HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 4, #6 April 2015

The Nepean Ravens only placed 4th at their mid-March provincial fi-nals, but it turns out that provided the fire they needed en route to a perfect run and a national title in the Belle un-der-19 division at the March 29-April 4 Canadian Ringette Championships in Wood Buffalo, Alta.

“The girls really came out strong from the first day, and were determ-ined to have a good showing here,” indicates Ravens coach Art Marcotte. “We certainly weren’t the favourite coming in, but we knew we were go-ing to be able to compete here. This was probably the tightest of competi-tion I have ever seen in a national tour-nament, so to have gone undefeated

was really something special.”Nepean blanked Team Alberta

3-0 in the championship game, with Rianne Munro earning the shutout in goal. Earlier, the Ravens survived a 4-3 overtime semi-final against B.C. thanks to Cait Driscoll’s OT winner and a regulation-time hat trick by Molly Lewis – part of the 2015 Canada Winter Games silver medallist’s tour-nament-high 41 points in nine games.

“I wouldn’t have been able to get the points I did without the players around me,” signals Lewis, named a tournament all-star alongside team-mates Allie Marcotte, Amy Kolesnik and Natasha Hurtubise. “It’s just such a reward to have the gold after how hard we all worked this season.

“It’s just amazing. Words really

can’t describe it.”After a near-perfect 19-0-1 season

playing in the Quebec Elite League and strong performances in tourna-ments, Nepean’s pair of 6-5 defeats in the provincials medal round meant they wouldn’t wear Team Ontario colours at nationals, but the group kept its sights on gold.

“We grew a lot from that exper-ience,” Lewis underlines. “It defin-itely motivated us to work harder here at nationals, and caused us to come in a lot hungrier.”

ICE 6TH, DEVILS 8TH IN NRL

The Ottawa Ice and Gloucester Devils were also part of the Cana-dian Championships in the National Ringette League category, placing

6th and 8th respectively with 3-4 and 1-6 records.

The Ice entered the event as de-fending champions, but were dealt a blow back in February when they found out starting goaltender Tori Goble wouldn’t be able to particip-ate since she’d been selected to begin training for her desired career in the Canadian Armed Forces.

“Our backups are still great goal-tenders, but they don’t quite have the same experience as our starter,” notes Ice coach Al Bateman, whose top Ontario rivals from Cambridge won the crown. “But regardless, we always strive to be the hardest team in the league to play against. The girls still went out there with that attitude, and I think they did themselves proud.”

By Mat LaBranche

photo provided

KRSG REACHES 40-YEAR MARK

P. 8

P. 12

2012 Ottawa Sports Awards female athlete of the year Courtnay Pilypaitis has decided to retire from basketball at age 27.

The Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club hit 2 milestones, celebrating 40 years as a club and 25 years for its Kanata Cup event.

NON-STOP NAKKERTOK

P. 5The Nakkertok Nordic Ski Club earned its sixth consecutive national club title and will help host a local World Cup next year.

Ravens ringette

rally

After settling for silver with Team Ontario at the Canada Winter Games, Nepean captain Molly Lewis would not be denied a gold medal a second time this year, scoring a remarkable 41 points in her Ravens’ nine victories en route to the Canadian Belle U19 title.

Shut out of provincial medals, Nepean Ravens rebound with perfect run to gold at nationals

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Where the Dream Begins.

Local teams won medals in both the OFSAA provincial high school sports champi-onships hosted in town from March 9-12, with the Merivale Marauders earning bronze in the ‘AA’ boys’ basketball event and the Louis-Riel Rebelles taking antique-bronze for 4th place in ‘AAA/AAAA’ girls’ hockey.

The Marauders ended their OFSAA run with a bang as Ali Sow hit a 3-point buzzer-beat-ing prayer from half court to complete his 28-point effort in Merivale’s 72-69 bronze medal match victory.

The triumph provided a happy finish for Merivale after a difficult semi-final loss that knocked them out of champi-onship contention earlier the same day, but coach Sean Mc-Cann believes his team came away with lessons learned re-gardless of result.

“It sounds stupid, but it’s not the winning or losing,” indicates McCann, who spoke to his team for an extended period of time after their lone defeat in five matches. “If you lose and you do the things right you’ve been working on, that feels a lot better afterwards.They might not realize it yet, but this is one more life exper-ience they’ll have.”

LOUIS-RIEL ‘BEST FRIENDS’

Louis-Riel’s seniors just couldn’t get enough of play-ing hockey with one another.

Seeded only 12th out of 20 teams, they played the max-imum number of games pos-sible – seven in four days – to close their careers with their fourth OFSAA hockey medal in as many years, including gold last year at the ‘A/AA’ Championships for schools with smaller populations.

The team was powered by Princeton-bound defender Kimiko Marinacci and Dart-mouth-bound forward Alyssa Baker, but also included a number of top provincial and national-level soccer players, who wanted to play Rebelles hockey despite heavy commit-ments to their main sport.

“I’ve had a great four years playing with these girls,”

highlights Gloucester Hornets striker Kelsey Ellis. “I loved every single minute of it, and it’s provided me with a ton of memories.

“There’s seven of us in Grade 12, and we’re all ex-tremely close. Most of us met when we were in Grade 9 and instantly became best friends.”

SACRED HEART BRONZE

Led by Ontario Bantam club champions Michael and Matthew Morra, the Sacred Heart Huskies boys’ curling team that also featured An-drew Morra and Sebastian Co-ort claimed the bronze medal at the March 9-12 OFSAA boys’ curling championships in Brighton.

Bball & hockey podiums at home OFSAAsBy Mat LaBranche

photo: dan plouffe

HIGH SCHOOLS

The Louis-Riel Rebelles took antique-bronze for

4th place at OFSAA.

UNIVERSITIESWay too good

photo provided

The Carleton Ravens demolished the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in their second consecutive Canadian Interuniversity Sport men’s basketball national championship game meeting on March 15 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. Following 90-50 and 83-72 wins over Saskatchewan and Victoria, the Ravens pounded the Gee-Gees 93-46 in the final, with graduating star Philip Scrubb recording a game-high 28 points for Carleton’s 11th title in 13 years and fifth in a row.

There is a big buzz in Ottawa’s thriving ultimate community as the Ottawa Outlaws get set to bring pro ultimate to the capital for their April 25 home debut in the American Ul-timate Disc League at Carleton Uni-versity’s Keith Harris Stadium.

“When we announced the team back in August of last year and made a Facebook page, it got more than 1,000 likes in less than 10 hours,” notes Outlaws operations vice pres-ident Christiane Marceau. “All of the comments were saying how it’s about time, and how everyone was looking forward to the season. So that was really eye-opening.”

The Outlaws are certain to also provide a shock to the system for any outsiders who haven’t seen the sport played at a competitive level in recent years. Long gone is the image of hippies tossing around a frisbee and opponents singing to one another after games.

The existence the four-year-old AUDL is proof of that evolution. Self-officiated games are now toast in favour of referees in stripes with whistles. The circuit’s recent nine-team expansion that included the Outlaws brings the total to 25 fran-chises, split into four divisions.

Ottawa will play 14 regular sea-son games on weekends from April 18 (beginning on the road against D.C. Breeze) until July 19 against east division opponents from Phil-adelphia, Rochester, New York, D.C., Montreal and Toronto – the op-ponents for the 5 p.m. home opener.

Players receive a small amount of pay and have their expenses – from field rental to physiother-apy – covered by the team, which makes its money from partnerships, merchandise and ticket sales (a seven-game season ticket package starts at $64.99).

It was a “no-brainer” for owners Levy Champagne, Patrick Bazinet and Karl Loiseau (also one of the

team’s three captains) to setup a team in Ottawa, says Marceau, es-pecially after seeing the success of fellow Canadian clubs in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

“Last year, the three Canadian teams combined made up for 60% of the league’s attendance, so Canada is a success story, and it’s obvious we need more teams here,” indic-ates the former executive director for Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Asso-ciation, one of the team’s partners.

The sport’s strong tradition in Ottawa also made it a natural market, Marceau adds. OCUA’s membership numbers have reached as high as 5,000 and the Phoenix open team – 13th-place finishers at last year’s club world championships in Italy – was ready to provide the core talent that now makes up the Outlaws.

“I’ve played in Ottawa for a few years now, starting in high school and then at the university level at Carleton, so it feels like more of a transition to another competitive team, rather than playing in an in-augural season,” signals Mathew Berg, a 4th-place finisher with Canada at the March 8-13 Beach Ultimate World Championships in Dubai. “We already have a few guys who have played in the AUDL be-fore, so it’s great to have that know-ledge and experience to hopefully guide us in the right direction.”

Nick Boucher is another Out-law with a fair bit of international

experience, having twice represen-ted Canada at both the under-19 and U23 levels, although his sports path began in hockey and basketball.

“I think they translate very well with ultimate, especially basketball, because there’s so much pivoting, jumping and catching involved,” highlights Boucher, who was re-cently selected to represent Canada in the open division at the July 12-18 U23 worlds in London, UK along with fellow Ottawa natives Kristina Cowan and Sarah Innes (women’s team) and Hannah Dawson, Jeremy Hill and Kinley Gee (mixed).

“Hockey has helped me a lot with lower core strength, which I definitely notice benefiting me out here now,” Boucher adds. “I think a lot of sports where conditioning is the main factor can easily translate onto the frisbee field.

“The good thing about ultimate is the only things you really need to know to excel is how to run, catch and play defence.”

Boucher says he and his team-mates, who have held late-night practices out of the Louis-Riel Dome lately, are very excited to de-but as the inaugural generation of Ottawa Outlaws.

“We’re going to be the ones known as being a part of the very first professional team here in Ottawa,” he underlines. “That is something to be proud of, and something I will re-member for the rest of my life.”

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Ottawa Outlaws bring pro ultimate to townBy Mat LaBranche

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photo: mat labranche

OSU Force Academy ZoneOSU alumni spotlight: Jon Viscosi’s wild ride in English pro ranks

It’s been a turbulent journey most of the way for OSU alum Jon Viscosi since he

began his quest to become a professional soccer player in England a season-and-a-half ago, but the 24-year-old Chester FC goalkeeper is nonetheless loving every mo-ment of the ride.

“Your whole life is dedicated to football,” indicates Viscosi, who treasures being a part of the English football culture. “There’s noth-ing like it.”

Viscosi’s path to the pros included his teenage years at OSU, which provided an excellent launching pad towards higher levels, underlines the past Ontario Cup semi-finalist who was part of the early gener-ation of local teams that began to hold their own against Toronto-area rivals.

Attending Disney and many other show-case tournaments with OSU got him in front of university scouts and led to a four-year NCAA career with the SUNY University at Buffalo Bulls.

OSU General Manager Jim Lianos later linked up the former Bulls captain with his first Professional Development League club in Albany, and OSU helped sponsor him for his trip to the 2013 FISU World University Games in Russia, his last stop before setting up shop in England.

Grateful for the club’s support along the way, Viscosi recalls with a certain fondness the brutal fitness sessions OSU Coach Rus-sell Shaw would put his team through.

“There was no one who was ever com-plaining about it. We’d always be competing with each other. We loved it,” recounts Vis-cosi, who always finishes in the top-2 dur-ing fitness tests with the English clubs he’s joined. “Any club I went to, they said what they liked most about me was my work ethic and my attitude.

“I think that’s just ingrained in our culture.”

‘KEEPING FAITH’ ON ROUGH ROADIt’s most definitely been an up-and-down

experience in England for Viscosi, who started his climb to the full-time pro ranks in less-than-professional conditions with clubs

that played in the eighth tier of English foot-ball.

Viscosi wound up training and playing with a number of clubs at different levels – reach-ing a double-digit total in just over a season – including League 2, League 1 and Champi-onship (English second tier) sides.

He impressed enough people along the way that Scottish Premier League club St. Mirren offered him a contract, but then the Scottish FA denied the registration due to a rule that forbids players from signing if they’d previously been the property of multiple Eng-lish clubs in the same season.

Viscosi was dealt a further blow when he dislocated his shoulder, sending him back to Ottawa with no contract and three months of rehab. Once healthy come January this year, Viscosi got a call from Chester offering him a trial, and after just a few sessions was signed by the Conference Premier (fifth-tier) club.

“It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but the journey to get to where I am has been unbelievable,” reflects the All Saints Catholic High School grad. “You definitely have a lot of road bumps. Keeping the faith and believ-ing it’s going to happen is so crucial.”

From arriving late and getting bloodied in his first starts with new clubs, to the thrill of playing soccer on Saturdays in England, read a more detailed account of Jon Vis-cosi’s life as a pro at osu.ca.

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73 teams took part in the SHI Tournament.The Capital City Condors

hosted the largest Special Hockey International Tour-nament to date with 73 teams as special needs hockey play-ers lit up west-end areas with slapshots, slides and smiles from March 18-21.

Teams from Canada, the U.S. and even England atten-ded the event, held in Ottawa for the first time by the dedic-ated Condors organization that is home to players age 6 and up who are unable to play in traditional hockey leagues due to developmental disabilities.

“After attending previous (SHI) tournaments and see-ing how important it was to the kids, we felt that the host cities were giving us a gift,” recounts tournament organizer and Condors president Jim Perkins. “We felt it was our turn to give that gift, so we put in the bid three years ago, and thankfully we were awarded the tournament.

“There just seemed to be a certain level of excitement for this one.”

Each team played four games at the annual tour-nament that serves as “the athletes’ own version of the Olympics,” with opening and closing ceremonies on top of the games where scores aren’t

tracked.“I think there’s a purity of

the sport, and sportsmanship, that starts to come out when these kids get together and play,” Perkins highlights. “The interactions that happen on the ice are amazing; you can even see friendships forming on a single line shift. But at the same time they dream like everyone else, and want to im-prove like everyone else, so they’re willing to work hard. But the social component of it is probably the largest factor.”

CONDORS CHANGING LIVESAfter growing up with a

father who was a tremendous athlete before succumbing to paralysis due to polio, Perkins recalls wishing sports could be modified to accommodate athletes with disabilities who couldn’t play in traditional leagues.

This planted a seed, which

would later grow further when he worked with kids with special needs in college, and then witnessed a special needs hockey program operating in Cambridge, Ont.

After a lengthy conversa-tion with one of the athletes, the player’s mother broke down in tears, later explaining to Perkins that before her son became involved with the pro-gram, he wouldn’t talk to any-one or even make eye contact with them.

“She went on to say how much his life has changed and how much their lives as a fam-ily had changed just because he belonged to something,” Perkins recalls. “There’s a hockey story here, but there’s something well beneath that. So we came back to Ottawa and decided we need to find a program for kids in Ottawa.”

Along with his wife Shana, Perkins led the efforts to cre-ate the Capital City Condors, beginning with one group and blossoming to over 100 players.

“This is probably the most rewarding thing we’ve ever been involved in,” signals Per-kins. “We get the benefit every week of getting on the ice with some of the most incredible people in Ottawa, and inter-acting with their parents, who are some of the most heroic people I have ever met.”

By Mat LaBrancheCapital hosts world’s largest special needs hockey tourney

Featuring four past Ottawa Titans players in its lineup, the Canadian men’s water polo team blasted off to a superb start at the March 30-April 4 FINA World League Intercon-tinental Tournament in Cali-fornia, but their run came to an abrupt end in the quarter-final round.

Driver Dusan Aleksic and hole set David Lapins of Gatineau, along with Ottawa wings Alex Taschereau and John Conway, occupied four of 14 national team positions at the event.

The Toronto 2015 hosts opened the event a pair of victories over their future Pan Am Games rivals for Olympic qualification.

Taking on the host Amer-icans shortly after their own opening ceremonies, the Cana-dians won their debut 10-9 and then blasted Argentina 15-6

on a three-goal performance from Conway with Taschereau adding another.

Taschereau, Conway and Lapins combined for 12 more tallies as they doubled up on Japan 20-10 to earn an unblem-ished record in pool play.

“It can be initially diffi-cult to find our pace when we gather again as the national team, especially for guys who play (professionally) in Europe,” Lapins noted in a Water Polo Canada media re-lease. “Obviously starting with the win against the USA eased that pressure somewhat and we were able to build on that mo-mentum.”

The round robin wound up being the highlight how-ever, as Canada couldn’t over-come an early 6-1 deficit in the quarter-final round, losing an 11-10 squeaker to China, which kept them from qualify-ing for the World League finals later this season.

“It was a crucial game,” La-pins added. “Both teams knew each other well because we had trained together last year. The Chinese don’t go down easy.”

Canada concluded the tour-nament with a loss to Japan and win over Argentina in the consolation round to finish the event in 7th.

The Capital Wave senior women’s team experienced a similar fate in the quarter-final round at the March 27-29 Na-tional Championship League finals, dropping a 10-8 contest to Toronto.

The Wave won 11-10 and then lost 8-6 in matches against Saskatchewan to finish 6th.

4 water polo locals progress on TO2015 pathBy Alex Quevillon

file photo

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John Conway.

Jamie Lee Rattray (above) and Geneviève Lacasse had to make due with a silver medal following a 7-5 de-feat to USA in the final of the March 28-April 4 IIHF Women’s World Ice Hockey Championships in Sweden.

Kingston’s Amanda Leveille, who played her junior hockey for the Ottawa Lady Sens, backstopped the University of Minnesota to the NCAA women’s hockey championship, stopping 19 of 20 shots in her team’s 4-1 victory over Harvard in the March 22 final.

The third-year Gopher posted a 1.16 goals-against-average and .946 save percentage in 31 games this season.

Check SportsOttawa.com for a more detailed story.

file photo

Local pair win IIHF silver Clean sweep for ONDC divers

The Ottawa National Diving Club’s dynamic Group D duo was is fine form once again at Dive Ontario’s March 20-22 Spring Provincials in Thunder Bay.

At last summer’s provincials, Timothy Lewis (left) and Kathryn Grant both earned their 11 & under age category’s outstanding diver awards.

In Thunder Bay, they provided another clean sweep, winning each of the boys’ and girls’ 1-metre, 3 m and platform events. Their performances qualified them (and their coach, Brennan Villemaire) to represent Ontario at an international competition in Cuba, as well as easily satisfying the qualification criteria for July’s Junior National Championships.

Henry McKay of the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club hit the podium in all of his events at Spring Provincials, winning gold in the Group B (age 14-15) 1 m and plat-form and silver on platform, and also placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Open tower, 1 m and 3 m respectively.

ONDC’s Emma Corrigan and NODC’s Brielle John-ston were also medallists at provincials.

file photo

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Just as no snowflake ever looks the same, no national club championship ever feels the same for Nakkertok Nordic – not even after six in a row.

“It got a little tense there when the athletes realized that we were leading by only 56 points going into the final race,” recounts coach Kieran Jones, whose Nakkertok bunch had become accustomed to a lar-ger margin of victory in recent years but wound up prevailing with 2,531 ahead of Skibec’s 2,387. “It is great to win the banner. The athletes had that as a goal, and the coaches and waxers and other volunteers tried to support this goal.”

Out of the 46 Nakkertok competitors, the performance of the club’s junior girls sticks out in particular for Jones.

“I can’t say enough about the commitment of our junior girls,” underlines Jones, noting that Nakkertok had the greatest number of representatives, with eight, in the 17- and 18-year-old girls’ category – the age group where all sports tend to get hit by drop-outs.

“It is tough to watch,” adds Jones, tipping his hat to the dedicated volunteers and depth of coaching responsible for the club’s continued success. “At Nakkertok, we have been able to keep them engaged. And their results were pivotal to our success with the club banner.”

Team sprint silver medal-lists Alison Pouw (3rd overall out of 1998-born girls) and Zoe Williams (4th out of 1997s, and 10 km skate gold and classic sprint silver medal winner) led the way for the junior girls.

Katherine Stewart-Jones (3rd 1995 women) was the other Nakkertok skier to hit

the overall podium in junior competition, while Julian Alex-ander-Cook, Aidan Kirkham, Nelson Allan, Avery Vreugden-hil-Beaucler, Katherine Denis, Pierre Grall–Johnson and Tove Halvorsen were the club’s top performers in other age-group categories.

Perianne Jones got to raise her arms one final time as a national champion, earning the senior women’s crown on the strength of her victory in the classic sprint and 2nd-place finishes in the 5 km free and 10 km classic events. The 30-year-old Olympian recently announced her retirement from competitive skiing after a career highlighted by two Olympic appearances and two World Cup medals.

WORLD CUP COMING TO TOWN

While a half-dozen consec-utive national crowns is quite the performance, Nakkertok will endeavour to put on an even bigger show next sea-son featuring the world’s best cross-country skiers.

The club will be a driving force behind a FIS World Cup event set for March 1, 2016 – the opening race of an 8-stage Canadian tour that will then head to Montreal, Quebec City and Alberta.

With no World Champion-ships or Olympics on the slate for 2016, the local competition will figure prominently in the quest for the season’s biggest prize: the Crystal Globes that go to the overall World Cup champions (to be awarded after the March 12 conclusion of the Canadian events).

Dirk van Wjik, who pre-viously groomed the 2010 Olympic course in Whistler, has been charged with the role of course preparation chief.

The man who envisioned and brought to life the Nak-kertok South race facilities in Cantley is dreaming big again, set to create a World Cup course at Jacques Cartier Park with Parliament Hill as a back-drop.

Bringing the concept of recycling to a new level, the 30,000 cubic metres of man-made snow from the Snowflake Kingdom will be used to create an 800 m long sprint course once Winterlude is complete.

A test run took place one year out. Once the snow park had been cleared of Winterlude signs and kiosks, bulldozers took the tops off of slides, some of them 56 m tall. Thirty hours of grooming using Camp Fortune’s Piston Bully 400 and Nakkertok’s Piston Bully 100 followed.

It was a complicated and labour-intensive 7-day effort that will require 2-3 times as much work next year for the big show, van Wijk estimates.

“This year I did the bare minimum to put in the course,” he says. “Next year, it will also include cosmetic details.”

Two tunnels will be part of the operation then – one for the racers and officials to access the back of the starts, and one for use by spectators.

World Cup events always have fencing lining the course, so 1.6 km of fencing will have to be erected along both sides, and a warm-up loop for the athletes will be created in front of the nearby Museum of His-tory. The marina parking lot be taken over by athlete and wax-ing services.

“Television production is going to be present including those huge (video screens),” van Wijk adds. “Everything’s got to be perfect.”

Nakkertok national title streak hits 6

By Anne Dugganphoto: bernard pigeon

COMMUNITY CLUBS

With a course made from leftover Winterlude snow, Jacques Cartier Park will host a FIS World Cup cross-coun-try ski race next year.

6 COMMUNITY CLUBS

Young players from the Nepean Hotspurs Soccer Club took centrestage for the kickoff to the FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy tour, which launched its cross-Canada voyage at Ot-tawa City Hall.

The full under-14 Ontario Player Develop-ment League girls’ team lineup as well as three other Nepean club members were invited to come smile for the cameras at the April 1 event – an easy task that required no fake grins at all.

“It was overwhelming. The girls were just smiling ear to ear. Not too many words were coming out of them – which is a rare occur-rence,” laughs Hotspurs coach Adam Knight. “For a young female athlete, you can’t think of anything better for them in terms of inspiration and motivation.”

Team Canada coach John Herdman pumped up the crowd – and the Nepean girls – with a tingling speech to set the stage for the tour and the June 6-July 5 World Cup.

“They’re all sitting in there with that dream that one they might actually get to play for coach Herdman or touch that trophy on their own,” Knight adds. “It was just fantastic.”

FURY GRAD JULIEN TO PLAY AT WORLD CUP?

Ottawa Fury youth academy grad Christina Julien of Cornwall was back in Canadian col-ours for the women’s national team’s final tour-nament before the big show from March 4-11

in Cyprus.Julien saw limited field action, playing

the final five minutes of Canada’s opening 2-0 win over Scotland and the last 12 minutes of Canada’s third pool game – a 1-0 victory over Italy that booked a place in the Cyprus Cup final won by England 1-0.

After playing a starring role alongside Christine Sinclair in Canada’s last Olympic qualifying run, the 26-year-old striker was made an alternate for the London 2012 Games and has seen minimal action since those early days un-der Herdman’s direction.

Canada’s World Cup roster will be unveiled April 27 in Vancouver.

REX PROGRAM SHUTTERED

While the spotlight shone on the top level of the sport, women’s soccer in Ontario took an-other blow the next level down.

On the heels of the four Ontario-based W-League (North American Tier 2) clubs fold-ing before the 2015 campaign – including the 2013-champion Ottawa Fury – the Ontario Soccer Association cancelled its main program designed to move players into the Canadian wo-men’s national team program.

The OSA issued a very brief statement in mid-March announcing that Regional Exceler-ation (REX) Training Centre operations were being suspended for 2015.

“Players can train and compete in age ap-propriate environments such as the OPDL, League1, OYSL and OWSL,” the post said. “They will continue to be scouted and their pro-gress monitored.”

Louis-Riel high school senior Adrienne Li, a past youth national team program member, was in Toronto on March 8 – like every other weekend – when she got the news at the end of her session that REX would shut down due to finances.

“It was really weird,” recounts the Univer-sity of Central Florida-bound player who trains under Sanjeev Parmar, but had no other present team outside of REX group. “I don’t know (what’s next). I’m going to have to find some-thing else to do.”

Ottawa South United head coach Paul Har-ris received the news from his players – four of whom involved with REX program.

“It’s frustrating for our players,” he indic-ates. “I hoped it was going to be the future and would move the game forward. Let’s hope that they find a solution soon so that it doesn’t set these girls back too much.”

Although the travel commitments to Toronto on most weekends was always daunting for the out-of-towners, Harris notes, and strong devel-opment programs and coaching are available locally, the quality of players assembled can’t be substituted.

“The environment was the best challenging the best when they were there,” he explains. “You’ve got 20 girls who are hungry and want to play at the national level. Within the groups here, you haven’t got that depth of talent.”

SEATTLE W-LEAGUE SCOURS OTTAWA

OSU’s 1998-born girls offered up the oppos-ition for a group of largely local players audi-tioning for the Seattle Sounders W-League team at a combine OSU helped to organize at the RA Centre Dome.

Seattle may seem like an unlikely franchise to be scouting in these woods, but the club’s leadership has two strong connections to the capital – former Ottawa Wizards (Canadian Soccer League) coach Hubert Busby Jr. (the Sounders’ head coach/general manager) and Seattle director of scouting/technical consultant Dom Oliveri, the former long-time coach of the Fury W-League team.

“It was a good weekend,” signals Oliveri, who chose the Sounders job over several other opportunities because it allows him to stay with his family in Ottawa the bulk of the time. “I think Ottawa players showed a good account of the talent that’s here in the city. I’m sure we’ll look at a couple to move on to main camp in Seattle in May and hopefully someone from Ot-tawa will make the Sounders.”

Several past Fury players have already signed on to play for the Sounders, while Car-leton Ravens midfielder Veronica Mazzella, a Fury player the last two summers, was one of 20 from as far as Boston looking to pursue a path to Seattle.

“It was really unfortunate (that Ottawa fol-ded). We had no idea this was going to happen,” recounts Mazzella, who got a call from Oliveri the moment the combine was confirmed. “He’s really good like that. He has your back.”

FURY FC GAMES FREE FOR 14 & UNDER

Ottawa Fury FC unveiled its Fury Fanatics program in March that will allow all of the re-gion’s registered soccer players age 14 and un-der to attend the pro team’s games at TD Place for free.

A half-dozen local clubs had committed to taking part in the program prior to the official launch at the North American Soccer League franchise’s fan fest, and the number has now ballooned to over 20.

“It’s snowballing. It’s been a great success,” says Fury president John Pugh. “Now it’s a chal-lenge to get our lanyards out to the kids.”

Each participating club will distribute lan-yards to its young players with passes that will allow them to obtain free tickets to a given match online (where they can also buy another ticket or two for their parents or coaches, the Fury note). In all, over 20,000 of the region’s players are expected to receive access to games throughout the team’s 16-game home schedule.

Soccer snippets: FIFA trophy tour, REX shutdown, local Seattle W-League combine, Fury FC youth ticket promo & new West Ottawa GM all part of busy local soccer pre-season

By Dan Plouffe

photo: steve kingsman

Nepean Hotspurs players Angela Van Veldhuizen (left) and Sarah Said.

SOCCER continues on p.9

Hubert Busby Jr. & Dom Oliveri of the Seattle Sounders.

photo: dan plouffe

Growing up, Jody Mitic played soccer, baseball and volleyball, raced in track-and-field, on BMX bicycles and later motorbikes. As an adult, he got swept into adventure racing and the eco-challenge craze. When he joined the mil-itary, he was exposed to com-bat training, shooting, a bit of boxing and of course, running.

His kids are involved in soccer, gymnastics, swimming and dance, and he’s a fan of countless other sports. But the City of Ottawa’s first sports commissioner maybe gained his greatest appreciation for sport after being injured in a land mine explosion

“Once I was wounded, sports became part of my re-covery,” recounts Mitic, who lost both his legs below the knee while serving in Afgh-anistan.

Mitic was introduced to sledge hockey, and since it was such a fixture in military training, he became driven to learn to run again on pros-thetic blades, completing his first half-marathon at the 2009 Canada Army Run.

Since being elected as a

City Councillor this past fall, it’s been harder for the Innes Ward representative to find as much time as he’d like to play-ing sports himself.

“I still try to participate as much as I can and stay active,” says the man who keeps a set of weights next to his desk at City Hall.

Bodybuilding is the pas-sion that’s stuck with him throughout life.

“I’m 38 now, so crash-

ing and bashing as much as I used to (would be difficult),” indicates Mitic, who found he was always getting injured – from ankles to shoulders and everything in between – be-fore the explosion forced him to drop many of his rougher activities.

“Getting blown up I think added 10 or 20 years to my body,” cracks the down-to-earth rookie councillor who contrasts the typical image of a politician.

CITY FOCUS ON SPORTS

Mitic was selected to lead the newly-created office of the sports commissioner, which he’d talked about with Mayor Jim Watson several times while on the campaign trails.

“When I first heard about it, I thought it was a great idea for Ottawa,” Mitic recalls. “It only makes sense that a city of a million people should have someone in that position.”

So what exactly is the sports commissioner’s job?

“Frankly, it’s whatever we want it to be,” Mitic says, noting that the newly-created position could serve many different functions. “I want it to be successful so that when I’m not sports commissioner, the next councillor that takes the job is stepping into an hon-oured and respected role.”

It’s not that the sports com-missioner has no defined du-ties, however.

“The core mandate of the sports commissioner, when you get down to it, is to attract sports tourism,” Mitic adds, and having an office with an elected official devoted to the

file shows sports event de-cision-makers “that the City is that much more serious.”

The sports commissioner could also connect a sports organization interested in host-ing a major event with the ap-propriate city staff, or those in charge of venues like the Ott-awa Senators or Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group. He could present groups’ wishes to council, and seek funding where appropriate.

“Maybe there’s a venue the City could put a few bucks into and make it world compet-ition-ready,” highlights Mitic, using the World Canoe-Kayak Championships as an example. “We’re at the level now where we could host the nationals, but to host the worlds, we’d need a few other pieces of infrastruc-ture on the river. (...) Then we become a destination for the sport from around the world.”

Sports facilities could be-come a key area of focus for the commissioner, notes Mitic, who expects to receive a report of their state in Ottawa soon.

“We’re not the worst, but

we’re definitely not the best – yet. We’re working on it,” he signals. “It is the will of coun-cil, I think, to become a destin-ation for sport.”

Mitic also mentions that the City would like to develop a space similar to Arts Court – except for sport – by 2018.

“It’d be a place where we could have a little bit of infra-structure to give – whether it’s the Sport Council or just any sport group that wants a place to gather and make connections and network,” he describes. “We’re hoping to set some-thing up where we can really facilitate the growth of sports.”

The tourism/economic be-

nefits is the City’s key driver in seeking to attract major sports events, but the benefits go beyond that, Mitic indicates, noting that “kids learn through action and imitation” and an initial spark from an event can lead to a lifetime of involve-ment in sport.

COMMISH’S DOOR OPEN

Mitic has become ac-quainted with a number of key players in the local sports community already, and wants to send the message that he’s looking forward to meeting many more.

7COMMUNITY CLUBSCity sports commissioner Jody Mitic revels in new role

By Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

City of Ottawa sports commissioner Jody Mitic keeps a set of weights handy in his office.

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COMMISH continues p.10

Jody Mitic com-pleted his first half-maraton on running blades at the 2009 Canada Army Run.

file photo

After months of deliberating and consulting friends and family, Ottawa’s Courtnay Pilypaitis made the most difficult decision of her life – to retire from the sport that runs through her blood.

The 27-year-old is closing the door on her basketball playing career, leaving behind a re-sumé that qualifies for her the title of Ottawa’s most successful basketball player internationally.

It was time to walk away, Pilypaitis notes, after battling through the effects of several con-cussions the last few years.

“I needed to do it and it was the right time to do it,” she explains. “The past two summers I have just had some unlucky breaks and it was tough getting back into the groove. This was a health decision and I debated it for a very long time. Life throws you some curves and sends you signs that it’s time, so I knew then, it was time.”

Under the influence of her brother and the guidance of her father – who coached her from the second grade until high school – Pilypaitis began playing basketball for the social and competitive nature of the sport, and quickly set high goals as her skills and passion for the game elevated.

The back-to-back OFSAA medallist became a star guard at St. Peter Catholic High School and garnered the attention of several colleges and universities.

Pilypaitis chose a “perfect fit” at the Univer-

sity of Vermont, becoming the first NCAA player to record over 1,900 points, 800 rebounds and 600 assists, and leading her school to back-to-back conference titles and its first ever win in the NCAA Tournament.

“I remember I was told I wasn’t good enough and that I wouldn’t make it,” recalls the 6’ 1” sniper, chuckling at the thought. “I always had faith in what I can do, and it has been a nice feel-ing to really prove those people wrong.”

Pilypaitis represented her country numerous times on the international stage, most notably earning team MVP honours as she led Canada to its first Olympic basketball appearance since 2000, scoring a game-high 21 points in a win over Japan to secure the final ticket to London 2012 at the last-chance qualification tournament.

She helped Canada to a quarter-final appear-ance at the Games and was later recognized as the city’s female athlete of the year by the Ott-awa Sports Awards. She again played for Canada in 2013 and 2014, including a limited role in Canada’s fifth-place finish at the 2014 World Championships, having suffered a concussion in the lead-up to worlds.

Representing Canada at any level is an hon-our, underlines Pilypaitis, and wearing the maple leaf at the Olympics represented the culmination of years of hard work.

“I brag about Canada all the time,” she says proudly. “To get a chance to play at the highest

level, it is truly special. As kids, you only dream about playing for your country on any stage, and I can say I am one of those kids who got that chance. And I am truly blessed to say that I got that chance.”

While Pilypaitis’ playing career has taken her all over the world, including a two-year stint playing professionally in Lithuania, it was her early years in Ottawa under the tutelage of her father and high school coach Mario Gaetano that developed her into the person she is off the court, and the player she became on the court.

“With my dad, he coached me for so many years and it was something we could do to-

gether,” indicates the former Gloucester Wolver-ines club player. “And without Coach Gaetano, I really don’t know where I would be. He helped me and guided me, and I couldn’t be more thank-ful for that.”

COACHING AT ALMA MATER UVM

Pilypaitis has now become a coach herself, currently serving as an assistant with her former team at UVM in Burlington.

“It’s a nice way to give back to a program that really helped me,” signals the Catamounts’ career leader in assists, 3-pointers and games played. “I just want to help the young players develop and hopefully have an impact on their lives the way the coaches in my life helped me.”

While it was difficult to retire in advance of a season that includes the Pan Am Games in Toronto and the FIBA Americas Olympic quali-fier in Edmonton, Pilypaitis says she closes her playing career without any regrets.

“While it was a tough thing to do, I’m do-ing it on my own terms and I’m doing it because I have accomplished everything I have wanted to do as a basketball player,” she highlights. “I look back at everything and I am truly proud of everything I have done.

“I have played in NCAA Tournaments, I have played at the Olympics and I have played professionally in Europe. Honestly, what more could I ask for?”

8 ELITE

In his last opportunity of the sea-son, Cumberland’s Vincent De Haitre joined in on the party podium fellow Gloucester Concordes mates Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann started in a breakthrough season for all three Ottawa speed skaters.

De Haitre captured bronze in the 1,000 metres at the March 21-22 ISU World Cup Final in Germany – his first career senior international medal.

“I really wasn’t expecting much,” recalls De Haitre. “But I hoped for the best and just tried to do everything I’ve been working on all year, and I managed to make it work when it counted the most.”

It was a season of highs and lows for the 20-year-old, beginning with a peak when he bested Olympic silver medallist Denny Morrison at the fall World Cup trials.

“Looking back, other than the World Cup medal, this was my proudest moment (of the year), be-cause I could officially call myself the Canadian champion in the 1,000m,” reflects De Haitre, who also holds the title of Canadian track cycling 1,000 m champion.

The Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games hopeful continued his blazing ways on the ice with a 4th-place finish at the first World Cup in Japan, but then dipped to 19th, 15th and 13th in his next races.

“I got really nervous and stressed

over my performances,” De Haitre notes. “That built-up stress over more events, on top of a back injury, were not conducive to good performances.”

The 2014 Ottawa Sports Awards male athlete of the year had to miss the Feb. 1 World Cup in Norway due to his back ailment and began to ex-perience a severe migraine and an increased heart rate prior to the Feb. 12-15 World Single Distance Cham-pionships in the Netherlands.

“I managed to pull it together coming into world singles,” notes De Haitre. “Despite dealing with those issues, and I still managed to finish 12th, which was within range of what we deemed acceptable.”

In addition to extensive physio-therapy treatment, De Haître attrib-utes his comeback effort to coach Bart Schouten pushing him and improved training sessions.

“When things are going well in training, it’s easy to be motivated, and when things are going bad, it’s hard,” he explains. “But things started going well and it really gave me the motiv-ation to finish the season strong, and make me excited to start the next one.”

Looking ahead to the next speed skating campaign, De Haitre has one thing on his mind.

“More medals,” smiles the So-chi Olympian who was the youngest Canadian on the team by four years.

“Once you get the taste of it, you don’t want to let it go. And I think by winning a medal in the last compet-ition of the season, it really sets the stage for next season and what I ex-pect of myself.”

WORLD CUP SERIES CHAMP

Blondin missed the mass start World Cup podium for the first time this season in Germany, although it was somewhat by design. Winner of 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze 2014-15 World Cup medals (including one in the 5,000 m), Blondin wanted to en-sure she finished ahead of the Dutch skater who was second place in the season’s mass start standings, which

became a much easier task when her competitor wiped out midway through.

“I would have preferred to have a real competition with Irene Schouten, but it didn’t happen because of her fall, which happened right in front of me,” Blondin, who also finished the season ranked 6th in the world out of all distances and won a mass start World Championships silver medal, said in a Speed Skating Canada media release. “After that, I told myself that I just needed to stay on my skates and not take any chances. I was going for the season title and I did it. I even was part of the last sprint at the end. I’m quite happy about the result. This title is a big deal for me.”

CANADIAN JUNIOR RECORD

Coming off ankle surgery last summer, Weidemann capped her campaign that featured a Junior World Cup Final bronze medal and Junior World Championships 4th-place fin-ish by setting a new Canadian junior women’s 5,000 m record at March’s Canada Cup #4 event in Calgary. Skating in front of her parents and Concordes coach Mike Rivet, the 19-year-old established a new na-tional benchmark of 7 minutes, 14.55 seconds.

“It was super awesome and a nice way to end the season,” Weidemann, who also made her senior World Cup debut in 2015, said via Speed Skating Canada.

Concordes trio win World Cup title, medal & set recordBy Mat LaBranche

photo: steve kingsman

While their top national team skaters were winning medals and breaking records elsewhere, the Gloucester Concordes hosted the Provincial ‘B’ and Masters Short-Track Championships on March 28-29 in Orleans. Kaelan Jolliffe finished 1st in her 500 m foxtrot race class.

Pilypaitis closes fulfilling basketball career at age 27By Anil Jhalli

file photo

Courtnay Pilypaitis

9

World Championships silver medallist Dustin Cook concluded his breakout interna-tional ski season with a World Cup bronze medal followed his first career victory at the World Cup Finals in France, beating the reigning Olympic super-g champion from Norway on March 19. “I wanted to win really bad,” the 26-year-old Mont Ste. Marie athlete said in an Alpine Canada media release, noting he also achieved his goal of a top-10 overall ranking in the super-g with the the win. “To have it actually be

accomplished, it’s literally a dream come true, something I have dreamed about since I was a kid.” At the NCAA Ski Championships on March 14 in Lake Placid, Ottawa native Dom Garand won the first national title on his career for the University of Vermont Catamounts, claiming the men’s slalom victory.

LOCAL SKIER CAPTURES 1ST CAREER WORLD CUP VICTORY

MCEWEN TAKES SILVER, MORRIS BRONZE AT CURLING WORLDSOttawa natives Dawn McEwen and John Morris both collected medals at their respective World Curling Championships – McEwen a silver from the March 14-22 women’s event in Japan and Morris a bronze from the March 28-April 5 men’s competition in Halifax. McEwen, the lead for the Jennifer Jones rink, curled a game-high 89% in her team’s 5-3 defeat to Switzerland in the final. Team Canada went 9-2 in round robin play, lost the page playoff game 6-4 to the Swiss champs and then beat Russia 7-4 to earn their place in the championship match. Morris went 10-1 in the round robin playing third for Pat Simmons’ rink before losing the page playoff to Norway and the semi-final to cham-pion Sweden and then beating Finland 8-4 to earn bronze. “We were pretty down after (the 6-3 semi-final loss to Sweden),” Morris said in a Curling Canada media release. “It feels good to go out on a note like that.”

NATIONAL TITLE FOR ONE OTTAWA WRESTLER, DEVASTATION FOR ANOTHEROttawa native Augusta Eve was the lone local champion from the March 20-22 Canadian Wrestling Championships in St. Catharines, Ont., claiming the gold medal in the junior wo-men’s 44 kg weight class. Erica Wiebe settled for a heartbreaking silver medal in the senior women’s 75 kg category as she lost a 3-3 match to Burnaby Mountain’s Justina Distasio (her opponent earning the win by scoring last). The defeat means the 25-year-old who reached the #1 world ranking last year won’t get to represent Canada at home for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games. Ilya Abelev and Alex Brown-Theriault both claimed senior bronze medals in the men’s 74 and 86 kg competitions respectively, while Adam Macfadyen was 6th in senior men’s 61 kg.

Four University of Ottawa Gee-Gees products are on the path to representing Canada inter-nationally in rugby. Megan Copeland-Dinan, Irene Patrinos and Erin Van Gulik took part in Rugby Canada’s March 31-April 3 east evaluation camp for the national women’s 15s program in Kingston, while Gee-Gees grad Natasha Watcham-Roy has been added to the national sevens team’s centralized training program that is preparing for this summer’s Pan Am Games in Toronto and next year’s Olympics, where the sport will make its debut.

GEE-GEES EMERGE AS NATIONAL WOMEN’S RUGBY TEAM CANDIDATES

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

Ottawa Ice National Ringette League star Jayme Simzer left her skates at home and represented the CrossFit Closer Barbell Club at the March 27-28 Ontario Weightlifting Championships, winning the women’s 75 kg competition in Scarborough. Local athletes from JustLift recorded several podium performances, including men’s 62 kg category champion Ian Haya, Esther Dalle and Valerie Hoang (gold and silver in women’s 53 kg) and Nancy Kozorezova (bronze in women’s 69 kg). Silver medallist Isabelle Després’ 181 kg total matched her provincial record and the winner’s mark in the women’s 63 kg division. The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth

Games participant from the Ottawa Elite Weightlifting Club was the top local athlete in the Sinclair rankings (which compares athletes’ performances in different weight categories against one another) in 5th overall for women. The provincials served as an official qualification competition for the Pan Am Games. The final final Pan Am qualifier will be the May 16-17 Canadian Championships in Mississauga.

RINGETTE PLAYER WINS ONTARIO WEIGHTLIFTING TITLE

CHELSEA NORDIQ BIATHLETE COLLECTS 3 SILVER AT JUNIOR NATIONALSTeam Ontario triple-medallist Leilani Tam von Burg replicated her three-medal haul from the Canada Winter Games with a trip of silver medals in the junior women’s sprint, pursuit and mass start at the March 11-15 Canadian Biathlon Championships. Fellow Chelsea Nordiq teammates Jason Lawton, Jordyn Leighton and Alexandre Dupuis all recorded top-10 finishes in their divi-sions at nationals, with Leighton’s 5th in the senior girls’ sprint standing as the top result.

“We had a good year last year, but there are still a lot of people who have never been out to Lansdowne to watch us,” notes Pugh, whose club made a major splash by signing Canadian na-tional team captain Julian De Guzman just before the season. “We need to con-nect with the local soccer community in every way that we possibly can.

“What better way to do that for young players who play the game than to go watch some pros play live and be inspired by them.”

NEW GM JOINS WEST OTTAWA

The West Ottawa Soccer Club has

a new general manager, with Steve MacNeil taking over from Bjorn Osieck, who recently began working in the newly-created director of business operations position at the OSA.

With a background in the sports medicine business as well as sports management, MacNeil was most re-cently the president of the Eastern Ontario Rugby Union.

“After three years of an unpreced-ented growth and expansion, WOSC is at a critical point in our development, and we believe Steve’s appointment will help us build on our successes, and support our growth to the next level,” WOSC president Brian Mason said in a club news release.

continued from p.6

The Ottawa Jr. Senators were headed to a deciding Game 7 with Pembroke Lumber Kings in the second round of the Central Canada Jr. ‘A’ Hockey

League playoffs. Ottawa overcame a 3-1 series deficit with 5-3 and 4-3 wins to force the win-ner-takes-all match on April 7 on home ice at Jim Durrell Recreation Complex.

JR. SENS HEAD TO GAME 7 SHOWDOWN

FENCER WITH OTTAWA TIES CLAIMS WORLD JUNIOR SILVERHamilton’s Eleanor Harvey, who spends time training at the Ottawa Fencing Club under national team coach Paul ApSimon, won her second consecutive junior women’s foil silver medal on April 5 at the FIE Junior World Fencing Championships in Uzbekistan.

Greater-Ottawa Kingfish swimmer Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson was officially nominated to Canada’s Toronto 2015 Pan American Games team thanks to her performance at the April 1-4 national team trials event in Scarborough. The 19-year-old placed 3rd in her first event, the women’s 400-metre individual medley, putting the pressure on for the 200 m IM, where she needed to be 1st

or 2nd to qualify for the Pan Ams. Seltenreich-Hodgson answered the call by placing 2nd, al-though her time of 2 minutes, 13.15 seconds wasn’t quite fast enough to earn a spot the FINA World Aquatics Championships team later this summer.

OTTAWA SWIMMER MAKES PAN AM GRADE, MISSES WORLDS QUALIFICATION

Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games 4x400-metre relay competitor Mike Robertson of the Ottawa Lions has launched a “Road to Rio” fundraiser at makeachamp.com/michaelrobertson to help with his costs this season as he begins his quest to appear at the 2016 Olympic Games, with hopeful stops at the Penn and World Relays and Pan Am Games before then.

OTTAWA LION RUNNER BEGINS ROAD TO RIO WITH FUNDRAISER

SOCCER: Rugby Union president takes over WOSC

10 EDITORIAL

Team of the Month: Nepean Ravens U19 Belle Ringette TeamTeam Members: Players Rianne Munro, Amy Boileau, Amy Kolesnik, Ariana Mahaney, Maggie Sullivan, Emily Hogan, Sarah Lemkow, Allie Marcotte, Taylor Costello, Natasha Hurtubise, Samantha Banning, Cait Driscoll, Molly Lewis & Hanya Wyatt, and Staff John Sullivan, Art Marcotte, Jackie Banning, Kim Costello & Katherine Mulders.

About: After a 4th-place finish at their provincial championships, the Nepean Ravens stormed through the Belle U19 division at the Canadian Ringette Championships, outscoring their opponents by a combined 18 goals in six preliminary round wins and then earning playoff triumphs over the Central Alberta Sting (6-4), B.C. (4-3 in OT) and Alberta (3-0) to finish the March 29-April 4 tournament in Wood Buffalo, Alta. with a perfect record and national gold.

Athlete of the Month: Noah Kirkwood

Sport: Basketball

Club: Ottawa Next Level

School/Grade: Grade 9 Ashbury College

About: Noah Kirkwood has been selected to represent Canada at the June 10-14 FIBA Americas U16 Men’s Basket-ball Championship in Argen-tina. The 6’ 2” small forward was one of 12 players selected from a group of 18 at a selec-tion camp on Easter weekend in Toronto. The Cadet youth national team is coached by Ottawa Next Level/Kanata Cavaliers club president Dave DeAveiro along with assistant James Derouin of the Univer-sity of Ottawa Gee-Gees.

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 Stars of the Month will receive free one-week Family Passes to the Y.

YMCA-YMCA OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

STARS OF THE MONTH

COMMISH continued from p.7“The sports commissioner in

Ottawa, as long as I’m in the role, is going to support all sport in Ottawa, at all levels as best I can and be part of the conversation when it comes to sports,” he pledges.

If his office gets behind a par-ticular sport, it doesn’t mean they won’t support others, emphasizes Mitic, who was recently a guest of Ian Mendes and Shawn Simpson on TSN Radio.

“We were talking about how I’m a massive UFC fan, and somebody tweeted at us, ‘Well, what about curling?’” Mitic recounts. “And I said, ‘Well, yes, absolutely.’ I am the sports commissioner of Ottawa, not the UFC commissioner. I love curling. I love watching curling.

“No sport should feel that the sports commissioner is above them. I’ll do my best to help everybody. There’s no favourites to be chosen.”

With its expanding selection of pro franchises, it shows that Ot-tawa is a “serious sports town and we’re going to get even more seri-ous over the next four years,” adds Mitic, who’s also been especially impressed by the enthusiasm and dedication of the volunteers that drive the local amateur sports com-munity.

“The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that they’re all very passionate,” he underlines. “The message I want to give is that sports commissioner is here to support them.

“If they don’t need my help, that’s fine. If they want my help, that’s great. We can figure this out together.”

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

Ottawa is his hometown, Montreal is now his home base, but when Hugh Brabyn-Jones competes on the inter-national figure skating circuit, Great Britain is his country.

While the 18-year-old athlete was born and raised in Ottawa, both his parents are originally from London, England. Carrying dual citizenship, Brabyn-Jones first inquired about rep-resenting GB four years ago, eventu-ally completing the switch this season since he saw greater opportunities at the international level with Britain in-stead of Canada.

“Getting to the Olympics is my ultimate goal, and I have always felt that going this way, I can get there faster,” indicates the 6th-place fin-isher at last season’s Canadian junior men’s championships in Ottawa. “I gain international experience a lot quicker and get recognized earlier if I compete well, and get one step closer to getting to the Olympics.”

Brabyn-Jones feels that his de-cision has paid off already, with a strong 18th-place debut at a Septem-ber Junior Grand Prix competition

in Estonia and then a junior men’s bronze medal at November’s British championships.

“I know I didn’t take the normal route, but I do like that I did some-thing different and so far it’s been really good for me,” he says.

Brabyn-Jones’ skating journey began at age 3, first enrolling in fig-ure at 5. It wasn’t until a few years ago, when he started landing some pretty serious jumps, that he realized he wanted to pursue a career in figure skating.

“I never had a plan, and then I started making all these jumps and I said, ‘I’m going to get there one day,’” recounts the Minto Skating Club-brewed athlete.

Brabyn-Jones recently moved to the Ste-Julie club on Montreal’s south shore in order to join a greater number of advanced skaters.

“In Ottawa, there may have been 5 or 6 people doing the triples or the bigger jumps, whereas when I moved to Montreal it was like over 20 people doing those same jumps,” he explains. “Once I started hitting the jumps, I just wanted to be around skaters who were hitting the jumps consistently.”

It wasn’t an easy decision to make, and was initially tough leaving home.

“I knew if I wanted to reach my goals that I had to make sacrifices,” adds Brabyn-Jones, who boards with a family he knew while growing up in Ottawa.

A heavy financial commitment is also part of the equation. Brabyn-Jones is in the midst of a fundraising campaign (at gofundme.com/jedbhw ) for his upcoming competition in Slov-

enia – the April 14-19 Triglav Trophy & Narcisa Cup, where he needs to pay travel, means and hotel expenses for both himself and a coach.

Brabyn-Jones’ demanding train-ing schedule means that school is a challenge as well, but Ontario’s on-line Independent Learning Centre allows him to complete one course at a time in a maximum of 10 months from a distance.

“I’m basically teaching myself, and when I am home, my dad and I have a study period for two hours where we go over the work I have done,” details Brabyn-Jones, em-phasizing that the irregular moves are all in pursuit of one ultimate goal: “The Olympics. One day, I am going to get there.”

CHARTRAND 11TH AT WORLDS

Making her World Champion-ships debut, Alaine Chartrand of the Nepean Skating Club finished in the crucial top-12 of the women’s event at the March 23-29 competition in Shanghai. The 19-year-old finished as the top Canadian in 11th place, secur-ing two entries for her country in the women’s division for next year.

Ottawa skater ready to wear British colours at Slovenia eventBy Anil Jhalli

file photo

Hugh Brabyn-Jones.

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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!

Eric Gauthier has already won a number of medals in Muskoka, Burlington and now Calgary this season, but he wants nothing more than to have those experiences trans-late into some home hardware come the late-May Canadian Gymnastics Championships in his own backyard in Gatineau.

The Tumblers Gymnastics Centre athlete’s latest triumph came at the University of Cal-gary International Cup, where he topped the National Open all-around category to lead Ontario’s tour team to victory at the March 27-30 event.

“I got to the competition and was just hoping to have fun,” recounts Gauthier. “We won the team competition too, which was what meant the most. The individual all-around win was just a bonus, but still something I’m very proud of.”

The pommel horse silver medallist and rings bronze medallist was a model of con-sistency in Calgary, finishing no lower than 5th on any of his six apparatuses in a field of 24 competitors.

“Most of it is just a lot of routine work,” Gauthier indic-ates. “Doing my routines over and over again throughout the years, and working on events I wasn’t quite as good in more than the ones I was having success in. It’s like with any-thing in life, if you work at something you’re not quite as good at, you’ll eventually get better.”

Before he can think about nationals, Gauthier will need to qualify through the April 9-12 provincials (for both men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics) in Windsor, where he’d after a top-3 all-

around finish.“If I can win a couple of

events too, that would obvi-ously be a nice bonus,” he signals. “But qualifying for nationals is the main goal.”

EXPERIENCE ON BIG STAGE

If Gauthier makes the grade, it will be his fourth consecutive appearance at the nationals. Despite having ef-ficacious seasons leading up to these past championships, he hasn’t quite had the results to match come the big show.

In his debut, he unexpec-ted lost valuable points on composition mistakes, and the next year, he had to withdraw after hitting his head on one of the bars during warmup.

But Gauthier’s increased experience in big events now allows him to feel more at ease during those pressure-filled moments.

“I can definitely control myself better now,” he indic-ates. “The first few times, it was a bit scary, with everyone

watching me. I got thinking that I couldn’t mess up, but over time it has gotten better. Now I make sure I stay calm, have fun and do my best, be-cause that’s really all I can do.”

Gauthier enjoyed the ex-citement of competing nearby at Carleton University for the past two nationals and having close teammates in his corner, which he hopes to live again this year come the May 26-31 event at the Complexe Bran-chaud-Brière.

“With nationals being so close to home, it’s definitely a different feeling,” highlights the Grade 12 Béatrice-Des-loges high school student. “Also, you get to be with the entire team, and in the Na-tional Open category, the competition is mostly based around the team. So this makes it more enjoyable, because if you mess up a routine, you may be out of the all-around, but you can still be there to support them in that run for the medal.”

TANG TOPS UCIC CATEGORY

There was one other local all-around champ and several more medallists at the UCIC tour meet.

National Capital’s Nath-anael Tang won the Provincial Level 4, Age 13+ all-around event, with gold on high bar, parallel bars and floor.

Five athletes from the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre qualified to represent Ontario in Calgary, with Sebastian Baranyi Nichols earning floor, rings, high bar medals in L3, A13+, Arryn Jackle Spriggs hitting the podium in L4, A14+ parallel bars, high bar, rings, and Philopateer Faltas taking rings gold and vault sil-ver in L4, A13+.

Consistency key for Calgary tour champBy Mat LaBranche

file photo

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She is the mother of rhythmic gymnastics in Ot-tawa. And when Dasa Lelli holds the arms of one of her athletes before they’re about to perform – like she has countless times over 40 years of coach-ing at the Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club – it provides a sense of comfort that only a mother’s touch offers.

“It definitely helps me,” says KRSG provincial com-petitor Julia Yang. “Some-times when you’re jumpy and all nervous, it’s good to have someone to keep you calm and remind you of what’s import-ant and what you came to do.”

Having the support of a coach who’s been there for innumerable hours of train-ing makes the connection that much stronger, adds the 15-year-old who started rhythmic gymnastics at age 4.

“I love working with Dasa. You can tell that she cares about all of us,” Yang indicates. “She always has something good to say. She doesn’t yell at us. She will work through stuff with us. She’s very supportive.”

Paula Preston has been a club volunteer for close to 20 years and has witnessed the special bond Lelli creates with her young athletes over and over again.

“They’re her daughters,” Preston underlines, noting Lelli raised 3 sons of her own, who now have 3 granddaugh-ters and 2 grandsons. “All these generations of gymnasts, she feels like they’re hers.”

When Lelli speaks about what keeps her driven after 40 years of coaching, there’s an unmistakable motherly tone to her words.

“It’s the love of the sport,” she states simply. “I enjoy the challenge. And moulding the youngsters. It’s such a re-sponsibility, and opportunity, not only to teach the sport, but really to touch the future in terms of values, sportsman-ship, behaviour, organization skills for school.”

Lelli has guided dozens and dozens of provincial champions along the way, including 2014 World Championships compet-itor Lucinda Nowell, who is set to represent Canada in group rhythmic at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games and possibly the 2016 Olympics later on.

“She’s brought up an awful lot of athletes, but she’s also brought up a lot of coaches as well,” notes Preston, high-lighting the life skills required and gained by taking on such a role. “You see a generation of gymnasts she’s brought up to be strong, powerful, balanced young women, and now they

bring their daughters back. That’s pretty amazing.”

U OF O DRAWS CZECH IN

Lelli grew up in the Czech Republic in a family that be-lieved strongly in the value of physical activity. She was drawn into modern gymnastics (later called rhythmic) like all the women in her town.

Lelli first came to Ott-awa to visit her older brother, who’d emigrated when she was 4. She became a student in the University of Ottawa’s

physical education program and did an internship at a downtown organization called the Ottawa Gym Club.

That’s where rhythmic gymnastics began in Ottawa – only the second Canadian city, after Toronto, where it was practiced.

Ottawa Gym Club presid-ent Sandra McManus helped Lelli setup the club in 1975, and with the support of the City of Kanata, it later found its west-end home base at various community centres and at John

Young Elementary School.“Slowly and patiently, it

grew from a group of seven to over 400,” reflects Lelli, whose club was originally called Kanata Rhythmic Sportive Gymnastics (the word “sport-ive” was later dropped from the sport’s name, but the club continues to use KRSG as its acronym in recognition of the lengthy history).

VOLUNTEER-DRIVEN EFFORT

The technical and coach-ing aspect always came natur-ally to Lelli, but the most chal-lenging part of building a club, she says, was understanding all the complex organizational components required.

KRSG has been blessed by strong parent support and com-mitted long-term volunteers, like Preston, whose daughter (now a top international wrest-ler) has been out of the club for a dozen years, Lelli notes.

“Our volunteers are second to none. They’re always here,” highlights Lelli, whose club was recently officially recog-nized by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport’s club ex-cellence program. “It’s incred-ible that it’s 40 years, but it doesn’t feel that way.”

KANATA CUP HITS 25 YEARS

KRSG celebrated a double milestone this season. Along

with its 40-year anniversary as a club, it was also the 25th-an-nual edition of the Kanata Cup.

Close to 200 athletes at-tended the March 10-11 invit-ational at Bridlewood Com-munity Elementary School, taking part in provincial, in-terclub and Special Olympics divisions.

The Kanata Cup also fea-tured a special performance from the group of almost 30 KRSG gymnasts who will take part in this summer’s World Gymnaestrada in Helsinki, a non-competitive event that cel-ebrates all forms of gymnastics and brings together roughly 20,000 gymnasts from around the globe. It also provided a dress rehearsal of sorts for the competitive gymnasts whose provincial-level season kicks into high gear in the coming months.

“I enjoy it a lot because you just go and perform,” un-derlines Yang, who finished on the podium for all three of her apparatuses at her first provin-cial championships qualifier in Cambridge.

That was a big career high-light for Yang, but the accom-plishment she’s most proud of would be music to Lelli’s ears.

“I think my biggest achievement is just how much I’ve improved over the years,” she smiles.

Coach Dasa Lelli leads Kanata Rhythmic club to 40 yrsBy Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

12

Erika Lin (left) & Dasa Lelli.