HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 4, #8 June 2015

Long before Christine Sinclair sent Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium into a frenzy with a 92nd minute penalty kick goal, there was an even bigger Canada vs China FIFA Women’s World Cup match.

It was Oct. 2, 2013 in Portland, OR, and the two red foes were battling in the quarter-final round of the 2013 World Cup. Team Canada’s captain was the goal scorer on this occasion as well, Ottawa native Charmaine Hooper hav-ing tallied early on. Canada was nurs-ing its 1-0 lead in the late stages, and

that’s when another Ottawa native, a 22-year-old Kristina Kiss, was brought into the match in place of striker Kara Lang to defend the lead.

“I was feeling anxious and really, really nervous,” recalls Kiss. “I didn’t want to be subbed on and have them score.”

Fortunately for the fresh-faced midfielder, Canada held on to reach the semi-finals for the first, and only, time in the country’s World Cup history.

“That was a dream-come-true for me to play in a World Cup,” Kiss reflects. “Just stepping on the field meant everything. It was a fantastic

feeling and a great result for us.”The Canadian women’s dramatic

London 2012 Olympic bronze medal remains much closer in memory, but Kiss & co. were darn good in their

own right a decade earlier, part of the generation that pushed Canada into a powerhouse on the global women’s football stage.

“It was an honour to be part of that group of women,” Kiss indicates. “To be part of that and really raise the level in Canada, it was really some-thing special.”

And even today, the retired 34-year-old can still say she was part of Canadian team that’s gone the furthest in World Cup play with that 2013 result, a 4th-place finish.

By Dan Plouffe

photo: steve kingsman

LAST LIFT FOR DESPRÉS

P. 2

P. 12

Whitewater paddler Cam Smedley was one of numerous local athletes to recently earn their place on Canada’s Pan Am team.

2014 Commonwealth Games competitor Isabelle Després is calling it a career after a wild ride in the weightlifting world.

GOLDEN TRACK ATTACK

P. 51,500 m & 3,000 m champ Claire Smith was responsible for 2 of 12 OFSAA gold medals won by national capital athletes.

FIFA echoNorway’s Ada Hegerberg celeb-rates her goal during the FIFA Wo-men’s World Cup opener at Lans-downe Park. Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame inductee Kristina Kiss (pic-tured below) hopes the impact of hosting the World Cup in Canada will be felt for the next generation.

Former Ottawa women’s national team player’s impact still being felt as West Ottawa head coach

PAN AM GAMES SPLASH

OttawaSpOrtSCampS.CadiSCOver Ottawa’S beSt SpOrtS CampS!

KISS continues on p.3

2 ELITE

Halfway through her first run at the canoe slalom national team trials in Minden, Ont., Alexandra McGee was already in trouble.

The Gloucester native missed a gate on the whitewater course and had to paddle hard against the current to back-track. She gave up precious seconds in the process and couldn’t make up the difference over her final three runs of the women’s C1 (canoe single) event, placing 2nd behind Calgary’s Haley Daniels, who claimed Canada’s lone Pan Am Games entry in the discipline.

McGee wants another chance to race the Minden course that will be the site for whitewater events at the Pan Am Games. However, she’ll have to overcome far more than a strong current to reach the starting gate.

McGee is stuck in the middle of a complicated scenario that ultimately robs her of a chance to compete internationally.

Only Daniels, the trials winner, can compete for a Canadian medal at the Pan Am Games. However, the Pan American Continental Championships are taking place alongside the Games, and two other Canadians in nearly every whitewater dis-cipline get to race as “ghost boats” that are ineligible for Games medals but do count for 2016 Olympic qualification purposes.

That opened the door for six of McGee’s national silver or bronze medal-winning Ottawa River Runners teammates – Thea Froehlich (women’s K1), Liam Smedley and Spencer Pomeroy (men’s C1), and Michael Tayler and John Hastings (men’s K1) – to compete in Minden.

But for McGee, and bronze medallist Lois Betteridge of Ottawa, they’re still on the outside looking in. Women’s C1 is not currently an Olympic event, and wasn’t included as an event in the 2015 Pan Am

Continental Championships like it had been in previous editions.

“We didn’t know about (being ex-cluded from Pan Am Championships) be-fore the competition,” McGee recounts. “I don’t know why you’d take that oppor-tunity away from two women.”

“I’m never one to complain about funding,” she continues, “but to take away the opportunity to compete is, for me, something worth fighting for.”

Whitewater paddler fighting for chance to race during Pan Am Games after learning of unexpected exclusion following Canadian team trials

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photo: dan plouffe

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The Pan Am picture is becoming more clear as na-tional sports organizations continue to unveil their nom-inations to Canada’s teams in many sports, with a number of Ottawa athletes set to join whitewater paddler Cam Smedley for the Toronto 2015 Games from July 10-26.

University of Ottawa and Carleton University students Jenna Flannigan and Melissa Armstrong were selected for the inaugural Pan Am Games women’s baseball competition, while Ottawa native Hannah Martensen was not chosen.

London 2012 Olympian Melanie McCann is set to lead Canada’s modern pent-athlon contingent, which also includes 21-year-old Garnett Stevens.

National champions Jas-mine Landry (karate) and RA Centre badminton play-ers Andrew D’Souza and Alex Bruce had their Pan Am positions confirmed, as did Kanata Rhythmic Gym-nastics Club-brewed na-tional group rhythmic team member Lucinda Nowell.

Goaltender Jessica Gaudreault of the Capital Wave Water Polo Club got the nod for the Canadian wo-men’s water polo team, while

wrestler Alex Brown-Theri-ault was given a chance to represent Canada in the men’s 85 kg greco-roman competition.

University of Ottawa grad Kate Goodfellow of the Ottawa Rowing Club will compete in the women’s quadruple sculls event, but the women’s eight (gener-ally regarded as the signa-ture rowing competition) is oddly not part of the Pan Am programme, meaning the likes Cristy Nurse and Sarah Black from the Ottawa Row-ing Club could have other events on their schedule at the time such as the World Cup series.

Strong Pan Am con-tenders Vincent De Haitre (track cycling), Joel Lang-ford (men’s softball), Jamie Bissett (diving) and flatwater paddlers Ben Tardioli and Angus Mortimer were not nominated in their sports.

Swimmer Erika Selten-reich-Hodgson earned her Pan Am place in April, while more local representatives are expected to be nominated in fencing, women’s rugby sevens, squash, table tennis, tennis, track-and-field, men’s volleyball and men’s water polo, and possibly also bas-ketball and soccer.

OTTAWA PAN AM CONTINGENT GROWING QUICKLY

PAN AM GAMES continues on p.11

Alexandra McGee.

“Hopefully that ends soon,” Kiss smiles.

The veteran of 75 interna-tional appearances plans to see all the FIFA games at Lansdowne, and she’d love nothing more to be watching her former mates playing in the final, when Adidas will fly her out to Vancouver for the game. And one of the biggest reasons she’d like to see Canada succeed is because of the impact the tournament being played on home soil will have on the next generation.

“It’ll raise the profile of soccer in Canada,” Kiss explains. “It’ll make a lot of young girls want to play and achieve that kind of status in their own careers. It can only be good for us. Hopefully Canada will really do well and inspire the nation once again.”

KISS JOINS HOOPER IN HALL

On the eve of the 2015 World Cup opener, Kiss was fêted next door to the Lansdowne Stadium at the Horticulture Building as she was welcomed into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame.

“It’s a bit nerve-racking,” says Kiss, who doesn’t like to be the centre of attention. “But it’s really, truly, a huge honour. I’m just thrilled. I can’t believe it’s really happening.”

Kiss’s induction comes two years after Hooper joined the local sports Hall herself.

“Charmaine was an idol of mine growing up,” highlights Kiss, who fondly remembers her very first na-tional team game in 2000 when she got to play alongside Hooper. “She was an amazing player and an amaz-ing role model. It was such a thrill to step on with my childhood idols.”

Much like Hooper did for her, there is now a slew of young talent looking to follow in Kiss’s footsteps.

“It’s inspirational,” says 15-year-old Kathleen Carson, who’s been coached by Kiss at the West

Ottawa Soccer Club. “Sometimes you wonder, ‘Could I ever make it to that level?’

“To see somebody who you know come over and coach you, it’s like, ‘Wow, I could do that too some day. If she can do it, I can do it.’

With aching knees and a tired mind, Kiss decided to hang up her cleats at age 28, but quickly “moved on to a career that I actually enjoy more than playing.”

“I love soccer and everything about it, so it was just very natural to go into coaching,” details the mother of a 3-and-a-half-year-old boy. “Now that I don’t have to do the running, I’m even happier.”

As technical director for the West Ottawa Soccer Club, Kiss’s impact continues to spread. She’s had a number of players write her notes or send e-mails after they’ve worked with her to tell her she’s in-spired them and thank her.

“It’s always very, very nice to see,” notes the Kanata native. “Be-ing able to be a role model and to affect the lives of kids – that for me is a huge part of it.

“Seeing kids coming in smiling and happy to see you there, and the fact that you can teach them some-thing, it makes it all worthwhile.”

Kiss is more than a talented player who’s good at coaching though, she’s a needed female leader in sports, says Dina Bell-Laroche, a coach with West Ottawa who atten-ded the Hall induction ceremony.

“It was beautiful to see Kristina be honoured in that way amidst some of the hockey legends,” un-derlines Bell-Laroche, alluding to Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray and long-time Hull Olympiques GM/governor Charlie Henry, who were 2015 Hall in-ductees alongside Kiss (as well as broadcaster Dave Schreiber and 1975 University of Ottawa Gee-Gees Vanier Cup-champion football team).

“So much of the sport is driven by men who are coaching women, which is great, but we also need wo-men to coach women, and women to coach men,” Bell-Laroche adds. “When I see someone like Kristina – who is one of only two female tech-nical directors in Canada, I believe

– she inspires me.”

4TH SCHOOLBOX RUN A SUCCESS

Bell-Laroche is a driving force behind an inspiring event of her own called the Fun Run 4 SchoolBOX, which supports the Canadian charity carrying the mission of making edu-cation possible for those who can’t afford it.

The 5 km run took place on June 6 from Stonemeadow Park in Kanata and lifted the event’s four-year fundraising total close to $20,000 mark (with Sydney Millar earning the price for most donations collected).

Two summers ago, a group from West Ottawa traveled to Nicaragua to help build the school that their SchoolBOX fundraising efforts sup-ported. They’ve also run a soccer tournament for the local community located outside Nicaragua’s capital.

“We’re not sure what the next project will be, but that’s OK,” in-dicates Bell-Laroche, noting they’ve added 4th “annual” to the title of this year’s run to reinforce the group’s long-term commitment to the cause. “Our heart is really connected to that community.”

Bell-Laroche is a big backer of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport’s True Sport principles. One of those is of “giving back” – the importance of which she emphas-izes with the players she coaches in hopes that they’ll continue to make a positive impact of their own in the future.

“You’re teaching life skills that I think translate off the field into being a really good Cana-dian citizen,” high-lights the former Canadian Olympic Committee press chief who now works for the Sport Law & Strategy Group. “If kids are inspired through their time with me as a coach and go on and do good things, you know, it’s more than just teaching them how to kick a ball.”

3

She grew up playing soccer locally, went on to play NCAA soccer and wear Team Canada colours inter-nationally, and now family has drawn Alysha

Bonnick back to her roots in community soc-cer as a coach with the Nepean Hotspurs Soccer Club.

“It’s like a big, happy family to be with Hot-spurs,” says Bonnick, an assistant coach for the Hotspurs Ontario Player Development League under-13 girls. “It’s a smaller coach-ing staff that gets along, there’s chemistry. Some of these coaches have been together for ages. They’ve formed those long-lasting relationships with each other.

“It’s the same for the players. It rubs off on them, too.”

The daughter of a Jamaican-born father and Trinidadian mother, soccer was always in Bonnick’s blood.

“(My dad) helped me get into soccer,” recounts the North Gower resident who learned the game with a number of clubs in Eastern Ontario. “It was such a passion. He started coaching when I was really young.”

TEAM CANADA HIGHLIGHTSPart of Canadian youth national team

programs, Bonnick went on to play for the University of Missouri Tigers and twice ap-peared for the Canadian senior women’s side in 2010, which she calls the highlight of her playing career.

“You can’t even imagine how proud I was and humbled I was to put that jersey on, and how proud I was making my family,” reflects Bonnick.

After her NCAA career with Mizzou was complete, Bonnick returned home, and fam-ily – both in the figurative and literal sense – drew her to coaching.

Bonnick’s father, Winston, had been coaching soccer since she was young, and was still at it years later with the Hotspurs.

“I’d always watch him coach,” recalls the 26-year-old. “When I came back, I wanted to coach with him.”

Bonnick was glad to join a club known

for its leadership in coaching excellence, and home to several past Team Canada players as well – most notably long-time women’s national team captain Charmaine Hooper (who is second in all-time caps be-hind Christine Sinclair and has the Hotspurs’ main home fields named after her).

Bonnick now enjoys the chance to work with the next generation of young girls seek-ing to play for Canada, and senses their en-thusiasm will only build further with the FIFA Women’s World Cup in town this June and July.

“Growing up, it’s always your dream as a soccer player that plays in Canada, to rep-resent your country and wear that jersey,” Bonnick highlights. “I know some of our play-ers are excited to go to a few of the games and see the national teams play.”

Having the World Cup on home soil, with living legends in front of them, serves as a reminder for the young budding stars that playing for a national team could happen for them, like it did for their coach.

Bonnick’s future aspirations are now a little simpler than playing for Canada. She wants to one day be on the sidelines along-side her father who helped get her into soc-cer and coaching.

“We’re not coaching together (on the same team) right now,” Bonnick indicates. “But that’s our goal for the future.”

Nepean Hotspurs HotstoveCoaching a family affair for Hotspurs trainer/past Canada WNT player

After a playing career that included four years with the NCAA’s Missouri Tigers and appearances for the Canadian senior women’s national team, Alysha Bonnick returned to coach with her father Winston at the Nepean Hotspurs Soccer Club.

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KISS: Ottawa Sport Hall inductee an inspirational female sports figurecontinued from Cover Ottawa’s Carol-Anne Chénard refereed the

Germany vs Nigeria match in her hometown.

photo: steve kingsman

Kristina Kiss and her son at the

Fun Run 4 School-

BOX.

photo: dan plouffe

4

OSU Force Academy Zone8 OSU Force Team Ontario players sustain club provincial progress

For years, there was no need for a stop in Prescott, but the Team Ontario bus

was thankful to round up eight Ottawa South United Force players en route to Montreal’s south shore for this season’s provincial teams competition against Quebec.

A number of local players selected for the provincial matches made a big impact as Ontario swept the three-game series at each level of boys’ and girls’ play from U14 to U16 on the April 24-26 and May 1-3 weekends.

“Everyone did really well,” highlights U14 boys’ striker Danny Assaf, who profited from the chemistry he owns with OSU midfielder Antonio Carlini to feed him passes. “I play with him and we know how we like to play.”

After a tie in their first game, Assaf launched Ontario to a 3-2 win with a pair of goals in their second match and cruised to a 4-1 victory in the third. In the girls’ U14 com-petition, OSU’s Ariel Young and Olivia Cooke also found their way onto the scoresheet.

“It was really awesome,” recounts Young, a fullback who jumped in to score her goal. “Two of us from Ottawa both scored, so that was really good representation.”

Mollie Eriksson enjoyed having a number of OSU teammates at her side for the event. The 2000-born goalkeeper had previously been part of regional, provincial and national programs, but she was the only Ottawa par-ticipant on most occasions.

“It was just me and my dad for a lot of it,” notes Eriksson. “It was really good to travel together and it was just more fun because we could room with them and not feel so lonely.”

U16 girls’ striker Clarissa Larissey – last year’s OYSL scoring champion – savoured

the intensity of the matches.“At the top, the game just gets faster and

faster,” indicates the Grade 10 student who’s already thinking about going to university thanks to her soccer exploits. “Working to get an education and then going to Team Canada, that’s pretty much the goal.”

Getting the best chance to strive for bigger objectives was a main attraction for Youma Konate to join OSU two years ago, even if it can sometimes take the Colonel By Secondary School student 45 minutes to get to the field.

“Here at OSU, they teach you everything so you can succeed at a higher level,” explains the U15 girls’ centre-back. “The coaching is amazing and all the players are really skilled.”

The prospect of playing for Team Ontario acted as a strong motivator, says Emily Amano.

“In training, you wanted to push that much farther so you could get that spot,” recalls the U15 girls’ attacking midfielder.

The pre-season experience with Team Ontario has translated into a quick start for OSU’s nine teams in provincial league play, having recorded just a single loss across all age groups through the first three weekends.

“During our games, you can definitely see (the impact),” signals U14 girls’ forward Olivia Cooke, who scored 5 times in one league game. “It was incredible training, and I think that really helped us get a glimpse of a profes-sional environment with the best in Ontario.”

With OSU players having earned an equal number of provincial team positions last year, Club Head Coach Paul Harris says the repeat representation is a big reason for celebration.

“It’s a testament to the club and all the coaches for all their hard work behind the scenes,” Harris underlines. “Now we’re not just getting one or two into the Ontario team, we’re getting seven or eight every year. We want to keep increasing our numbers and show the powerhouse that OSU is in Ontario.”

They are the fab five for their 5-0 Ontario Youth Soccer League under-15 boys’ team, and combined they achieved an exceptionally rare if not unprecedented feat of placing a quintet of players on the provincial team.

Gloucester Hornets teammates Jonathan David, Benson Fazili, Haider Kadhom, Augustin Muhima and Montther Mohsen were all se-lected to wear Team Ontario colours for a pre-season series against the Quebec U15 provincial squad in St. Hubert, Que.

“I’ve never heard of five players even make it from Ottawa alone, so to have five from one team, I don’t think it’s ever happened for an Ott-awa team,” notes Hornets U15 coach Hanny El-Magraby. “I’m sure some very special Toronto teams might have done the same thing at some point in the last 20 years, but for an Ottawa team, I think it’s definitely a first.”

Ottawa players populated many of the U14, U15 and U16 male and female Ontario sides that took part in the annual event featuring three games in three days for each team, although the Gloucester group provided the largest local representa-

tion on one squad.The Ontario

U15 boys were unbeaten in the tournament, de-feating Quebec 5-3 in the first game and 2-1 the last two matches.

The five Hor-nets went through six months of tryouts before finally cracking the roster. El-Magraby referred them to tryout for the team and traveled with the players for week-end training in Toronto throughout the winter.

“A lot of them had key roles on the team,” signals El-Magraby, who also made the trip to Montreal’s south shore for the Quebec vs Ontario matches. “Personally, I felt that you could arguably say that they were the five top players there. Maybe I’m a little biased, but I think they all did extremely well and they represented the province and their team very well.”

David was the leading scorer for the Ontario boys with four goals in

three games. Last year’s OYSL scor-ing champion competed for Team Ontario last year as well, but says that playing with four of his Gloucester teammates made the tournament an even better experience this year.

“When you play with them, there’s more chemistry,” explains the attacking midfielder/striker. “Of course they want to pass you the ball more, and you have more of a chance to prove yourself.”

Kadhom felt both happy and re-lieved to make the team and repres-ent Ontario. After being cut last year,

the defensive m i d f i e l d e r says that he worked even harder and felt more prepared this time around, which he credits in large part to his Hornets teammates.

“In the tryouts we kind of worked to-g e t h e r , ” K a d h o m

Hot start for provincial player-loaded Hornets By Katrina Squazzin Jonathan

David was Team Ontario’s leading scorer.

JUNIOR LEAGUES

file photo

h i g h l i g h t s . “We worked off each other’s strengths to show our po-tential as play-ers. In a way, we worked to-gether to make the team.

“I really liked the second tryout when they put Monty [ M o h s e n ] , A u g y [ M u h i m a ] , Benson and I all together and all four of us really

just dominated that game and worked together really well. I think that’s what solidified our spot.”

The pre-season success has trans-lated into a hot start in OYSL play as well. Gloucester sits atop the division standings with a perfect 5-0 record, followed closely by the 4-0-1 Ottawa South United Force.

The Hornets have already matched the total number of wins they earned in their 5-5-6 debut OYSL season last year, and have outscored their oppon-ents by a combined 29-3 margin.

“Our chemistry is good,” under-lines David, who’s scored 10 goals already. “We all want to work together. We’re not selfish. We all just want to win and have the best season.”

OTTAWA ON FIRE IN OYSLIt’s been an unprecedented suc-

cessful start across the board for local provincial soccer league entries.

Division champions last year at the U18 girls’ level, the Ottawa Fury are 2-1-1 through four games. After finishing at the bottom in 2014, West Ottawa’s 3-1 U16 boys have risen into 2nd place thus far.

And OSU’s teams have been a force at just about every level from U14 through U17, posting a combined 17 wins, 3 losses and 7 ties.

“It’s been a terrific start for all our teams,” notes OSU club head coach Paul Harris. “All of them are compet-ing, so it’s a great progression for the club.”

National capital athletes earned a dozen provincial gold medals and wrote a number of new lines in the record books en route to the OFSAA high school track-and-field champion-ships June 4-6 in Toronto.

Keira Christie-Gallaway erased one of the oldest national capital marks on record at the city finals, breaking a 1973 barrier with her 11.48-second performance in the ju-nior girls’ 80-metre hurdles.

The St. Matthew Catholic High School student then went faster for new east regionals (11.39) and OF-SAA (11.24) records, and added a long jump silver medal for good measure.

“I’m really proud of myself,” Christie-Gallaway says. “I didn’t come into it expecting to break a re-cord.”

The Ottawa Lions club athlete has been involved in track-and-field for three years, but just started hurdling last season.

“I got a lot better this year,”

Christie-Gallaway indicates. “I’ve been training really hard for it.”

Lauren Gale also broke a long-standing Ottawa record, anni-hilating the midget girls’ 400 m mark from 1981 by 3.32 seconds. The South Carleton athlete also established new national capital bests in the 200 m and 300 m hurdles.

“That was really exciting,” smiles Gale, who went on to win OFSAA gold in all three events. “My coaches were all extremely happy with me and my parents too.”

Gale left her provincial rivals half-a-homestretch behind at OFSAA when she shaved .99 off her person-al-best to win the 400 in 54.76.

“The 400 is not my favourite, but I guess I’m the best at it,” signals Gale, who came within .13 of the OFSAA 400 record. “Afterwards, it’s not fun. I’m on the ground for like 10 minutes just to recover.”

Gale has been involved in the sport since age 9, but didn’t get seri-ous about it until she moved to Ottawa three years ago. The dominant season may be her last in a local school’s col-ours, however.

Originally from New Brunswick, with a stop in California in between, Gale’s father is in the military and is now set to move to Colorado come August.

“My coaches are trying to get me

to go to boarding school for a few years here instead because they want me to stay,” adds Gale, em-phasizing the appeal of staying with her Lions club. “I’ve defin-itely seen my times improve a lot in the three years I’ve been with them. I’ve got some really awe-some coaches.”

GRYPHONS GIRLS GROWL

The Glebe Gryphons finished second overall in the girls’ team standings, picking up plenty of placement points both in sprint and distance track events.

After a bronze as juniors last year, the Glebe senior girls’ 4x100 m relay team became pro-vincial champions this season, setting a new national capital re-cord of 49.25 prior to their OF-SAA performance of 48.02.

“Medaling again was a really nice accomplishment,” under-lines anchor Maya Kamah. “I love beating records. We knew we could get it if we just put our heads together and ran really well.”

National capital athletes pro-duced a sweep of the girls’ 3,000 m events, with Glebe’s Mei Mei Weston taking the midget crown (and claiming 1,500 m bronze), Long-fields-Davidson Heights’ Shona Mc-

Culloch winning the junior race in a new personal-best time of 9:37.10, and Glebe senior Claire Smith doub-ling up for 1,500 m and 3,000 m pro-vincial titles for the first time in her career.

Canterbury’s Erinn Stenman-Fa-hey completed her climb up OFSAA podium, following up her 2013 bronze and 2014 silver with 800 m gold in 2015.

St. Mark’s Larissa Brown broke her own record in the girls’ 100 m visually-impaired event, and All Saints’ Haley Adams won the junior girls’ high jump to complete the “girls-only” list of Ottawa gold medalists.

National capital athletes also collec-ted 6 silver and 5 bronze for a total haul

of 23 medals (see sidebar for full list).

REBELLES GO OUT AS CHAMPIONS

The Louis-Riel Rebelles were dominant en route to the OFSAA ‘AA’ girls’ soccer championship game but had to survive a high-anxiety penalty kicks session before finishing the final golden chapter of their story.

Louis-Riel recorded four shutouts in four pool games and then earned 4-0 quarter- and semi-final wins in Chatham from June 4-6. The Rebelles allowed their first goal in the championship game, but Adrienne Li’s regulation goal and penalty kicks winner gave them the gold over Guelph’s Bishop Macdonell.

5

Canadian Little League ChampionshipsMattamy Homes named presenting partner for 2015 nationals

“This is a remarkable event and Mattamy Homes is extremely proud to be a present-ing sponsor for this event,” Mattamy Ottawa Division President Kevin O’Shea said at the official announcement on May 15 at South Nepean Park. “We know it’s going to be an exciting year of baseball for these 11- and 12-year-olds here, and we look forward to cheering them on at this year’s event.”

With nearby developments in Longfields, Half Moon Bay and Stonebridge, North America’s largest private homebuilder was eager to be part of a big event next door at the Eagles Nest.

“We’re very excited as an organization to be part of such a marquee event for Barrhaven and the East Nepean Eagles,” O’Shea added. “It’s a great opportunity. It’s right in our backyard.”

Mattamy Homes is involved with a num-ber of big-league sports – including 2014-15 season sponsor for the Ottawa Senators, and naming rights for the former Maple Leaf Gardens – but the developer is also keen to

support sports at the grassroots level too.“It really speaks to our commitment to com-

munity. It’s one of our core values,” O’Shea underlined. “We know that families are part of Little League baseball, and families are part of the communities we build.”

O’Shea, a former Little Leaguer in Kanata himself, maintains a strong affinity for the sport that drew him in because it offered a chance to be active outdoors in a team setting.

“I love baseball. It’s always been a pas-sion of mine,” O’Shea indicated. “I hurt my shoulder as a 13-year-old, but I love the game so much I became an umpire.”

SPONSORSHIP GOES A LONG WAYOrganizers were thrilled to have Mattamy

sign on since it ensures they will meet their event budget requirements and so they can focus their energy on other aspects that will make the event a special, such as their Cham-pions Dinner with Robbie Alomar and promot-ing the sport to generate future Little Leaguers.

“We want to put on a first-class tournament,” emphasized East Nepean Little League Presid-ent Bruce Campbell. “Having Mattamy involved mirrors that. We have first-class partners.”

After former City of Nepean Mayor and tour-nament organizing committee member Mary Pitt made the introduction to Mattamy leader-ship, it wasn’t a tough sell.

“They were excited from the get-go,” recoun-ted Campbell. “To have the three people from Mattamy at the highest levels come out (to the announcement) on the Friday of a long week-end – man, that’s saying something about the people and the company that they work for.”

Mattamy Homes Ottawa Division President Kevin O’Shea selects a lottery ball during the tournament draw and sponsorship announcement on May 15 at South Nepean Park. The host East Nepean Eagles will play the Atlantic champions in the nationals opener on Aug. 7.

Spring high school hardware harvest for NCBy Dan Plouffe

Remy Wade and the Glebe senior girls’ 4x100 m relay team won OFSAA gold.

HIGH SCHOOLS

photo: dan plouffe It’s called the Canadian Little League Cham-pionships, but the organizers of the Aug. 5-16 baseball nation-als in Barrhaven have landed a big league presenting part-ner in Mattamy Homes.

OFSAA continues on p.6

NATIONAL CAPITAL OFSAA TRACK & FIELD MEDALISTS

GOLDLarissa Brown (St. Mark)

Girls’ VI 100 mLauren Gale (South Carleton)

MG 400 m MG 300 m hurdles

MG 200 mMei Mei Weston (Glebe)

MG 3,000 mKeira Christie-Gallaway (St. Matt’s)

JG 80 m hurdlesShona McCulloch (Longfields-DH)

JG 3,000 mHaley Adams (All Saints)

JG high jumpClaire Smith (Glebe)

SG 1,500 m SG 3,000 m

Erinn Stenman-Fahey (Canterbury) SG 800 m

Olivia Eaman, Remy Wade, Megan Frost & Maya Kamah (Glebe)

SG 4x100 m relay

SILVERStephanie Lalonde (Louis-Riel)

MG pole vaultWariso Dullo (Rideau)

MB javelinJaphet Divita (Louis-Riel)

MB triple jumpKeira Christie-Gallaway (St. Matt’s)

JG long jumpÉlodie Drew (Lycée Claudel)

JG triple jumpReilly McCann (Franco-Cité)

JB 3,000 m

BRONZESharelle Samuel (Ashbury)

MG 400 mMei Mei Weston (Glebe)

MG 1,500 mKeili Shepherd (Glebe)

JG 800 mHans Lafleur (Franco-Cité)

SB high jumpHailey McKechnie (Earl of March)

SG 400 m hurdles

All 5 Riel seniors will play university soccer or hockey.

photo provided

At age 12, Haley Miller has enjoyed a rapid rise in the rhythmic gymnastics world, and this summer she’ll get to see the world because of it.

The Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club member has been selected as Team Ontario’s lone provincial stream repres-entative for its tour event June 26-28 in Luxembourg.

And after a quick stop back at home, Miller will head back across the Atlantic as the youngest member of her Kanata club’s team set to participate in the 20,000-athlete World Gymnaestrada July 12-18 in Helsinki.

Miller has accumulated quite the re-sumé (and a jam-packed trophy case) already in her young career, but the 12-year-old remains keenly aware that there is still plenty more progression pos-sible in her sport.

“I am always learning about myself and the sport,” signals Miller, who star-ted in artistic gymnastics but switched to rhythmic on a coach’s advice and was instantly hooked, now putting in over 20 hours of training a week.

“With each training and competition I get more experience, confidence and motivation to push myself even harder,” she adds. “I know that I am very strong mentally and always keep a positive atti-

tude, but some-times with all of my training I get injuries and that can be frustrat-ing.”

This is where her coach comes

in and helps maintain her composure. Dasa Lelli can draw on 40 years of experience working with young athletes at the KRSG club she founded in 1975.

“I’m so priv-ileged to have such amazing coaches,” indicates Miller, who will have Lelli at her side for the Lux-embourg event as the coach for Team Ontario. “They sup-port me, help me, and show me that I can succeed if I put my heart and mind to it. I am so happy that I get to share this incredible exper-ience with my head coach Dasa.”

Before the in-ternational tour, Miller and her KRSG teammates will enter their big competit-ive event of the season at the June 13-14 Ontario Championships in Burlington. Having topped the all-around standings in both qualifier competitions, with wins in 5 of her 6 Level 4C (Age 10-12) events, last year’s provincial ball gold medallist is poised to build further on her growing list of successes.

“We are very proud of Haley and all her accomplishments this year,” Lelli un-derlines. “I am just glad that I can provide for Haley and the other gymnasts and their families the level of comfort and guidance

they need to compete internationally, at their best.”

Miller is excited for her upcoming op-portunities, and hopes to experience more of the same in the longer term.

“I always see sport and fitness being a big part of my life,” says the Ottawa Jew-ish Community School student who also plays scholastic basketball and soccer, and enjoys biking and running. “I hope to pur-sue my passion for rhythmic gymnastics as far as I can and in the future help to inspire and give back to others the way my coaches, teammates and the sport has done for me.”

6

Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club

OPEN HOUSE!

June 20th 10 am - 2 pm

Bridlewood Elementary School

W W W

6 1 3

8 6 7

5 7 7 4

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K R S G

O R G

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Join us for performances, information & registration for 2014-15 at our Open House on June 20th!

Auditions for the club’s advanced training stream will be held June 13th. Registration for our Recre- ational Rhythmic Gymnastics Summer Camp is also open! Find out more at:

63 Bluegrass Drive in Kanata

krsg.org

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COMMUNITY CLUBS12-year-old Miller a rhythmic thriller

By Bryan Tobin

Louis-Riel’s lineup featured a number of play-ers who won four OFSAA hockey medals in four years. For Alyssa Baker, Kaitlyn Ball, Kelsey Ellis, Adrienne Li, Kimiko Marinacci, Gab-rielle Poirier and Mélissa Si-mard, it was their second OF-SAA team gold (following their 2014 ’A/AA’ hockey title), but a first soccer pro-vincial crown.

Li identifies team chem-istry as an invaluable factor.

“We all bond really well together. That’s a big help,” says the University of Central Florida-bound soccer player. “We all share a passion for sports. We’ve all played since we were young. That’s probably why we have such

a strong connection, because we all relate through sports.”

Kelsey Ellis, the Gloucester Hornets product who’s headed to St. Fran-cis-Xavier University to play soccer, was one of the many graduating seniors to lead the team.

“We all met in Grade 9 and we’re all best friends,” Ellis recounts. “There are a lot of memories. It was a great season and a great four years. I loved every minute of it.”

National capital schools medalled at three of the four OFSAA rugby competitions, with the Ashbury Colts earn-ing bronze in both the ‘A/AA’ boys’ and girls’ competitions, and the St. Peter Knights taking silver in the ‘AAA/AAAA’ girls’ event.

OFSAA cont’d from p.5

file photo

Haley Miller.

7COMMUNITY CLUBS

With 2014 Ontario gold and Eastern Canadian silver already under their belts, the Maverick Volleyball Club 16-and-under boys’ team com-pleted their medal collection this season by winning both provincial and national bronze.

The 3rd-place finish at the May 17-19 Canadian Champi-onships in Calgary was oh-so-close to being even better than that. The Mavs fell by the min-imum in their semi-final match (13-15) against west Toronto’s Pakmen, with a lineman’s call overturned by the head referee working against them in one of the final points.

“It could have gone either way,” highlights Mavs coach François St-Denis. “We played them six times this year so we know them really well, and unfortunately for us we won only one. They were very, very close games with them, so that’s the difference.”

The Mavs went on to avenge their lone defeat in six earlier pool play matches (19-17 in the deciding set) in the bronze medal match, this time downing Ontario Lakeside 25-20, 25-16.

“It’s all very, very excit-ing,” says St-Denis, who was impressed with the consistency his players showed throughout the season – unlike last year when they simply finished with a bang – by medaling at every tournament they played.

“It was a real team ef-fort,” adds the Louis-Riel high school coach. “There are a lot of really good players on this team, and certain games it’s this player, and then another game, it’s this other player (stepping up). It’s reassuring as a volleyball coach to have that, because often it’s not about winning the game, it’s about not losing it.”

St-Denis’ son Max was named to the national tour-nament all-star team, which came a year his other son Alex was the provincial MVP when they won provincials. Despite the decorated run the family has enjoyed, this will be the last time St-Denis coaches his boys with the club.

“My time with them is done,” underlines St-Denis, who is confident their next coach can help them achieve even greater heights. “I coached them two years and I’m a firm believer that

they need to see and hear a dif-ferent coach, a different style.”

GREAT GRATTONS

The St-Denis clan wasn’t the only father-son combo to enjoy a big medal win this sea-son. Coach Paul Gratton and his son Maxime enjoyed a per-fect 9-0 run – including 15-13 and 15-12 deciding-set barn-burners in the semis and final – with the Maverick Stallions 13U boys’ team to win April’s provincials in Waterloo.

“It was fantastic,” recounts the elder Gratton. “Winning is one thing, and seeing the guys play so well is just as fun. To have Maxime on the team was the cherry on the pie. To see him with his teammates being able to perform and raise their level when things got tough was really rewarding for me.”

Maxime of course certainly has some good volleyball genes. A former national team captain who helped Canada to its best-ever Olympic finish at the 1984 Games, Paul Gratton played professionally across the globe and has been called “the Gordie Howe of Canadian volleyball.”

Despite that pedigree, Gratton credits the success of this team to the help he had on the bench.

“I was lucky to have a lot of people helping me,” he explains. “On and off, there were seven available coaches to help out during practice. I think five schoolteachers that taught or coached phys ed at high school before, so the practices were a lot of fun and quality practices. These guys knew a lot and knew how to teach young kids.”

The Stallions’ 13U boys’ club counterparts, the Mav-erick Broncos, also reached the provincial Tier 1 playoff round, which speaks to a club philosophy that the best play-ers not necessarily be bunched together to create powerhouses at the younger ages.

“Really, the focus is not

on winning, it’s 13U, so we train our players, it’s mostly developmental,” Gratton sig-nals. “At that age, volleyball is so technical, so hats off to the guys because practicing that is not always a lot of fun, kind of boring even, but the guys really pulled through and kept their focus.”

MAVS MANIA

The Mavs enjoyed several more solid performances at the nationals, which featured 787 teams, more than 10,000 ath-letes, 300 referees, and 15,000 spectators in total across all divisions at the Corral at Stam-pede Park, Calgary Olympic Oval and University of Cal-gary.

Ranked just 5th out of Ontario teams, the Mavs 17U girls nonetheless reached the medal round, missing a bronze medal by the minimum with a 15-13 third-set defeat to Toronto’s Phoenix Legacy. Taylor Walker was named a tournament all-star.

The Mavs were also na-tional quarter-finalists in the 17U boys’ competition.

SCINTILLATING START

Ottawa’s Adam Simac and the Canadian men’s volleyball team fed off a big home crowd in Calgary for their FIVB World League openers, down-ing Cuba in straight sets twice.

Without Simac, who’d only been home for a few days before the World League opener following a deep play-off run with his French pro club, Canada split matches in Bulgaria and in Halifax against Argentina.

Simac did play in Canada’s NORCECA Champions Cup victory on May 23 when the Canadians outlasted their top continental rivals 25-22, 19-25, 21-25, 25-21, 17-15 in De-troit, in the process earning a berth for September’s World Cup in Japan, which acts as the first 2016 Olympic qualifica-tion opportunity.

Father/son teams medal for MavsBy Josh Bell

photo provided

Ontario-champion 13U Maverick boys.

SAM BAT Fall League

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8

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Superheroes, magicians, princesses, alien hunters, lions and tigers and bears, oh my! If you thought gymnastics camp was only about practicing somersaults and walking on the balance beam, then you sure haven’t seen Tumblers Gym-nastics Centre summer camps.

“Every week has a theme,” explains Tumblers Gymnastics Centre General Manager Christine Groleau. “All the activ-ities of the week will be geared towards that theme.

“I remember all the kids coming in disguised as superheroes and just being so excited to fly through the air and act like them during their superhero training. It’s really something special to see.”

CIRCUS, DISNEY & MORE!For SURVIVOR week, parti-

cipants will work on their team-work skills as they go on a treas-ure hunt, Little Ray’s Reptiles will come by for a special visit, and the gym gets transformed into Survivor Island. Other examples of themes are JUNGLE FEVER, CIRQUE DU TUMBLERS and SHARK WEEK.

“Certain themes we bring back every year because they’re so popular,” adds Groleau, high-lighting that the week centred on each summer’s Disney movie is

always a guaranteed hit.Appropriate for beginners and

seasoned gymnasts alike, chil-dren enjoy seeing the familiar faces of experienced Tumblers camp staff, who have all been trained by High Five – a leading organization in ensuring quality standards for children’s recre-ation and sport.

FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE“Our staff are really part of

our family,” underlines Groleau, noting many staff have been present for the bulk of the 10+ years Tumblers summer camps have been in operation. “They’ve been here a long time, they’re well-trained to be camp coordin-ators, and to run all the camp activities.”

It’s a bright atmosphere where campers can make new friends and progress their gymnastics skills on a daily basis.

Crafts and outdoor play time are also part of the equation, not to mention the guest speakers and special events, which all take place on-site at the large

Tumblers facility on Vantage Dr. in Orleans.

The week always ends with Friday pizza day, which the campers will have earned after exercising all week.

PRE- & POST-CAMP CAREThe camps run for 11 weeks,

from June 22 through Sept. 4. Half days are available for the youngest campers aged 3-5, while single-day rates are pos-sible for parents who may need child care on a particular day.

“For us, it’s really about being there for the community and meeting their needs,” indicates the director of the 25-year-old not-for-profit community club.

“And the demand is there. Our camps have proven to be really popular as a way to keep kids active, and having fun, over the summer.”

Pre- and post-camp care is included with registration, with drop-off as early as 7:30 a.m. and pick-up as late as 5:30 p.m. for the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. sched-uled activities.

Oftentimes, convincing the campers that it’s time to go home can prove to be a challenge.

“If the parents come early, it’s like, ‘Aww, c’mon, it’s not finished yet!’” Groleau smiles. “They love it. They’re never ready to leave.”

THEME WEEKS A HIT AT POPULAR TUMBLERS CAMPS

Sofia Baggio won the first national title of her career while Sam Zakutney earned a Canadian crown for the sixth year in a row to lead Ottawa’s contingent at the May 26-31 Canadian Gymnastics Champi-onships in Gatineau.

After placing 3rd in the women’s National Open Age 13-15 all-around event after day one, Baggio wrapped up the competition with what she deemed one of her best meets of the entire season, winning a gold medal in the floor event and bronze on vault, in the second-day finals.

“Capturing the gold was really exciting,” reflects the Ott-awa Gymnastics Centre athlete. “It was really awesome to feel the support of my coaches and family. Just to see them cheer-ing me on was amazing. And when I got the medal, it felt so rewarding because of how hard I worked on floor this year.”

Along with her balance beam bronze from her nation-als debut last year, Baggio now owns a complete set of medals from the Canadians.

Zakutney, the National Capital Boys Gymnastics Academy star, earned a medal of each colour as well, winning parallel bars gold, high bar silver, and all-around bronze in the men’s Junior High-Per-formance competition. In the process, the Grade 11 Fran-co-Cité high school student kept his six-year streak of win-ning at least one national gold medal alive.

“I guess it was kind of in the back of my mind,” says Za-kutney, who won consecutive youth High-Performance all-around titles from 2011 to 2013. “But I know everyone always has an equal chance to win, so

I was trying not to think about it too much. I was just hoping to make the routines that I up-graded quite a bit, and I ended up doing so on the first day.”

T.O. NO GO

Earlier this season, Zak-utney had designs on entering the senior-level competition in hopes of taking a shot at Canada’s five-member Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games men’s team. A friend of his, Rene Cournoyer, had competed as a senior while still junior aged two years ago, but before the Ontario Championships, Zak-utney received an email from Gymnastics Canada stating that no athlete under age 18 could enter the senior competition.

“It was a bit of a letdown,” recalls Zakutney, whose na-tionals point total was 11th best when combining scores from

both the junior and senior cat-egories. “But you can’t really rush success. And if anything, nationals were just to prove that I have routines that are difficult enough for the senior level, at least for Canada, which I think I pulled off pretty well.”

Zakutney remains hope-ful that he’ll get the chance to compete internationally, with trials upcoming for a junior competition in Tokyo.

“It would just be cool to go to Tokyo,” Zakutney smiles. “I’ve never been to Japan, so that would be an awesome experience. There are a lot of really good athletes going to that competition from places like China, Japan, Great Bri-tain and the U.S., so that would be something memorable to be a part of.

Gymnasts mine Canadian gold in GatineauBy Mat Labranche

photo: dan plouffe

COMMUNITY CLUBS

GYMNASTICS go to p.10

Ben Astorga.

9

University of Ottawa grad Lanni Marchant finished 3rd in the Ottawa Race Weekend 10 km event on May 23. Marchant’s time of 31 minutes 49 seconds gave her a 10-second gap over the next-best Canadian to earn the title of national champion. The London, Ont. native spent a good chunk of her winter training at the Louis-Riel Dome in preparation for the race and her upcoming season, which should include the Pan Am Games marathon and hopefully an IAAF World Championships appearance on the track for the 10,000 m.

RACE WEEKEND PODIUM & CANADIAN 10K TITLE FOR OTTAWA-TRAINED RUNNER

OUTLAWS IN CONTENTION FOR PLAYOFFS IN INAUGURAL PRO ULTIMATE SEASONThe Ottawa Outlaws took advantage of a four-game homestand to post 3 out of 4 victories in American Ultimate Disk League play in May and early June, bringing their overall record to 5-4 in their inaugural season. Currently in 4th,

the Outlaws are a game back of the final playoff spot in the 7-team east division.

FISU GAMES & INT’L EVENTS BECKON FOR MANY LOCAL ATHLETESA pile of Ottawa athletes are set to wear Team Canada colours interna-tionally in the coming months. Ottawa-brewed volleyball player Stephen Kary, soccer players Meaghan Ramsden, Katherine Koehler-Grassau, Robbie Murphy and Waleed Cassis, basketball players Caleb Agada and Johnny Berhanemeskel of the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees and Connor Wood of the Carleton Ravens, and track-and-field athletes Farah Jacques, Adam Palamar, Rachel Aubry and Karelle Edwards have all been chosen to represent Canada at the July 3-14 FISU World Univer-sity Games in Gwangju, South Korea, while volleyball player Shainah Joseph was named to the national women’s ‘B’ team, Noah Kirkwood

earned a spot on the U16 men’s basketball national team, ringette players Sarah-Lynne Begin and Molly Lewis were selected for the junior national team, track cyclists Katherine Maine and Connor Byway will compete at the Aug. 19-23 junior worlds, and skier Nicole Clarke was picked for the Ontario alpine team.

Ben Tardioli of the Rideau Canoe Club helped Canada win a bronze medal in the men’s C4 200 metres event at World Cup #2 in Germany on May 25.

RIDEAU PADDLER CLAIMS WORLD CUP CREW BRONZE

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

Ottawa’s John Shaw and the Canadian men’s un-der-20 national rugby team came within one step of winning the May 12-24 World Rugby U20 Trophy competition in Portugal, falling 49-24 in the final to Georgia on the heels of 3 wins in 3 pool play matches.

DEFEAT IN U20 TIER 2 WORLD RUGBY FINAL

CYCLIST DAL-CIN CLAIMS 1ST CAREER MAJOR VICTORY 24-year-old Ottawa cyclist Matteo Dal-Cin earned the first UCI race victory of his career at the Grand Prix de Saguenay. Alongside fellow Ottawa athlete Alex Cataford, Dal-Cin’s Silber Pro Cycling team also won the general classification title at the May 29-June 1 stage race in Quebec.

Ottawa-bred squash player Samantha Cornett won her third consecutive Canadian wo-men’s singles national title on May 2 in

Toronto. The 24-year-old beat Oakville’s Hollie Naughton 11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6 in the final.

CORNETT CONQUERS 3RD-STRAIGHT CANADIAN CROWN

GOLFER ST-GERMAIN WINS SEASON OPENER IN A PLAYOFFOttawa’s Grace St-Germain won the first event of Golf Canada’s competitive season on May 11 in British Columbia. The 17-year-old birdied the second playoff hole to win the junior girls’ division of the CN Future Links Pacific Championship tournament.

The Capital Wave 16-and-under girls’ water polo team suffered a heart-breaking 13-12 de-

feat to the Calgary Renegades in the semi-finals of the Na-tional Championship League finale on May 29 in Calgary. The Wave then lost 11-7 to Montreal’s CAMO in the bronze medal match to finish 4th overall in the 10-team league.

CAPITAL WAVE EDGED OUT AT 16U WATER POLO NATIONAL FINALS

West Ottawa Soccer Club player Keera Melenhorst and Montreal Impact Academy-bound Luka Vujicic from Ot-tawa South United have been selected to the 11-member Canada East team that will compete against the Canada West team in a late-June showdown in Montreal for the chance to play in the Danone Nations Cup, the world’s largest soccer tournament for ages 10 to 12.

2 LOCAL PLAYERS SELECTED FROM THOUSANDS TO PLAY FOR CANADA EAST DANONE NATIONS CUP TEAM

photo: dan plouffe

The 2015 Special Olympics Ontario Provincial Floor Hockey Championships were held from May 7-9 at Carleton University. The Senators Division was won appropri-ately by a local team, the Ottawa Gladiators, while the Ottawa Spartans also finished on the provincial podium with a bronze medal in the Leafs Division.

photo: dan plouffe

Floor hockey fanatics

Ottawa Knights News

www.ottawaknightsbaseballclub.com

The Ottawa Knights Baseball Club is happy to recognize Shane Brimacombe as its first player of the month for the 2015 summer season.

Brimacombe has been hot from the start this season and shows no signs of slowing down. The 15U Knights player came within a 2-run homer of a home run cycle on May 10, blasting a grand slam, a 3-run shot and a solo homer as his team earned a 12-3 victory and 9-9 tie in a double-header against the Montreal Titans 16U club.

Brimacombe is the team leader with 20 RBIs from 43 at-bats and carries a sea-son-long batting average of .419. He’s been a force pitching for the Knights as well, carrying a paltry 1.40 earned run average, allowing just 8 hits and striking out 27 in 15 innings of work thus far this season.

Corben Peters is another player who’s off to a sizzling start for the 15U Knights, batting .467 and also producing impress-ive pitching numbers with a 2.05 ERA and 27 strikeouts of his own in 13.2 innings.

A number of players have made an im-pact early for the other Knights teams at the 14U, 16U and 18U levels.

Ben Lindgren’s inside the park homerun was a highlight on opening weekend for the 14U Knights. Lindgren is batting .333 this year and has also recor-

ded a 2.55 ERA dur-ing 11 innings pitched

on the mound.Ben Bartholomew, Sam Bent, Kyle

Moore, Ryan Follows and Mackenzie Mather are all on the north side of a .400 average for the 5-5 14U team.

Nestor Tapia is averaging better than a stolen base per game for the 16U Knights with 18 in 16 contests. He also leads his team in batting average at .455.

The 16U Knights carry an overall record of 8-6-2, having earned wins over the BP Prospects and Ontario Outlaws in Fergie Jenkins Showcase League play, while also remaining undefeated in 4 matches against the Montreal Rockies and Titans clubs.

Justin Silverwood has been killing the ball for the 18U Knights, posting a .514 average, with half his hits going for 2 bases or more. Justin Chartrand and Philippe Lafleche aren’t much farther back, both averaging nicely above .400.

With an overall record of 10-5-1, the 18U Knights are one of the few Fergie Jenkins Showcase League clubs to knock off the second- and third-place Ontario Terriers and Ontario Outlaws in action this season to sit in fifth of 10 teams despite facing some of the league’s best early on.

SHANEBRIMACOMBE

Ottawa Knights Baseball Club

Player of the Month

The Ottawa Knights Baseball Club provides the region’s premiere competitive develop-ment program for teenaged players.

10 EDITORIAL

Team of the Month: West Ottawa Warriors Under-16 Girls’ Regional Soccer TeamTeam Members: (Back row, from left) Assistant Coach Mike Thornley, Players Catherine Yurack, Sarah Stuart-Lafleur, Dani-elle Hood, Nicole Murphy, Sarah Thornley, Ashley Fitzpatrick, Talia Laroche, Georgia Cunningham, Coach Peter Menyasz & Assistant Dina Bell-Laroche. (Front, from left) Players Rachel Bouwer, Emily Kourlas, Rachel, Amelia Schultz, Tiffany Ingram & Kathleen Carson. Missing: Gabrielle Tricket, Michelle Furrie & Cassandra King.

About: This hard-working and motivated group of athletes have bonded early this year to win back-to-back silver medals at their two pre-season tournaments. The Warriors battled past a number of strong Toronto teams to reach the final of the Frank Sobil Tournament in Oshawa before falling 1-0 to Oakville. The West Ottawa girls also made it to the championship game at the Icebreaker tournament where the host Ottawa Internationals prevailed to win their division. Coach Peter Menyasz was in-credibly proud of his team’s effort, stating: “To have back to back wins this early in the season is a promising start. I am amazed at how well the athletes came together despite the many challenges that were thrown at them over the weekends. It’s a great start to our season together.”

Athlete of the Month: Erinn Stenman-Fahey

Sport: Track-and-Field

Club: Ottawa Lions T & F

School/Grade: Grade 12 Canterbury HS

About: A 2014 World Junior Championships semi-finalist, Erinn Stenman-Fahey filled the last missing item on her sparkling high school track resumé at the 2015 OFSAA Championships, winning 800 m gold after previous silver and bronze medals in the final race of her high school career.

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

GYMNASTICS cont’d from p.8“It would also be great to just

familiarize myself with them and compare my abilities to theirs, and see how much harder I have to work when I get back to be at their level, or maybe even better.”

Eric Gauthier from Tumblers Gymnastics Centre was also a local individual medal winner, earning men’s National Open bronze on pommel horse. A pair of wounded OGC gymnasts were national champions for Ontario in team competition, with Meaghan Smith (women’s National Open Age 16+) and Benjamin Astorga (men’s National Novice) both pushing through injuries to help their teams to the top.

Thirteen was the number of choice for the local trio of OGC’s Taylor Jackle Spriggs (men’s Senior HP), and Tumblers’ Juli-ette Chapman (women’s Novice HP) and Avery Rosales (women’s National Novice), who all placed 13th all-around in their respective categories.

Two more Tumblers also com-peted at nationals to give their club its largest Canadians representation ever – Justin Perry (19th, men’s National Open) and Beth Webster (7th, women’s National Open Age 13-15).

OGC’s Grace Boxer and Spring Action’s Hugo Lalumière were individual champions at the May 8-9 Eastern Canadian Gymnastics Championships in Moncton, while a number of local athletes helped Ontario to a clean sweep of all wo-men’s team events they entered.

NEW Mailing address:345 Meadowbreeze Dr.

Kanata, Ont. K2M 0K3

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

For the second year in a row, the Nepean and Gloucester synchro clubs both finished on the provincial po-dium in the aggregate standings at the Ontario Open Age Group Synchron-ized Swimming Championships.

Swimmers from 21 clubs from across the province competed from May 20–24 in Etobicoke, with Nepean and Gloucester placing 2nd and 3rd overall respectively to follow up their 1-2 finish last season.

Gloucester’s Meaghan Lapierre earned her place in the spotlight, fin-ishing 2nd in the age 11-12 figures event (one spot ahead of teammate Maya Bell) and 1st with Gloucester’s 11-12 group in the team event.

“I got a lot better than last year, in my personal opinion,” indicates the 11-year-old. “I think I completed my goals and I still have some for next year and I still want to get better.”

Lapierre later went on to make her mark nationally as well, winning sil-ver medals in both the 11-12 figures event and 11-12 solo finals at the June 3-7 2015 Canadian Espoir Champion-ships in Saint John, N.B. She attrib-

utes much of her success to her long-time coach, Carlie Cholette.

“She’s a really good coach and she helps me a lot,” Lapierre says of the 22-year-old accomplished former Gloucester athlete. “We’re kind of

like sisters – we love each other.”Nepean swimmer Kristin Strem-

law also had top results at the provin-cials, finishing 2nd in both the 13-15 figures and solo events, but wasn’t totally happy with her performance.

“I didn’t have the greatest figures day, to be honest,” reflects Stremlaw, who went on to place 8th in figures at the Espoir nationals. “You can see it in my results throughout the rest of the year. I do think I improved, but I don’t think I was very consistent at this meet.”

An 11-12 figures provincial cham-pion last year, Nepean’s Jade Warren moved up to the 13-15 age group this season but replicated her success with a gold in the duet (with partner Nata-sha Strong), a gold in the 13-15 team event, and a bronze in figures.

“It was a lot more challenging this year because I was younger in the cat-egory, so I pushed myself a lot more,” underlines Warren, who represented Ontario at a Pan Am youth synchro event last year in California. “I still achieved my goals and our team had a really good swim and it was really fun.”

Other top local results included Gloucester’s Maddie Berry and Sarah Healy (3rd in 16-20 duet), Gloucester’s Anastasia Bell and Maya Bell (2nd in 11-12 duet), Nepean’s 10-and-under team (2nd), and Gloucester’s 13-15 team (3rd).

Nepean & Gloucester clinch 2nd & 3rd place at synchro provsBy Julianne Bruce

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COMMUNITY CLUBS

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Gloucester Synchro’s age 11-12 provincial-champion team.

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Ottawa basketball flexed its muscles for the final Ontario Cup provincial club basketball championship tour-naments on the May 29-31 and June 5-7 weekends.

The #1 seed Ottawa Youth Basketball Academy Capitals did not disappoint in the Ma-jor Midget boys’ competition, emerging with four victories and a provincial gold from the U16 event in Kingston.

With Lloyd Pandi leading the way with a 28-point effort, the Capitals demoralized their first opponents from North Toronto, shutting them out completely in the 4th quarter in a 90-38 beating.

Pandi again dropped 28 while Owen Boisvert had 14 as Ottawa pounded Kit-chener-Waterloo 82-55 in their second game, and then handled their local counter-parts from Kanata 77-57 to clinch a place in the champi-onship game.

The final wasn’t without its tense moments for the boys

coached by local basketball guru Tony House, as they let a 20-point halftime lead slip to 3 points in the 4th quarter, but baskets by Boisvert and Jevon Westcarth, a charge drawn by Pandi and Khaleem Sarazin free-throws allowed the Cap-itals to prevail over their chal-lengers from Brampton 71-64.

“The U16 Ottawa Elite have put themselves in very select company with some of Ottawa’s best teams that have also won Division 1 titles,” the club notes in a news post about the championships. “In less than two years, the Ottawa Youth Basketball Academy has made major strides, now making claim to having the top Major Midget team in Ontario.”

A second OYBA 16 boys’ team was also a gold medal-list, earning top prize in the Div. 3 competition.

With the Kanata Youth Basketball Association/Ot-tawa Next Level U16 boys having also earned their way

into the Div. 1 class reserved for the province’s top-8 teams, the nation’s capital displayed a very strong depth of talent at the Major Midget level.

The Kanata crew coached by Hannah Sunley-Paisley – a former CIS national player of the year for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees – were the only team to beat the Capitals at any point this season, al-though their 20-point defeat in round robin provincials play kept them out of champion-ship contention as they wound up 5th with a 2-2 record.

KYBA teams narrowly missed provincial podium the next weekend at the U19 boys’ Ontario Cup in Kitchener-Wa-terloo and U17 boys’ tourna-ment in Durham region.

The Kanata U19s lost their bronze medal match 78-75 in overtime, while the U17s were one point away for bronze themselves, losing 66-65.

Look for more coverage online at SportsOttawa.com.

—Dan Plouffe

Ottawa club claims 1st provincial crownCOMMUNITY CLUBS

OYBA U16 boys Div. 1 & 3 Ontario Cup champs.

Two days after the trials, McGee sent a let-ter to the Pan American Canoeing Federation. Her letter acknowledged the progress made in gender equality (such as the introduction of wo-men’s C1 to the Pan Am Games).

However, McGee asked the federation, “Wouldn’t this (the Pan American Champion-ships) be an excellent opportunity for C1W to use this Olympic qualifier as practice for when they will eventually have to qualify for Olympic quotas in 2020?”

(Currently, only women’s kayak is part of the Olympics, although women’s canoe is con-tested at the ICF World Championships and would like to be added to the Olympics come 2020.)

McGee has yet to receive a response from the federation, which also did not respond to an Ottawa Sportspage e-mail inquiry.

Despite her frustration, McGee is satisfied with her performance at the trials. The 23-year-old is particularly proud of making the national

team for the fifth-straight year, despite not at-tending winter training in New Zealand and Australia with the rest of her teammates (who have greater access to funding opportunities in Olympic disciplines).

She only hopes to be reunited with those same teammates come mid-July in Minden.

CAM SMEDLEY MAKES PAN AM GRADE

Dunrobin’s Cam Smedley was the lone local canoe slalom athlete to qualify for the Pan Am Games. The 24-year-old River Runner was the top Canadian in the men’s C1 event at the trials. He will also race in the men’s C2 event with K1 trials winner Ben Hayward of Edmonton.

“This is a big opportunity for our athletes to compete at a high profile competition on home water,” Ottawa native and Canoe-Kayak Canada slalom high-performance manager James Cartwright said in a media release an-nouncing the team. “With Olympic qualification on the line, this is truly a now or never moment and I know the team is absolutely stoked to show what we’re made of.”

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PAN AM GAMES: Non-Olympic discipline costs C1 women

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ELITE

Daring to be different works for Isabelle Després. That is, it worked until the age side of the weigh scale tipped lower than the experience side.

The 34-year-old recently retired from a long and successful career in weightlifting after failing to win a spot on Canada’s Pan Am Games team. Until that moment, Després says that experi-ence, which comes with age, worked to her advantage much of the time.

“I did start late in the sport,” notes the University of Ottawa grad origin-ally from Moncton. “I was playing rugby at the time and I had finished with track-and-field and bobsledding. But, I had already practiced those movements (needed for weightlifting) with training for those other sports.”

After making the move to weight-lifting while she was studying physio-therapy at uOttawa, Després’ success was somewhat instantaneous.

“I saw an available opportunity to get to a higher level,” the Ottawa Elite weightlifting club athlete says. “It was my ride to go. I had the technique and the body type and I just went with it.”

Després is quick to pinpoint her career highlights: the year 2013 when she became a national team member and competing for Canada at the Glas-gow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

“Qualifying for the Games was the ultimate,” says the sister of former Olympic bobsledder Serge Després. “This was what I was working for. That one year I was actually on the national team, I remember in January when the list went up: I was finally on

it. All of the hard work was showing.”Her trusty weapon – experience –

often joined Després on the stage at important competitions.

“The other girls were often slightly better than me,” explains the eldest member of the Canadian wo-men’s weightlifting team in Glasgow. “But at competitions, I was able to just do what I needed to do. Fewer nerves and a better night’s sleep helped me to do that. One of my competitors was 14 years younger than me.”

LONG LIST OF AILMENTS

In sports, the downside to exper-ience is often injury and that was the case for Després. She feels that part

of her success as an older athlete, like when she qualified for the Common-wealth Games, was in large part due to her ability to manage her injur-ies. But, some injuries demand to be listened to.

“I remember, in 2007, I irritated my back. I could not lift a 10 lb. dumbbell,” recounts Després, who’s also lived through ribs and labrum injuries and arthritis in recent years. “But, I got better and made it back. Even though you have so much pain, you can still get back.”

The year 2007 is a long time ago in athlete years. The injuries kept coming and then the harbinger to her future retirement arrived: Després’

body started reacting differently to a good day of training.

“The thing that limited me most in the end was the lack of recovery,” reflects Després, who sensed the end was coming prior to May 16-17 Ca-nadian Weightlifting Championships in Mississauga when she failed in her three attempts at lifting 80 kg in the snatch event and did not record a score. “For the last couple of years my coach and I would often disagree about recovery,” she adds. “I was thinking I needed more rest and he felt I needed more training.”

Després’ career in physiotherapy means that she stands for long periods of time, and she feels this contributed

to her chronic recovery deficit.

GOOD & BAD IN RETIREMENT

It’s only been a few weeks, yet Després has a list of things she has lost with her retirement.

“I miss the travelling and being part of a group of elite people,” in-dicates the Commonwealth Games 9th-place finisher who met the Queen in Glasgow. “Also, those big compet-itions were like being at an all-inclus-ive resort.”

The list of definitely-do-not-miss items is much longer.

“I don’t miss the stress,” Després underlines. “There is no stress. I go still go to the gym, but I can do what I want. Of course, I am still compet-itive. I look at the guy next to me and see what he is lifting.”

There is also blessed relief from the financial burden of funding an amateur sports career.

“A few years ago, things were so difficult financially that I felt I should quit,” Després recalls. “But I was so close to making it on to the national team, so I pushed through. Now I have debt, but it was well worth it.”

Instead of scrambling to find money for coaching fees and plane tickets, this year Després will be pur-suing the next level of her craft, which is Level 5 in manual therapy and gain-ing a fellowship with her professional body. Filling those long hours once spent in the gym is a delight.

“I can go climbing and hiking,” Després smiles. “I said, ‘no,’ a lot to my friends for a long time. And I don’t have to go to bed at 9 p.m.!”

Glasgow 2014 vet retires with many injuries, lots of prideBy Anne Duggan

photo: steve kingsman

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Isabelle Després.

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