Ottawa Sportspage

HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 2, #2 November 2012

HiSTOriC OySl TiTle reSTOred

glebe girlS rule aT OfSaa xC

CaNada’S beST TO HiT CapiTal

p. 11

p. 2

p. 5

“It was real impersonal,” Jean-Nicolas Carrière says of the mo-ment the Toronto Argonauts told him he was being released. “It was like, ‘Well, we gotta let you go, and that’s it.’

“As a professional, I guess it comes with the territory. But for me, it was like all this hard work I’d put in through university and even since high school – maybe about seven years of my life – was kind of just fizzled out real quick.”

In one moment, Carrière’s dream of making his living as a professional football player evaporated.

Just a year earlier, the Argonauts’ director of player personnel raved about the kid from Orleans they’d plucked from McGill before his uni-versity eligibility was complete, ex-pecting that the then-22-year-old line-backer would be “an Argo for life.”

After a poor season, however, the coaching and management staff was wiped clean, and the new regime from the U.S. south didn’t think as highly of Carrière, whose abilities were significantly limited at the time by a shoulder injury. He’d anticipated the moment might be coming, but it didn’t make getting cut any easier.

“It was definitely a tough pill to swallow,” recalls Carrière, who immediately packed his bags and drove home to Ottawa in his used 2000 Honda car, which he’d just pur-chased after taking the bus around Mississauga during his first year as a

CFLer. “It was a long drive think-ing about what happened and what it meant to be cut from the team. At that point I thought, well, that was my athletic ca-reer, and now on to more realistic type of stuff.”

In 2009, it was a tough time to break into the real-world job market, but Car-rière eventually found an entry-level job at a bank back in Montreal, where he’d be-come a star with the Redmen.

“It was def-initely a humble time in my life,” recounts the St. Matthew Cath-olic High School grad who was drawn into foot-ball by his math teacher, Al Roz-man. “I went from playing in front of 40,000 people, and basic-ally in front of the whole country on TV, to working at a bank, doing collection calls and just being hammered on by people over the phone.

“When I left football, it felt as though I lost a bit of my iden-tity. After seven years of pursuing a single goal, my friends knew me as ‘Nic the foot-ball player’ – you know, CFL, an elite athlete achieving a very high goal at the top of sport. When I got cut, it was like, ‘Who am I without that?’”

Carrière stuck with the bank gig for awhile, but eventually realized it was “sucking the life out of me” and that he was somebody who “needs to set very high goals” and “reach for the stars and go after their dreams.”

At first, that meant trying to start up a gym company – still an ongoing

project – but then came another op-portunity through his former sprint coach in Ottawa, Craig Taylor. He was invited to a Bobsleigh Canada talent identification camp at the Louis-Riel Dome, where he was tested in the 35- and 45-metre dash and in various weightlifting exercises.

Carrière had started training hard around the end of 2011 since he’d realized “inside me, that I had more to offer and I wasn’t quite done with

my athletic pursuit.” His scores at the evaluations were good enough to earn an invitation to a one-week “blue chip” camp at the national sliding team’s centre in Calgary.

“I loved it from Day 1,” smiles Carrière, who’d never before been in the presence of a bobsled. “I went back to Montreal and I went straight to my job and quit.

Through appeal, the Ottawa South United U14 girls had the region’s first provincial soccer championship returned to them.

Led by the juniors’ team title, the Glebe Gryphons girls rose above the OFSAA pack to earn the aggregate championship.

Ottawa will host Olympic trampoline gold medalist Rosie MacLennan and Cana- da’s top gymnasts at the 2013 nationals.

Cut from CFL, Ottawa native worked in bank collections call centre before now re-emerging as Canadian Olympic bobsleigh hopeful

BOBSLEIGH continued on p.10

Back in

photo: dave holland

By Dan Plouffe

Business

Always a well-liked teammate on the football field, Nick Carrière got a little friendly razzing from his new Canadian bobsleigh teammates over this photo taken for Lululemon Athletica. “Nick...umm....this is kind of embarrassing,” Olympic silver medalist Helen Upperton commented on his Facebook page, “but....you’re sort of missing the sled. Its kind of important for bob‘sledding’.” The former Toronto Argonaut will make his World Cup debut Nov. 8 in Lake Placid, NY.

Nick Carrière was a teammate of Kerry Joseph’s (background) with the Toronto Argonauts, but was released by the club midway through the season during his second year in the CFL.

raVeNS rOle mOdel riSeS

p. 3From the Bayshore boards to the Carleton court, Justin Shaver is an inspiration to young Boys & Girls Club participants.

Despite some initial nerves, Yves Sikubwabo has transitioned into life at the University of Guelph in similar fash-ion to when he arrived in Ottawa as a refugee from his native Rwanda – with a big splash. The former two-time OFSAA high school senior boys’ cross-country running champion earned Ontario Uni-versity Athletics rookie-of-the-year hon-ours in his debut season with the Guelph Gryphons, finishing second overall at the OUA championships and helping his men’s team to its eighth consecutive pro-vincial title.

The Guelph women’s team, which included Carp’s Joanna Brown in eighth place, won its ninth-straight OUA banner.

“This season was kinda hard with the change of schools from high school to university,” explains the Glebe Collegiate Institute grad who cheered on his former classmates at OFSAA this year. “I knew it

was going to be hard. Here, my team is the best team in Canada. Everything is new.”

Sikubwabo set two goals for his first university cross season: make the team and do the best he could at OUAs, held on Oct. 27 north of Toronto in King City.

“I had never seen the OUAs but I really wanted to do well,” says Sikubw-abo, who finished the 10 km course in between Guelph teammates Ross Proud-foot and Andrew Nixon in a time of 32 minutes, 22 seconds. “It was not that big of a surprise. I train with these guys and any one of us could have won.”

There was definitely some pain that went along with his gain, however. Guelph Gryphons coach Dave Scott-Tho-mas holds practices the likes of which Sikubwabo had never seen before.

“At first, training was hard. For a month, I couldn’t sleep because the prac-tices were so hard, intense,” recalls the 19-year-old who’s now added Scott-Tho-mas to his list of mentors. “He is someone

I can talk to, first. I really trust him.”

2

Pure joy, unprecedented results, and one in-credibly proud coach – national capital athletes enjoyed a 2012 OFSAA cross-country running championships like no other on Saturday, Nov. 3.

The Glebe Gryphons junior girls led the way with a dominant performance in the team stand-ings to capture the first-ever provincial team gold in the local high school sports association’s history.

“I will never forget the joy on the girls’ faces,” Glebe coach Kirk Dillabaugh recounted by phone during the national capital team’s bus trip back from Brampton’s Heart Lake Conser-vation Area. “They were confident but nervous before the race. They prepared well and executed exceptionally well on race day.”

The Gryphons junior girls earned the lowest team score of the day (77 placement points for their top four runners) with the largest margin of victory (111 ahead of Markham’s Bill Croth-ers). So dominant were the Glebe girls that even without Claire Smith’s team-leading fifth-place result, Katherine Marshall (11th), Zoe Pritchard (30th), Alexa Livingstone (31st) and Emma Bar-rett (69th) would still have had 41 placement points to spare ahead of second place.

Smith says her team went into the race with hopes of a top-10 result, but their coach had a different idea of their capabilities.

“Mr. Dillabaugh did the math and thought we had a chance at first place,” Smith explains. “We thought he was dreaming a bit but I guess he is pretty good at math.”

The Glebe champions shared a many smiles

and a big group hug atop the podium as the event announcer proclaimed: “And that’ll be the ban-ner that will hang forever in the gym at Glebe!”

Coupled with the senior girls’ strong sev-enth-place showing by Charlene Rhead (24th), Kendra Ridley (87), Alexa Derksen (88), Adara Dillabaugh (146) and Annabelle Harvey (200), Glebe also earned the girls’ aggregate team championship – another unprecedented feat for an Ottawa high school.

Glebe’s midget boys’ team of Darion Dillabaugh (27), Jake Weston (48), Marcus Uh-thoff (89), Ben Risk (154) and Andrew Burney (155) also stood out, finishing fourth out of 39 Ontario schools in their event.

In terms of individual results, none were more impressive than those of the Day brothers.

After both winning gold in the midget boys’ and senior boys’ races at the city championships, Holy Trinity’s Owen and Mickey Day earned matching medals once again at OFSAA, this time silvers.

“It is a big family moment,” reflected Mickey, who had turned the sibling double-gold trick when he was a midget and older brother Kieran was a senior.

Both brothers agreed that the numerous hills in Brampton played to their advantage.

“Every race has a couple of hills but this course had multiple hills, at least seven or eight,” highlights Mickey, who placed 49th as a Grade 11 senior competitor at OFSAA 2011 in Ottawa.

“The hills were the easiest parts,” echoed Owen, who safely took silver in the midget

boys’ 5 km event by 17 seconds in front of third place in 16:25. “It was fun going up the hills and catching other runners. My family trains in Gatineau Park and those hills are painful. These hills seemed easy.”

Family, again, was pivotal at another point during Mickey’s 7 km race.

“I was really feeling tired with about 2 km left in the race when there were four guys ahead of me and a couple behind me,” recalled the Grade 12 student. “I was in a no man’s land. Then, my dad was there right on the edge of the course. He said the runners ahead were dying and to pick up the pace. I couldn’t go out without trying.”

Mickey went on to pass three of the four run-ners before crossing the finish line in 22:13.

Grade 11 Brookfield High School student Olivia Robertson improved on her OFSAA result as a junior last year by placing seventh overall in the senior girls’ event this year, while Ottawa Senators women’s hockey player Sophie Rodenburg from Earl of March had an impress-ive OFSAA debut with her sixth-place midget girls’ showing.

The 2012 OFSAA championships will re-main a benchmark for future national capital teams.

“For me as a coach, this has been surreal,” ad-ded Dillabaugh, the national capital cross-coun-try convenor who received tons of congratula-tions himself from others following the event. “I am so happy for the way the athletes performed.”

Glebe Gryphons girls gallop to groundbreaking OFSAA goldBy Anne Duggan

high schools

Glebe placed all four scoring runners in the top-5 at the city championships. photo: dan plouffe

COrreCTiON NOTiCeDue to a typo at an unfortunate place, the Ottawa Sportspage incorrectly quoted Glebe Collegiate Insti-tute teacher Kirk Dillabaugh on p. 4 of the October edition in the story “Locked Out.” In speaking about the labour dispute that has caused many public board high schools to not enter sports teams without teach-er-coaches, Dillabaugh’s comment should have read: “It’s sad the fields are smaller, but I don’t begrudge my colleagues’ decisions.” The Ottawa Sportspage regrets the error and any harm this may have caused.

Around 40% of the English public school board teams that entered national capital sports competitions last winter will be missing this season, due to the teachers’ ongoing labour action in protest of the legislation the provincial government imposed that freezes their wages for two years, bans strikes, and reduces sick days while not allowing them to be carried over year-to-year. The majority of teams will be coached by parents and com-munity volunteers, with a sprinkling of teacher-coaches. The teachers’ union asked its members to think carefully about whether they should volunteer their time coaching. Ridgemont and Ottawa Tech are the two schools with zero winter teams. Oct. 31 was the intent to enter dead-line for winter sports – including basketball, volleyball, nordic and alpine skiing, snowboarding and wrestling.

HigH SCHOOl SpOrTS ‘lOCkOuT’ perSiSTS

By Anne Duggan

Sikubwabo’s star still shines with new Gryphons in Guelph

SIKUBWABO continued on p.11

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After averaging 10.9 minutes per game in his rookie season, Ottawa nat-ive Justin Shaver figures to play a big-ger role in the Carleton Ravens’ quest for a third consecutive national cham-pionship when their men’s basketball regular season tips off on Nov. 9.

But Shaver also plays perhaps an even more important role as an inspir-ational figure for the youngsters at the Boys & Girls Club of Ottawa.

Raised in the Bayshore neighbour-hood, Shaver got his start in basketball through the Boys & Girls Club’s Po-lice Athletic League before becoming one of the hottest high school com-modities at John McCrae Secondary

and later joining the Ravens.Shaver spoke with the Ottawa

Sportspage on the Nov. 3 weekend after returning from Philadelphia, where the team played exhibition games against NCAA opponents.

Q: How was the trip to Phil-adelphia?

A: It was a great experience; we got to play some high-level talent. We got to play some big kids that got to bully us and show us how it is down there.

Q: You guys have played several NCAA teams over the past couple months. What’s the biggest differ-ence you notice compared to playing against CIS competition?

A: The main difference is the

height and athleticism of the play-ers. They’re taller, longer, they jump higher, and it’s more of a fast-paced game. Down here, we slow things down, we’re not as athletic, and more fundamental.

Q: Personally, what’s it like to match up against players that are three or four inches taller than you in most cases?

A: For example the Villanova guy, [Mouphtaou] Yarou, he’s 6’11” and 240, 250. I’m almost 6’7” and 210, so you see a noticeable difference just by looking at the numbers.

Q: You grew up in Ottawa and played with the Boys & Girls Club for awhile, right?

A: I kind of grew up there. I star-ted going there when I was 6, I didn’t even play in games because I was too young. Once I hit the age of 11 or 12, I played two years with them and then moved on to the Nepean Bobcats, who are now the Nepean Blue Devils.

Q: How im-portant was the Boys & Girls Club to getting you into the sport in the first place?

A: It was huge, not even just the sport. I think the Boys & Girls Club was the one thing that kind of changed my life in terms of direction. Who knows where I’d be if I didn’t go there, with the

life skills and structure that they de-velop. The sport was kind of like an extra for me and they made me fall in love with it basically. Mainly the Boys & Girls Club was about chan-ging your life and knowing what’s right and what’s wrong.

Q: You say the Boys & Girls Club was more of a life tool. What was go-ing on at that time?

A: I wasn’t very structured parent-ally. My parents were there but there wasn’t a lot of boundaries so at 10, 11, 12 years old, I could run around and do whatever I wanted until 10 o’clock at night, and that’s something kids shouldn’t be able to do. My par-ents did their best but that’s where the Boys & Girls Club and Dave Smart came in to try and keep me on path. The club was huge because I could go there and do homework and have any resource I needed.

Q: When did you first meet (Car-leton coach) Dave Smart?

A: When I was going into Grade 7. Q: Could you describe your rela-

tionship with him?A: Without Dave, I’d have a lot

less structure than what I have now and I’d find it a lot harder to move forward with things, or when prob-lems arise, I wouldn’t be able to bust through a wall as much. Dave’s taught me right from wrong and certain situ-ations that you try to avoid or have to fight through. He’s tried to toughen me up and basically turn me into a man before I graduate. That’s where the respect comes in; we both know where I need to get to.

Q: Do you stay in touch with the Boys & Girls Club?

A: I was just there last night for about six or seven hours, shooting around with the kids and cleaning up.

Q: Back to basketball – is it safe to say the team’s goal is to win the na-tional championship this year?

A: Yes.

3

The wait is winding down for the Ottawa Fury boys’ teams as they prepare for their USL Super-Y League finals Dec. 7-11 in Florida. All four of the club’s boys’ academy teams from the under-13 to U16 levels secured their spots in the North American championships by finishing in the top-2 of their divisions in the summertime regular season.

“All the teams have done very well, so we’re very proud of them all,” notes Fury youth de-velopment academy boys’ technical director Steve Hill. “It’s certainly a credit to the boys in the program and the coaches that have coached those particular teams.”

Hill was particularly impressed by the feat given the hot temperatures they faced this sum-mer – a particular disadvantage to the Fury since they spend more time on the road that their U.S. opponents in the New England area, which means getting fatigued from long drives, staying in hotels and eating at restaurants.

“It’s never an easy accomplishment when you have to factor in the amount of travel we

have to do,” Hill explains. “To me, it starts with the level of coaching. You can have great play-ers, but if they’re poorly coached, chances are

they’re not going to be successful.”The U13 group Hill coached earned a 9-3-1

record, with Abdullah Juma scoring at a goal-

per-game pace. Winning the Nordic Cup tourna-ment in Vermont was a big season highlight, but it doesn’t quite match the experience of going to France for the Plomelin tournament back in May – an event Hill raves about, where Fury players were billeted by host French families.

“It’s a very unique tournament in that you get to play against the best of the best in that age group,” adds the England-born former semi-pro player, noting his squad held its own on the pitch in France. “It got us off to a real positive start. Any time you travel together, it brings the team closer together as well.”

3 diViSiON TiTleS fOr fury bOyS TeamS

The 10-1-2 U14s, the 9-2-1 U15s and the 5-1 U16s all finished atop their division stand-ings, collectively outscoring their opponents by 89 goals.

The Fury girls’ youth teams did not reach the league finals, earning pairs of third- and fourth-place finishes. The teams’ regular sea-sons wrapped up back in mid-August.

junior leagues4 Fury teams set to chase club’s 1st Super-Y boys’ title

By Dan Plouffe

file photo

Ravens sophomore basketball player got start at Boys & Girls ClubBy Braedon Clark

file photo

Justin Shaver played in his first Capital Hoops Classic last season at Scotiabank Place – one of his Carleton Ravens’ 25 consec-utive wins en route to their third-straight national title.

FURY SUPER-Y FINALS continued on p.8

photo: hargreaves photography

Alex Smith scored four goals during his U15 Fury boys’ 9-2-1 regular season.

Four sports programs at the Uni-versity of Ottawa are set to receive a hefty windfall. Women’s soccer, men’s football, and men’s and wo-men’s basketball have each been se-lected to receive additional funding for the next five years through a new national recognition program, which aims to promote the U of O name through success in sport.

The program is another step in the ongoing quest for excellence that began with a previous varsity sports review a decade ago, explains Colin Timm, the athletic department’s as-sistant director of programs and ser-vices. Timm, a strong proponent of the direction U of O is taking, chaired the committee that undertook the re-cently-released “Varsity Sport Eval-uation for National Recognition.”

“Back in 2002, the school de-cided to move to more of an excel-lence model,” he highlights.

That meant supporting fewer varsity programs, but at higher levels. For the school’s legion of 19 largely self-funded competitive clubs, there was no chance of be-ing elevated to varsity status during this review – which typically occurs every five years – since the commit-tee focused exclusively on picking

out the best existing varsity teams for the new elevated funding status.

The more targeted focus seems to be paying off, Timm says.

“Now [in 2012], we’re getting success,” Timm notes, pointing to the national bronze medals won by the women’s soccer and women’s basketball teams last season – res-ults they’d like to achieve more con-sistently.

This year, with major capital in-vestments for new athletic facilities largely behind them, the Sports Ser-vices budget had room for new ini-

tiatives, and “to make a significant impact for up to four teams,” Timm adds. The money would go largely towards coaching and support staff for those teams.

Criteria were developed to eval-uate the teams based on performance history provincially and nationally, athletes’ academic excellence, and national recognition and revenue generation potential.

Lionel Woods, the long-time coach of the Gee-Gees women’s volleyball team, also sat on the eval-uation committee. His team finished

fifth in the evaluation, a c h i n g l y close to a selection and the increased f u n d i n g . A l t h o u g h they remain undefeated this season and have p r o d u c e d better pro-vincial per-f o r m a n c e s than the men’s bas-ketball team in the past five years, their dearth of national appearances and the low n a t i o n a l a u d i e n c e s for volley-ball in gen-eral hurt their rank-ing.

A l -though he’s understand-ably disap-pointed that they didn’t make the cut,

4 universitiesFunding added to high-profile GGs teams

By Ian Ewing

file photo

Bronze medalists at last year’s CIS finals, Gee-Gees women’s basketball will be one of the varsity teams targeted by the school’s new national-recognition program.

Doc hockey corner

Would it not be great if you had all the athletic talent in the world and agents were approaching you at every tourna-ment, letters were

filling your mailbox every month from univer-sities across the country, and scouts were leaving messages in your voice or email box?

If this is your life, then your name is going to be right up there with Bo Jackson, Dave Winfield, and Deion Sanders. Unfortunately, I was not one of those premiere superstars, so I can relate to all those who had to battle it out and do everything to get noticed.

One of my favorite stories I heard while playing NCAA hockey myself at Niagara University was how former NHLer Nelson Emerson ended up getting a scholarship to Bowling Green University. Nelson’s locker-mate was receiving letters from numerous universities, which he was just discarding since he’d already committed to Michigan State University. Nelson asked his teammate for the letters and filled out the applications, sending them to the corresponding schools.

This was his own self-promotion to make contact with several teams and their coaches. This story really got me thinking how import-ant it is to market yourself and pull out all the stops – a big part of making it to the big show.

Recently David Chilton from Dragon’s Den (also known as the Wealthy Barber) said: “it is one thing to have your product on the shelf, but it is another task to get someone to take you off the shelf.”

Similar to this, we are all playing our sports at a high level and competing against the best players, but how do we get people to buy into the fact that we can make a difference for the team you desire to play for? Mr. Chilton also said that business is all about the details, and sport is definitely run like a business.

So let’s get to the details. How does a player get noticed and what do the recruiting teams want to see? Here are a few tips:

1. Create a well-written resume where you tell the school why you want to be a part of their university. Research and find out what gives this university an excellent reputation (flatter them) and why you would be a good fit as a student-athlete. Get a college application or request one online and use that information as the outline for your letter. Free web sites like www.athleticscholarships.net can help create great profiles for connecting with schools.

2. Videotape your games and edit just your shifts (all of them) and have a link in the re-sume to where it’s posted on a web site like youtube. Be sure that the game reflects your abilities and what you bring to the table.

3. Academics: have good grades in school; mention honour classes, GPA, accomplish-ments and prepare to take the SATs for U.S. schools since some sport scholarships can be compensated by academic bursaries, thus less taken from the team’s money pool.

4. Get to know connectors and mavens in your community. These are the people who are well-connected to the hockey world - skill developers, scouts who have experience and relationships with high-level athletes, teams and coaches. Mike Pilon of Endeavour Sports has a great program geared to this area of skill development, and provides mentorship on topics like making the decision of playing in the OHL or U.S. college hockey.

5. Compete in prospect and highly-scouted tournaments in order to get your name out there. Parents, if you get a chance, ask scouts what they are looking for, and get to know them on a personal level. You never know when they may have inside information to help guide your future decisions.

6. Provide current hockey statistics –height, weight, position, and position-specific stats, and how you compare to your league. Include your coaches’ names, their contact info, and your schedule, to help recruiters make plans to see you at their convenience.

7. Collect reference letters from respect-able coaches and other hockey personnel.

8. Provide an outline of your Training Program, which should be geared towards explosiveness, and strength development of the muscle groups that pertain to hockey and the position you play. Post your fitness test scores (chin-ups, push-ups, bench, squat, broad jump, vertical jump, V02 max – evalu-atory tools similar to those used at NHL draft combines), and if possible, your improved scores, which would be very impressive.

This is not mandatory information to provide, but good data points for teams to consider if it strengthens your resume.

To achieve these goals, you must stay healthy, and it is very important to have injur-ies treated before they become chronic and inhibit athletic progression. For explosive strength, hockey training, and injury preven-tion and treatment, consult Doc Hockey via the contact information below.

How can I get myself noticed? --By Dr. Shayne Baylis, Doc Hockey

doc hockey

@doc_hockey

Visit dochockey.ca or call 613-371-4774.

Woods believes the process was fair.“I kept asking, week after week,

were we committed to honouring the evaluation? I think we were,” he de-scribes.

“This isn’t limiting any other team from being successful,” Timm adds, highlighting that no varsity team had its funding cut as a result of the new pro-gram.

The deeper question of whether na-tional recognition for its own sake is a worthy goal for an athletics program or for a school is another matter. Timm says the rationale for it comes back to student recruitment, and making the school well-known for success in all areas.

Woods, if understanding of his role,

is less enthusiastic. “In the business of education now,

we have a role, I guess, as a brander of the university,” shrugs the volleyball coach.

Both Woods and Timm are quick to point out that varsity sports are but one component of the overall athletics program at the University of Ottawa. Woods would prefer to publicize all the facilities and options available to every student and faculty member, and won-ders whether promoting those perks might be effective at drawing potential students too.

“But the number one purpose for me is, basically, to try to have the best pos-sible experience for the student-athletes I’m working with,” Woods emphasizes.

5

Between Kanata & Stittsville at 44 Iber Rd.

14 years old and upCompetitive Athletes

CANGYM recreational gymnastsSara Miller, competitive provincial-level gymnast

community clubsOttawa to host 2013 gymnastics nationals

The start of the competit-ive season has not yet even ar-rived, but the local gymnastics community is already buzzing about what will take place at the end. The biggest stars in Canadian gymnastics will be coming to town for the 2013 national championships from May 21-26.

“It’s a big show,” smiles Kellie Hinnells, who will act as event chair and direct an army of organizers/volunteers estim-ated to be 400+ in size.

Also the general manager at Ottawa Gymnastics Centre, Hinnells is enthusiastic about the spotlight the Canadian championships will provide for gymnastics in the nation’s cap-ital – thanks to the competition itself, and through initiatives such as bringing schools out to watch and to try apparatuses in demonstration areas.

“It’s a way for us to pro-mote the sport where all the clubs in Ottawa will benefit,” Hinnells says.

The final Olympic team se-lections were held in Gatineau earlier this year, while Elite Canada was in Aylmer in 2008, but a national competition of that quality has not been held in the area on this side of the river since 1997.

Ottawa hosted a highly successful provincial men’s and women’s artistic champi-onships last season at the CE Centre, which will again act as the venue for men’s and wo-men’s artistic, plus trampoline and tumbling, while Carleton University will welcome the rhythmic event, and host parti-cipants in its residences.

“Nationals is very different (than provincials),” Hinnells notes. “These are high-per-formance, so the quality of the performances is going to be much greater.”

It’s probable that the next batch of Olympians will come from the 500+ athletes who will compete in Ottawa, joined by almost as many coaches, judges and support staff.

“I think the number of people coming into the city will be greater than normal, so the economic impact should be substantial,” Hinnells adds, ex-plaining that many will likely drive from nearby Quebec as well as Ontario, which is al-ways the largest delegation.

Local tourism should also get a boost from what is a bit of a groundbreaking partnership, as Hudson Travel Group as-sumes the lead organizational role alongside Gymnastics Canada, handling all logistics such as venue booking, accom-modation and travel, as well as sponsorship and marketing.

“It’s great for us because that’s stuff we usually have to do,” Hinnells underlines. “We don’t have the expertise, whereas they do, because they manage other sporting events.”

Four local host clubs – OGC, Tumblers Gymnastics, Kanata Rhythmic and Uni-gym Gatineau – will handle everything on the sport side, taking care of technical de-tails along with Gymnastics Canada. Although they’re all classified under gymnastics, there is generally very little interaction between the men’s, women’s, rhythmic, trampo-line and tumbling disciplines, except for the rare occasion when they come together for an event like nationals.

“It’s a unique opportunity for those athletes to experience the other ones,” says Hinnells, recounting a recent nationals where boys’ gymnasts cre-

ated an arch with their arms for the r h y t h m i c a t h l e t e s to walk through as they entered for their competition. “There was

a lot of that happening, which was really nice.”

lOCalS’ CHaNCe TO SHiNe

Expect Ottawa qualifiers for the event to number some-where in the teens. Two-time defending all-around national champion Sam Zakutney of National Capital Competitive Boys Gymnastics promises to be the star attraction amongst local talent as he goes after an-other title in the high-perform-ance class.

Other local athletes who earned medals at last year’s nationals included Bruno Web-ster and Taylor Jackle Spriggs of OGC, while Jonathan Ar-senault of Spring Action was a medalist in trampoline, as were Benjamin and Vincent Tyo. For those gymnasts who aren’t at the national level yet, the event will be quite special non-etheless, Hinnells points out.

“To actually have the op-portunity for our kids to be in-volved – because there will be jobs for them to do – is great,” explains the future chair of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games gymnastics competition. “It doesn’t come along very often for them to be able to see, up close and personal, that level of gymnastics.”

Some of the Canadian greats likely to be on display in Ottawa include Dominique Pegg, who helped the Cana-dian women’s team to an un-expected breakthrough fifth-place performance in London, as well as Canada’s lone 2012 Olympic gold medalist, Rosie MacLennan, and fellow tram-poline medalist Jason Burnett, who won silver in 2008.

“It’s about heroes too, right?” Hinnells adds. “They’ll go back to their gym inspired to want to work hard and to be like that person or be able to go to nationals one day, because it’s a big deal.”

By Dan Plouffe London 2012 Olympic trampoline gold medalist Rosie MacLennan is the biggest star expected to compete at the 2013 Canadian Gymnastics Championships next May in Ottawa.

photo: mike ridewood/coc

National Capital’s Sam Zakutney will enter the 2013 nationals as a two-time defending champion.

file photo

6

Twenty-two teams had taken the stage before them already during the National Capital Amateur Football Association’s championship week, but the North Gloucester Giants and Bell Warriors put on perhaps the most entertaining show nonetheless on Sunday, Nov. 4 at Millennium Field in Orleans.

The Giants wrote an improbable comeback tale from a 20-6 deficit well into the fourth quarter before storming back to force overtime. Jonathan Sutherland got to play the hero’s role by scoring the decisive points before his team’s defence made the big stop in the shootout format to earn the ‘A’ Cup crown 26-20.

“When I was in the end zone, it felt so good because I knew my defence was going to stop them and we were going to win,” smiles Suth-erland, noting the end likely would have been different if not for their defence recovering fumbles late.

“We don’t have the best skill in the league but we have the most heart, and heart is what counts,” adds the runningback who also scored a TD in regulation. “When we were down, we never gave up. We kept on grinding and grinding and grinding, and that’s what got us the win.”

Many teams experienced sim-ilar jubilation throughout the week, but maybe none appreciated their championship more than the West Carleton Wolverines, who captured the first ‘A’ Cup in the club’s 20-year history.

“Everybody’s just thrilled,” says coach John Russell, noting some coaches had waited well over a decade to see a top-tier title come to fruition. “They’ve had so many good players that have played, but they just never had the whole team needed to go all the way.”

The Wolverines and the Nepean Redskins Mosquito teams com-

pletely abolished the notion that “defence wins championships” as they accumulated a basketball game’s worth of points in a 72-57 contest that tested officials’ muscu-lar endurance in constantly signaling touchdowns.

Both teams had unstoppable runningbacks, as Nepean’s Honoreal Iloki and West Carleton’s Hayden Tripp traded trips to the end zone. Backed by a big offensive line that wore down competitors all season along with fullback Justin Yee, Tripp scored an astonishing 11 touch-downs in the championship contest.

“He’s been a phenomenon. If we score seven or eight touchdowns a game, he’s good for six or seven of them,” Russell mentions, noting that the glory wouldn’t have been pos-sible nonetheless without the contri-butions of all. “It was a real team. It just seemed to be a perfect storm with good coaching, excellent play-ers, and good supporting families.”

The Myers Riders may have

lost their Tyke final by 50 points, but they earned a major consolation prize against a Cumberland Panthers group that may well go down in his-tory as the most dominant team ever – they scored the first point of the season against Cumberland in the 51-1 game.

The Riders Bantams exploded for a 26-2 advantage at halftime en route to an ‘A’ Cup title victory over Bell, while Bel-Air outlasted Nepean 4-3 for the Midget crown.

Winning ‘B’ Cup championships were Bell (Tyke and Mosquito), Nepean (Peewee) and Cumberland (Bantam), while Gloucester South (Tyke), North Gloucester (Mosquito and Bantam) and Bel-Air (Peewee) earned ‘C’ Cups.

Seven different clubs occupied the 10 ‘A’ Cup finalist positions and 13 of 16 clubs were represented through all levels of championship games – a strong sign of league-wide competitive health, signals NCAFA president Steve Dean.

community clubsNCAFA crowns fall football champs

By Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

JUSTIN SHAVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chances are, you probably had no idea that some of the best Canadian University and College athletes would be trav-elling to Kazan,

Russia next summer to take part in the 27th FISU (International University Sport Federa-tion) Summer Universiade.

The Summer Universiade is an interna-tional multi-sport event that occurs every two years, and gives student-athletes the opportunity to compete against each other while representing their country. FISU Uni-versiades are second, only to the Olympic Games, in terms of the number of particip-ating athletes and countries involved. At the most recent Summer Universiade in Shen-zhen, China, Canada won eight medals - a number they are looking to improve for 2013.

The Canadian University Women’s Soccer Team also hopes to be a contributor to the medal tally. Coming off a best-ever fifth place result in 2009, Canadian Women’s National University Soccer Team is looking to make history. First, however, they need to choose their squad.

Head Coach, Liz Jepsen (University of Alberta) and assistant coaches Mark Ro-gers (UBC) and Kevin Souter (Ryerson) are heading this challenge and will be bringing a group of 36 athletes to Ottawa for the team’s selection camp. As the West Ottawa Soccer Club had planned to host their Indoor Girls Showcase Tournament around the same

time as the FISU selection camp, joining the events to-gether was an opportunity that could not be overlooked.

On Dec. 1-2, the West Ottawa Soccer Club will be hosting the Canadian Clas-sic: a girls in-door showcase tournament and

FISU Selection Camp. The brand-new Thun-derbird Sports Domes will play host to teams competing for the Canadian Classic champi-onship trophy and to FISU players working to earn their spot on Team Canada.

Although FISU players and tournament teams will not be playing on the same field, they will have the opportunity to watch and observe each other.

“This is an excellent opportunity for these soon-to-be university and college students to interact with and watch Canada’s elite university players and coaches,” says Ca-nadian Classic tournament coordinator Gord MacDonald. “This is a very unique situation. We hope to be able to continue this positive relationship with the FISU team in years to come.”

Grade 11 and 12 tournament participants will also be showcasing their talent to univer-sity- and college-level soccer coaches from across Canada and some from the US with hopes of being recruited.

“Ottawa has a proven record of devel-oping some great players,” added Kristina Kiss, West Ottawa Soccer Club’s Technical Director and former Canadian National Team Player. “Many university and college coaches recognize this and are very keen to see what Canadian Classic participants have to offer.”

In addition, WOSC will host an “Elite Even-ing” on Dec. 1, where Canadian Women’s Soccer Team Olympic Bronze Medalist, Christina Julien, Ottawa Fury W-League Coaches Dom Oliveri and Kwesi Loney, and Liz Jepsen, Canadian University National Team Head Coach, will discuss the transition from club soccer to university soccer and some of their personal soccer experiences.

For more information, visit www.wosc.com

West ottawa soccer scoopFISU Team Partners with WOSC for “CANADIAN CLASSIC” Showcase

Nestled between Kanata and Stittsville on Iber Road, Olympia Gymnastics was founded in 2005 by Dezso Mesko. Now into its seventh season, Olympia has grown into a club that offers pro-grams all day long for children as young as 18 months old.

“My goal, as a former phys ed teacher in Ro-mania, is to keep the kids moving and take them off the couch,” explains Mesko, who also wanted to bring his sport to the west end. “There was noth-ing for artistic gymnastics in this part of the city.”

It was a challenge at first to find a place large enough to host a full gymnastics club, but Olympia acquired additional space and pur-chased more equipment in the last two years to

feature a full set of apparatuses.Despite the challenge of not having a full gym-

nastics floor until last season, Emily Urbisci, the first gymnast for the club’s competitive program to qualify for the provincial championships, also became its very first provincial champion last year, with several provincial athletes following in her footsteps with good results such as Meghan Heer 2nd on vault and Sara Miller 8th on bars.

“I think they found a great coach with lots of experience,” Mesko says.

Olympia’s head coach is Nausikaa Muresan, a former national-level gymnast in Romania. On top her Level 3 national coaching certification, Nausikaa’s background in teaching also helps

her connect with young athletes.Along with four other full-time professional

staff, many of the gymnasts who first joined the club in 2005 have now become talented, certified coaches themselves.

“I never imagined when I first opened that my gymnasts would become part of my staff, but they just loved gymnastics and loved our club,” Mesko recounts. “It’s like a family atmosphere here.”

Parents have also enjoyed what Olympia’s had to offer since Day 1 and continue to bring their kids back seven years later. Mesko emphasizes that the club’s door is always open to everyone who wants to try gymnastics, which is one of three “foundation” sports all children are encour-

aged to try because it teaches agility, balance and coordination.

With programs ranging from introductory to school age to competitive, fun-filled March Break and summer camps, birthday parties, and trampo-line & tumbling classes, Olympia Gymnastics offers opportunities across the board to the community.

Visit www.olympiagymnastics.ca or call 613-836-9149 for more information.













olympia gymnastics builds lifelong love for sport

Marco Trunzo got the Myers Riders rolling in their NCAFA Bantam ‘A’ Cup final on Sunday, Nov. 4 at Millennium Field, hauling in a big touch- down reception for the first points of the contest against the Bell Warriors.

7community clubsSt. Pius X-Men create soccer title tradition

With turnover in students, injuries, community clubs tak-ing precedence and a multitude of other teenage commitments, dynasties are somewhat rare in high school sports – especially in soccer.

But the St. Pius X-Men are showing it’s possible, as they captured their fourth senior boys’ soccer city title in five years with a heart-pumping 5-4 victory over St. Peter on Oct. 25 at Franco-Cité high school.

“We’re not really a soc-cer team, we’re like a soccer club. We go 12 months of the year,” highlights St. Pius coach George Balkovic, who will continue to work with his group throughout the winter in preparation for the OFSAA ‘AAA’ provincial champion-ships next June. “We have a lot of guys who play community soccer at a very high level and are very well-coached. They know the ins and outs of the game. Our job is to mould them into our team.”

Unlike many of their com-petitors, the most talented stu-dent soccer players at St. Pius do wear their school colours instead of dressing exclusively for their community clubs.

“I think we have a good reputation. They know it’s not like a rec team,” explains Balkovic, who brings plenty of coaching experience along with Bert Lee. “They know, in playing for us, that it’s not go-ing to be a waste of their time. I think that’s part of it. And then, they love soccer. Most don’t play more than one sport. They play it 12 months of the year and they love the game.”

Take Marco Natoli as the perfect example of this. As Ontario Youth Soccer League leading scorer the past two seasons at the under-17 level, the Ottawa South United star outclasses most on the high school pitch, but was nonethe-less keen to play alongside his

c l a s s -mates at St. Pius.

“His s k i l l level is r e a l l y t o p -notch ,” Balkovic s m i l e s , n o t i n g t h a t t e a m -m a t e s become b e t t e r just by playing w i t h someone of his calibre. “(Op-ponents) do try to shut him down, but he’s not the only guy on the team, there’s 10 other guys on the field. If they’ve got two or three guys on him, somebody’s open who’s still at a very high level.

“Then they realize they can’t do that, so Marco breaks out too. It’s nice to have that kind of toolbox.”

Driven by a strong core of Grade 12s motivated to win in their final year, the X-Men completed an undefeated ‘AAA/AAAA’ campaign by overcoming a 4-2 deficit against St. Peter thanks to pairs of goals by Natoli and Daniel Padovan, who was also the cause of a St. Pete’s own goal.

The St. Peter Knights, who received markers from Justin Tilley, Blair Plummer, Premice Luanda and Kris Radzichow-sky, will also move ahead to OFSAA, competing at the ‘AAAA’ level for schools with the largest student populations.

“If it had been only Grade 11 and 12, I don’t know if we could have been here,” notes Knights coach Ben Markatti, highlighting the key contri-butions of a trio of Grade 10 players – Plummer, Adam Lofranco and James Thomas – who all play OYSL soccer for Capital United. “We have a lot

of good young players.”For St. Peter, it marked the

second time in school history that they qualified for OFSAA, the first coming along with their 2005 title.

“We finished fourth in the province that year, so hope-fully this year we can at least get there or do a better result in the end,” Markatti adds.

rebelleS’ redempTiON

The ‘AA’-champion Louis-Riel Rebelles experienced the opposite emotions as they did in last season’s city final, when they fell 9-8 in a marathon pen-alty kicks session.

“Oh my God, we had like 20 PKs – it was ridiculous,” recalls Zach Louis-Seize, who scored the lone goal in his team’s 1-0 championship vic-tory over Sir Robert Borden, also on Oct. 25. “We wanted to prove to ourselves that we could actually win. We thought we should have won last year, but we got unlucky, so now it’s all good.”

Winning the championship was made even more special for Louis-Seize since he no longer plays club soccer due to a knee injury that will soon send him under the surgeon’s knife.

“This is my only soccer for the season,” explains the Grade 12 senior who’s never before qualified for a provincial high school championships. “It was my last chance at OFSAA, so I’ll take that and cherish it.”

The SRB Bengals, who upset John McCrae 1-0 in the semi-finals, will join Louis-Riel at ‘AA’ OFSAA, by vir-tue of the Bulldogs’ provincial championship last season. De-slauriers were acclaimed ‘A’ champions with no other sub-500-student schools entered.

By Dan Plouffe

Daniel Parovan got two goals in the St. Pius X-Men’s come-from- behind 5-4 city final victory over St. Peter to complete his team’s undefeated year.

photo: dan plouffe

The Louis-Riel Rebelles won the trophy they came oh-so-close to earning last season.

photo: dan plouffe

The Algonquin Thunder wo-

men’s soccer team was known as the team to beat this year in college soccer. In the last two seasons, the

Thunder finished first in their divi-sion with undefeated regular season records. And despite only nine re-

turning players, this year was no different as they cruised to an 8-0-1 mark, which earned them the right to host the Ontario championships Oct. 26-27.

But their fifth rank in the country wasn’t enough to get past the second seed from the West, the Fan-shawe Falcons, as the home side lost 1-0 in the semi-fi-nals to move them into the bronze medal match.

Jaymie Baldree scored in regulation to force ex-tra time, but the Thunder fell to Centennial in a pen-alty-kicks heartbreaker the next day to finish fourth.

“It was a disappoint-ment,” said Algonquin coach Garth Gittens, who believed the second half of the bronze medal match was the only time his team played to full potential. “We wanted to finish better than last year which ended with a gold medal shootout loss, which we didn’t do. But the players connec-ted and created bonds that they’ll have for life. We achieved most of the goals we set out to this season.”

Humber College beat Fanshawe in the final.

The Algonquin men fell to Sheridan 1-0 in their league quarter-finals.

8 universitiesGee-Gees OUA championships here please & Ravens men

By Josh Bell

Algonquin women play gracious hosts in OCAA defeats

The long gap before the finals – due to conflicts with U.S. high school schedules and college recruiters’ avail-ability – is a challenge for the northern teams in particular, especially when the snow flies early, Hill notes.

“We try to build towards the end of November and early December so we’re as ready as we can be,” says Hill, noting they’ll build fitness by running in the sand and up hills at Mooney’s Bay in the fall.

At the Super-Y finals, the top squad from each of the four four-team groups moves ahead into the semi-final round.

“You generally don’t get any easy

passes, so to get out of the group stage is a major accomplishment,” explains Hill, whose boys’ program is ranked #1 overall in the Super-Y League. “The goal would be to get as many teams as we could through the group stage, and then you never know.”

The Fury team that carries the highest hopes is Jimmy Zito’s U14 group, who received a remarkable 21 goals from Zachary El Shafei in 13 games. Last year, the squad won its group in Florida to reach the knockout round before falling in the semi-finals.

“They’ve got a good chance,” Hill says. “Having gone last year certainly prepares them. And not getting to what they want certainly motivates them.”

continued from p.3

FURY SUPER-Y FINALS: Teams want to reach knockout round

osU Force Academy ZoneAs the

2012 out-door season wrapped up, soccer play-ers through-out the region

can look back on many special memories, but none of them will be quite the same as what Mollie Eriksson and David Chung experienced. The standout OSU players were two of 12 Canadian players who got to compete in September’s Danone Nations Cup, the world’s largest international youth soccer tournament for 11- and 12-year-olds. Eriksson and Chung got to travel to Warsaw, Poland to participate in the eight-group, 40-country event – an “unreal” opportunity, Eriksson says.

“It just meant the world to me,” Chung concurs.

The pair’s road to the Nations Cup began with a local tryout in Ottawa, with similar camps taking place throughout the country. Out of over 5,000 in the original pot, a select few were brought to the final evaluations in Toronto and Montreal.

“There were a lot of other goalkeepers that were really good,” highlights Eriksson, one of two female players chosen to the Canadian team. “You really have to stand out.”

That’s exactly what both OSU players did back in July as well, when their crew of East-ern Canadians took on their counterparts from Western Canada in a showdown in Toronto to determine which group would go on to Poland. In that game, Chung scored the first two goals in a 4-0 victory, while Eriks-son earned the shutout in goal.

Then it was off to Poland, where the Canadian representatives continued their strong play. In the group stage, they posted three shutouts in 2-0, 2-0 and 3-0 wins over

G e r m a n y, Netherlands and Belgium to finish in second place – one point behind the Chinese, who downed the canucks 1-0.

In the final 16, it was a h e a r t -breaker for the Cana-dian side, as they fell to Spain in penalty kicks. But the memory that sticks out most for Chung from that match was simply getting the opportun-ity to play in Poland’s national stadium.

“I’ve never actually played in a real stadium before, so playing in one of the most presti-gious stadiums was awesome,” explains the midfielder/striker who translated for team-mates who spoke only French or English. “All the bright lights are shining on you.”

The Canadian team stayed at a university residence while in Poland, sharing a dining hall with the Irish team.

“They were really, really loud,” laughs Chung, a Grade 7 Goulbourn Middle School student. “They kept me up all night.”

Interacting with players from across the globe was a high point for Eriksson.

“I really enjoyed meeting other countries,” notes the Grade 7 St. Mark Catholic High School student. “Probably people we met from those countries will be some day the next Messi. That was really, really cool to think that I’ll have met them.”

Eriksson and Chung were the only players from the Ottawa area chosen to compete at the Nations Cup.

“It was really cool to have a girl and a boy from the same club,” Eriksson adds.

“We are very proud of Mollie and David for having earned this tremendous opportun-ity,” OSU president Bill Michalopulos states. “And we’re also pleased to know that as a club we’ve put the proper programs in place to allow our players to reach these kinds of levels, where they’re being selected from the very best in their age group.

“We look forward to watching Mollie and David continue to develop in future years, and we’re also keen to see the next wave of OSU players follow in their footsteps.”

Danone Nations Cup an ‘unreal’ opportunity for OSU Force pair

Joey Kewin (above) played the hero’s role as the silver medalist Car-leton Ravens men’s soccer team also earned a trip to the national champi-onships on the strength of a 1-0 OUA semi-final victory over host York.

photo: steve kingsman

oua champs

photo: steve kingsman photo: steve kingsman

file photo

Krista Draycott (below) created the play that led to the OUA title-winning goal with her soaring pass to Khoury.

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s soccer team (above) wrapped up an undefeated season against Ontario opponents with a 1-0 championship victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks on their home field Sunday, Nov. 4. The defending CIS national bronze medalists will now go for gold Nov. 8-11 in Victoria.Ottawa’s Pilar Khoury (left) celebrates her OUA champi-onship-winning goal in extra time. The former Gloucester Hornet set a new Gee-Gees single-season scoring record this year with 13 goals.

The nation’s capital will host the 2014 North American orienteering cham-pionships, it was announced last month. Over 100 athletes from overseas were

amongst the 700+ who attended this year’s event in Pennsylvania.“This will be a fantastic opportunity to show Ottawa how great

the sport is and to show the world how great Ottawa is,” Ottawa Ori-enteering Club president Randy Kemp said in a news release.

Krista, Megan and Eric Williamson, Philipe Turcanu, Eric Kemp and Alex Bergstrom all won medals at the 2012 North Americans.

9sportspage snapshots

2014 NOrTH ameriCaN OrieNTeeriNg CHampiONSHipS Headed TO OTTawa

OfSaa gOlf rOuNdup

eSp lOuiS-riel wiNS NaTiONal SpOrTS CONTeST

gee-geeS SOfTball Take ONTariO SilVer by Slim margiNThe University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s softball team came tan-

talizingly close to knocking off the perennial queens of Ontario university fastball on the Oct. 20 weekend, but had to settle for silver in a 9-4 ex-

tra-innings defeat to the Western Mustangs.“It was a great game,” noted coach

Scott Searle, whose Gee-Gees won four games to reach the final. “We were certainly disappointed with the result, but proud of the accomplishment.”

Meanwhile, Ottawa played host to the Canadian intercollegiate baseball championships on the same weekend. The Carleton Ravens men came within a game of reaching the semi-finals through a lengthy tie-breaking process, as St. Clair College went on to win the tournament.

Louis-Riel high school was honoured out of 125 Canadian schools as the winner of the Canada Games Council’s National School Challenge in support of Sports Day in Canada.

“They say that sports bring out the best of us and we certainly witnessed it this week at our school”, teacher François St-Denis said in a news release. “Our Rebelles proved that they are great athletes and great citizens. Who knows, maybe we inspired a few Canada Games athletes this week!”

As featured in last month’s Ottawa Sportspage, Louis-Riel held a 12-hour sports festival day where 200 students split up into teams to represent provinces and territories in a Canada Games-style competition.

The school also held a highly-organized 5k Terry Fox Run and raised over $10,750 for the Terry Fox Foundation and for the family of a teacher whose young son, Olivier Ulysse, is bat-tling serious digestive system troubles.

lOCal para-Speed SkaTiNg CruSader raiSeS $20,000+ TO SuppOrT New NaTiONal OrgaNizaTiONBefore the premiere of a documentary profiling his long-time quest to

see speed skating for visually-impaired athletes included in the Paralympic Games, Ottawa’s Kevin Frost announced the creation of a new national association that aims to support speed skaters with visual impairments and provide them with opportunities to compete nationally and internationally, and get the sport sanctioned at the Paralympic Games.

Over $20,000 was raised for the new non-profit Visually Impaired Speed Skating Association of Canada through the premiere of Blind Ambi-tion. Read more on SportsOttawa.com .

COOkiN’ up a big SeaSONOttawa alpine skier Dustin

Cook got his sophomore sea-son on the World Cup circuit off to a solid start on Oct. 28 in Soelden, Austria, earning a ca-reer-best finish. The 23-year-old Mont Ste. Marie athlete placed amongst the valuable top-30 po-sitions in 22nd spot out of 71 total skiers in the giant slalom event.

lOCal jr. HOCkey playerS Tabbed fOr big TOurNey TeamSThree players from local Provincial Women’s Hockey League teams

have been selected to represent Ontario at the under-18 national cham-pionships Nov. 7-1 in Dawson Creek, B.C. Nepean Wildcats assistant captain Lauren Miller will play for Team Ontario - Red, while Ottawa Senators leading scorer Rebecca Leslie and Nepean defender Taylor Thurston will play for Team Ontario - Blue.

Meanwhile, eight players from the Central Canada Jr. A Hockey League will play for Team Canada East at Hockey Canada’s World Jr. A Challenge Nov. 5-11 in Yarmouth, N.S. Phil Drouin (Pembroke), Blaine Byron (Kemptville), Dalen Hedges (Nepean) and Brent Norris (Nepean) are the Ottawa natives who will take part in the event that features the U.S., Russia, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Canada West.

She may have been the youngest of the group, but that didn’t stop Grade 9 St. Peter Catholic High School student Grace St. Germain from earning the national capital’s top result at the OFSAA girls’ golf tourna-ment, shooting an 80 to finish 14th of 107 in Windsor. Franco-Cité’s Eric Marshall produced Ottawa’s best OFSAA boys’ individual result, finishing nine shots off the pace in 20th place, with rounds of 84 and 79 in Kings-ville, also near Windsor. The St. Francis-Xavier boys’ team was 14th.

U13 Boys – Noah Stanford & Sam Laviolette U13 Girls – Angelina Gendreau

U14 Boys – Zachary El-Shafei U14 Girls – Magalie Kayrouz

U15 Boys – Justin Ranger U15 Girls – Rebekah Hofl and

U16 Boys – DeShawn Smardon U16 Girls – Elyse Galan

PDA Men – Karl Bicamumpaka PDA Women – Kayla Adamek

PDL – Niall Crick W-League – Lisa-Marie Woods

The Grey Cup-record crowd – which included Prime Minister Pierre-Elli-ott Trudeau – rises in unison, fans counting down the seconds, support-ers of both teams watching with a mixture of fear and trepidation. With Saskatchewan still leading Ot-tawa 20-16, Clements receives the hike and backpedals. Gabriel cuts across the line of scrimmage and darts towards the goal line. Clem-ents eyes his favourite target and throws a perfect spiral. All fans holding their breath. Watching. Waiting. Nails chewed to the nub....

Clements to Gabriel: Riders upset Saskatchewan in ’76 Grey Cup

Ottawa defensive captain Mark Cosmos (left) and QB Tom Clements.

photo: ottawa Journal. nov. 29, 1976.

Read the full version of this new monthly local sports history column by Ottawa writer Adrien Leduc on SportsOttawa.com

“I sold my car, packed my bags and two weeks later I was back in Calgary living there.”

At that time in spring, Carrière had no assurances he’d be on the national team, but felt if he really wanted to pursue this new goal ser-iously, he needed to be there training with bobsleigh coaches and getting to know his potential future teammates.

Carrière found full-time work landscaping until he finally got the news last month – he’d be one of the push men for the Canada-3 sled on this year’s World Cup circuit.

“Now that I’ve found this, I feel like I have a second chance and an-other opportunity to really go after something big,” says the 27-year-old who moved to Orleans at 14 from Rockland. “The biggest thing is I really feel like I’m using all of my

potential. I think that I’m able to do these things and I’m lucky to be able to do these things, and I’m really thankful that I have the chance to pursue the full extent of my abilities.

“And the other part is to be in the position to be a role model to kids and to provide a very positive influence in the community. I like that platform.”

In Montreal on Oct. 30 for the official unveiling of the 2012-13 bobsleigh national team (as well as the latest design of Olympic red mit-tens), it was like Carrière had come full circle. There he was back in the city where his star truly began to shine, visiting kids at the Montreal Children’s Hospital – the kind of activities he adored as a Redman, when he frequently visited schools to spread anti-bullying messages.

“With the president of the IOC being there, and being at the hospital and doing that press conference with the kids, you really get the sense that it’s more than just you and your team-mates,” Carrière explains. “You’re really representing Canada.”

Carrière is one of five ath-letes – former University of Ottawa Gee-Gees football player James MacNaughton is another – available to sit in the four-man bobsled piloted by Justin Kripps, who is in his second international season as a driver, hav-ing previously served as a pusher for

Pierre Lueders’ team at the Van-couver Olympics.

Team Kripps is set to com-pete in nine World Cup races in North America and Europe, and then world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, starting with the season-opening event Nov. 8-10 in Lake Placid.

From humble roots as the youngest of three brothers raised by a single mom, Carrière will now be visiting some of the most posh resort towns across Europe – or as fellow national team member Cody Sorensen of Ott-awa puts it: “living the life of the rich and famous, while making $20,000 a year.”

“I’ve never traveled over-seas,” Carrière notes. “I’m going to be visiting more countries in one year than I have in my whole life. That’s going to be a real fun time.”

He’s not entirely sure how they’ll stack up, but top-10 finishes in World Cups throughout the season would be nice, although there’s no question what the greater objective is.

“The main goal is to get to the Olympics,” states Carrière, who was always a big fan of the Games, with an affection for biathlon and bobsleigh in particular. “That was the whole catalyst behind this thing. Being named to the national team is the first big step I’ve taken towards that direction, but the national team

is one thing and the Olympic team is another. Now it’s all about stay-ing humble, making sure that I take everything in stride and just keep working hard every day.”

SOreNSeN SeekS Climb iN raNkS

Now entering his third year aboard Canada’s top sled piloted by Lyndon Rush, Ottawa native Cody Sorensen is looking for his best res-ults yet this season. His crew – which was disappointed in a seven-place finish at last season’s world cham-pionships – will rotate through five athletes this year after 2010 Olympic bronze medalist Lascelles Brown re-turned to the Canadian team after a stint with Monaco.

After a rough start to his off-season – Sorensen was knocked off his feet for nearly a month and lost 25 pounds after catching dengue fever in Thailand – he returned to Calgary stronger by the end of it, recording ca-reer-best bobsleigh fitness test results.

“I don’t think it’s unrealistic to be in the top-3 start times every race,” says the former Glebe Collegiate In-stitute hurdler who was also coached by Taylor with the Ottawa Lions, but never knew Carrière. “We should be expecting ourselves to be at least in the top-5 if not on the podium at every race. There’s no reason to be back in the field. We’re a world-class team and we’ve performed at a level before. We just need to find that consistency.”

with the persisting labour action that has kept many high school sports athletes from competing without the coaching services of teachers, the Ot- tawa Sportspage & SportsOttawa.com would like to offer a little piece of the spotlight to those who have been

forced to the sidelines.we’d like to devote as many selec-

tions of our star-of-the-week feature as possible to this group to recognize the hard work they’ve put in as ath-letes, even though they may not get the chance to show it off on the field or

court this fall and winter.please help us out by nominat-

ing deserving individuals through SportsOttawa.com. look for the star-of-the-week feature on the right-hand column and click on “nominate them” to fill out details on our form.

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902 Pinecrest Rd. Ottawa, K2B 6B3

Dan [email protected]

Larry RingDirector of Business [email protected]

The Ottawa Sportspage is printed the first Tuesday of every month by Ott-awa Sports Media, the locally-owned and operated publishers of the Ottawa Sportspage and SportsOttawa.com.

SPORTSOTTAWA.COM NOVEMBER STARS OF THE WEEKName: Katherine MarshallSport: Cross-country runningClub: Nakkertok Nordic SkiSchool: Glebe CIGrade: 9About: Grade 9 runner Katherine Mar-shall announced her arrival on the high school cross-country scene in a big way, winning the national capital junior girls’ title one week and then helping her Glebe Gryphons to a dominant OFSAA team title the next.

Name: Katherine Kohler-GrasseauSport: Field HockeyClub: Ottawa South United SoccerSchool: John McCrae SSGrade: 12About: Also an Ottawa South United soccer player in the province’s top league, Katherine Kohler-Grasseau was a strong performer for the John Mc-Crae Bulldogs in their run to the playoff round of the OFSAA girls’ field hockey championships in Ottawa.

Can you name the cities where the world's bobsleigh tracks are located? (Hint: Many are Olympic sites)

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Across2 Utah, U.S. (2

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Words) 14 Latvia 15 Alberta, Canada

Down1 Austria 3 Italy (2 Words) 4 New York, U.S. (2

Words) 5 Germany 6 Germany 8 France (2 Words) 12 B.C., Canada


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Can you name the world’s cities where bobsled tracks are located? (Hint: Many are Olympic sites)

Help us recognize high school athletes locked out by labour dispute

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE CROSSWORD

continued from Front

BOBSLEIGH: Sochi 2014 tops objectives


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as we do each month, those se-lected also appear in the Ottawa Sportspage. This initiative, of course, comes nowhere close to replacing what’s missing, so we encourage any-one who is able to continue stepping up to fill in coaching and give students the chance to live all the unforgettable experiences in high school sport. See SportsOttawa.com/content/locked-out for details on how to get involved.

and for those involved in the dis-pute, don’t forget about these kids you are stealing the best memories of their lives from. we look forward to showing you their faces here to help remember.

Name: Marco TrunzoSport: FootballClub: Myers RidersSchool: St. Pius XGrade: 10About: A force all season long at wide receiver for the Myers Riders Bantams, Marco Trunzo hauled in a big touch-down reception to kickstart his team to a National Capital Amateur Football Association championship victory.

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Carrière’S ride TO Slide

Follow Nick Carrière’s quest for the 2014 Olympics at myridetoslide.ca and on Twitter: @jn_carriere

The Ottawa South United U14 girls have their title back. Learning they’d won a championship from a document didn’t carry quite the same emotion as winning the final game, but the team was satisfied nonetheless to hear the result of their appeal to the Ontario Soccer Association.

As reported in the October edition of the Ottawa Sportspage, the Ontario Youth Soccer League ordered a match OSU had won two months earlier in their season against to be replayed because the referee timed 40-minute halves instead of the standard 45.

With a tie in the replayed contest instead of a three-point win, OSU wound up in second place in the east division standings instead of first.

OSU coach Widdgin Bernard said at the time that the result of his club’s subsequent appeal wasn’t of utmost importance since they’d already lost their chance to play the west divi-sion champions – which would have occurred later the same day had they won the replayed match – and then potentially the Quebec champs.

“In our eyes, we finished first. And in our heart, we know it,” Bernard ex-

plained, although he was nonetheless pleased to give his girls a Halloween day treat and tell them they were of-ficially champions and would have their names in the record books as the first team from Ottawa to capture an OYSL division crown.

The OSA discipline and appeals committee agreed strongly with the evidence OSU presented on all major points – most importantly that Brad-ford’s protest should not have been heard due to an OYSL policy that states: “No Protest pertaining to the decision of Game Officials will be

heard.”The com-

mittee ac-knowledged that the ref-eree made an error in the length of the halves, but that this should not have super-seded the Laws of the Game, which calls for two halves of equal length to be played, and added that the OYSL’s

decision also “contravened the spirit of the game.”

—Dan Plouffe

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Sikubwabo, who first came to Canada for the 2010 world junior track-and-field championships, says the Guelph guidance counsellors are also making his time there a positive experience. Fluent in French and Ikinyarwanda, Sikubwabo has been working hard to master the English language.

During his years at Glebe, ESL courses dominated his schedule. The result of this was to limit his Guelph application to that of a Bachelor of Arts, despite the fact that he is strongest in sciences.

“I will transfer to a Bachelor of Sciences next term. I can’t imagine myself in English classes, all those essays and readings,” he groans. “The guidance counsellors listened to me and we have found a way to do this.”

Sikubwabo, who was raised by his aunt after his birth parents were killed in the Rwandan genocide, credits a big part of his academic success to his Ot-tawa parents, Nicole Le Saux and Jim Farmer, who took him into their home after hearing his story.

“I would like to thank my parents,” Sikubwabo highlights. “All this has happened because of their help and encouragement. I have done nothing special, so it is all because of them.”

SIKUBWABO continued from p.2

brown bronzeDIn her first season in

the category, 19-year-old Joanna Brown of Carp won a bronze medal at the world un-der-23 women’s triath-lon championships on Oct. 20 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Brown finished in the third position comfort-ably and was able to slow for a moment and grab a Canadian flag as she ran down the final stretch of blue carpet (left), although she said on her blog that she re-gretted not surging with the two leaders right out of the transition from bike to run.

“I have no idea how the run would have gone had I latched on right away, but I think that not running with them cost me in the end,” wrote the 2010 world junior championships bronze medalist. “Placing third again at the World Championships was a great feeling, but I think that I have won enough bronzes for a little while. Time for some more col-ours.”

A week later, Brown helped her University of Guelph Gryphons cross-country running team win gold at the Ontario championships.

Matt Vierula and Sam-antha Klus finished 38th and 37th respectively in the men’s U23 and ju-nior women’s races.

file photo

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It wasn’t the golden finish they would have preferred, but fifth-best in the province was nothing to shake their sticks at for the local represent-atives, as the nation’s capital hos-ted the OFSAA girls’ field hockey championships for the first time since 1986 from Nov. 1-3 in Barrhaven and Nepean.

“It’s really a once in a life-time kind of thing for these kids,” says John McCrae Bulldogs coach Sandeep Chopra, whose team got to play two games at their school’s field. “It’s an incredible experience for them to be able to play in front of their own home crowd. It may not happen again for another generation.”

The hometown teams didn’t get any luck from the OFSAA draw-makers, however, as Merivale and John McCrae were paired in the same pools as the first- and second-seeded schools from Waterloo – Resurrec-tion and Sir John A. MacDonald, who went on to battle in the tournament final, which Resurrection won 1-0 to capture its third consecutive title.

The unseeded Merivale Maraud-ers knocked off Burlington’s Notre Dame 1-0 at Mother Teresa to open

their tournament, fell to Resurrection 4-0 at St. Joseph, and then upset New-market 1-0 at Longfields-Davidson Heights to earn their quarter-final en-counter with Sir John A., a match that finished 2-0 in favour of the visitors.

“They had an outstanding year, and it was fun,” says Merivale coach Bill Osborne, who left much of the leadership to the team’s veterans this season. “And you know what? They really came together as a team to earn

this opportunity.”The Bulldogs, mean-

while, clawed their way to 2-1 and 1-0 victories over Caledon’s Robert F. Hall and Hamilton’s Westmount to assure their place in the play-off round, although they weren’t quite the same team playing on slippery, slow, bumpy grass sur-faces as the slick group that dominated the na-tional capital league on astro turf.

And then they really weren’t the same team come the second day of

the competition when they lost a sig-nificant portion of their usual starting lineup in favour of a season-open-ing ringette tournament in Oshawa, which lead to 2-0 and 5-0 losses to John A. and Resurrection.

iNdelible HOme field memOry

The mo-ment Chopra would like the players to keep with them is the way they persevered against their plucky West-mount com-petitors.

“I told them at the end of the game that for some of them, this might be the last time they play field hockey,” re-counts the

experienced Nepean Nighthawks club coach. “Some of them will go on to do great things, I’m sure. They’ll be doctors and lawyers, but this might be the last game of field hockey they ever play. I sure hope they had a lot of fun.”

John McCrae carried a decided advantage in play during the West-

mount game, but could not score the crucial goal they required despite nu-merous short corners.

At last, Katherine Kohler-Grasseau – an Ottawa South United soccer player in the province’s top league who was a steadying, determ-ined force for the Bulldogs – created the opportunity that Julie Nguyen banged home in the final minutes.

“I was just screaming,” recalls Nguyen, a senior who enjoyed seeing the sidelines lined with fellow stu-dents, parents and the Bulldog mascot despite the ugly, rainy weather. “We had great fans. A lot of them came out to support us. I loved it.”

Chopra – who, like Osborne at Merivale, stepped up to coach the team in place of their regular teach-er-coach due to the teachers’ labour action – was very impressed with his group’s efforts overall this season, having won every game leading up to their last two matches.

“I’m really happy for (the seniors) to go out like this,” he explains. “They showed a lot of pride in the game and a lot of pride in their school.”

Merivale & John McCrae bow out in OFSAA quartersBy Dan Plouffe The unseeded Merivale Marauders advanced

to the playoff round at the OFSAA girls’ field hockey championships Nov. 1-3 in Ottawa.

photos: dan plouffe

Julie Nguyen scored John McCrae’s goal in a 1-0 win over Westmount.

An Ottawa Pacers skater and Emil Hodzic-Santor (right) of the Gloucester Concordes were two of the young athletes gaining some experience to open their speed skating seasons with an Ontario east region ability meet at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex in Orleans Nov. 3.

photo: steve kingsman

Speed SkaTiNg SeaSON blaSTS Off fOr lOCal ClubS

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