HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 4, #5 March 2015

They love it, they hate it. They lost it momentarily, but couldn’t elude it for long. And they desperately want to get rid of it. But most of all, Johnny Berhanemeskel and the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees men’s basketball team have embraced the underdog tag that is inescapably attached to them due to the 10-time national-champion Carleton Ravens’ presence just steps away down the Rideau Canal.

“You never lack motivation,” Berhanemeskel underlines. “You’re always hungry. The fact that they’re in the same city as you just makes you want it so much more. You want to prove to everyone you can do it.”

It’s been a similar underdog tale for Berhanemeskel during his five-year run at uOttawa. From his roots as a little-known player from Ott-awa’s east side, the shooting guard surpassed 2,000 career points in his senior season, becoming the Gee-Gees’ all-time leading scorer and the Ontario University Athletics Player of the Year in the process.

“If someone told me even after my first or second year that all this would happen, I’d probably have laughed,” Berhanemeskel reflects. “There have been a lot of sacrifices, and a lot of being honest with myself about some of the stuff I needed to work on.”

Johnny Basketball, as they call him, has risen into the leader of a team that’s surfaced as a legitimate chal-lenger to the Ravens from the most unlikely of places – right next door.

He’s not alone in the uOttawa blue-chip talent department, however. Fellow underdog-turned-star Gabriel

Gonthier-Dubue of Gatineau is also in his senior year, and the Gee-Gees roster also includes several castoffs from the Ravens program, and a hand-ful of intermediate-level recruits who have blossomed into elite talent.

“We could sort of be considered a group of misfits,” signals Ber-hanemeskel. “We’re people who weren’t always given everything. We don’t have a bunch of Team Canada

or Team Ontario highly-touted players, but we have a bunch of good players who are willing to work hard and who want to work harder than the next team. And we want to do it for each other.”

STAR NOT RECRUITED BY ANYBODY

Gee-Gees coach James Derouin calls Berhanemeskel a “humble kid” who will “do anything he can for his teammates,” and that type of

leadership filters down to the rest of the team, he says.

“The identity of our group is sort of personified through Johnny,” highlights the reigning Ottawa Sports Awards Male Coach of the Year and the 2015 OUA men’s basketball Coach of the Year. “He was a kid who wasn’t recruited to play for anybody.”

UNDERDOG continues on p.10

By Dan Plouffe

photo: steve kingsman

PERIJO TO HANG UP HER XC SKIS

P. 2

P. 5

Chelsea Nordiq biathlete Leilani Tam von Burg led the Ottawa contingent with her 3 medals from the Canada Winter Games.

With 2 Olympic appearances and 2 World Cup medals in her career, Nakkertok Nor-dic skier Perianne Jones is set to retire.

OLYMPIC CHAMPS TOP CANADA

P. 4Ottawa natives Dawn McEwen & John Morris won national titles as the capital is named host of the 2017 Olympic trials.

Always underdogs

Senior guard Johnny Berhanemeskel and his uOttawa Gee-Gees are determined to knock aside their second-fiddle status compared to the Car-leton Ravens.

Ottawa native Johnny Berhanemeskel defies the odds to become the Gee-Gees’ all-time leading scorer, now wants to finish career with national crown

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2 OTTAWA AT THE CANADA WINTER GAMES

Ottawa biathlon couple Alexandre Dupuis and Leilani Tam von Burg were the star performers of the Canada Winter Games cross-country ski and shoot competition, each bringing home three medals from the Feb. 13-March 1 event in Prince George, B.C.

Having first met through the Chelsea Nordiq biathlon program, the decorated pair of 19-year-olds have been dating for two years and both moved to Canmore, Alta. and the national team training centre around the same time last spring.

It made it that much more special to share their Canada Games success together, they note, and they loved posing together for photos with their six medals – a combined number that matched the best total medal output of any other province in biathlon on their own.

“It was great, but Leilani still won since she got two gold,” cracks gold, silver and bronze medallist Dupuis, then explaining their relation-ship actually isn’t a constant competition. “She supports me and I support her. It’s a good team.”

The couple live in separate athlete housing in Canmore, but having one another just minutes apart is a big boost, Tam von Burg indicates.

“It’s really good to have the other person there,” she highlights. “Sometimes he’ll be down and I can pull him out of it, and sometimes I’m really down and he’s there for me. I think that makes us better athletes.”

It was certainly a winning formula in Prince George. Dupuis took silver in the 10 km sprint, then won gold in the 12.5 km pursuit and com-

pleted his medal collection with a bronze in the 3 x 7.5 km relay alongside Ontario teammate Jason Lawton of Ottawa.

The impressive results were a bit of a sur-prise for Dupuis on the heels of a “pretty rough” season up to that point. The 5th-place individual finisher and team relay silver medallist at last year’s World Youth Championships had to take a month off before Canada Games due to over-training – a product of the increased volume load at the national training centre.

“I didn’t know what to expect, but I just

went for it at Canada Games and I was pretty happy with the outcome,” signals Dupuis, who’s been told it takes over a year for most athletes to properly adapt to the new demands in Canmore. “Next year I really want to get back onto the international racing scene.”

TAM VON BURG’S LUCKY NUMBER 55

Both of Tam von Burg’s gold medal victor-ies in the 12.5 km individual and 7.5 km sprint events came by an exact 55.0-second margin over the 2nd-place finisher. She also took silver

in the 10 km pursuit – .8 seconds out of 1st.“I definitely wanted a medal, but I didn’t

necessarily expect that many medals,” reflects Tam von Burg, who was offered congratulations by wide-eyed young children after her podium ceremonies. “That was a really nice feeling. Sometimes I think (biathlon) is kind of a selfish pursuit because I really just do it for myself, but when you see those moments where other people are actually pretty touched and inspired by what you do, that’s pretty cool.”

Volunteer and spectator enthusiasm and re-ceiving moosehide pouches for her medals from a native chief were other standout memories of the Canada Games experience for Tam von Burg, who had declined the opportunity to rep-resent Canada at her third World Junior Cham-pionships – which ran on overlapping dates in Belarus – in order to compete in Prince George.

“Canada Games is really unique. I’m so happy I went,” indicates Tam von Burg. “It was an amazing experience, and it was pretty inspir-ing for me too. It was kind of like these mini-ature Olympics.”

The local biathletes will finish up their sea-son with the March 9-15 Canadian Champion-ships in Hinton, Alta.

Around three dozen Ottawa athletes took part in the 2015 Canada Winter Games, a national multi-sport competition held every four years between Canada’s provinces and territories.

Approximately two-thirds came away with medals as Ontario earned the Canada Games Flag as the top performer for the 21st time in 25 winter/summer Games.

Triple-medallist biathletes lead locals at Canada GamesBy Dan Plouffe

photo: sally connon, 2015 canada winter games

Ottawa biathletes Alexandre Dupuis & Leilani Tam von Burg show off 2 of the 6 medals they won between the two of them at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.

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Ottawa modern pentathlete Melanie McCann got her Pan Am Games season off to a big start by capturing the first World Cup medal of her career on Feb. 23 in Sarasota, FL.

The 25-year-old joined Ca-nadian teammate Joshua Riker-Fox to win a bronze medal in the mixed relay, sharing the podium with Russia and Ireland.

“It’s such an honour to be able to bring home a medal for Canada. I’ve been striving for that for a long time,” indicates Mc-Cann, who moved to Ottawa in 2010 to train under national team coach John Hawes of Stittsville. “Standing on the podium with the maple leaf on your chest – there’s nothing that beats that. It’s every Canadian athlete’s dream.”

McCann placed 5th in fen-cing, 14th in swimming and 1st in riding to start the combined run/shoot relay in 4th position, with a number of teams close to their handicap start time.

She moved into 3rd by the end of her leg, and Riker-Fox crossed the line in the same posi-tion, sharing a hug with McCann to celebrate the first World Cup medal of both of their careers.

“That made it extra special,” signals McCann, who enjoys competing alongside her long-time teammate and friend. “It just helps you dig a little bit extra when you’re really hurting be-cause you want to give them the best chance to perform well for the team too.”

The pair were mixed relay gold medallists at last year’s Pan American Championships, although currently only the indi-vidual competition is part of the Pan Am Games and Olympic pro-grammes (although the interna-tional modern pentathlon federa-tion would like to change that in

time for the Tokyo 2020 Games).McCann’s earlier individual

performance at the Sarasota World Cup had been a disappoint-ment as she missed qualifying for the top-36 final round.

“I was out for a little bit of revenge (in the relay),” under-lines the recent Canadian Com-monwealth Fencing Champion-ships representative who had an uncharacteristically poor result in her usual top event. “I wanted to sharpen up what had held me back in the previous event.”

STRONGER, FASTER & FITTER

McCann says the medal is “a really good way to start the year,” on the heels of a solid winter training block where she remained healthy and injury-free for a good chunk of time.

“I think the consistency there really pays dividends,” notes Mc-Cann, who’s placed additional emphasis on injury prevention and strength and conditioning in recent years. “I feel stronger, faster and fitter than ever. I’m excited to get out there and see what I can do and hopefully bring home a few more of those medals this season.”

McCann plans to attend World Cups March 19-23 in Cairo and April 9-13 Rome, the

June 12-14 World Cup Final in Belarus and the June 28-July 6 World Championships in Berlin.

It’s a compressed interna-tional season to make way for the continental Olympic qualifiers; McCann’s will come at the Pan Am Games on July 18 in Toronto where she can book her ticket to Rio 2016 like she did for London 2012 with her 4th-place Pan Am performance at Guadalajara 2011.

“I’m so excited,” highlights McCann, who keeps support-ers up-to-date on her progress at melaniemccann.ca. “It’s a great opportunity for my family and friends to be able to watch me compete at an international event.

“I’m really honoured to be able to compete at home. I don’t think it will ever happen again in my career, you know. This is my one shot.

“A lot of athletes dream of that – being able to compete in front of a home crowd at a ma-jor event. It’s going to be pretty special.”

Another local modern pent-athlete stepped into the Pan Am Games picture with a career-best performance at a competition in Germany. Garnett Stevens, 21, posted this season’s best score by a Canadian with his 1,300-point showing.

3OTTAWA 2015 CANADA WINTER GAMES MEDALLISTSLeilani Tam von Burg won 2 gold biathlon medals and a sil-ver, while Alexandre Dupuis won one medal of each colour, including relay bronze with Ontario teammate Jason Lawton.

Gymnast Sam Zakutney earned the top all-around score out of all competitors to lead Ontario to gold in the men’s team event, and

added an event finals gold with a sizeable victory on the parallel bars.

Women’s singles fourth-place finisher Jean Fei was a wo-men’s doubles table tennis gold medallist alongside Justina Kar-Kay Yeung, who survived a pair of five-set medal round contests: 11-9, 19-21, 11-5, 5-11, 11-4 against Alberta in the semi-finals and 9-11, 11-9, 12-10, 7-11, 11-8 vs. B.C. in the final. Fei also cap-tured gold for Ontario in the women’s team event.

Men’s singles quarter-finalist Xuebo Li, alongside Amy Nichols, did not drop a set to earn their way to the table tennis mixed doubles final, where they fell 6-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-13 to Quebec to take silver. Li also won

gold with Ontario in the men’s team event.

Qufei Chen and Andrew D’Souza were utterly dominant for Ontario in the badminton team event. Alberta was the only team to win a match off Team Ontario in a 4-1 prelim-inary round defeat, as Ontario went on to sweep

Manitoba, Saskatchewan, B.C. and then Alberta 5-0 in their championship rematch. D’Souza, recently crowned Canadian men’s champion, also won a silver medal in men’s singles.

Figure skater Jack Fan kept his perfect season alive with yet another vic-tory in the Level 3 male Special Olympics singles competition at Canada Games. The only colour of medals Fan has known this year is gold, having

previously swept the regional and provincial competitions.

Ottawa’s Benjamin Tyo won a gold medal with Team Que-bec in the trampoline team mixed competition.

Greg Meireles assisted on the final goal that locked up Ontario’s 3-1 men’s hockey gold medal victory over Alberta.

Women’s hockey silver medalists Lindsay Eastwood, Sam Cogan and Josiane Pozzebon suffered the same fate as members of Team Ontario as they did several weeks earlier with Team Canada at the U18 worlds, again losing the final in overtime, this time to Quebec 2-1.

Sydney Catlin, Molly Lewis, Megan McGuire, Jenna van Koppen, Sarah-Lynne Bégin and Nia King won overtime playoff games against

Nova Scotia and Quebec to reach the ringette championship game, before taking silver with a 6-4 loss to Manitoba.

Margarita Gorbounova earned a trio of bronze medals in women’s para-nordic skiing standing events, placing 3rd in

the 1.2 km classic, the 2.5 km classic and the 5 km free with guide Sofia Attali.

Florence Grenapin was a judo bronze medallist in the women’s 52 kg event.

Childhood friends and Ottawa Pacers speed skat-ing teammates since age 6, Adrienne Gaud-reault and Bethany McKinley-Young got to

stand side-by-side on the Canada Games prodium after helping Ontario win bronze in the women’s team pursuit.

McCann wins 1st career World Cup medalBy Dan Plouffe

ELITE

photo provided

Melanie McCann

& Joshua Riker-Fox.

4

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The Merivale Marauders and the St. Paul Golden Bears are both thanking their lucky stars to be the local representatives at the OFSAA ‘AA’ Boys’ Basketball Championships after surviving 1-point semi-final playoff games against Immacu-lata and St. Joseph to qualify for the March 9-11 provincials in Barrhaven. The OFSAA ‘AAA/AAAA’ Girls’ Hockey Championships are also in town over the same time period, with the national capital to be represented by #12 seed Louis-Riel and #19 All Saints. Visit SportsOttawa.com for full up-to-date OFSAA coverage.

Beyond domination. That is how Lisgar Collegiate Institute nordic ski coach Darius Arjang describes the local results from the last two OF-SAA Nordic Ski Championships.

“The national capital (associ-ation) has brought home 9 out of 10 banners from OFSAA for the last two years,” emphasizes Arjang, whose school won two team gold medals to help the capital to a perfect record at the 2015 event in Sudbury on Feb. 19-20.

If last year wasn’t dominant enough, Glebe and Lisgar dished out an even bigger dose of capital pun-ishment this year, sweeping all four team events (junior and senior boys and girls) and all four relays, while also capturing each and every ag-gregate crown.

Glebe Gryphons coach Anne Rimes says that many of the top res-ults are due to a surge in interest in cross-country skiing in the region.

“There are skiers on our school team that come from three of the local (club) teams: Nakkertok, Chelsea Nordiq and Kanata Nordic,” highlights Rimes, who’s witnessed a dramatic increase in team size since she began coaching the Gryphons 15 years ago.

“Back then, we only had five stu-dents,” she details. “Now our school is very keen. There were more than 50 students on the ski team this year. They like the group involvement, that’s for sure.”

The Lisgar senior boys and the Glebe junior boys and senior girls all won both their team events and relays, while the Glebe junior girls

won the team competition but Lisgar got the upper hand in the relay (see SportsOttawa.com for more details on each team.)

Local individual medallists in-cluded Lisgar’s Alia Sanger (JG gold) and Julian Alexander-Cook (SB bronze), Earl of March’s Aidan Kirkham (SB gold), Glebe’s Alison Pouw (SG silver), and Canterbury’s Meghan Burns (JG silver).

There is a hidden gem among all those OFSAA medals, says Rimes.

“I ask those students who ski at a high level with their clubs to give back,” she explains. “This year, three seniors have coached the teams. I can’t say enough about those leaders.”

2 STORM, 4 RIEL ALPINE GOLD

The South Carleton Storm Level 1 (introductory) girls’ alpine ski team won a repeat title at their Feb. 23-24 OFSAA competition in Colling-wood, winning the slalom event. This year the Storm boys’ Level 1 team joined them as champs as well, topping the giant slalom standings.

Slalom and GS individual gold

medallist Sierra Smith led her Louis-Riel Level 2 girls’ team to victory in slalom, while the Louis-Riel Level 2 boys were also slalom champions.

CLIMIE AT GCI ATHLETIC AUCTION

In support of a Glebe student set to attend a Special Olympics com-petition in May and the school’s bursary scholarship for students dis-playing excellence in athletics, aca-demics, leadership and volunteerism, the Glebe athletic council will host its second-annual Blue and Gold Auction in the school’s main gym on April 16 from 6-8:30 p.m.

The event will include both a live and silent auction with items up for grabs such as club seats to a Montreal Canadiens home game, a Parliament dinner for four with MP John Weston and many more prizes from local businesses.

GCI grad and former Canadian Football League player Jock Climie, now a TSN analyst, will be the guest speaker at the event.

See sites.google.com/a/ocdsb.ca/glebeblue-gold for more details.

Lisgar & Glebe combine to sweep OFSAA nordicBy Anne Duggan

HIGH SCHOOLS

photo provided

The Glebe Gryphons were junior combined OFSAA nordic champs.

St. Paul & Merivale survive 1-pt semis to reach local OFSAA

photo: dan plouffe

Kathryn Grant of the Ottawa National Diving Club surpassed a Canadian national championships record at a Feb. 27-March 1 na-tional qualifier at Pointe-Claire Aquatic Centre in Montreal.

The 11-year-old smashed Canada’s Group

D (Age 11-and-under) benchmark of 303 points with her total of 308 in the 3-metre springboard competition.

“I’m so proud of myself,” smiles Grant, who topped her personal-best 3 m score by over 40 points at the event where she also won sil-ver medals for 1 m and platform. “I was so ex-cited. When I got the score, I was pretty much

screaming I was so happy. I couldn’t stop smil-ing the entire day.”

The Grade 5 Chapman Mills Public School student’s reaction to the results wasn’t quite as legendary as her mother’s, however.

“She was yelling and jumping up and down in the stands – while the event was still going on,” Grant recounts.

ONDC Brennan Villemaire didn’t have the sense anything special was going to take place early in his athlete’s competition. Grant was her usual self – relaxed and chatty while waiting between dives, and then quickly transitioning to a steely focus when her turn came up. After 4 or 5 dives, Villemaire began to realize Grant was really in the zone had been virtually perfect to that point. She wound up hitting 7 of 7 dives.

“I knew she was capable of doing everything, but she’s never done it all in a row like that,” Villemaire reflects. “I’ve seen elite athletes do that where it’s nothing but the tiniest errors, but you don’t see that down at that age.”

Grant won’t actually have her name in the record books since only performances at the pro-vincial and national championships are tracked, but it nonetheless sent a loud message that she’s one to watch in the future.

“With a score that big, everyone knows she’s here to compete,” says Villemaire, noting that Grant will soon have the opportunity to qualify to represent Ontario and Canada at a meet in Cuba. “Fingers crossed that she can do it again.”

Timothy Lewis was another ONDC athlete who established a new personal-best total and surpassed the provincial record score in the Group D platform event in Pointe-Claire. The Grade 5 Elmdale Public School student also won silver on 1 m and 3 m.

Henry McKay of the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club topped the Group B (Age 14-15) 3 m and men’s open platform events, and took bronze in Group B platform. NODC’s Brielle Johnston won Group A girls’ 1 m bronze and 3 silver 3 m, while NODC competitors Kate Millar (1m and 3 m) and Ayden Thompson (platform) combined to win all three Group B girls’ bronze medals.

Ottawa National diver exceeds Canadian championships record scoreBy Dan Plouffe

Kathryn Grant

photo: dan plouffe

Ottawa native Brandon Watt and the Ottawa Jr. Senators wrapped up a regular season di-vision title with the final victory of their 44-13-5 Central Canada Jr. ‘A’ Hockey League campaign on March 4 at Walkley Arena.

Under new ownership, with barely a full line’s worth of re-turning players from the pre-vious season, and a new head coach in Martin Dagenais who expected this year to be a “transition” season at the out-set, the Yzerman Division crown was an unexpected triumph for last year’s league semi-finalists.

The Gloucester Rangers and Nepean Raiders both won the first game of their best-of-3 playoff “play-in” series against Kemptville and Smiths Falls re-spectively on March 8. Ottawa will meet one of the winners in the best-of-7 quarter-final round.

Check SportsOttawa.com for on-going jr. hockey playoff coverage.photo: steve kingsman

Smoke clears,

Jr. Sens back on

top of CCHL Jr. ‘A’

5

Local cross-country skier Peri-anne Jones went out with a bang at what she strongly suggested would be the last FIS Nordic World Ski Championships of her career on Feb. 24 in Falun, Sweden.

The 30-year-old sprint specialist placed 32nd in the women’s 10-kilo-metre skate-ski race – her best inter-national finish in a distance race.

“It was great,” Jones says. “In Sweden, like Norway, they really love cross-country skiing, so the whole vibe there was great. There were lots of people along the sides of the trails to help cheer us on. Our team as a whole had a great champi-onship.”

Despite posting one of the best races in her career, the Nakkertok Nordic-brewed athlete from Al-monte is ready to step into the next chapter of her life. Jones plans to head to school to earn a degree in the healthcare field.

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to be retiring from skiing,” she underlines. “I’m just plain and simple getting older and I know I can’t ski forever.”

If Jones does indeed retire, it will mark the end of an 11-year career with the senior national cross-coun-try ski team, where she was consist-ently one of Canada’s best.

Major highlights include 2010 and 2014 Olympic berths in Van-couver and Sochi, and two World Cup bronze medals in team sprint alongside Daria Gaiazova, who re-tired herself at the end of last season.

“Last year after the Olympics I felt like I wasn’t finished and I wanted to give things one more shot, and I feel like I’ve done that this year,” Jones explains. “I’ll for sure miss skiing but I’m excited to start something new.”

Having the opportunity to com-pete in her home country was def-initely the highlight of her Olympic experiences, even though her res-ults were better in Sochi (where she

missed the women’s team classic sprint final by one position to place 11th, was a quarter-finalist in the free sprint and was 14th in the 4x5 km relay).

“Vancouver was amazing for me because I had a ton of family and friends out and it was my first Olympics,” Jones reflects. “It stands out as a really special experience, and something so few athletes have the opportunity to do.”

This season, Jones embraced the role of mentor as the eldest member of the women’s national team.

“It’s so exciting. You see how much potential we have in the fu-ture,” Jones says of the next gener-ation of Canadian talent. “The girls who are coming up now are really driven and focused and there is no doubt in my mind they will get better and better.”

Jones has treasured the oppor-tunity to travel and race in beautiful locations throughout her career.

“Skiing is to Norway what hockey is to Canada,” she details. “Central Europe and Scandinavia are pretty great places to travel to

and race.”However, Jones says she’ll now

cherish the opportunity to stay home. Over her career, she was only ever home for 2 or 3-week periods be-fore training sessions or competition would send her back on the road.

“I am looking forward to being in one place a little more,” adds Jones, who stayed back at her home training base in Canmore, Alta. in early 2015, missing several World Cup stops be-fore the World Championships.

Just because her international racing career is over doesn’t mean Jones will stop skiing. She origin-ally got involved in the sport be-cause it was a family activity, and wound up marrying a national team wax technician.

“It’s still a huge part of our lives,” signals Jones, who celebrated her return to Canada by hitting the trails with a group of kids. “I can go out for a ski with my parents and have a ton of fun even though we’re at different levels.

“It’s a pretty special sport that way. I don’t think you go recreational ski jumping when you’re finished.”

2-time Olympian Jones plans to retireBy Jamie Shinkewski Perianne

Jones

ELITE

OSU Force Academy ZoneOne day,

he was on the ground, his front teeth knocked out, his jaw broken – the result of

an opponent’s heel to the face. Two days later, Kris Twardek was called into a meet-ing with the coaching staff and management of Millwall FC and told that his year-and-a-half audition as a member of the English pro club’s youth academy was over. They were officially offering the Ottawa South United-brewed player his first professional contract, to be signed shortly after his 18th birthday.

“It’s a dream,” says Twardek, who got some more good news when his dentist was able to put his teeth back in place. “I was really happy, and it was also a bit of a relief.”

Earning the contract represents a major high in the striker’s career, although he’s ex-perienced plenty of lows along the road as well, in particular with injuries.

“It’s one thing to be away from home, but then when you’re not even playing and doing the thing you love – the reason you’re here – that’s definitely a struggle,” reflects Twardek, who lives with a billet family in London. “I’ve definitely had my ups and downs. It’s not as easy as some people might think.”

Make no mistake, Twardek was an excep-tionally strong player locally, but going from a high-scoring talent in Ottawa at age 16 into a pro player in England at age 18 is an almost unfathomable leap.

“I always had the belief that I would make it,” indicates the former Arnprior District High School student. “That’s what inspires me to work hard. I just love the game. There’s nothing I’d rather do than have a long career, wake up every day and know that I’m going to play football.”

Now also a member of the Czech Republic youth national squad (thanks to family herit-age), Twardek never competed for provincial or national teams while in Canada – a sign, he notes, that OSU can home brew talent for the next level.

A pair of Twardek’s former teammates – Vana Markarian and Dario Conte, both part of Ottawa’s first Ontario Youth Soccer League champions in 2013 – are now also members of a pro team’s academy with Major League

Soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps.“It just shows you that it can happen,”

Twardek underlines.

LANDMARK MOMENT FOR OSU“Having our past players earn professional

contracts is another major milestone in our club’s history,” highlights OSU President Bill Michalopoulos. “This was certainly a key objective we identified when we first started building OSU, and now we’re looking forward to having more follow in Kris’ footsteps.”

Past OSU goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi, 23, is now a member of an English pro club as well, recently signed after three practices with Chester FC, located south of Liverpool.

In February, OSU’s Anna Munro signed a scholarship to play for the Duke University Blue Devils – one of a full starting lineup’s worth of 1998-born OSU girls who are poised to join NCAA or Canadian university teams.

Numerous OSU grads are currently ex-celling at post-secondary schools north and south of the border, while OSU alum Ali Jabara and current Force Academy players Mollie Eriksson and David Chung have all taken part in Canadian youth national team programs of late.

Along with the club’s growing reputation and established connections close to home and abroad, there is no shortage of talent ready to follow Twardek to the next level.

“The OSU family is very proud of everything Kris has accomplished and we look forward to watching his future successes,” says OSU General Manager Jim Lianos. “And what’s also really exciting for us is we’ve got lots more coming up the pipeline.”

Twardek leads talented OSU pack by signing 1st pro contract

file photo

In the lead-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics, many observers felt the Sochi Games would be Team Jennifer Jones’ swan song. If the un-defeated run to the Olympic gold medal wasn’t enough to convince them otherwise, the Man-itoba rink of Ottawa native Dawn McEwen, Jill

Officer, Kaitlyn Lawes and skip Jones completely muted the suggestion with their rock-solid run to the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts national title Feb. 12-22 in Moose Jaw, Sask.

“People ask me if winning ever gets old,” smiles 34-year-old McEwen, the tournament’s top lead and best shooter at 90%. “But this one ranks right up there. It was a huge accomplish-ment and it’s just as exciting as my first major championship.”

Team Jones edged the defending Scot-ties-champion Ottawa Curling Club rink of Lisa Weagle, Joanne Courtney, Emma Miskew and Rachel Homan 8-7 en route to a 10-1 re-cord in the round robin, and finished the event with three consecutive victories over Alberta’s Val Sweeting (to conclude the round robin, in

the 1st vs 2nd place page playoff, and 6-5 in the final). Team Homan rebounded to win bronze after their defeat in the 3v4 page playoff against Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton.

“We had some tough competition there,” underlines McEwen, who began curling at the RCMP Curling Club when she was 7. “But I feel like we had a good week and overcame it.”

JOHNNY MO BACK ON TOP

McEwen wasn’t the only Ottawa native to capture a national curling crown this season. John Morris, who won world junior titles out of the Ot-tawa Curling Club in 1998 and 1999, earned the Tim Horton’s Brier title in Calgary, next door to his new home base in Chestermere, Alta.

With his father Earle coaching, the Van-

couver 2010 Olympic gold medalist made the bold move of giving up skipping duties to play third in favour of Pat Simmons after a 2-3 start.

The team’s only defeat from there came in the round robin against Sochi 2014 Olympic gold medallist Brad Jacobs. Morris’ rink beat Saskatchewan’s Laycock 8-7 in 3-4 page play-off game, downed 2006 Olympic gold medal-list Brad Gushue 8-6 in the semi-final and then clawed past Jacobs 6-5 in an extra end to collect the third Brier title of his career.

LOCAL ONTARIO YOUTH CHAMPS

Ottawa rinks also swept the Ontario Bantam Curling Championships this year.

Olympic curling champ McEwen rolls on to 5th career Scotties triumphBy Alex Quevillon

CURLING CHAMPS continues on p.10

Dawn McEwen

file photo

Call them the first family of local water polo.

They are Celso, Tatiana, Rodrigo, Veronica and Valeria Rojas, and together they make up the players, coaches and vo-lunteers that drive the Capital Wave Water Polo Club.

At the head of the Rojas water polo clan is Celso, who first learned to swim at age 6 back in his native Peru when his older brothers decided to throw their youngest sibling into the water.

His introduction to water polo was just as inadvertent. A Romanian coach, on business in Peru, fashioned together goals with two sticks and flag on top and found a basketball to teach kids the sport.

Eventually Celso went on to become the captain of the Peruvian national team, and later carved out a career coach-ing in California, in Vancouver at Simon Fraser University and eventually in Ottawa, begin-ning in 2008.

Another foreigner also made a big impact in Celso’s life. While volunteering with a church group that helped elderly people, he met Win-nipeg-born Tatiana Rovles,

whose father was a doctor working temporarily in Peru.

The couple have now been together almost 30 years and will celebrate their 25th wed-ding anniversary later this year. Tatiana says she’s been married to water polo just as long.

“We have water polo for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” smiles Tatiana, whose Orleans home is filled with swim caps and balls. “But even now, don’t ask me about the rules. My kids always tease me.”

Tatiana works at the pro-vincial courthouse while juggling a pile of behind-the-scenes tasks for Capital Wave and trying to make sense of the family’s confusing schedules.

Celso spends 24 hours a week on the pool deck and plenty more managing the club as head coach. Valeria, 14, is a high-scoring player for the Wave’s 16U girls National Championship League team, which improved its record to 8-5 with a pair of home pool victories on Feb. 20-21.

Rodrigo, 20, and Veron-ica, 21, have each won a gold and 2 silver provincial medals with the Carleton Univer-sity Ravens, are now Wave coaches, also serving as assist-ants for Ontario youth teams

last summer. “I knew my kids would

swim and probably get into water polo, but I never thought they’d be as passionate as Celso,” Tatiana reflects. “The other day, Rodrigo was coach-ing, and I actually thought it was Celso. He was yelling the same way he yells.”

Rodrigo laughs when asked if his coaching style is similar to his father’s.

“It’s exactly the same,” shrugs Rodrigo, who also fol-lowed in his father’s footsteps by appearing for the Peruvian national team last summer and would like to play in the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima.

“When we lived in B.C., it was a 45-minute drive to the pool,” he recounts. “I learned a lot from those drives.”

With graduation from her criminology program in sight, Veronica would like to travel, but her newfound love of coaching is making it hard for her to imagine going away.

“I want to stay around next year and the year after because I’ve grown up with these girls,” explains the 16U NCL coach. “I see myself in a lot of these girls, so that’s really nice.”

6

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By Dan Plouffe

(From left)Tatiana Rovles, Rodrigo, Veronica, Valeria & Celso Rojas.

photo: dan plouffe

COMMUNITY CLUBS

ROJAS continues on p.7

Naturally, Valeria is one of those mirror im-ages, although Veronica says that coaching her younger sister can be a challenge at times.

“She still takes things that I say to her per-

sonally instead thinking, ‘She’s my coach,’” Veronica notes. “But I can totally relate, with my dad.

“I used to come home and be like, ‘Oh my God, dad doesn’t like me. He hates us.’”

Valeria says – straight-faced – that she en-joys being able to get feedback from her sister, her brother and then her father. She too hopes to coach some day, which is music to Celso’s ears.

“I feel really, really proud,” un-derlines the past Canadian women’s national team program coach. “They like the sport the same way that I like it. It’s nice to have that relationship as a family.

“I’m happy we can work together and spend more time doing things to-gether because of water polo.”

The proud parents eagerly mention that their kids are great students as well – Veronica is on the dean’s list, while Rodrigo is also an ‘A’ stu-dent at Carleton.

“They’re role models for the kids,” Celso adds. “Veronica is like the older sister of the club and Rodrigo is like the older brother for everyone in the club.”

And of course Celso is like the father, with an enthusiasm that spreads like wildfire to all he encounters.

“He just fires the kids up,” highlights Capital Wave club president Kim Oastler, recounting how her daughter first met Celso and minutes later he’d talked her into playing for him com-petitively. “He has a very nice connection and a very sincere connection, and his passion shines through for sure.”

The young Capital Wave club has experi-

enced growing competitive success since it was founded in 2012 – the 16U girls standing as a prime example. The team used to lose regularly by double-digits, but this season the group is in 2nd place in the NCL east division, safely ahead of three chasers in the race to qualify for May’s league finals.

“We’re doing great,” Valeria indicates. “We’re really improving and we’re winning while playing more as a team this year.”

But a greater goal than winning trophies is continuing to grow the bond through all levels of the club, Celso emphasizes, noting that boys’ and girls’ teams often practice together, and the older kids coach the younger ones, who in turn watch the older players’ games.

“Every member feels that. They can see that family environment,” Celso smiles. “I’m happy. The club is growing as a family.”

7

Ottawa native Sophie Carpentier helped lift the Trinity Western Uni-versity Spartans to their first-ever Canadian Interuniversity Sport wo-men’s volleyball national champi-onship on March 1 at the University of Toronto. The third-year right-side hitter was third on her team with 17.5 points in the national final – a five-set barnburner against the Uni-versity of Alberta Pandas.

“It felt surreal. I never thought that it would happen, but it was great,“ recounts the Franco-Cité high school grad, now a TWU sociology student in Langley, B.C. “After winning the semis, we realized our school had never been to a national final before and that this was our time.”

Carpentier says she definitely felt butterflies going into the final against Alberta, whose men’s team had knocked off the Spartans in their CIS gold medal match the night before.

“The first two sets I was person-ally nervous and I could feel it in my stomach for sure,” details Carpentier, whose team dropped the first two sets 22-25 and 23-25, but bounced back to triumph 25-15, 25-15, 15-11 and win their 12th game in a row.

“We couldn’t let both Alberta’s men’s and women’s team be na-tional champions,” she underlines.

Carpentier’s victory over the Pandas also avenged the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees’ quarter-final and the U of T Varsity Blues semi-fi-nal defeats. Both of those teams’ lineups included players from Car-pentier’s former Maverick Vol-leyball Club, including first-team All-Canadians Myriam English (uOttawa) and Charlotte Sider (U of T), both graduating seniors.

“I was actually surprised (to be named All-Canadian) – it was a good surprise though,” says English, who wrapped up her career along-side twin sister Kelsie, a second-team provincial all-star herself, and libero Stephanie Theiler.

“I couldn’t ask for a better team

to finish with,” adds English, whose Gee-Gees swept both their final two games to finish 5th. “I’m just sat-isfied overall. It’s a sad moment to have to leave the sport, but we’ll see where the future takes me for sure.”

Sider also carries mixed feelings about her university career ending.

“I think graduating is always a bittersweet time,” indicates Sider, a beach volleyball national champion last summer who’s also competed at the FISU World University Games. “I have had so many amazing oppor-tunities in my career at U of T that I wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere.”

On the men’s side, Maverick alum Jori Mantha closed his CIS vol-leyball career with a national bronze medal. His #1 seed McMaster Ma-rauders swept Saskatchewan in their opening match, fell 3-1 to TWU in the semi-final and beat Dalhousie 3-0 for bronze. Mantha earlier led the Marauders in kills in their Ontario championship victory over Waterloo.

RAVENS WIN 2 OUA TITLES

The Carleton Ravens men’s nor-dic skiing team captured the Ontario University Athletics championship, while the Ravens women’s team placed 2nd at the Feb. 13-15 provin-cials in North Bay.

The pairs of Kyla Vanderzwet/Kendra Murray and Steffan Lloyd/Colin Abbott won the women’s and men’s free sprint relay. Abbott and Lloyd finished 1-2, while Murray won the women’s competition in the 6.6 km classic race.

Ravens Carrington Pomeroy, Patrick Van Walraven and Adrienne Hynes also earned OUA all-star status, along with Ottawa native Ben Wilkinson-Zan of Lakehead.

The Ravens earned a second pro-vincial title in May when its men’s fencing team topped the Feb. 21-22 OUAs in St. Catharines. Carleton won gold in the epée and foil team events (ahead of 2nd-place uOttawa in foil) and earned bronze in sabre.

Geoffrey Devaney was the men’s foil individual champion, while Car-leton’s Alexandre Salat (foil) and Joseph Wright (epée) were individual silver medallists, and uOttawa’s Nicholas Wagman completed the local foil podium sweep with bronze.

Many of the same athletes also competed for Ottawa Fencing at the March 6-8 Canada Cup event in Kitchener, which included a new cat-egory for university-age fencers.

Wagman won the foil university nationals ahead of Aidan Heffernan, while Wright took bronze in epée.

Jenny Zhao, 17, won the un-der-20 junior women’s event, placed 3rd in university, and 5th in the senior women’s foil competition won by Ottawa native Kelleigh Ryan.

Notre-Dame Catholic High School student Zoe Loh swapped podium spots with Zhao, winning gold in the university event and bronze in junior, while Phil McCully earned bronze in junior men’s foil.

Zhao and Wright also met the selection criteria for this summer’s FISU Games in Korea.

Former Mav celebrates 1st CIS volleyball crownBy Josh Bell Sophie Carpentier

UNIVERSITIES

photo provided

Ottawa Knights News

www.ottawaknightsbaseballclub.com

Knights visit SUNY Canton, next stop Florida Spring TrainingWhile the

sounds of sum-mer seem a distant prospect for most local baseball play-ers, that’s not the case for members of the

Ottawa Knights, who are well into their pre-season preparations already.

All four Knights teams (14U, 15U, 16U and 18U) traveled to Canton, NY at the end of February for a training session with the State University of New York at Canton Kangaroos, and next up is spring training in Florida over March Break.

In New York, the Knights got to experience a day in the life of a “Roo”. Varsity Coach Joe Carbone put the Ottawa prospects through the paces of a full three-hour NCAA practice, a comprehensive workout inside the school’s impressive indoor facilities.

The Knights also went for a full campus tour after the practice, followed by lunch and a 1/2 hour presentation from the admissions department focused on school life, courses, and what is required for international students to attend College in the U.S.

“Aside from getting a chance to work out with an NCAA team, the trip was all about exposing our players to the culture and pos-sibilities of playing baseball at a post-sec-ondary institution,” highlights Ottawa Knights Baseball Club President Andrew Beattie. “ On behalf of the entire Ottawa Knights family, we would like to extend a big thank you to Coach Carbone, his staff and the players from the Canton Roos baseball team for making the event such a great experience all of our Ott-awa Knights players.”

COLLEGE PROSPECT SHOWCASE DAY AT FLORIDA SPRING TRAINING

Knights teams have been practicing locally throughout the winter, but they’ll get a big chance to further refine their game as the Ot-tawa region’s lone club to travel to Florida for spring training.

On March 15, the Knights will hold their inaugural Spring Training College Prospect

Showcase Day at the Lawnwood Sports Complex in Fort Pierce, offering an opportun-ity for local and visiting NCAA, NCJAA and NAIA coaches and scouts to evaluate all the 15U, 16U and 18U Knights in action.

LEADING LIFETIME LOCKER VIDEOIn partnership with Skillshow Inc., each

player will be creating their first Lifetime Locker VIDEO, a highly effective recruiting tool for young prospects.

Lifetime Locker is an online portal that coaches and scouts can visit to see base- ball stats, evaluations, videos, grades and other key player information. This platform is widely considered one of the best all-around online student athlete marketing tools available.

Players will be recorded in Florida (on video and through radar) as they perform tests such as the 60-yard dash, fielders and basemen field & throw, catchers pop time & blocking, pitchers form and velocity, batters tee exit velocity and live arm.

The same afternoon, an Inter-Squad Game will provide further opportunities for pitching and in-game player evaluations.

“It’s been a busy winter for our club,” Beat-tie notes. “With all these opportunities our Knights have experienced of late, and with what we’ve still got coming up, we’re really excited about the upcoming season, and also to see what lies ahead for our players in their careers. It’s looking very promising.”

ROJAS continued from previous page

8

BYTOWN STORM BULLETINSPRING / SUMMER REGISTRATION : BECOME A TRIATHLETE!

Spring and Summer registration is now on for all our programs. Enroll NOW and don’t miss your opportun-ity to become a triathlete! Bytown Storm is Ottawa’s only triathlon club with programs for all ages and skill levels. Register for our Spring/Summer programs and get ready for:

• Kids of Steel Races• Ontario Youth Cup Events• Ontario Junior Draft Legal Events• Ontario Summer Games Qualifiers• Storm Aquathon Series

STORM TROOPERS > 8-11 YEARS OLDThe Bytown Storm Troopers program is designed on

the philosophies that:• Kids need to participate in structured sports• Kids need to participate in fun unstructured play• Kids need to become physically literate• Kids should experience many different activities• Kids need to do the right activity at the right level

at the right timeThis belief is what we strive to bring to our Storm

Troopers program every week. Our 2x per week format allows kids time to pursue other sports or activities, while developing the fundamental skill sets needed to enjoy and excel at endurance sports for many years to come.

Triathlon is comprised of three very different sports and as such our program is designed to work within the frame work of swimming, cycling and athletics while at the same time recognizing that we need to allow for a longer term development. The Storm Troopers program encourages athletes to achieve specific “skill” outcomes before moving on and aligning events we target with those skill sets.

Program runs from March/April to SeptemberVisit www.bytowntriathlon.com for more information.

STORM DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM > AGE 12-15The Bytown Storm Development Program prepares

youth triathletes for the competitive stream in triathlon. Draft legal racing is the style of racing that includes World Cups, World Championships and major games competition like the Pan-Am and Olympic Games.

The Development program is designed to introduce young multi-sport athletes to the processes and skills for success in sport and life. Improvements in sports like triathlon is largely based not only on sport specific skills but also many external skills sets that contribute to overall success. As part of The Bytown Storm De-velopment Team, athletes are coached and supported in developing:

• goal setting skills

• time management skills• tracking and reporting skills• human physiology skills• mental skills (distraction control, focus)Unlike many team sports, success in endurance

sports requires the athlete to develop sport specific skills in three sports, dedication to improving skill sets requires more training than playing, triathletes can spend over 100 hours of training for every hour of ra-cing (or more). This dedication and commitment is more likely to compliment other areas of their life such as school and work.

Program runs from March/April to SeptemberVisit www.bytowntriathlon.com for more information.

HIGH PERFORMANCE PROGRAM > AGE 16+Developing a true High Performance Daily Training

Environment means more than just competent sport specific coaching.

Developing a high performance culture in the sport of triathlon takes a professional triathlon coach who un-derstands the demands of International triathlon com-petition as well as the importance of assembling a team of coaches and support staff who are fully engaged in every aspect of the athlete’s development, training and racing environments.

High Performance programs are not pieced together with different coaches and clubs, but are an integrated unit of professionals who share an ethos of winning and a philosophy of long term success in the sport.

Our High Performance program is simply one of the best. The program is led by Professional Coaches – in-cluding Provincial Development Coach and 2010 Triath-lon Canada Elite Coach of the Year Greg Kealey – and an Integrated Support Team (IST) that is accessible to our high performance athletes 7 days a week.

Our IST Team includes:• Sport Medical Doctor - Dr. Renata Frankovich, Sport Med Ottawa• Physiotherapists - Alan Hicks, Francine Eastwood and Matt Mckinnell - Evolution Physio Therapy• Nutritionist - Sheila Kealey• Massage Therapist - Adam Smart• Bike Fit & Bike Mechanics - BUSHTUKAH Outdoor Gear

We are the most successful High Performance pro-gram in Eastern Ontario with the support and services available to our athletes that is on par with Nationally funded programs. If you want to compete in Draft Legal triathlons, you need to be in our program.

(Please note for registration in this program, you must contact Storm Coach Greg Kealey at 613-323-5255.)Visit www.bytowntriathlon.com for more information.

BYTOWNTRIATHLON.COM

For the second year in a row, an Ottawa native has earned the title of Canadian In-teruniversity Sport swimmer of the year. University of Toronto Varsity Blue Eli Wall topped the podium in the men’s 100 and 200-metre breaststroke events at the Feb. 19-21 CIS nationals in Victoria to follow 2014 women’s honouree Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, who won four medals of her own at the 2015 CIS meet.

“In the back of my mind I was hoping to win, at least one of them. I was working to-wards that all year,” highlights Wall, who also won a bronze medal in the 4x100 m medley relay to help the U of T men to 2nd place overall. “Our team was trying to defend a national title from last year and we fell just short, but getting the indi-vidual wins for myself is pretty exciting.”

The Greater-Ottawa King-fish-brewed swimmer won both his breaststroke races comfortably while dipping below FINA’s ‘B’ standard qualifying time for the 2015 World Championships. Wall’s rise comes at a great time, with Canadian world and Pan Am Games team trials coming up April 1-4 in Scarborough.

“I’m definitely going to try to see if I can get a spot on that team. I wouldn’t say they are out of my reach,” indicates the second-year life sciences stu-

dent, who is also acutely aware that 2016 is an Olympic year. “That’s been in the back of my mind for as long as I’ve been swimming basically. I guess after this past meet, it’s become more of a realistic goal than it ever has before.”

At the CIS finals, Selten-reich-Hodgson comfortably won her signature individual medley events to remain un-defeated in her CIS career in the women’s 200 and 400 m IM. The second-year arts student also collected 200 m backstroke bronze and 4 x 100 m and 4 x 200 m relay silver medals to help her women’s team to its fourth consecutive national crown.

But the 2014 Common-wealth Games 4th-place fin-isher’s main focus is now geared more towards perform-ing internationally.

“I have big hopes for my-self this summer,” underlines Seltenreich-Hodgson. “It’s going to be my third year on the national team if I make it, so I think I have just a perfect amount of experience under my belt now. I’ve been to a few different types of international competitions at different levels and I’m ready.”

The 19-year-old former

Nepean-Kanata Barracudas and GO Kingfish swimmer dipped just below the FINA ‘A’ standards in both her CIS IM races despite being well off her personal-best times – a testa-ment to the level she’s reached. The Rio 2016 Games are most definitely in her plans.

“Ever since I was a little kid, every swimmer has the dream of one day going to the Olympics,” states Selten-reich-Hodgson, who finished two spots away from claiming a London 2012 Canadian team berth at age 16. “I think I have a decent chance if I continue to try and improve at the rate that I’m doing right now.”

LOCAL SWIM HARDWARE

The University of Ottawa placed 10th in the women’s standings and 9th in men’s at the CIS Championships, with Gee-Gees swimmer Robert Bonomo winning bronze in the men’s 50 m butterfly.

Kingfish Liam Veregin swept the 16-and-under boys’ 50 m, 100 m and 200 m back-stroke events at the Feb. 19-22 Speedo Eastern Canadian Open in Quebec City, while Ottawa Swim Club’s Alexan-dre Perreault won the 50 m & 100 m fly.

Champion CIS swimmers target Pan AmsBy Josh Bell

UNIVERSITIES

photo: steve kingsman

Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson

Kanata native Ilya Abelev entered the re-cord books at the Feb. 27-28 Canadian Inter-university Sport Wrestling Championships, be-coming the first athlete to ever win four national titles in four different weight classes.

The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds 76 kg competitor completed an undefeated season at the event in Edmonton, and made it a perfect 4-for-4 in his CIS career.

“This one was definitely the best one,” sig-nals Abelev, who previously won titles in 2013 (72 kg), 2012 (68 kg) and 2011 (65 kg) while at the University of Western Ontario. “I remember people coming up to me during the tournament and in between matches, because it was a his-toric win. Everyone knew what was going on, so that was really an added pressure, and it was that much more satisfying to win.”

The Moscow-born 22-year-old credits a big part of his success to training outside of Canada in his younger years.

“Canada isn’t really a powerhouse in wrest-ling,” explains Abelev, whose Varsity Reds fin-ished 3rd as a team. “If you want to get better at hockey, you come to Canada. For wrestling, you go to Russia or the Ukraine. I did a lot of that, which got me to a higher level.“

Wrestler / med school candidate goes 4-for-4 on the mats, 4.3-for-4.3 in class

By Josh Bell

photo: don voaklander

Ilya Abelev

ABELEV continues on p.9

9

On the heels of his breakthrough World Championships silver medal performance, Ott-awa alpine skier Dustin Cook won his first career World Cup medal on March 8 in Nor-way – a super-g bronze. “It’s really nice to confirm what happened at world champs, that I’m not a one-hit wonder,” the 25-year-old Mont-Ste.-Marie skier said in an Alpine Canada media release. “Not that I thought I was. But I’m just super happy.”

COOK FOLLOWS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SILVER WITH WORLD CUP BRONZE

FORMER LIONS RUNNER WOODS CLIMBS TO 1ST CAREER PRO CYCLING VICTORY

RAVENS CURLERS EARN FISU GAMES SILVERThree Carleton Ravens women’s curlers won a silver medal at the Feb. 4-14 FISU Winter Universiade in Granada, Spain. Joined by University of Manitoba skip Breanne Meakin in place of 2014 university national champion Jamie Sinclair, the Ravens rink of Jessica Armstrong, Lynn Kreviazuk and Lauren Horton won 10 matches in a row to reach the championship final before falling to Russia 9-8 in an extra end.

SPEED SKATER BLONDIN WINS 1ST CAREER WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MEDALOttawa speed skater Ivanie Blondin put the crowning touches on her breakthrough sea-son with the first World Single Distance Championships medal of her career – a silver in her signature mass start discipline – followed by a 6th-place showing on home ice at the March 7-8 World Allround Championships in Calgary. “I did better than I thought I was capable of,” Blondin said in audio provided by Speed Skating Canada from the Calgary event. See SportsOttawa.com for more details.

GOALTENDER LACASSE WINS REPEAT CWHL TITLEGoaltender Geneviève Lacasse backstopped the Boston Blades to the Canadian Wo-men’s Hockey League title with a 3-2 overtime victory over Montreal on March 8 in Markham. It was the second consecutive Clarkson Cup triumph for the Limoges goalie who trains in Ottawa during her off-season, following her 2013 victory and a break

from the CWHL in 2014 to win an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada. Led by Sam Cogan’s 5 goals and an assist, the 6th-seeded Nepean Wildcats swept London 3-0 in their first-round Provincial Women’s Hockey League playoff series, while the 8th-seeded Ottawa Lady Sens were eliminated 3-0 by Durham.

Ottawa native Mike Woods won the first pro cycling race of his career at the Clássica In-ternacional Loulé on March 1 in Portugal. The 28-year-old won the 105-rider single-day continental-level race to lead his U.S.-based Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies team to victory. Woods’ triumph came on the heels of a 5th-place performance during the queen’s stage of the Volta ao Algarve, which featured several Tour de France teams. “It is diffi-cult to ask for a better start to my 2015 season,” the former Pan American junior track champion wrote on his blog at rustywoods.wordpress.com. “Since I began racing here in Portugal, I basically achieved everything I set out to do.”

Ottawa Fury youth academy graduate Christina Julien reemerged on the Ca-nadian women’s national soccer team’s roster for its last tournament prior

to the June 6-July 5 FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015. Canada earned 2-0 and 1-0 shutout victories over Scotland and Korea in their first two matches at the March 4-11 Cyprus Cup, with Julien appearing as a late substitute in the Scotland match.

JULIEN BACK IN THE SADDLE FOR CANADIAN WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM

Led by veteran defender/coach Colleen Hagan’s three-goal outburst, the Gloucester Devils downed the Atlantic Attack 7-2 in Game 1 and then completed the National Ringette League playoffs series sweep with an 8-3 victory at home on March 7. Kaitlyn Youldon registered a hat trick of her own in the second as the Devils qualified for their second consecutive NRL championship tournament. The defending-champion Ottawa Ice also secured their ticket to the March 29-April 4 national finals in Wood Buffalo, Alta. with 11-5 and 11-7 playoff victories over the Gatineau Fusion.

ICE, DEVILS ADVANCE TO NATIONAL RINGETTE LEAGUE FINAL TOURNAMENT

OTTAWA SPORT COUNCIL OFFERS SPORT-RELATED WEBINARS

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

The Ottawa Sport Council is offering a free webinar series for local sports organizations on March 11, March 25 and April 8. Topics in-clude: Bidding and Hosting Sport Events 101, I’m a Coach - Now What? - Understanding Your Legal Obligations, and Twitter Made Easy. See sportottawa.ca for more details.

Ottawa Lions runner Adam Palamar joined the exclusive sub-4-minute mile club on Feb. 14 at the Iowa State Classic. The third-year University of Tulsa student ran 3:59.91 to finish 7th in the race.

PALAMAR BREAKS 4-MINUTE MILE BARRIER

SQUASH PLAYER CORNETT WINS BIGGEST TOURNEY OF HER CAREEROttawa native Samantha Cornett scored the biggest Women’s Squash Association World Tour title to date on Feb. 9 at the Delaware Open. The world #32 downed opponents from Mexico, England, New Zealand and Pakistan en route to the WSA Challenger 10 squash event victory.

The former National Capital Wrest-ling Club athlete won his first three matches by technical superiority, then survived a 3-1 gold medal final against Russian Aleksandr Soronov from the University of Winnipeg, who was also unbeaten this year up to that point.

“He was kind of brought in as a ringer,” Abelev smiles. “It was more excit-ing to win for that reason – he was a first year who hadn’t lost a match in Canada.”

Next up for the Earl of March Sec-ondary School grad will be the March 20-22 Senior Canadian Championships in St. Catharines, where he’ll take a shot at earning a Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games berth. The UNB kinesiology stu-

dent has one year of university eligibility left and will also seek to defend another perfect record he’s earned along the way – a 4.3 (A+) GPA.

“I’m trying to get into medical school right now,” Abelev notes. “That would be in two years, so I’ll just con-tinue wrestling until I get in. I’m aiming for the 2016 Olympics, but I don’t ex-pect to be wrestling to 2020. That’s kind of the plan right now.”

ROOKIE HEAVYWEIGHT 5TH

A provincial champion in the 65 kg category for Tsunami Academy in 2013, Ottawa native Theresa El-Lati moved up to 82 kg to represent Concordia Univer-sity at the CIS Championships, earning a 5th-place finish in her rookie year.

ABELEV continued from last page

National silver medallist Alaine Chartrand placed 10th in the women’s event at the Feb. 9-15 ISU Four Continents Championships in Seoul. The 18-year-old Nepean Skating Club member

will compete next at the March 23-29 ISU World Championships in Shanghai.

CHARTRAND 10TH AT FOUR CONTINENTS, WORLS UP NEXT

ALGONQUIN THUNDER BOUNCED IN ONTARIO WOMEN’S BBALL SEMISThe Algonquin Thunder rebounded from a heartbreaking 58-55 defeat to the Humber Hawks – who led their semi-final contest by 17 at one point – to win the Ontario college women’s basketball bronze medal. Algonquin posted convincing victories over Fanshawe and St. Lawrence to earn bronze at the March 5-7 provincials in Toronto.

The Capital City Condors are set to host 75 teams for the largest-ever Special Hockey Interna-tional Tournament March 18-21 in Kanata. “For these athletes it is like their own mini-Olympics,”

organizers note. “You have to see it to truly understand and you will never feel the same again about the developmentally challenged or even about hockey.”

CAPITAL CITY CONDORS TO HOST LARGE SPECIAL NEEDS HOCKEY TOURNEY

LOCAL VOLLEYBALL GURU KERRY MACLEAN HONOURED FOR YEARS OF VOLUNTEERISMOttawa Major Jim Watson and Beacon Hill-Cyrville City Councillor Tim Tierney presented the Mayor’s City Builder Award to Maverick Volleyball Club founder Kerry MacLean, along with his wife Chris, at a Feb. 11 ceremony at City Hall in recognition of 30+ years of community service.

The one coach who did want Ber-hanemeskel – Dave DeAveiro, who later joined the McGill Redmen – was gone before his Gee-Gees career ever began, replaced by Derouin.

“I kind of contemplated leaving at the time, but I’m glad I stayed. It worked out for the best,” smiles the 23.2 point-per-game player. “I wasn’t guaranteed anything when I first came. That made me really hungry to chase after what I desired. And it’s made me appreciate what I’ve accom-plished that much more. I’ve been truly grateful for the whole ride.”

#3 NATIONAL SEEDS

The Gee-Gees will be in their familiar underdog positions as they chase their first national title in

program history March 12-15 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto.

Playing on their home court, uOt-tawa lost the OUA semi-final 85-80 on March 6 at Montpetit Hall, and needed a wildcard berth to gain entry to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Final-8 tournament.

Set to face Bishop’s in the first round, the #3-seeded Gee-Gees are on the opposite side of the draw as the OUA-champion and #1-ranked Ravens, inviting the possibility of a rematch of the 2014 final between the two local juggernauts.

Last year, Berhanemeskel nailed the deciding bucket with under a second to play in the Ontario final to beat Carleton for the first time in his career, but the Ravens prevailed 79-67 in the national final at Canadian Tire Centre.

This year, the Gee-Gees won the teams’ first encounter 68-66 and occupied the country’s #1 ranking with a 14-0 record before Carleton reclaimed the top spot with a 79-66 Capital Hoops Classic victory.

“While we were ranked #1, I felt like our identity was off. It was like, this wasn’t who we are almost,” Derouin maintains. “Not that we wanted to lose, but it sets us back to who we are as we head deep into the

playoffs.”Derouin says his team has that

little extra bit of motivation entering nationals because they want to send off Berhanemeskel with a final prize.

“It’s an incredible feat – all the records he’s broken here,” signals the Ottawa native and former Gee-Gees player. “There’s a lot of his influence splashed all over this team. We’re very lucky to have had him.

“The basketball gods were smil-ing when he showed up on my door-step. I’m not blind to that. I’m fully aware of it.

“That’s why it’s a big season for us, because he’s finished at the end of this year.”

HIGH SCHOOL LOSS SPURS DRIVE

When Berhanemeskel was in Grade 10 at Lester B. Pearson Cath-olic High School, his Panthers lost the city final on a buzzer-beater.

It was right then that the former Gloucester Hornets competitive soc-cer player decided to throw all his energy into basketball, working on his game constantly at summer camps and with club basketball programs.

“For some people, that’s kind of a late start, but I just had so much love for the sport,” explains the former Gloucester Wolverines and Ottawa

Phoenix player. “I tried to catch up and see where I could take it, and now I’m hoping to have pro aspirations after this.”

It might seem strange that a dev-astating loss would fuel his drive to reach the next level, but that’s Johnny Basketball.

“That’s kind of the story of my five years here too,” Berhanemeskel notes, calling his Gee-Gees “the closest team in the country,” – bonded by a mutual fire to overcome the odds.

“Those are the guys who help you when you have tough losses and pick you up in those moments, and those are the guys I’m so happy to share big wins with too,” he adds. “It’s made us who we are.”

In Berhanemeskel’s senior year at LBP, his Spartans wound up winning the city championship.

“That was special. Growing up with so many of those guys and finally winning in our Grade 12 year, it was a big deal,” recounts Berhanemeskel, who’s now looking to replicate a sim-ilar finish in his final season at uOtt-awa. “We’re really looking forward to showing what we can do.

“I feel like everyone’s put in the work, everyone’s sacrificed so much, and I feel like it’s time to just get over the last hump.”

10 EDITORIAL

Mailing address:902 Pinecrest Rd.

Ottawa, Ont. K2B 6B3

The Ottawa Sportspage is a volunteer-driven newspaper devoted to shining a spot-light on local amateur sport. The Ottawa Sportspage is printed on the first Tues-day of the month by Ottawa Sports Media, the locally- owned publisher of the Sportspage & SportsOttawa.com. Ottawa sports news from high schools, univer-sities, community clubs and elite amateur sport is the name of our game. We’re at The Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community.

Contact:Editor: Dan Plouffe

613-261-5838Editor@SportsOttawa.com

Team of the Month: Glebe CI Gryphons Senior Girls’ Nordic Skiing TeamTeam Members: Alison Pouw, Katherine Marshall, Hanna Smith, Lois Betteridge, Nicola Goldsmith, Stephanie Williams & Coach Anne Rimes

About: The Glebe Gryphons senior girls blasted their competition at the Feb. 19-20 OFSAA Nordic Ski-ing Championships in Sudbury. Led by individual silver medalist Alison Pouw, along with Katherine Marshall (7th), Hanna Smith (10th), Lois Betteridge (16th), Nicola Goldsmith and Stephanie Williams, Glebe outdistanced 2nd-place Huntsville by a whopping 71 placement points to repeat as OFSAA champs. The Gryphons also comfortably won the 3.2 km senior girls’ relay gold by 53.3 seconds. For Marshall, it was the second dominant OFSAA senior girls’ victory of her 2014-15 high school sports season following her OFSAA cross-country running championships triumph.

Athlete of the Month: Michael KavchakSport: Hockey

Club: SouthEnd Minor Hockey Association

School/Grade: Grade 10 Lycée Claudel

About: Michael Kavchak has enjoyed a standout cam-paign in his first year of Midget hockey this season. The 16-year-old SouthEnd centre has been a scoring star in house league competition, accumulating a team-high 36 goals in the 40 league, playoff and tournament games he’s played. Kavchak was the tournament scoring leader at his squad’s final tournament of the season, held at the Bell Sensplex in mid-February. With 12 points (9 goals and 3 assists in 5 games), he led the pack of 400+ players from 32 teams.

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 Athlete of the Month will receive a free one-week Family Pass to the Y, while each member of the Team of the Month will receive free one-visit passes.

YMCA-YMCA OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

STARS OF THE MONTH

LBP grad Johnny

Berhane- meskel

UNDERDOG: Lester B. Pearson grad Berhanemeskel won elusive high school championship in senior yearcontinued from p.1

file photo

CURLING continued from p.5The Huntley Curling Club crew

of Kayla MacMillan, Sarah Dav-iau, Lindsay Dubue and Marcia Richardson won the girls’ event, and the Richmond Curling Club rink of Michael Morra, Sean Armstrong, Grant Fraser and Matthew Morra topped the boys’ competition.

McEwen says she’s enjoying the uprising that her hometown’s curling scene is going through, es-pecially with the 2016 Brier and 2017 Roar of the Rings Canadian Olympic curling trials set to be hos-ted in the nation’s capital.

“It’s an exciting time for curling fans in Ottawa,” signals McEwen. “They’re both big events, and there’s some good local talent from Ottawa. It should be really good.”

McEwen will certainly pull for the Ottawa curlers, but her main cheering allegiances lie with the rink skipped by her husband, Mike McEwen, who she met when her family billeted him for a junior bonspiel in Ottawa. They were married at the Ottawa Hunt Club in summer 2013.

Mike would like to make his elusive first appearance at a Brier in 2016, set for TD Place next March.

McEwen would like to be play-ing at the December 2017 Roar of the Rings at Canadian Tire Centre herself, and with a remarkable re-cord of 5 gold, 2 silver and a bronze in her past 8 Scotties, she shows no signs of slowing down.

“I’ve had a great run,” indic-ates the University of Ottawa grad. “It’s just about staying consistent from tournament-to-tournament and that’s what we’ve done.”

11

Tumblers Gymnastics Creates New Daytime Program for Ages 1-4The program is even younger

than the participants them-selves, but the enthusiasm for Tumblers Gymnastics Centre’s recently-launched playgroup is quickly matching the energy of the 1-to-4-year-olds taking part.

“It’s going wild,” smiles Tum-blers general manager Christine Groleau. “It’s really great – bey-ond what we expected.”

The structured playgroup format has proven popular with parents, who are also keen to see their children receive an in-troduction to physical activity at a young age.

The 2-hour program begins with an activity like Play-Doh upon ar-rival. They’ll then start their gym-nastics class that lasts for around an hour, moving from station to station on Tumblers’ kinder-sized equipment, bouncing on trampo-lines, crawling through tunnels, walking on balance beams or con-quering blocks by climbing up and over them, for example. And the foam pit is always a favourite.

Then comes a break for a snack (provided by parents), a craft ses-sion, a bit more free time in the gym, and then the session wraps up with storytime or a group activity.

The activities change to match each week’s theme, such as beach week or mardi gras. The playgroup carries a fun, bright atmosphere, while also providing an environ-ment to ready the youngsters for

preschool and kindergarten.“It prepares them to go into a

structured class,” notes playgroup program coordinator Lynne Ethier. “It gives them a social atmosphere as well. They get to interact with other kids their age, from the same neighbourhood. And it builds con-fidence and gross motor skills. Gymnastics is the sport that’s the foundation for every sport.”

The drop-in playgroup operates Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at a cost of $10 per visit ($5 per additional child).

Groleau observes that the biggest reason for the playgroup’s popularity may be that it offers the chance for parents, or grandpar-ents/caregivers, to meet others with young children.

“I really think it’s the social aspect,” she explains. “The par-ents, they come, and they have a

coffee when they’re here, they talk about their children, and their development. They can ask, ‘I have a problem, what’s your idea?’

“It’s a good parenting network, and we’ve found already that they’re becoming friends and organizing other activities out-side of the playgroup.”

AFTERNOON DROP-OFF PROGRAM COMING

Following March Break, Tum-blers will begin an afternoon program for independent chil-dren from Age 3-5. It will follow

a similar activity lineup, except that parents will drop off their kids from 12:30-2:30 p.m.

With many stores and services close to the gym – located slightly west of Tenth Line Rd. off Innes – convenience is expected to be a pop-ular feature, while also serving to help the detachment learning process.

“Sometimes it’s hard for the child, but it’s also hard for the par-ents too to let them go,” indicates Ethier. “They want to help them, and for them, it’s a big step back.”

A familiarity with the facility and staff, grown out of prior attendance in the playgroup, will help make the transition easier, however.

“It gets the kids used to the gym so that when they do come in on their own, it’s no problem,” Groleau adds. “They think, ‘I grew up here. This is my playground.’”

THIS IS MY PLAYGROUND, THIS IS MY PLAYGROUP!

New Session Begins

March 23rd

March Break Camp and

PD Day Camps

Register Today!

Suzana Diacomescu won three event gold medals and her division’s all-around title, but it was a 6th-place finish that the Ottawa Gym-nastics Centre athlete was most proud of at her recent women’s artistic gymnastics provincial championships qualifier.

The Grade 8 Hopewell Avenue Public School student won the vault, floor and balance beam events at the Feb. 28-March 1 competition at OGC, but she was most geared towards put-ting in a strong performance on the uneven bars.

“That’s my weakness, I have to say,” under-lines the Level 7, Age 12-13 gymnast. “But I did pretty well. That was one of my best routines, so I was really pleased with that.”

The uneven bars had been a massive struggle for Diacomescu prior to the home event. She’d placed 19th and last at her first of three qualifi-ers, and in the bottom half at the second.

“It’s been so tough for her,” recounts Tobie Gorman, the OGC coach of 38 years who re-mains buoyed by triumphs like Diacomescu’s performance at the qualifier – the first time she hit her bars routine all year.

“That’s such a huge accomplishment,” Gor-man underlines. “Not because she won, because she did her best performance, and that’s what the expectation is. Suzana was so dedicated in prac-tice, and she came off bars with a grin from ear to ear. We’ve just been waiting for that moment.”

LUCK OF THE LOCALS

There were plenty more high points for the host club at the event. OGC’s Isabelle Allan, Keira Frosst, Haley Turcotte and Carly Gagné swept the 1st-through-4th all-around positions in Level 5, Age 14+ competition; Laura Palmer (L6, A9), Elizabeth Mckee (L6, A12), Dior Carley (L6, A15+) and Maddison Kelleher-Radey (L7 A14-15) were all-around champions in their di-visions; and Level 8, Age 14+ all-around champ Emma Christie was the most decorated local ath-lete at the competition, scoring beam and floor gold medals and silver on vault and bars.

“I’m surprised,” signals Christie, who felt her performance wasn’t overly spectacular.

Given, it may be a bit harder to impress the Grade 10 Nepean High School student these days. After all, she’s little more than a month re-moved from her individual silver and team gold medal showing with Team Ontario at the Lady Luck Invitational in Las Vegas.

“It was crazy. It was so big and there were so many lights,” recalls Christie, talking both about

the city and the competition venue. “I wasn’t ex-pecting it to be that big. There were six gyms going on simultaneously. It was in this big hall.”

Christie enjoyed seeing some of her new Team Ontario friends at the qualifier, and she also revelled in the support she received from family, friends and teammates who weren’t com-peting at the time – like each OGC gymnast did.

“You get more adrenaline from them cheer-ing,” she indicates.

Level 6, Age 10 all-around champ Alexandra Turmelle from Tumblers Gymnastics Centre was another athlete who set herself up well for the April 9-12 Ontario Artistic Gymnastics Champi-onships in Windsor.

Fellow Tumbler Sophie Paquin had a rough start to her meet with falls on bars and beam, but gained confidence from being able to rebound and place 2nd all-around in Level 9, Age 14+.

“It’s good to know that I can still get a good score even if it wasn’t my best,” Paquin ex-plains. “If I hit my routines, I know I can have really good results.”

Paquin proved prophetic in her words as she went on to win her division the next weekend at the giant Gymnix meet in Montreal. Other local podium performers at Gymnix included: Nepean-Corona’s Paige McKenzie, Anna Meech, Robin Tarnocai and Audrey Gilmour, Tumblers Han-nah Nixon, Juliette Chapman, Jordan Faig and Turmelle, and OGC’s Sofia Baggio.

Several local male gymnasts also earned the right to represent Ontario at a March 27-30 meet at the University of Calgary, including Tumblers’ Eric Gauthier, who won the National Open cat-egory at the tour qualifier by almost 2 full points. Check next month’s Ottawa Sportspage for more.

6th place priceless for 4-medal winnerBy Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

COMMUNITY CLUBS

Emma Christie

The Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club launched into the 2015 competitive sea-son with an in-house meet for their provin-cial and interclub athletes on Feb. 21-22.

The athletes from age 8 to 17 will have one more warm-up event before the ma-jor province-wide competitions begin. The March 14-15 Kanata Cup at Bridlewood Community Elementary School will fea-ture an invitational for provincial-level gymnasts, as well as a special perform-ance by the KRSG’s World Gymneastrada team (set to travel to Helsinki this summer) and an event featuring Special Olympics athletes from across Ontario.

The Kanata Cup will also serve as an op-portunity to celebrate the club’s 40th an-niversary this season.

KANATA CUP COMING UP FOR LOCAL RHYTHMIC GYMNASTS

photo provided

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