Vita team member Mike Woods endured his own face-first crash while racing in Italy in March, but has since been able to return to competition.

DE HAITRE TRADES BLADES FOR BIKE

For any aspiring athlete, representing your country on the Olympic stage is a dream. Vin-cent De Haitre lived the dream at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi when he wore the maple leaf as the youngest member of the Cana-dian speed skating team.

Now, the 19-year-old has his sights set on making his debut at a summertime multi-sport games as he shoots for Glasgow in track cycling.

De Haitre is currently in Los Angeles train-ing with the Canadian Track Cycling National Team. If all goes well, the Canadian 1,000 m champion in both speed skating and track cyc-ling will compete in the May 23 trials for the Commonwealth Games team.

“It’s one thing to do dual-sports, but it’s an-other thing to qualify for international events in two,” De Haitre signals. “This is definitely something I want for myself. I like competing in any way, shape or form, and especially if I get to

represent Canada at the same time, for me that’s what I look forward to most.”

De Haitre, who is based in Calgary for speed skating, rode his bike every day for three weeks while back home in April. He spent some time with the Ottawa Bicycle Club, but the Cumber-land native was mostly on his own, riding back and forth on his street (which thankfully features an uphill at the end to slow him since his track bike has no brakes).

It’s a challenge to compete at an interna-tional level in two sports, but De Haitre’s two disciplines suit each other well, he notes.

“I mean, (Canadian Winter and Summer Games medalist) Clara Hughes did it on the en-durance side with road and distance skating. I’m going to try to do it on the sprint side for guys,” pledges the Béatrice-Desloges high school grad who feels he’ll need a new personal-best time to make the Glasgow team, although it’s been a few years since he’s been on a really fast track.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he adds. “I’m still pretty young, so I think it’s OK to try these things that are less common.”

RISING THROUGH THE RANKS

Sixteen-year-old Katherine Maine is also dabbling between several different sport discip-lines, although the Ottawa native is at least sure she wants a bike underneath her.

“It’s the speed,” explains the Lisgar Col-legiate Institute student. “There’s so much ad-renaline and it is so much fun. I just love being out there.”

Maine got her start in elite training with the LaRoccaXC Mountain Bike School in Val-des-Monts, but has since expanded her repertoire to include road racing, track cycling and cyclo-cross. In her debut at last year’s Canadian Junior Track Cycling Championships – the first time she ever competed on a track – Maine earned fourth-place finishes in just about every event.

This season, she’s got several big events on tap, including road nationals and the Killington Stage Race. Her ultimate goal is to break into the top of the Canadian ranks and earn opportunities like her older Ottawa cycling counterparts.

“I just have to keep focused, keep training and keep working hard, and eventually, I can get there,” Maine states.

—with files from Dan Plouffe

4

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Nasty crashes fail to quell cyclist’s Commonwealth hopesBy Anil Jhalli

ELITE

Ottawa cyclist Alex Cataford (right) alongside 1996 Olympic gold medalist Glenroy Gilbert (centre) and wrestler Alex Brown-Thériault took part in a relay on Parliament Hill for the Queen’s Baton, which is visiting Commonwealth countries before the July 23-Aug. 3 Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

photo: dan plouffe

Glebe Collegiate Institute physical education stu-dents took place in an Ath-letics Canada run, jump & throw program as part of the Queen’s Baton relay festivities on April 28.

photo: dan plouffe

With the debut of the new Ontario Player Development League this season, the local soccer land-scape continues to shift, as clubs es-tablish alliances and discuss merger possibilities to open up opportunities for their players to compete at the top provincial level.

The West Ottawa Soccer Club and FC Capital United are the latest clubs to formally join forces. The affiliation agreement sees WOSC’s 2000-born girls, competing in the re-gional Level 3 league this year, to ap-pear in Ontario Youth Soccer League action for Cap U’s U14 girls’ side, while many U13-aged boys from Cap U joined WOSC’s OPDL team earlier this year.

The clubs also pledge to collab-orate on other player and coach de-velopment initiatives in the future.

“For us, the real driving force for any relationship or affiliation is what’s best for the players,” signals Cap U president Kumar Saha, whose club did not apply for a franchise in the standards-based entry OPDL. “Just because we don’t have an OPDL fran-chise doesn’t mean our kids shouldn’t be allowed to play OPDL.”

The pair are somewhat unnatural partners with Capital United own-ing a traditional base farther to the east side of town, but the congruity between the leaders of both clubs – WOSC technical director Kristina Kiss was coached by Cap U club head coach Traian Mateas in the past – pushed it forward.

“We’ve shared the same philo-sophy as them for awhile,” Saha in-dicates. “It just seemed like a natural fit to give our guys a chance to play at the highest level.”

Mateas, who will coach this sea-son’s U12 boys’ teams at both Cap U and West Ottawa, will also oversee WOSC’s overall U8-U12 programs, which sends a big message about WOSC’s commitment to the “golden years of learning,” says president

Brian Mason.“We’re investing in them

young,” he explains. “The fact that we’re putting so much into the young kids shows that Long-Term Player Development piece for us.”

OPDL SPURS CHANGE

The Ontario Soccer Associ-ation’s new OPDL endeavour, which eliminates promotion and relegation from the top level of play, has been a driving factor in the changes clubs have made.

“I can’t tell you where we’re go-ing to be in five years. I’m honest,” underlines Saha, whose club consist-ently won entry into the OYSL but didn’t have a very large player base. “I hope we’re still doing what we do, but I don’t know what we’re going to look like.”

Asked if the partnership with WOSC could lead to a merger down the road – like the one being dis-cussed by the Ottawa Royals, Nepean Hotspurs and Nepean City Storm in the city’s core – Saha replies, “Let’s take one step at a time.”

There is no doubt for Saha that the introduction of the OPDL spurred “a ton of discussions in Ott-awa between clubs,” and that “we all have to adjust accordingly” to a new reality.

“I don’t think you would have seen Nepean Hotspurs, Nepean City

and the Royals talking if not for the OPDL,” Mason echoes. “You’re also having clubs in the east beginning to look and say, ‘You know what? If we want to be taken seriously, we’re go-ing to have to consider this as well.’”

Cumberland United president Anatoly Gann says there was little interest from members to have their club pursue an OPDL franchise, in particular due to the costs involved.

“We’ll keep an eye on it,” he adds. “But it didn’t make sense from our perspective to pay that money when we can do our own training and develop our own players.”

The Gloucester Hornets – a club roughly the same size as Cumberland – also decided against applying for OPDL inclusion, Gann highlights. Cumberland worked with Rockland last season on several levels, but there isn’t much news beyond that in terms of collaborations, he indicates.

“We are cooperating with the other clubs in this area to see how we can maximize the opportunities for the players,” Gann states. “That’s still on the table, but there’s nothing official or formal in place.”

The net result of all the work be-hind the scenes, Mason emphasizes, is a better climate for young players to grow in the game.

“There’s a huge shift in the way soccer’s being offered. They’ve really raised the bar.”

5

Cap U & WOSC pact latest in OPDL revolutionBy Dan Plouffe

COMMUNITY CLUBS

file photos

The West Ottawa Soccer Club an-nounced in April that it has named former Canadian interna-tional soccer star and Ottawa native Kristina Kiss as its

Technical Director. Through this important appointment, WOSC signals its intent to continue to provide the top quality technical leadership required for development of its representative and house league athletes and coaches.

Kiss was a proud member of Canada’s Wo-men’s National Team at two FIFA Women’s World Cups and earned 75 caps for her coun-try. She assumes her new role immediately, having previously worked as WOSC Club Head Coach and Acting Technical Director.

Kiss was elated with the opportunity to bring her rich brand of football leadership to bear in the Club’s highest technical position.

“Through my years with the Club, I myself was fortunate to further develop person-ally and professionally,” she stated. “I have continued to work hard on honing my foot-ball skills on and off the pitch, and am unre-servedly convinced that I am ready to lead WOSC as the second largest soccer club in Canada to the next level.”

She also embraced the opportunity to collaborate with the technical team in place, while emphasizing that as it progresses through its building process, the Club will increasingly become a destination for other quality technical staff.

“Having the expertise and experience of Cathy Briggs (Micro U4-U7), Traian Mateas (Mini U8-U11), and David Hannah (U13-21) to draw from is a fantastic asset for WOSC and for myself,” she opined. “With WOSC’s strong technical vision to revolutionize the pathway for player development and part-nering with key groups like the Ottawa Fury FC and Capital United FC, I am convinced we will continue to grow, while going from strength to strength.”

ROLE MODEL AS PLAYER & LEADERKiss’ appointment marks the next phase in

the Club’s evolution as a consistent leader in the implementation of the Canadian Soccer Association’s Long Term Player Develop-

ment (LTPD) framework. As one of the fore-most female football minds in the country, she will provide thousands of WOSC warri-ors with a powerful role model to look up to.

“The West Ottawa Soccer Club continues its dramatic transformation, which began at the time of our merger in 2010,” stated Brian Mason, WOSC President. “Our Club is proud to have been able to secure the homegrown leadership qualities that Kristina has developed over a football lifetime and refined while work-ing with WOSC over the last 3 years.”

Kiss is already well accustomed to the balancing act the TD portfolio requires, col-laborating to lead her team of technical staff colleagues, paid and volunteer coaches, two of her own teams including the OPDL U13 Girls, while also keeping an eye on future program cycles and requirements, and sup-porting WOSC CEO Bjorn Osieck in the im-plementation of pertinent strategies.

“Just like we are preparing our players to graduate to higher levels of football oppor-tunities, we are also looking to create future leaders within our staff team,” noted Osieck. “Kristina’s appointment as WOSC’s new TD is the logical consequence of this succession focus and her local connectedness paired with international football pedigree makes her an ideal choice to lead our Club’s tech-nical programs into a bright future.

“As Technical Director, Kristina will be able to bring her experience, skill, and creativity to the table, supported by our highly skilled full-time coaching staff, an armada of volunteer coaches, access to premium indoor and out-door facilities, and a healthy annual budget for technical programs and services.

“Her drive will be pivotal for WOSC, as we are striving to attain our vision of leading the way in the development of players, coaches, and referees in Ontario and across Canada.”

West Ottawa Soccer ScoopWOSC appoints Canadian soccer icon Kiss as Technical Director

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Fans officially welcomed pro soccer to town May 19 as Ottawa Fury FC kicked off its inaugural NASL season.

First Fury fight

photo: steve kingsman

An innovative development model is set to bring more sports fields and facilities to Ottawa’s east end. A planned expansion project for Millennium Park southeast of Trim and Innes Rd. worth $8 million received ap-proval in April from the City of Ottawa’s planning committee and now requires only the final green light from full council at its May 14 meeting in order to proceed – usually a slam dunk.

“It’s already an exciting place to bring your family, and this will make it that much more so,” says Cumberland Ward Councillor Stephen Blais, who brought the deal to life. “It’s go-ing to provide thousands more children and adults the chance to partake in sports, whether it be ultimate Frisbee or soccer or football. We’re even going to have cricket starting this spring.”

Millennium will gain an artificial turf field with lighting and spectator seating alongside Trim Rd. – similar in nature to the Nepean Sportsplex’s Minto Field, Blais suggests – as well as three full-size grass fields and a soccer mini-field, along with permanent washroom fa-cilities.

It isn’t purely a sports pro-ject, however, with more trees, gazebos, pathways and a splash pad also part of the plan, which adds to the attraction for Clar-idge Homes, Mattamy Homes, Minto and Tamarack Homes, all of which are involved in an “extraordinarily complicated financial arrangement,” as Blais describes it.

The agreement will see the City contribute $2 million to the project and provide a $6 million loan for the builders to design and construct the expanded

park. A new area development charge for future builders will help those developers repay the loan in future years.

It was a challenging process to get four companies with dif-ferent business models and in-terests that are at varying stages of projects to come together and work as one, but “all demon-strated great enthusiasm for the project,” Blais details.

“There have certainly been points where I thought it was all going to fall apart, and other points where I thought it was a done deal and it turns out not to be anywhere close,” recalls the first-term councillor who first began looking at the project in 2011.

The Millennium project provides a model that can be used elsewhere in the city for the development of sports fa-cilities and other projects, adds Blais, who also showed how a single councillor can advance a major project “if you’re willing to be creative, and willing to put in the work and build the rela-tionships.”

Aside from Lansdowne, the $8 million represents the largest post-amalgamation amount

invested in park facilities. It will bring an outdoor turf field east of the greenbelt for the first time, and nearly double the fa-cility’s currently available field time.

The Cumberland Panthers football club expressed their ex-citement about having “the best venue in our whole league,” while the Cumberland United Soccer Club was equally en-thused about the additional ca-pacity.

“It is the central location for east-end Ottawa in terms of soccer and other sports,” notes Cumberland United president Anatoly Gann. “If you can mul-tiply it out and have more time for everybody, then everybody wins.”

Cumberland United has additional plans of its own for Millennium. The club recently purchased a property right be-side the park and are renov-ating the existing building to house their offices and provide equipment storage and meeting space, which they hope will be ready for early July.

“We’re very excited,” Gann says. “To have our own club-house has been the dream for the last few years.”

The next hope would be to have a year-round facility avail-able. The City plans to see if a private sector partner would like to run a dome in the win-tertime over the turf field, Blais indicates.

Overall, the developments are “exciting” news for the Orleans and Cumberland com-munities, and beyond, Blais adds, noting Millennium will become a more attractive tour-nament venue, which brings spin-off economic benefits.

“It provides that opportun-ity to really be a showcase for minor sports,” says the former football coach. “It becomes a destination facility.”

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Jim and Shana Perkins received a Paul Harris Fellowship from the Rotary Club of Ottawa Kanata Sunrise at a dinner on April 23. The founders of the Capital City Condors were recognized for their pioneer-ing role in the development of local special needs hockey programs, which have now spread to several other cities. A volunteer group called the “knitwits” made Condors jerseys for teddy bears, which are being sold as a fundraiser. See capitalcitycondors.org for more information.

Condors creators crowned

From soccer and lacrosse to underwater hockey and roller derby, Ottawa City Councillor Mathieu Fleury has enjoyed a wild ride in his 52 sports in 52 weeks chal-lenge, which will reach its end in May.

“I’ve discovered so many sports,” recounts the 28-year-old who’s also nearing the end of his first term of council. “I’ve learned new fitness tips, new tricks that I would have never had the opportunity to do.”

As word spread about his initiative, Fleury discovered that there were many more sports opportunities in the city than just 52. His office wound up receiving requests from over 70 different sports to have him come see what their group had to offer.

Sometimes clubs in the same sport would battle for who’d get to have him attend – showing him that it’s im-possible to escape politics.

It was a major challenge coordinating the activities with the hectic schedule his day job already demands, but it helped that most sports take place on evenings and weekends, so it was possible to juggle them alongside com-munity events since it was outside work hours.

“I have an amazing team that works behind me and makes sure that I’m organ-ized,” laughs Fleury, saluting in particular Stéphane Gal-ipeau, a fellow University of Ottawa human kinetics grad who films all the activities and puts together videos on each (available at mathieu-fleury.tumblr.com ). “It’s been fun to have a teammate who tags along and sees sport in the same vein and wants to give sport the profile that it deserves.”

Fleury, who begins each work day with a 7 a.m.

workout at the City Hall gym, carries a lengthy sports back-ground of his own. Aquatics has always been his biggest love, so he lists whitewater canoeing with the Ottawa River Runners – when he had national team athletes teach him how to roll his boat at the rapids by Champlain Bridge – as a favourite experience of his along the way.

A few sports he found challenging, like skateboard-ing, where it’s not possible to learn how to get big air off jumps in a single day.

One memory that really stuck with him was at Tae E. Lee Taekwondo, where he met an 86-year-old woman who’d had cancer at age 70 and later started training in martial arts. He watched her do the splits and fully arch her back.

“People who are retired and say, ‘I’m getting old. My muscles are sore...’ – well, look at this 86-year-old,” smiles the Rideau-Vanier Ward representative. “If she can do it, everyone can do it.”

The idea for the 52 weeks challenge was borne out of a desire to engage the local sports community for the new Ottawa Sport Council, formed with the intention of provid-ing a single voice for sport at City Hall.

A board member for the Council, Fleury has seen sev-eral common concerns shared by just about every sports group. The process of book-ing fields, ice, gyms, pools and more was a challenge

practically across the board.“They all compete for the

same time,” Fleury signals. “Everyone wants to have a discussion about how we do allocation and who is priorit-ized.”

Long-term sustainability is another major question for volunteer-driven organiza-tions.

“There’s a high risk for the community that way. If you lose your key volunteers, you risk the life of the organ-ization,” Fleury notes. “That’s across the city and across sports.”

The Ottawa Sport Council offered a free club excellence workshop several months ago, which provided best practices on a broad range of topics, in-cluding succession planning.

Providing similar op-portunities in the future is a likely path, but the Council’s future will be defined by what the community wants, indic-ates Fleury, who encourages the public to engage with the Council through social media and its web site at ottawasportcouncil.ca .

Despite already hav-ing a good taste of it, Fleury was nevertheless somewhat astounded at how many pas-sionate, dedicated people he met throughout his 52 weeks of sports.

“It’s an amazing com-munity,” he emphasizes. “I feel really proud to see the dedication of the volunteers, coaches, parents and everyone involved.”

Councillor’s 52 sports in 52 weeks winds downBy Dan Plouffe Mathieu Fleury

visited the Ot-tawa Triathlon Club for his 49th of 52 sports.

photo: dan plouffe

Millennium set to receive more fields

photo: dan plouffe

By Dan Plouffe

file photoGetting a scoreboard was a big win for Millennium at the time. Now the east-end park is now poised to see a major expansion project commence.

7

A pair of Ottawa South United Force soc-cer teams enter the 2014 Ontario Youth Soccer League season with a target on their backs – un-familiar territory for local soccer teams.

But the region’s first OYSL and Ontario Cup titles last season broke new ground in the league traditionally dominated by Toronto-area teams, and put the word out loud and clear that Ottawa clubs can compete with the best.

If opponents are going to come harder against the defending champions, that’s just fine in the view of OSU club head coach Paul Harris.

“The one thing we’re trying to do at OSU is raise the bar,” indicates Harris, a coaching product of Everton FC’s academy program. “I believe we can get players not only to Canada’s national team, but also to Europe.”

Several members of the OYSL-champion Force team that is now headed into the U17 boys’ division have indeed moved on to bigger stages, which includes professional academies in Canada and England, and youth national team appearances.

They’re one of five OSU squads who will compete in the OYSL this season, which is three more than any other local club.

“The problem before was everyone wanted to take their team all the way through,” Harris details. “What we try and do now is put coaches in certain places that meet their skills in terms of development, with everyone adding a little bit to the jigsaw.”

The other OSU group that made history last year was the 2000-born girls, who will now make their provincial league debut with an Ontario Cup trophy in their back pockets.

FC Capital United, whose graduating group of U17 girls won an OYSL east division and a historic Quebec-Ontario Cup last season, will also field a team in the U14 girls’ ranks.

There probably isn’t a local team that under-stands the story of a target on their backs better than the OSU U16 girls, set to enter their third OYSL campaign. The Force were east division champions two seasons ago (although a contro-

versial boardroom decision to strip them of one of their victories prevented them from playing in the league final), but dropped down into a tie for third last season. The Nepean Hotspurs will also compete in the U16 ranks.

Joined by the Gloucester Hornets in the division, the OSU U14 boys are eager to test themselves against provincial opponents after a perfect 17-0 run against the east region last sea-son, when they outscored their opponents by a combined 141-9.

The Force’s final entry comes in the form of their U15 girls, who will look to build on their

fourth-place showing in OYSL competition last season. The Cumberland Cobras U15 girls will make their inaugural OYSL appearance in the same category.

The back-to-back-to-back East Region Cup-champion Gloucester Hornets U17 girls will also make their OYSL debut this year.

After being relegated in their first foray into the OYSL, the Capital United U16 boys are back for a second taste of the top provincial level.

Making OYSL debuts as the lone local entries in their divisions are the Ottawa Fury U18 girls and the West Ottawa Warriors U15 boys.

The OYSL season kicks off on May 10.

OPDL KICKS OFF SEASON, BUT NOT WEB SITE

The Ontario Player Development League made its highly-anticipated debut on May 3 in Kingston, with Nepean, OSU and West Ottawa kicking off in U13 boys’ play and the same three clubs along with the Fury on the U13 girls’ side.

The new league, which will eventually phase out the OYSL, removes promotion/relegation in favour of granting entry to clubs that meet strin-gent standards for facilities, coaching, adminis-tration and organizational financial stability.

Results from the first weekend of OPDL play were not available through the Ontario Soc-cer Association’s web site (although the Ottawa Pub Dart League may be happy to see a spike in traffic from web users searching for “OPDL res-ults.”) Ottawa hosts its first weekend of OPDL action May 24-25 at George Nelms Sports Park.

—with files from Josh Wegman

Local soccer teams seek return to provincial gloryBy Dan Plouffe

JUNIOR LEAGUES

file photo

The OSU Force U17 boys are defending OYSL champions.

8

August 1-4, 2014

The Gloucester Concordes Speed Skating Club welcomed home their most famous members on May 27 at Roy Hobbs Hall in Orleans. For Sochi 2014 Olympians Vincent De Haitre and Ivanie Blondin, attending their youth club’s end-of-season cel-ebration provided a little trip down memory lane.

“I remember when I was younger being at the same place,” recounts De Haitre, giving a quick smile to Blondin at his side. “And one time, we were playing outside, and I threw a Frisbee, and I think I hit her with it.”

“In the face,” Blondin emphasizes.“Back then, we didn’t know each

other as well, so I felt pretty bad about it,” recalls De Haitre, who is four years younger than Blondin.

“I was probably super pissed,” Blondin laughs.

The east-end pair have become great friends in recent years as their age gap dwindles in relevance and they emerge as rising hopes with the Canadian long-track speed skating team in Calgary.

The bond was only reinforced when they made their Olympic debuts together this past February in Russia.

They reflect on sitting on a bal-cony overlooking the Black Sea and palm trees from the athletes’ village early in the Games, kicking their feet up on lounge chairs and enjoying the 20oC weather.

“We were watching the sun set with dolphins going by,” Blondin relates. “We were like, ‘Are we at the Winter Olympics right now?’”

It all seemed like a bit of a dream as they’d walk back inside the Cana-dian residence and see Sidney Crosby and Shea Weber in the midst of an-

other intense table tennis matchup. But reality snapped back quickly into focus when they were hit by the nerves of standing on the start line before an enormous hushed crowd on sport’s biggest stage.

“It was good to know what stresses me out in competition be-cause I’ve never had a really, really big event like that,” details De Haitre, who was the youngest member of the Canadian team at age 19. “It was something new altogether. You can’t really prepare for it.”

The 20th-place finisher in the men’s 1,000 metres looked at Sochi as a learning experience. For Blondin, her Olympic results came as a disappointment. The 24-year-old placed 24th in the women’s 3,000 m and 14th in the 5,000 m, the latter of which came two days before the team pur-

suit event. Blondin wasn’t chosen to skate in the quarter-final round, which Canada lost, but she later helped them win fifth place over USA.

“I was struggling with burnout really all season, really since back in October, we tracked it,” indicates Blondin, who believes she over-trained when she was the only fe-male in her group of six Canadian distance-focused skaters. “It’s kind of hard to monitor the intensity com-pared to the boys. I think I went a little overboard there. And I think I learned a lot from it.

“It’s been a tough year, but even with it being a tough year, I think that qualifying for the Olympics is a huge accomplishment. It’s something I al-ways wanted to do.”

OLYMPIC HANGOVER HITS HARD

Both athletes attest to a fairly big letdown after the Games. Blondin still had several big races left in her

season, and she did come up with one big performance on March 15 at the World Cup Final in the Netherlands, earning a bronze medal in the mass start event.

“After that, my body was just done. I was ready for a break,” recalls Blondin, who went on to place 18th at the World All-Round Championships the next week. “Especially after such a big hype with the Olympic Games, it’s really hard to motivate yourself afterwards.”

De Haitre went straight back to Calgary after the Olympics, but im-mediately got sick, likely with the flu, and lost 10 lbs. He started feeling bet-ter on the week of Canada Cup #3, his final race of the season, and wound up setting new personal-best times – a theme present throughout his season.

“I guess I know I have to be a little bit lighter if I want to get faster,” reasons De Haitre, who hopes his summer will include an appearance at the Commonwealth Games for track cycling (see p. 4 for more on that.)

NEW COMPANY FOR LIZ MANLEY

At the Concordes end-of-season event, the Gloucester club leaders called up their Olympic stars and got them to sign nearly life-size banners, expected to hang on opposite sides of the painting of Calgary 1988 Olympic figure skating silver medalist Eliza-beth Manley on the wall of the rink at Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Com-plex – Orléans.

“We were very happy Ivanie and Vincent were part of the whole thing,” signals Concordes board member Jean Hurtubise. “This is great for our club and the sport in general.”

Gloucester Concordes Olympians return to their rootsBy Dan Plouffe

ELITE

Olympic speed skaters Ivanie Blondin and Vin-cent De Haitre sign auto-graphs for members of the Gloucester Concordes club where they grew up.

photo: dan plouffe

Three Ottawa natives are in the running to play at the Aug. 1-17 Women’s Rugby World Cup, as Julianne Zussman, Natasha Watcham-Roy and Asya Bartley compete in the final selections for spots on Team Canada.

Zussman, the longest-serving national team member of the trio, led Canada to a massive 51-3 ex-hibition game victory over the USA Eagles, scoring three tries.

“It was a classic example of the forwards winning the game and the backs deciding by how much,” highlights the 27-year-old

former Ottawa Irish player. “Ex-tremely physical play in the front helped us and we were able to use our speed and agility in the back.”

In recent years, Zussman has spent a lot of her time playing sev-ens rugby.

Ottawa triple-threat on Canada rugby team

By Josh Wegman

Ottawa rugby players Natasha Watcham-Roy, Julianne Zussman and Asya Bartley are standing on guard for Team Canada as the August’s Women’s Rugby World Cup nears. photo provided

RUGBY continues next page

9

Ottawa Royals &

Knights Baseball Club Player of the Month

Born: July 30th, 1996Position: Shortstop (SS) and Pitcher (P)Bats: RightThrows: Right

17-year-old Vaughan Rawes is a long-time player in the Royals and Knights program.

Last season, he played with the 18U Knights AA team. After finishing his first year of Commerce studies at Queen’s University, Vaughan will join the 18U Elite Knights for the summer 2014 campaign.

Vaughan had an outstanding sea-son with the Ottawa Knights last year, both at the plate and on the mound. He batted .375 and pitched with a 4.65 Earned Run Average.

After the summer, Vaughan tried out for the Queen’s Golden Gaels baseball team, displaying further ver-satility by lining up at shortstop.

His rookie season at Queen’s was equally impressive, with a sea-son-long batting average of .263

against top university talent many years his senior. He earned the nod as the Golden Gaels’ Rookie of the Year.

The Ottawa Royals and Knights Baseball Club would like to congratu-late Vaughan on his accomplishments with our program, and his university team. We look forward to welcoming him back this year.

Royals Report & Knights News

www.ottawaroyalsbaseballclub.com

The Ottawa Royals & Knights Baseball Club provides the region’s premiere competitive development program for players aged 10-18.

VAUGHAN RAWES

Fuelled either by gratitude to see anything but snow, or their love for baseball, a dreary day with more than a couple raindrops couldn’t dis-suade young players from enjoying the April 26 Baseball Day in Ottawa festivities at the former Lynx Sta-dium on Coventry Rd.

“The turnout was great even though the weather didn’t cooper-ate,” noted Ottawa Royals & Knights baseball operations director Bob Guy, whose club spearheaded the event. “Whether they’re playing tee-ball or they’re 18 years old, there’s a lot of enthusiasm in the city. It’s ex-citing to see.”

Around 200 kids participated in the free clinics in the morning, which were led by Royals/Knights staff, with assistance from players.

“They loved working with the younger players,” Guy indicated. “And the kids had a lot of fun. It was a great day.”

The first-year event was not without a hiccup.

“‘Eventful’ I think is a good word to say,” smiled Knights/Royals president Andrew Beattie, who was trapped in a stadium elevator – along with dignitaries such as Mayor Jim Watson, legendary Canadian Major League Baseball pitcher Fergie Jen-kins and Can-Am League commis-sioner Miles Wolff – while en route to throw the ceremonial first pitch.

“It was nice spending time with

Fergie Jenkins in an elevator,” Wat-son joked as he officially proclaimed it Baseball Day in the City of Ott-awa, while thanking the Ottawa Fire Department for freeing them after about 45 minutes with no harm done.

Watson added that the City is very proud of the minor baseball sys-tem in town, and is excited to re-wel-come a Can-Am League franchise next summer.

Baseball Day provided an oppor-tunity to celebrate the sport’s place in the region, highlighted Beattie, who plans to make it an annual tradition.

“The unique thing about the day is it really was a collaborative effort,” he detailed, noting they re-ceived support from amateur base-ball associations on each side of the Ottawa River, organizations affili-ated with both Little League Canada and Baseball Canada, plus the local adult amateur league. “I think it’s the first time it’s ever happened.”

KNIGHTS BLAST OFF EARLY

Knights teams swept both legs of the afternoon double-header. The 18-and-under ‘AA’ Knights got off to a hot start with numerous runs in the first inning en route to a 4-0 victory over the Gatineau Attack, and then the 18U Elite Knights carried on the momentum to blast the Carleton Russell Aces 13-6.

“I’m really excited about our teams this year,” Beattie said of his club’s prospects for the season. “I think we’ve got a great group of kids who are dedicated and really fo-cused on improving their games. I’m very proud of all of them and I think they’re going to do very well.”

Baseball Day in Ottawa spirit high but not dryBy Dan Plouffe

COMMUNITY CLUBS

photo: dan plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

Around 200 young-sters got their season off to an early start with free morning clinics during Baseball Day in Ottawa on April 26 at Ottawa Stadium.

The Ottawa Knights 18U ‘AA’ team scored big in the first inning en route to a 4-0 win over the Gatineau Attack.

The seven-a-side version of the game will make its Olympic debut in 2016. The Ashbury College grad helped Canada qualify for the 2013 Rugby Sevens World Cup with a dominant performance at the 2012 regional qualifying event in Ottawa, although she wasn’t part of the team’s runner-up performance in Russia.

With the biggest event of 2014 being the 15-a-side Women’s Rugby World Cup in France, Zussman has turned her attention back to the tradi-tional 15s game.

“Sevens is a game of one-on-one, so a large focus on the game plan is how to dominate the person in front of you,” notes the former McGill

University Martlets star who’s known for her versatility and all-around ath-letic ability – strong attributes in the 7s game. “Fifteens is more a chess match with game plans and grinding out wins.”

GEE-GEE GRAD STEPS UPWatcham-Roy also carries ex-

perience in both forms of the game, having competed at the FISU World Student Games sevens tournament last summer, earning a bronze medal.

“I really like both,” says the former University of Ottawa Gee-Gees captain. “Sevens is more of a speed and skill game. Fifteens de-mands more contact and it’s a big ad-justment because it’s way more phys-ical. People smash each other more.”

Watcham-Roy says that the exper-ience of training with the team alone has been highly beneficial for her de-velopment, regardless of whether or not she ends up making the final cut for the World Cup team.

“Being challenged by all my teammates every day has made me a better player as well as a better person,” signals the recent uOttawa health sciences grad. “Being out on the field every day, being at the gym – you understand what it takes to be at a higher level. It really challenges you to be the best rugby player you want to be in all aspects – physically and mentally.”

It’s been quite a jump up from Canadian university play to Team Canada, she adds.

“When you come to the national level, everybody is just as skilled as everyone else. You’re competing with people who are as strong and fast as you, and they challenge you every day in practice,” explains Watcham-Roy, whose brother played on Canada’s under-20 men’s rugby team. “In CIS, people are still developing, so there’s a different type of intensity and talent from a physical standpoint.”

QUICK LEAP TO NATIONAL LEVELBartley is another local player

who lists international experience on her resumé, having first joined Canada’s junior national team pro-gram at age 16.

The Bell High School grad began her athletic career as a basketball

player and credits some of her skills on the field from her days on the court, especially in terms of transition from offence to defence – a crucial as-pect in both sports.

“It all happened so quickly, so surreal to me,” says Bartley, a prop who just joined Team Canada in mid-April. “I’m so proud and amazed how a group of girls could come together and play for their country – it’s been a great experience. It feels like hard work has finally paid off.”

The progress didn’t come overnight. It’s been a long path, which included two Canadian university championships as a member of the St. Francis-Xavier X-Women.

RUGBY cont’d from last page

RUGBY continues next page

Other local Envol category all-around champions included Olympia’s Emily Urbisci (L6 14+) and Courtney Bowditch (L3 A9), Corona’s Cathy Wang (L4 A13), Sophia Scanlon (L4 A11), Robin Tarnocai (L4 A9), Sarah Demarinis (L4 15+), Kathryn Jee (L4 14), Alexa Vecchio (L3 11),

Maddison Brayman (L3 10B), Natasha Sandhu (L2 10), Kath-erine Hale (L2 9) and Annabelle Woolverton (L1 9-12), and Tum-blers’ Emily Fauchon (L3 13+) and Meghan Renaud (L3 10A).

At the trampoline provincials, medalists included Spring Ac-tion’s Kelsey Ducharme (gold, L2 15+ trampoline & silver double mini trampoline), Hugo Lalu-

mière (bronze, L3 TRA & bronze, L3 mixed synchro), Emma Boswell & Rosalind Ward (silver, L2 MS), Amelia Palidwor (silver, L2 12-14 & bronze, L3 MS), Alyssa Greenwell (bronze, L2 15+ DMT), Ryan Massey-Smith (silver, L1 DMT), Bobby Os-borne (bronze, L1 DMT) and Avery Wheat (gold, L2 DMT), Les Sittelles’ Maxine MacKin-non (bronze, L3 15+ TRA), Al-exandre D’Aoust (bronze, L4 MS & silver L4 DMT), Mélodie Dubuc (bronze, L4 MS), Mari-anne Bourque (gold, L4 DMT), Nicolas Dessureault (silver, L3 DMT) and Gabriel Carrier (gold, L4 DMT), and OGC’s Gabriel Riendeau (bronze, L2 TRA).

Many local athletes are in their final stages of preparation for the May 10-13 Eastern Cana-dian Gymnastics Championships, to be held in Oshawa.

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A dozen local athletes will be in the mix amongst the nation’s best when the Canadian Gymnastics Championships return to Carleton University May 26-31, including three first-timers who will break a one-year hiccup in Ottawa’s gym-nastics record.

Last year, there were no homet-own entrants in the category with the greatest participation across the coun-try, but the trio of Adrianka Forrest and Sofia Baggio from Ottawa Gym-nastics Centre and Julie Anne Fiset from Tumblers Gymnastics Centre are set to change that when they com-pete in the women’s artistic division.

“I’m really excited,” signals Fiset, who earned her place in the national novice high-performance category thanks to her performance at Febru-ary’s Elite Canada event in Gatineau. “I’m definitely happy it’s in Ottawa. I like competing near here. (For Elite Canada), I liked sleeping in my bed. And my family can come watch as well.”

Fiset, a seventh-place finisher at the Ontario championships, says she’s also looking forward to reuniting with the athletes she faced off against at Elite Canada.

“I made lots of friends from clubs

across Canada,” notes the Grade 7 Béatrice-Desloges high school stu-dent.

For Baggio and Forrest, they won’t have to look far at all for a sup-portive companion as they deal with the jitters of making their nationals debut.

“Having her there, with me, makes everything a little easier,” in-dicates Baggio, a 14-year-old All Saints Catholic High School student.

Forrest, also 14, echoes her club-mate’s sentiments.

“She’s my best friend and my partner in crime,” adds the Broadview Public School student.

Both OGC athletes grew accus-tomed to success on the provincial stage, each earning podium positions in Ontario and Eastern Canada two seasons ago. In their first year com-peting against athletes in the higher national open category, they both snuck through as national qualifiers, with Baggio placing ninth (with 49.75 points) and Forrest in 11th (with 49.4) at the provincial championships.

“I was a bit nervous, but I knew what I had to do,” recounts Baggio. “I just stayed focused and everything worked out. And now, here I am, go-ing to nationals.”

Forrest, who, like Baggio, is eyeing an NCAA gymnastics scholarship down the line, was also pleased to

get the reward of a nationals appear-ance.

“If you work hard enough, any-thing can happen,” she smiles.

PODIUM POTENTIAL FOR 2 MEN

OGC’s Taylor Jackie Spriggs and National Capital’s Sam Zakutney are likely the two best bets for titles out of local athletes.

Zakutney won his third consecutive na-tional title in a youth h i g h - p e r f o r m a n c e stream at last year’s Ca-nadian Championships. The Grade 10 Fran-co-Cité high school student will now face older competitors in the junior men’s event, but he’s already earned a title in that category this year thanks to his win at Elite Canada.

Second-year Carleton student Spriggs, the national open runner-up in 2013, is coming off an impressive Ontario championships victory by more than four points over the field.

OGC’s Jaroslav Hojka and Bruno Webster, along with Tumblers’ Eric Gauthier, will also take part in the men’s artistic competition.

Producing five medal wins in five events, the brother combo of Vincent and Benjamin Tyo – Ottawa residents who train at Gatineau’s Unigym – led the local trampoline contingent at last year’s nationals, which also featured Spring Action’s Jonathan Arsenault and Steven Wade.

There won’t be any local compet-itors in the rhythmic gymnastics com-petition, but Ottawa native Lucinda Nowell will perform along with her fellow group rhythmic national team members during the Canadian Cham-pionships.

Nowell is a product of the Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club, one of four host clubs (along with OGC, Tumblers and Unigym).

3 women’s artistic gymnasts storm back to home nationalsBy Anil Jhalli

COMMUNITY CLUBS

Ready to make her nationals debut, Julie Anne Fiset from Tumblers Gymnastics Centre is one of a dozen local athletes who have qualified for the May 26 to 31 Canadian Champion-ships at Carleton University.

photo: graceclick.ca

Sofia Baggio (left) & Adrianka Forrest.

file photo

GYMNASTICS cont’d from p.2

11

Email Head Strength & Conditioning Coach Nicolas.Wescott@carleton.ca or

visit Athletics.Carleton.ca for more information.

CARLETON UNIVERSITY HIGH PERFORMANCE CENTRETake your athletic performance to the next

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• Individualized off-season strength and conditioning programs for Elite Athletes

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Deep River native Samantha Cornett, who spent her teenage years training in Ottawa to launch her international career, followed up her unexpected trip to the final-16 at the women’s squash world championships with an appearance in the final of a Women’s Squash Association World Tour event. The world’s 28th-ranked player finished as runner-up in the mid-April event in St. Louis. The 23-year-old then reached the semi-finals at the Mayfair Open in Toronto before capturing the Canadian title with only one set lost at the April 30-May 4 nationals in Edmonton.

Two new coaches of local varsity teams were announced this past month. Former Team Canada U18 women’s world-champion coach Pierre Alain was chosen as the Carleton Ravens new women’s hockey bench boss. Ottawa native Laura Bond, who’s won Ontario championships in both of her two years as assistant to retiring head coach John MacIn-

nis, will take over leadership of the Algonquin Thunder women’s basketball program.

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

BOBSLED FOR SALE FOR BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OTTAWA FUNDRAISER

L-TRAIN PULLS INTO ALGONQUIN COACHING STATION

2 OTTAWA LIONS RUNNERS IMPRESS AT YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES TRIALSGlebe Collegiate Institute student Claire Smith won the girls’ 3,000 m race handily at the North American trials for this summer’s Youth Olympic Games in China, finishing around 20 seconds ahead of the field in a time of 9:50.98. Canterbury High School’s Erinn Stenman-Fahey was a close second in the girls’ 800 m. The national capital east and west conference track-and-field championships will be held May 14 and 15, with the

city finals set for May 21-22 at Terry Fox Athletic Facility.SQUASH PLAYER’S RUN CULMINATES WITH NATIONAL CROWN

Ottawa Olympic bobsledder Cody Sorensen gave a boost to the Big Brothers Big Sisters Ottawa’s auction by donating a promotional sled to support the fundrais-

ing initiative. The online auction wraps up on Thursday, May 8. See bbbso.ca for more information.

Ottawa Akademy snowboarder John Leslie received the Auclair Team Spirit Award from Canada Snowboard in April in recognition of his strong results, leadership skills, pos-itive impact on teammates, dedication to his community and for acting as an excellent representative for the sport at home and abroad. Leslie, who was saluted by Canada Snowboard for his infectious and inspirational positive attitude as well as his professional approach to his sport and academics, won three World Cup bronze medals in 2013-14 and placed seventh in para-snowboarding’s Paralympic Games debut in Sochi.

PARALYMPIC SNOWBOARDER EARNS NATIONAL AWARD

MORRIS BREAKS BREAK PLANS, TO SUIT UP ALONGSIDE DEFENDING CANADIAN CHAMPSGloucester native John Morris has cancelled his plans for a year off from competitive curling, electing to take over the rink made up of Pat Simmons, Carter Rycroft and Nolan Thiessen formerly skipped by Kevin Koe, who is forming a new team of his own for next season.8 YOUNG PLAYERS BEGIN HOCKEY ROAD TO PYEONGCHANG

Eight local players were invited to be part of Canadian national women’s hockey team programs in April. Under-18 level athletes Kira Bombay, Lindsay Eastwood, Sam Cogan and Josiane Pozzebon of the Nepean Wildcats and Anonda Hoppner and Samantha Bouley of the Ottawa Senators, along with development team play-ers Senators-brewed Cydney Roesler and Rebecca Leslie will attend a Hockey Canada May 7-11 strength and conditioning camp in Hamilton.

The Ottawa Orienteering Club hosted its Take Control Training Weekend April 25-27 with events in the western edge of the city for orienteers to prepare for this fall’s North American Orienteering Championships. David Rosen, the International Orienteering Federation’s Senior Event Advisor, led clinics and verified terrain and map accuracy in advance of the World Championships qualifier set for Oct. 10-13 at Carp Ridge.

ORIENTEERING CLUB RUNS PREP EVENT FOR NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Colonel By’s Chuheng Xing & Lina Liu earned the top result out of national capital athletes at the May 1-3 OFSAA provincial high school badminton championships in Markham, earning a silver medal in mixed doubles. Merivale’s Joletta Cheung, a mixed doubles gold medalist last season, won bronze in girls’ singles this year.

PAIR OF OFSAA MEDAL WINS FOR NCSSAA BADMINTON PLAYERS

Nepean Nighthawks players Braedon Muldoon, Rohan Chopra and Liam Manning were selected on May 2 as three of 25 candidates for the places on Canada’s Youth Olympic Games men’s field hockey team. The Nepean club, which debuted its inaugural mother and daughter league in early May, will also host the Ontario under-18 girls’ provincial league championships in town Aug. 16-17.

NIGHTHAWKS REACH FINAL STAGE FOR YOUTH OLYMPICS FIELD HOCKEY TEAM SELECTIONS

OSU PRODUCT DEBUTS WITH CANADIAN YOUTH SOCCER NATIONAL TEAM PROGRAMOttawa South United-brewed soccer player Zoom Langwa made his first appearance in Canadian colours with the under-16 men’s national team program for the April 15-21 Montaigu Tournament in France. Canada won its opener 1-0 against the host French, then lost 2-0 and 2-1 to Turkey and Côte d’Ivoire before dropping a 10-round penalty kicks affair to Saudi Arabia in their final match. The players are vying for a spot on Canada’s entry in the 2015 CONCACAF U17 Championships.

Carmen Marin, a 12-year-old Ottawa Royals/Parmar Futuro Academy player, will join the Costa Rica under-15 women’s soccer national team for this summer’s Central Americas Cup. Marin, whose father grew up in Costa Rica and has many extended family members still residing there, earned her spot on the team after originally attending a U17 team camp in January.

OTTAWA ROYALS PLAYER GETS CALL FOR COSTA RICA YOUTH SIDE

Ottawa native Brent Moran and Travis Konecny of the Ottawa 67’s won bronze medals with Team Canada at the April 17-27 IIHF men’s under-18 world hockey championships in Finland. Konecny scored the game-winner with 30 seconds left in a 3-2 quarter-final victory over Switzerland, which Canada followed up with a 4-3 to Czech Republic in the semi-final, and a 3-1 win over Sweden 3-1 for bronze. Moran, a Niagara Ice Dog, was Canada’s third goalie.

WORLD U18 BRONZE VICTORY FOR OTTAWA-BORN GOALIE & 67’S STAR

The Nepean Blue Devils were U14 girls second-division champions at the Ontario Cup provincial basketball champi-onships in April, while the Ottawa Guardsmen were U14 boys bronze medalists in Div. 2. The Ottawa Shooting Stars U14 girls (with one win) and the Guardsmen U13 boys (winless) competed in the top division.

LOCAL BASKETBALL CLUBS EARN A PAIR OF 2ND-DIVISION MEDALS AT PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Over 180 kids squeezed into the dome at the Tennis Centre West Ottawa on April 23 to take part in the Ottawa’s first Little Aces program for children between Grades 1-6.

Running the event was the Ontario Tennis Association, which has put several initiatives in place to make the sport more accessible and af-fordable for kids.

Supported by an Ontario government Tril-lium grant, the OTA’s Capital Kids program,

which kicks off this sum-mer, offers cost-free ten-nis lessons on community courts in neighbourhoods with social and economic challenges.

On one half of TCWO facility, the young players were split up into three drill stations to fine-tune their skills, while the other half got to show them off in mini-games.

“We just want to give every child an opportun-ity to play tennis. A lot of them haven’t got the chance to play much,” notes Geoff Pearce, the

president of National Tennis School and lead organizer of the event. “A lot of (parents) don’t realize that it’s a very in-expensive sport – a tennis racket, a ball, some shoes and you’re ready to go.”

—Josh Wegman

Program to increase tennis accessibility debuts at TCWO

photo: josh wegman

They didn’t hoist a trophy as champions, but there probably isn’t an accomplishment coaches and lead-ers of the Maverick Volleyball Club could treasure much more than what a pair of their teams achieved at the April 11-13 Ontario Volleyball Asso-ciation championships in Waterloo.

Two Mavs 17-and-under girls’ squads – named the Gold Rush and the Blackjacks – reached the quarter-final round against the province’s best, with the Gold Rush taking home a bronze medal.

“The goal of the Mavericks is to get as many of these athletes in a pos-ition to compete for a post-secondary position,” explains Gold Rush coach and Mavs competitive director John Spack.

When the group of 17U girls were younger, they actually had three teams’ worth of players, Spack de-tails. Defying traditional wisdom, the club didn’t field ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams with all the best players stacked on the top squad. Instead, they mixed up their lineups throughout season, all in the name of developing numerous well-rounded players.

As they now compete in the higher levels of the game, the Gold Rush tilted towards a more powerful

group, but the Blackjacks managed to nonetheless hold their own against Ontario’s best despite being “thinner on talent than most of the top teams,” says their coach, Bruce Dunning.

Both teams practice and train to-gether on a regular basis, however “the makeup of our teams is totally different,” indicates Spack, who carries strong right-side and middle players Savannah de Groot and Alina Dormann, while the Blackjacks pos-sess strong setting and left-sides with Olivia Witteveen and Megan Kuciak.

“When we end up playing each other it looks like two completely dif-ferent teams,” Spack adds.

Overcoming the awkward famili-arity between the two has been a chal-lenge for both sides when they meet head-to-head, but it would be a “dream scenario,” Dunning says, if the teams were to meet at their May 9-11 national cham-pionships in Ed-monton.

“We’ve been on the winning end of our four m a t c h u p s , ” Spack notes, “but as the sea-son went on the

gaps closed and the matches got closer – some of them went three close sets.

“There’s probably a bit more ex-perience on my team but both groups have really progressed during the year

– certainly a credit to their focus and work on and off the court.”

MAVS MEDAL & WORLDS QUALIFIER

In Sherbrooke, Que., the Mavs 15U boys’ team followed up its pro-vincial title with a silver medal per-formance at the Eastern Canadian Championships May 2-4.

Ottawa native Adam Simac and the Canadian men’s volleyball team will host a continental qualification tournament for September’s FIVB World Championships in Poland from May 16-19 at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga.

The 30-year-old Team Canada middle will also compete in World League home matches May 31 and June 1 against Finland in Calgary, June 13 and 14 against Belgium in Vancouver and June 20 and 21 against Australia in Edmonton.

12

Mavericks place pair of 17U teams in provincial final-8By Josh Wegman

COMMUNITY CLUBS

If you thought this is a lot of players for one volleyball team, you were right. The Ottawa Mavericks club owned so much talent at the 17U level that they formed two separate teams from their high-performance program. Both reached the top-tier quarter-final round at the provincial championships. photo provided

Quiet, shy, humble, soft spoken – not words usually as-sociated with your typical im-age of a premiere wrestler. Yet, that is exactly what Augusta Eve is and what has made her unlikely rise in the Canadian junior wrestling world a com-pelling journey.

“I started wrestling for fun in Grade 9 with a friend,” recounts the Hillcrest High School senior. “It is really fun to throw people around – to not be a gentle girl for a while.”

Coming off championship titles at the high school provin-cials and the junior nationals earlier this season, Eve is now preparing (in a rather uncon-ventional way) for the June 27-29 Pan American junior championships in Toronto with an eye on qualifying for the Aug.5-10 FILA Junior World Championships in Croatia.

“I started training for it last week,” the flyweight wrestler says with a laugh. “I have mats in my basement, so me and my brother will go at it.”

Eve has competed inter-nationally on multiple occa-sions, most recently placing third at the 2013 Pan Am cadet

championships in Colombia, although the National Capital Wrestling Club athlete knows she can fare better though, she highlights.

“Representing my country is just so special and excit-ing for me,” signals Eve, who credits her improved technique and mental game for the recent string of success. “I’ve com-peted (internationally) four times so far, and every time my nerves go down a bit more. Hopefully I will get another chance at it.”

Having always competed in the lowest weight class, Eve will eventually have to put on a few more pounds as the limits increase with age – 48 kg in-

file photo

stead of her current 44 kg will be the next step.

Eve’s ultimate goal is to compete for Canada’s Olympic team, but she labels that as a “long-shot” at this point.

“I’m involved in a lot of other things as well: school band, tutoring and babysitting kids in the neighbourhood,” Eve indicates. “School is really important to me. I want to get into engineering. I know that if I can’t maintain the grades, then I won’t continue to wrestle.”

WIEBE SNAGS SR. TEAM SPOTStittsville native Erica

Wiebe was a dominant force at the Canadian world team tri-als on May 3 at the University of Calgary, her home training base, winning all three of her matches in the women’s 75 kg category by technical superi-ority, including a victory over London 2012 Olympian Leah Callahan, a U of C training partner of hers.

Wiebe, who helped Canada to a fourth-place finish at March’s Women’s World Cup team event in Tokyo, qual-ified to represent Canada at the Commonwealth Games and several other international competitions with the victory.

By Jose Colorado

Wrestler readies for next international stage

“When I first played, I was just trying to run through people,” recalls the Barrhaven Scottish product. “They taught me how to read the field, think ahead, and read plays of what opponents were trying to do.”

CANADIANS DRAW TOUGH WORLD CUP GROUP

The Canadian women, who finished sixth at

the 2010 World Cup, will be in a strong pool for the 2014 edition alongside England (the 2010 runners-up), Spain and Samoa.

But the team is readying itself for the chal-lenge and will be well-prepared come August, Zussman pledges.

“If we can focus on the process, then the out-come will take care of itself,” reasons the veteran who’s now been based at the national team’s Langford, B.C. home for several years.

RUGBY continued from p. 9

RUGBY: Stiff competition lies ahead

13

OSU Force Academy ZoneO t t a w a

South United is pleased to announce the hiring of Paul Turner and Si-mon Wilshaw.

After an extensive search, the club has found the right candidates to oversee and positively influence OSU players and coaches.

With a long-standing tradition of success locally, provincially and nationally, the hiring of Turner and Wilshaw signals intent to con-tinually improve our technical standards.

Paul is originally from London, England and has resided in Vancouver since 2009. During his time in British Columbia, he has been leading the North Shore Talent Devel-opment Centre.

In addition, he has served as a head coach for the B.C. Provincial All-Star teams (Girls). Most recently Paul has been coaching for Mountain United Football Club in the B.C. High Performance League.

The B.C.H.P.L. follows similar rigid stand-ards to the newly adopted Ontario Player Development League in Ontario. Paul holds a National ‘B’ Coaching License.

Simon is originally from Stoke-On-Trent, England but has resided in Connecticut since 2011.

During his time in Conneticut, he has been working with Everton F.C. Connecticut, an affiliate club of the famous English Premier League side.

In addition, he has also served as an In-ternational Development Coach with Bolton

Wanderers Football Club, where he was re-sponsible for delivering their methodologies internationally.

Wilshaw holds his UEFA ‘B’ License, along with the English Football Association Youth Modules, with a specialization in player de-velopment at the younger ages.

“The hiring of Paul Turner and Simon Wilshaw speaks to our mandate to con-stantly expand and improve our coaching staff,” notes OSU Technical Director Paul Harris. “We feel that they both will have a tre-mendous impact on players throughout our club and are excited to have them join the OSU family.”

OSU VOLUNTEER RECOGNITIONAs part of National Volunteer Week, Ott-

awa Mayor Jim Watson and Councillor Steve Desroches invited Ottawa South United President Bill Michalopulos to City Hall to recognize and thank the OSU organization, coaches and volunteers for their time and effort in organizing and coordinating soccer activities across Ottawa.

BMichalopulos thanked the Mayor and the Councillor for the recognition and noted that in OSU there are some 500 volunteers that provide their services in various capacities to provide soccer services for our 7,000 parti-cipants.

“Their efforts, attitude and enthusiasm are the primary ingredients of our successful soccer club,” Michalopulos indicates. “I can not think of a more vital group of people at OSU nor in our society at large.”

OSU continues to improve coaching staff with English pair’s hiring

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, OSU President Bill Michalopulos and Gloucester-South Nepean Councillor Steve Desroches.

Recently-hired OSU Force Academy coaches Paul Turner and Simon Wilshaw.

The Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame will welcome five more members, as Kristina Groves, Wayne Giardino, Todd Nicholson, Tom Casey and Ed Laverty join the Hall’s already lux-urious family at a May 7 induction ceremony at City Hall.

It’s the latest post-retirement accolade for Groves, Ottawa’s most decorated Olympian. The four-time Olympic speed skating medalist was also recognized locally last year when the Ottawa Sports Awards fe-male athlete of the year trophy was named in her honour.

“Ottawa’s obviously produced a lot of wonderful and successful ath-letes over the years, and to be among them makes me feel very proud,” says the 37-year-old who owns

nearly 40 World Cup medals.Nicholson approaches Groves’

Games medal haul, having won three Paralympic sledge hockey medals during his 19-year career with the Canadian national team – bronze in 1994, silver in 1998 and gold in 2006, along with fourth-place fin-ishes in 2002 and 2010.

“It means quite a lot,” Nicholson says of his induction. “It’s a huge honour for myself and all the people who helped me get here.”

Nicholson played a pioneering role in his sport, along with others such as Jean Labonté and Hervé Lord, paving the way for a new gen-eration of local sledge hockey stars such as current Team Canada mem-bers Marc Dorion and Ben Delaney.

The 45-year-old isn’t far re-moved from the game, serving as

chair of the athletes council for the International Para-lympic Committee. He deeply misses the team at-mosphere within the locker room, but some other as-pects of the sport aren’t as precious to the Canadian Border Service Agency pro-ject manager.

“The sore shoulders and arms is definitely something that I can live without,” laughs Nicholson, who recently traveled to Py-eongchang to discuss plans for the 2018 Paralympics in South Korea.

MEDIA GREAT CASEY JOINS HALL RANKS

A former Ottawa Citizen sports editor and a long-time CFL beat reporter before

that, Tom Casey felt “very honoured and very humbled” to receive news of his call to the Hall.

“I never thought this would happen to me,” says the member of the Football Writers of Canada Hall of Fame. “It’s mind boggling to be mentioned in the same sentence as (the other inductees).”

Casey covered the Ottawa Rough Riders during his entire tenure with the Citizen, until the team folded in 1996.

“In the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, everyone talked about the Rough Riders – they were the only team in town,” Casey recalls of the pre-Sen-ators days. “And they were part of the community because a lot of the players taught high school when they weren’t playing football.”

Casey, who was the Rough Riders beat writer during their fi-nal championship season in 1976, is confident that the newly-minted Redblacks franchise will be able to stick around, unlike the Renegades who only lasted four seasons from 2002-2006.

“They’re really off on the right foot,” remarks the long-time volun-teer member of the Ottawa Sports Awards board of directors. “They have a good ownership group – all Ottawa people and deeply respected in the community.

“They understand what football means to Ottawa.”

The patriarch of local touch football and recipient of a lifetime achievement honour from the Ott-awa Sports Awards earlier this year, Laverty will join the Hall ranks as a builder, while three-time Grey Cup champion and former Rough Rider Giardino is the final 2014 inductee.

5 new faces in Ottawa Sports Hall

By Josh Wegman

COMMUNITY CLUBS

2014 Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame inductee Todd Nicholson played in his fifth and final Paralympic sledge hockey tourna-ment in Vancouver.

photo: cpc/hc/matthew manor

Kristina Groves.

file photo

photo: andre ringuette, freestyle photography

The construction of the city’s third Sens RINK (Recreational Investments in Neighbour-hood for Kids) officially got underway on April 24 at Bayshore Park. The Ottawa Senators Foundation has pledged to build 20 outdoor rinks in the area, which already includes the Rink of Dreams at Marion Dewar Plaza and one at Jules Morin Park. Built in partnership with Ferguslea Properties Limited and the City of Ottawa, the Bayshore Sens RINK will feature hockey dasher boards, fencing, hockey nets in the winter and basketball and lacrosse nets in the summer and provide free year-round sports programs.

Bayshore beginnings

14

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

City Councillors Tim Tierney, Rainer Bloess, Bob Monette, Maria McRae, Peter Hume, Jan Harder, Mathieu Fleury, David Chernushenko, Katherine Hobbs, Mark Taylor & Scott Moffatt, Mayor Jim Watson, Members of Provincial Parliament Grant Crack,Phil McNeely, Yasir Naqvi, John Fraser, Bob Chiarelli & Madeleine Meilleur, and Photographer Dean Joncas.

Our publication would not exist without the support of our advertising partners. We thank these community clubs, sport

organizations and businesses for backing Ottawa’s vibrant sports community, and we encourage you to support these groups.

To learn more about becoming an advertising partner of the Ottawa Sportspage, contacteditor@sportsottawa.com

EDITORIAL

Mailing address:902 Pinecrest Rd.

Ottawa, Ont. K2B 6B3

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.

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613-261-5838Editor@SportsOttawa.com

Team of the Month: Nepean Wildcats Bantam ‘B’ Girls’ Hockey TeamTeam Members: Shaughnessy Bassett, Rebecca Thornhill, Cassie Bohm, Sarah Moore, Morgan Whitteker, Lauren MacDonald, Emily Watkins, Sierra Kent, Gabby Sacca, Mackenzie Kelly, Emily Bueti, Leah Mercer, Maddy Lemaire, Megan Beck, Linnea Dalvi & Mia Fitzpatrick.

About: The Nepean Wildcats Bantam ‘B’ girls’ hockey team capped a remarkable season with a provin-cial gold medal April 10-13 in Toronto. Already local regular-season and playoff league champions, and winners of three of their four out-of-town tournaments, the Wildcats enjoyed an undefeated run at pro-vincials, allowing no more than a goal in all six of their matches, including three shutouts. The team was one of nine local teams to collect medals at the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association championships. See SportsOttawa.com for full coverage.

Athlete of the Month: Joletta CheungSport: Badminton

Club/Team: Soong Badminton Academy

School/Grade: Grade 12 Merivale HS

About: Merivale High School’s Joletta Cheung brought home a bronze medal from the May 1-3 OFSAA provincial high school badminton champi-onships in Markham. Competing in girls’ singles, the national capital silver medalist won her first three matches to reach the ‘A’ flight semi-final be-fore falling to the eventual champion, but then re-bounded for a victory in her next match en route to bronze. It was Cheung’s second OFSAA medal in as many appearances, having earned gold last year in mixed doubles.

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 National Capital Region, the selected Ath-lete of the Month will receive a free one-week Family Pass to the Y, while each mem-ber of the Team of the Month will receive free one-visit passes.

YMCA-YMCA OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

STARS OF THE MONTH

“He kind of just followed in my footsteps and went straight to C-1 because I did it,” Cam recalls. “And he started paddling on the same side because, ‘Oh, that’s the side Cam’s paddling on, so I’ll do it too,’ even though I’m left-handed and he’s right-handed.”

Paddling on the same side now keeps the Dunrobin brothers from competing together in C-2 (Cam does often join Edmonton’s Ben Hayward for the doubles event.) Even though they do now face each other in C-1 competition, it’s not an enormous sib-ling rivalry.

“We see it more like a team,” highlights Liam, noting that they choose to spend time together aside from canoe-related activities, which is essentially 24/7 when they’re on the road together.

“We’re always hanging out on the weekends, we go to the outdoor rink a lot, skate on the canal,” adds the Car-leton University engineering student (like his older brother). “Obviously we have our fights here and there be-cause we’re brothers, but when you spend as much time together as we do, we get along really well, I’d say.”

The West Carleton Secondary School grad’s misfortune in Australia came as he was looking up at the scoreboard to see his time after the first run. He unexpectedly flipped into a wave sideways and dislocated his shoulder while bracing himself with his paddle.

“It’s a reminder that it can be dan-gerous if you’re not paying attention. You always have to be on your toes,” reflects Liam, who won’t compete again until at least August’s Canadian Championships, although the season could be washed out if he elects to have surgery. “It may lengthen my rehab time, but I think that long-term (surgery) may be the better option.”

THEA FROELICH

If you’d told an 11-year-old Thea Froehlich a story like Liam Smedley’s when she first looked at a kayak, she likely would have run back to dryland screaming.

“I was always pretty terrified of the water, to be honest,” recounts Froehlich, now 22. “I failed the very first swimming level because I wouldn’t put my face in the water to blow bubbles. And I also failed the first level of kayaking because I couldn’t do a wet exit, which is the most basic safety procedure.”

But the “nurturing” canoe-kayak community encouraged her through

the initial trepidations.“I grew to love it,” says the Lisgar

Collegiate Institute grad. “I like how it’s a mix between an elite sport and a bit of an extreme sport. You’ve got the difficult training and the technical part, but also the adventure and adren-aline of an extreme sport.”

With a River Runners club fea-turing national team athletes and coaches (such as three-time Olympian James Cartwright, now Canoe-Kayak Canada’s slalom high performance manager), it wasn’t hard to find in-spiration to reach for the top levels of the sport.

“Both in Ottawa and across Canada, we’re a tight-knit com-munity,” Froehlich details. “And I’ve made a ton of great friends on the in-ternational circuit too.”

The University of Ottawa psy-chology student looks forward to rejoining her global competitors this summer, but she’s also excited to see many familiar faces for the Aug. 26-29 National Championships at Madawaska Kanu Centre, a short drive away in Barry’s Bay.

“It’s one of my favourite places,” notes Froehlich, who claims MKC roots along with the other local na-tional team members, having atten-ded kayak school, taken instructor courses and raced there when they were younger.

“It’s a wonderful spot where I grew up paddling,” she adds. “It’s really beautiful up there.”

Froehlich expresses disappoint-ment in her 24th-place finish at the U23 worlds but remains motivated to put in more consistent race perform-ances internationally this season and build towards the 2015 Pan Amer-ican Games in Toronto and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“I think about (the Games) all the time,” smiles the senior national team member of four years. “It’s been a dream for a long time – probably be-fore I even knew it was a possibility for myself.”

MICHAEL TAYLER

Mike Tayler has already lived the dream. The Car-leton University stu-dent won Canada’s K-1 (single kayak) Olympic spot at age 20, bursting onto the scene before even competing in his first senior World Cup.

He’s particularly enthused to get the World Cup season going this year because the first stop is in London.

“I’m really, really excited to go back there,” says the 22-year-old who placed 20th in his Olympic debut. “It’s one of my favourite courses in the world.”

Tayler finished 13th at the U23 worlds and fifth at the Pan Am Cham-pionships in 2013. He wasn’t pleased with his 32nd-place showing in Aus-tralia (he was also 41st in canoe, which he entered just to get more time on water between his kayak races), but his focus stretches beyond the season opener.

“The next step for me is quali-fying for the semi-final in all those World Cup races, and starting to per-form in the semi-final and make it to the final,” the Nepean High School grad explains.

Since competing on the biggest stage in sport, the training routine has remained largely the same, but Tayler has also experienced consid-erable change, such as being able to travel for more training camps on wa-ter while temperatures are freezing in Canada.

“Compared to the years before the Olympics, I definitely have a different outlook,” adds Taylor, who paddled in Dubai and North Carolina before heading to Australia. “There’s more support now. It has been so much easier to attract sponsors.

“Leading into London, I was able to get some spon-sors, and then keep them on. I’m not

scraping by as much.”

ALEXANDRA MCGEE

The reality is contrasting for Alex-andra McGee, who competes in the non-Olympic discipline of women’s C-1. At age 19 in 2011, she earned sixth place in her senior World Championships and has consistently recorded top-20 fin-ishes in global events since then.

“It kind of sucks that my results don’t count money-wise,” McGee states, noting that she’s not eligible for Sport Canada carding assistance, and no matter how good she/the Cana-dian women’s C-1 program does, they wouldn’t be able to access funding from the likes of Own The Podium.

“It’s very frustrating when I know I can perform as well as my other

teammates and I deserve it like they do,” adds the 22-year-old University of Ottawa social sciences student. “It would be nice to have an equal oppor-tunity. I work just hard as them, but I have to pay more from my pocket and my family’s pocket.”

McGee doesn’t feel animosity to-wards her teammates – “some of the closest friends that I have,” she em-phasizes – but she’s hopeful the In-ternational Olympic Committee will continue its slow push towards gender equality and add women’s C-1 along-side men’s C-1 come the 2020 Games (since it appears too late for 2016).

The possibility of one day attend-ing the Olympics had little bearing on her pursuit of canoeing initially.

“I just did it because I had a love for the sport,” says Canada’s second-best finisher in Australia, in 18th place. “Now it’s definitely a dream.”

15

continued from p.1

CANOE–KAYAK: Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games & Rio 2016 Olympics on radar

photo: bernard irvin / canoe-kayak canada

Ben Tardioli (right) of the Rideau Ca-noe Club edged Jason McCoombs to the finish line to win the men’s C-1 200 m race at the Canadian sprint team trials and earn his first World Cup assignment for Canada.

There will be at least one more Ottawa paddler wearing the maple leaf this summer, in flatwater canoe. Ben Tardioli gave himself a big graduation present by winning the men’s C-1 200 metres at the April 25-27 Canadian sprint team trials in Gains-ville, GA.

The 24-year-old had to make several trips back and forth from the national team’s two-month camp in Florida for presentations and exams at Carleton University.

“I survived,” pro-claims the civil engin-

eering grad who took six years to finish his degree to make room for his high-performance sport pursuits. “That’s a weight off my shoulders.”

‘SHOCKED’ TO WIN TRIALSTardioli arrived in

Georgia just a couple days before the trials, but that didn’t stop him from win-ning one of the two 200 m races and then a one-on-one showdown with the other race winner (by .025 of a second) for the World Cup position.

“I was shocked,” re-calls the Rideau Canoe

Club athlete. “Last year, I was ranked fourth. I was definitely hoping to come at least second to get a chance to go to this Europe tour. I definitely didn’t ex-pect to win though.”

Tardioli has been on the path to Team Canada for several years – earning three medals for Canada at an international meet in Slovakia last season – but winning the trials when he was almost a second-and-a-half behind first place in the sprint event last year represents a rapid rise.

“I’ve never really had the chance to represent my

country like this,” notes the St. Pius X Catholic High School grad, credit-ing his improved starts as the difference-maker. “I’m pretty excited to put on the maple leaf.”

Tardioli will arrive in Europe on May 11 in advance of the season’s second and third World Cups May 16-18 in Czech Republic and May 23-25 in Hungary.

Rideau’s Angus Mor-timer narrowly missed a K-1 500 m selection, fin-ishing second at the trials by .048 seconds.

—Dan Plouffe

Rideau paddler makes Canadian grade

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16

She’d been teammates with Rachel Ho-man and Emma Miskew for more than half of her life, becoming a dominant force in national and international competition. So when Alison Kreviazuk made the decision to step away from her Ottawa Curling Club mates to be with her boyfriend, Fredrik Lindberg, in Sweden, it was almost as heart-breaking as it was heart-warm-ing for the 25-year-old.

“It was really tough, very, very tough,” Kreviazuk says. “I love playing with the girls, and stepping away, it was really emotional and brought us all to tears. But I know deep down I’m making the right decision.”

Kreviazuk and Lindberg, who plays on Niklas Edin’s team in Sweden, met at the 2011 Players Championship and have been together for two years, living apart the entire time. Kreviazuk had been considering moving for awhile, but didn’t think about the possibility too seriously until after the Olympic trials were complete.

“Obviously you don’t want to make a de-cision beforehand because you’re focusing so hard on one thing,” she highlights. “I just wanted to make sure I had a little more time on my hands.”

Kreviazuk won’t move to Sweden until the fall, allowing time to finalize her plans a little more concretely. The first task will be language courses.

“My Swedish is less than beginner right

now,” laughs the University of Ottawa grad who plans to do further post-secondary studies in the future as well. “I need to be able to (study Swedish) before I can really get accustomed to everything and even be able to serve a cup of coffee or something.”

Kreviazuk isn’t sure whether she’ll put her curling talents to use when she lands.

“It’s not something I’ve really considered as of right now,” she says, noting that a two-year wait is required before curlers can represent a new country. “It’s been one step at a time so far. I’m just kind of focused on getting over there. If the possibility arose, then I might consider it. As of yet, there’s no plan though.”

GOLDEN TRACK RECORDKreviazuk and Team Homan quickly built

up a prized resumé as a young curling rink, with numerous World Curling Tour and Grand Slam titles, back-to-back Scotties national champion-ships, and world bronze and silver medals the past two years. Kreviazuk’s favourite memory of the bunch was their first Scotties Tournament of Hearts victory in front of a home crowd in Kingston last year.

“It was something that I dreamed about since I was a little girl,” she recalls. “Receiving your first diamond ring was incredibly special.”

Kreviazuk, along with Homan, Miskew and Lisa Weagle, played their last event together

April 15-20 in Summerside, PEI, reaching the final of the Players Championship that featured the Tour’s top-12 teams before falling 5-2 to Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Jones.

“Obviously, we had hoped for the win on that last one,” indicates Kreviazuk, whose spot will be filled by 25-year-old Joanne Courtney from Val Sweeting’s Edmonton-based rink. “But we played against Jen and she always plays lights out. Actually they all played amazing. They are really tough to beat.”

It’s now the off-season, but the members of Team Homan get together frequently nonethe-less – a testament to the bond they’ve developed that stretches well beyond curling, and one Kre-viazuk is certain will remain intact.

“I love the girls more than anything. They’ve really become my sisters,” says the per-sonable ath-lete who’s al-ways quick to smile. “I’ll be their #1 fan for the next four years, cheering them on for the next Olympic cycle.

“No matter what we’ll al-ways be really close friends.”

Team Homan second slides off into Swedish sunsetBy Josh Bell

COMMUNITY CLUBS

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Alison Kreviazuk played her final event with Team Homan at April’s Players Championship in PEI.

MIRACLELEAGUEOFOTTAWA.CA

The Ottawa Royals & Knights Baseball Club is proud to support the Miracle League of Ottawa.

The Miracle League of Ottawa aims to provide special-needs children, young adults & adults the opportunity to play the game of baseball (and other sports) on a purpose-built, “Miracle Field”. The field will feature a cushioned rubberized surface to help prevent injuries, along with wheelchair-accessible dugouts and a completely flat surface to eliminate barriers for any players. A fully-accessible playground will be built with the same base material. Through its Community Partnership Major Capital Program, the City of Ottawa has expressed support to cover a 50/50 share of the total project costs. The Miracle League of Ottawa still requires donations to make the $900,000 project come to life at Notre-Dame-des-Champs Park in Orleans. For more info and to make donations, visit:

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