HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 4, #2 Nov. / Dec. 2014

Make moments matter.It was the slogan for Ottawa’s

2013 ALS Walk event, and as soon as Lauren McGuire heard it, it resoun-ded with her as deeply as possible.

It was a philosophy the Ottawa speed skater lived by during her father’s 4 ½ -year battle with ALS, and one she continues to honour in his memory since his death earlier this year.

“He was always my #1 coach,” notes McGuire, who began skating at age 8 and continued under her father’s direction until she moved to Calgary eight years ago to train with the national team at the Olympic Oval. “He taught

me so many important life lessons that have made me the person I am today.”

Unwavering commitment and a love for sport were two big items McGuire fully seized from Joseph McGuire, a former Canada Games rowing medalist who would join his daughter for off-season cycling train-ing rides prior to his amyotrophic lat-eral sclerosis diagnosis in 2010.

McGuire’s road was fairly rocky in her first few seasons in Calgary. She battled injuries and switched from short-track to long-track, but the 25-year-old finally got her big break-through last fall when she qualified for Canada’s World Cup team.

That wound up being the highlight

of the season, however. The World Cup results were mediocre – 36th & 32nd in the 3,000-metre ‘B’ division.

“Last year was a really big struggle for me, in a lot of ways,” she recounts. “My dad really wasn’t do-ing well at that time.”

McGuire found herself in a “dark spot” by the time the Canadian Olympic team trials arrived shortly after Christmas. She skated consider-ably slower than at the start of the sea-son and failed to qualify – perhaps “a good thing” in hindsight, she suggests, since her father passed away on the first day of competition at the Sochi Games. Her family drew a bit of com-fort from the fact that his immense,

unbeatable struggle was over.“He suffered a lot. That was really

hard for everyone,” indicates McGuire, whose father was completely para-lyzed within three years of the onset of the neurological illness that deterior-ates motor neurons. “But I don’t think you’re ever really ready for it.”

The experience also had an effect on McGuire’s athletic outlook.

“It impacted me in every way,” she recalls. “I really had to sit down after last season and look at, if I was going to continue to skate, what I needed in my life to be able to bring my best every day.”

After losing father to ALS & missing Olympics, McGuire returns to Canada’s World Cup team

SPEED SKATING continues p.8

By Dan Plouffe

photo: dave holland

GRYPHONS CONQUER OFSAA XC

EAST END TOP FOOTBALL FINALS

P. 6

P. 4 & 7

The Glebe Gryphons were the province’sdominant school at OFSAA cross-coun-try, earning team podiums in 5 of 6 races.

The Cumberland Panthers won 2 NCAFA titles and the St. Peter Knights returned to the top of the high school football pack.

GGS ROAR TO CHAMPIONSHIPS

P. 3Boosted by local leaders, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s soccer and rugby teams both won provincial crowns.

Make moments

matterAlong with Gloucester Concordes Ivanie Blondin, Vincent De Haitre and Isabelle Weidemann, Ottawa’s Lauren McGuire was one of four local speed skaters to earn positions on Canada’s team for fall World Cups in Japan, South Korea, Germany and the Netherlands. McGuire’s per-formance came on the heels of a trying season where her father passed away due to ALS.

2

3

--By Colin Walker, SportsCanWe’ve all heard about the importance of

exercise to lifelong health, but how much do you need, and what counts as exercise?

Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving. According to the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, you need to do two types of physical activity through-out the week to improve your health – aer-obic exercise and muscle strengthening.

It is well documented that adults who are physically active live longer, healthier lives. Active people are more productive, and more likely to avoid illness and injury.

Physical activity helps:→ Healthy growth and development→ Prevent chronic disease like cancer,

Type 2 diabetes and heart disease→ Make you stronger→ Gives you energy→ Decreases stress and helps in mental

health→ Prolong independence as you get olderAccording to Canadian Strength and Ex-

ercises Professionals, adults between the ages of 16 and 64 should accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity each week in bouts of 10 minutes or more.

It is also beneficial to do muscle and bone strengthening activities using major muscle groups at least 2 days per week (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

In summary: More daily physical activity provides greater health benefits.

150 minutes each week may sound like a lot, but it’s no more than going to a movie or out for dinner.

The good news: You can spread out your activity during the week, so you don’t have to do it all at once. You can break it up into chunks as small as 10 minutes at a time.

As long as the activity is moderate to vig-orous, then you will benefit from the effort.

AEROBIC ACTIVITY – WHAT COUNTS?Any activity that gets you breathing harder

and your heart beating faster is a form of aerobic exercise.

Walking to the store versus driving, taking a bike ride on a warm fall day, taking a dance class – these all qualify as types of activities as long as you are doing them at a moderate to vigorous rate and they last for at least 10 minutes.

Other suggestions: jogging or running, swimming, riding a bike, playing tennis, SportsCan Wellness Class, etc.

Some people like to do vigorous types of activities because it gives them about the same health benefits in half the time. One minute of vigorous-intensity activity is about the same as two minutes of moderate- intensity activity.

SportsCan is introducing our own well-ness programs for adults. Our programs will incorporate all components to living a healthy, active lifestyle. Our newest program is geared to those who want choice and would prefer to train with friends.

Check out this and other SportsCan pro-grams at www.sportscan.ca.

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

VIDEO ANALYSIS - ATHLETIC THERAPY

SPORTSCAN.CA

How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need?

Two days after they fell in the national semi-final, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees rebounded to claim the ninth medal in the team’s 21-year history at the Nov. 6-9 Canadian In-teruniversity Sport Women’s Soccer Championship in Quebec City.

“The team worked so hard to come back from a difficult situation, and I’m glad we were able to finish our season on a bit of a high,” says Gee-Gees head coach Steve John-son, saluting his players for their ef-forts day in, day out this season.

“They just worked so hard for each other,” he adds. “The chemistry

on the field was really strong. They were probably better as a whole than they were as individual units.”

After the 3-0 semi-final defeat to defending champion Trinity Western (who then went on to lose 5-0 in the final against host Laval), uOttawa came from behind to beat the Uni-versity of the Fraser Valley 2-1.

A pair of former Gloucester Hor-nets scored second-half goals for the Gee-Gees in the bronze medal match. Sophie Curtis got the game-win-ner in the 90th minute, while Pilar Khoury earned and made got on a penalty kick earlier – one of many clutch goals the conference MVP and first-team All-Canadian produced in

uOttawa’s post-season run.Khoury scored the winner in ad-

ded time to beat Laurier 1-0 in the Ontario semi-final and clinch her team’s trip to Quebec, then again created the lone goal in a 1-0 vic-tory over Western for the provincial title on Nov. 2 in Hamilton, and also tallied the Gee-Gees’ second goal in a 2-0 win over Montréal in the CIS quarter-final.

Second-team All-Canadian goalkeeper Cynthia Leblanc earned shutouts in each of the contests.

“We’re really happy,” signals Khoury, a fourth-year striker. “From the beginning of the season, we had set our eyes on not just going to na-

tionals, but medaling, and we got to do that.”

It was Khoury’s second bronze medal win of the year, although the other came as a coach alongside uOt-tawa assistant Stu Barbour’s Cairine Wilson Wildcats, who placed third at the OFSAA provincial high school championships in June.

“She’s an incredible role model,” Barbour raves. “The kids love her and really look up to her. She con-nects really well with them. She’s a positive person. She’s funny. She’s got technical knowledge. She’s just awesome.”

With her track record of excel-lence, there was little doubt in the local rugby world that Jen Boyd would bring success to the Univer-sity of Ottawa, but what remains somewhat shocking is the speed at which the Gee-Gees women’s rugby team emerged as a national power-house under her guidance.

In just her second season at the helm, Boyd pushed the Gee-Gees to a pile of program firsts: first per-fect regular season record (7-0), first conference championship (with a 13-5 home-field victory over Con-cordia on Oct. 25), first Canadian In-teruniversity Sport National Cham-pionship appearance (Oct. 30-Nov. 2 in Guelph), and CIS coach of the year honours for herself.

“When I was interviewed for the position, I told them I wanted to win the national championship in 2015,” recounts Boyd, whose team won its first match and then lost two to finish fourth at nationals. “So far everything is going as planned. We got there. Now we have a year to compete for a gold medal. That’s what my goal is.”

The uOttawa rugby program wasn’t in ruins by any means before the arrival of the two-time Ottawa Sports Awards Female Coach of the Year. The Gee-Gees consistently hovered around the .500 mark for the past half-decade under the dir-ection of program founder and Gee-Gees coach of 20 years Sue Chaulk, but Boyd raised the level immedi-ately, much like she had in the past with the Ashbury Colts and Algon-quin Thunder.

“I took the job in 2013 and just started talking about changing the culture, just thinking of being win-ners on and off the field,” explains Boyd, who works hand-in-hand with forwards and contact coach Duncan McNaughton. “That really bled through to athletes who wanted to come here. The most exciting part

of the season was seeing our athletes knowing what it takes to win every day, and then seeing the success that followed.”

The daytime math and science teacher at Ashbury began her coach-ing career at the Rockcliffe school in 2000, when current Gee-Gees wo-men’s basketball coach Andy Sparks was the athletic director.

“Andy has an amazing basket-ball program, and he always talks about defence,” details Boyd, whose squad allowed a CIS-low 7.1 points against per game. “I didn’t con-sciously think about it, but maybe I listened to him more than I real-ized. I tried to follow in his footsteps as much as possible.”

RISING COACHING TALENT

Boyd has become a prominent figure at all levels of rugby, but pos-sibly her greatest impact remains in the grassroots ranks, having intro-duced countless players to the sport and developed them into top talents.

“Jen is someone who could pick out athletes and knew right away that I could excel at rugby,” recounts Ashbury grad Julianne Zussman, who won a silver medal with Team Canada at this summer’s Women’s

Rugby World Cup. “I’m so glad she encouraged me to come out to prac-tice because it changed my life.”

Boyd now wears numerous coaching hats, from club contribu-tions with the Ottawa Irish, to re-gional development with the East-ern Ontario Rugby Union, and the under-19 and under-20 provincial and national team programs – on top of her high school and university duties.

“I’ve been a positional coach na-tionally with the under-20 program, but being a head coach is definitely something I’d want to do,” signals Boyd. “I’d love to have a chance with the senior team at the World Cup, or maybe the chance to be-come an Olympic coach, so there’s still a long way for me to go and a lot of steps to climb .”

LOCAL ALL-STAR HONOURS

Carleton Ravens back Natasha Smith was named a CIS All-Ca-nadian, while the Gee-Gees were snubbed. Gee-Gees Erin Van Gu-lik and Allison MacCormak were Quebec conference all-stars, while Afton Maisonneuve was chosen as Quebec’s Leadership and Com-munity Engagement award winner.

The Boyd effect: GGs jump up rugby ranksBy Alex Quevillon

UNIVERSITIES

Jen Boyd.

photo: dan plouffe

Once a goalkeeper, All-Canadian striker Khoury lifts GGs CIS bronzeBy Dan Plouffe

Pilar Khoury.

file photo CIS SPORTS continues on p.9

4

They were up against the opponent that gave them the most trouble all year, but there was no stopping the St. Peter Knights on Nov. 8 at snowy TD Place. The Knights completed an undefeated season and returned to their throne on top of the local high school football league with a 20-0 victory over the St. Patrick Irish in the national capital ‘AAA/AAAA’ final.

“It’s a great feeling. We’re really excited,” says Knights defensive back Josh Earle, who helped the team to its first shutout of the year. “It just all came together. We got lots of turnovers. Our defence got it done.”

St. Peter led just 6-0 at halftime, but found some openings in the later stages. Quinton Soares ran most of the way for a 28-yard touch-down, and Pascal Roy-Lapensée found Jacob Lacombe wide open for another TD to ensure a new set of Knights champions were crowned. The victory came a year St. Peter experienced an unfamiliar city finals loss to the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Lancers (who fell to the Irish in this season’s semi-finals by four points – a reverse of last year’s semi-final scoreline between the two.)

“We’d won the five in a row, and then losing last year... Nobody steps on the field to lose. You want to win,” notes St. Peter coach Jim Mick. “There’s a lot of hours put into this, and I’m really happy for the kids.”

Irish program jumps forwardFor St. Pat’s, who’d owned a tradition of

strong Tier 2 entries in recent years, reaching the finals at the top level and providing a good challenge to the perennial powerhouse Knights represented a significant step forward.

“We came up a little short, but the bigger picture is we had a helluva season,” highlights Irish coach Chris Bromfield. “I’m proud of these guys, and I’m confident we’ll be back next sea-son.”

This season was Bromfield’s fifth coaching at his alma mater, alongside many other experi-enced volunteers from all ends of the city.

“It’s just a community effort,” signals the

former University of Ottawa Gee-Gees player. “I know what it’s like to go to St. Pat’s and have ambitions to play at that next level. I want that

for them. There’s so much that you gain for it. Explaining it to teachers and having them relay it to the kids and have all of us working on the same page has got the program to where it is.”

LIONS WIN ‘A/AA’ CROWN OVER JAGUARS

The St. Pete’s vs St. Pat’s contest was the final matchup of championship day, which also saw the St. Mark Lions hold off the St. Joseph Jaguars 10-9 to win the ‘A/AA’ final for schools with smaller student populations.

Organizers saluted the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group – who provided the Ott-awa Redblacks home venue for the same cost as any other field in the city – for their outstanding support of high school sports

“How many of these kids are actually going to play in a stadium like this? It’s a great exper-ience. And to win it here is even better,” smiles Mick, whose team will now play in an OFSAA bowl game against the Golden Horseshoe league champion in Hamilton on Nov. 27 – two days before the Vanier Cup. “To see those smiles on the kids’ faces, that’s what it’s all about.”

St. Peter back on top in snowy high school football finalBy Dan Plouffe

HIGH SCHOOLS

photo: dan plouffe

Volunteer organizer of groundbreaking Orienteering Championships earns stripes in competition as well

By Anil JhalliSport volunteers don’t of-

ten get medals for their efforts, but it makes it much more likely when the volunteer also happens to be one of the top competitors in the sport.

That was the case for Jeff Teutsch, one of the lead organ-izers for Ottawa Orienteering at the Oct. 10-13 North Amer-ican Orienteering Cham-pionships and also a silver medalist in the men’s middle distance race.

“The whole weekend, the whole experience was defin-itely a roller coaster ride for me,” reflects Teutsch, whose mother, Anne, served as meet director for the races held in Carp and Arnprior. “Even though I didn’t get enough prep time in for the races, I kept it together and walked away with a medal at least in one of the races.”

While Teutsch felt his overall performance through-out the event could have been better, his podium result was rewarding nonetheless consid-ering all the non-athletic prep work that went into the event.

“It was hard to find that balance, because there was so much to get done, espe-cially in the weeks leading up it,” recounts the 25-year-old Merivale High School and Carleton University grad. “I thought about trying to get someone else to step in and take over, but I had already done so much work and didn’t feel there was time to explain to someone how to do things.”

Hosting the competition for the first time since its in-ception in 1973 was an enorm-ous undertaking the local club. Around 600 athletes from 11 countries took part in the event, which featured age-group and recreational classes alongside the elite competi-tion.

Ottawa Orienteering’s Robbie Anderson earned the best local result, finishing as the top North American in the men’s long distance race to qualify for the 2015 World Championships in Scotland.

The 2014 event marked the first time the International Orienteering Federation sent a representative and officially sanctioned the North Amer-ican Championships, which attracted a number of entrants from Europe, where sport en-joys its greatest following.

The Ottawa club has be-come recognized as a leader in promoting the sport on this side of the pond, with mem-bers occupying a good chunk

of national team positions and some making noise on the global scene, including past World Junior Championships medalist Emily Kemp, who’s now based in France.

Teutsch plans on moving to Europe himself – location still to be determined – in the near future to further his stud-ies in the business world and to witness first-hand the ori-enteering craze.

But he’s also committed to ensuring Ottawa Orienteer-ing sees continued growth and sustainability before opening the next chapter of his life.

“We are a volunteer organ-ization and I am really happy with what we have done,” Teutsch underlines. “We have lots of quality members who are working hard and want to continue growing. That’s what we all want. And if we can work together, introduce some new programs to some of the younger ages and get them interested, we can really strengthen this organization.”

file photo

Jacob Lacombe (left) and Derrick

Mbuluyo.

Jeff Teutsch.

5

Julia Malone failed to defend her city championship this year, but the Grade 11 Ashbury College student made up for it in a big way by capturing the OFSAA provincial high schools girls’ golf title on Oct. 16 in Windsor.

Riding a hot birdie-par-birdie-par-eagle start to her round, Malone came through the Kingsville Golf Club course with a 2-over 75 score to finish in a tie atop the leader-board, which setup the first playoff of her career.

“It was really nerve-racking,” recalls Malone, who showed no ill effects however, dropping a 15-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to win the tournament. “I was so happy. I didn’t think it was real, to be honest. I was just thrilled and full of excitement.”

Minus one more event still to come in Florida, the OFSAA title capped a standout season for the Rideau View Golf Club athlete who lives five minutes away from the course in Manotick.

The major highlight was win-ning the Quebec Junior Open Cana-dian Junior Golf Association event to qualify for July’s Callaway Ju-nior World Golf Championships in San Diego, although Malone didn’t know the significance of her victory at the time.

“People came up to me after and were like, ‘Congrats, you made it to worlds!’ and I was like, ‘Wait. What?!’ I honestly had no idea,”

laughs this season’s top-ranked CJGA order of merit golfer. “I guess my dad kept it from me because he didn’t want me to get stressed out or anything.

“It was definitely a nice little surprise.”

Playing in a high-stakes event like the Callaway junior worlds served as good preparation to pre-pare Malone for the stress of con-tending for the OFSAA crown.

“There were college coaches on

like every hole, watching you and taking notes,” recounts Malone, who would like to earn an NCAA golf scholarship in a warm destin-ation and study health sciences. “It kind of takes your attention away a little bit, but I tried to play through that.

“I like the whole mental aspect in golf. You have to stay so focused and concentrated. It’s really exciting when everything comes together. It’s a lot of fun.”

Ashbury golfer prevails in OFSAA playoffBy Dan Plouffe

HIGH SCHOOLS

Julia Malone.

file photo

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The Ottawa Sport Council Found-ation, a charitable endowment fund to promote local sport accessibility, offi-cially launched on Nov. 1 at the inaugural Ottawa Sport Summit.

“One of the fundamental beliefs of the Ottawa Sport Council is that sport should be open and accessible to every-one,” the CBC’s Adrian Harewood said in making the formal announcement of the fund’s creation at Ben Franklin Place. “Sport has the ability and the potential to enrich lives, and absolutely no one should be excluded.”

A goal of the Foundation is to re-move barriers – financial, cultural or geographical, for example – that make it challenging for individuals to have positive experiences in sport, underlines Ottawa Sport Council executive director Marcia Morris.

With a desired 25% of the endow-ment fund available for grants annually, the Sport Council board will identify key areas to focus on each year, the first be-ing to establish new programs in under-

serviced neighbourhoods.“The thing I really like about the

endowment fund is you’re helping your-self. At the end of the day, (donations) go back into you – sporting organizations,” Morris highlights. “This was kind of on the five-year plan when we started the Sport Council, so the fact that we got that accomplished within the first year, we were really delighted.”

The endowment fund is starting with close to $10,000 in the bank, with around $3,000 raised at the Summit thanks to in-dividual donations and a silent auction.

‘START OF THE CONVERSATION’

Morris was very pleased overall with the day-long Summit, which brought to-gether members of the local sport com-munity for panel discussions, workshops and roundtable conversations on topics of mutual interest.

Several ideas emerged for what the Sport Council can offer next, such as tac-tical seminars on how to employ social media and marketing, grant application writing, and sport nutrition.

They’d like to bring together key

stakeholders who use common facilities – such as pools, fields, gyms or arenas – to form advisory committees to determine what messages should be brought forward to the City, with the Sport Coun-cil acting as an umbrella organization.

“We need to think of how we can organize ourselves in Ottawa to come to City Hall with a coordinated approach,” Rideau-Vanier City Councillor and Sport Council board member Mathieu Fleury said to the Sport Summit audience.

The Council’s major objective re-mains continuing to keep communication lines open, and bringing the local sports community together to accomplish work on areas of common interest.

“This is the start of the conversa-tion,” Morris emphasizes. “We need people reaching out to us as well. We can reach out to them, but we need to keep the conversation going from both sides.”

New Ottawa Sport Council Foundation to support pro-grams in underserviced neighbourhoods for 1st year

By Dan Plouffe

6

Set on the University of Waterloo campus and amid a plethora of puddles brought by re-cent rains, a tsunami going by the name of Glebe Collegiate Institute overtook the OFSAA Cross-Country Running Championships on Nov. 1.

All five of Glebe’s team entries brought home medals – junior and senior boys’ bronze, midget and junior girls’ silver, and senior girls’ gold, en route to an overwhelming girls’ aggreg-ate title, a narrow runner-up finish in the overall boys’ standings, and a very comfortable grand aggregate crown as the top XC school in the province.

“Things are cyclical,” explains Glebe Gryphons coach Kirk Dillabaugh, who came home with the best results in his 14 years of coaching. “We are obviously on a wave. It is a lot of fun, and we want to ride it as long as we can.”

The Gryphons posted the lowest team score in the senior girls’ event since 1973, with a 68-point total to win by a massive margin of 207 placement points over the next-best quartet of runners.

“The biggest story by far is our senior girls,” underlines Dillabaugh, coach of the lone sub-100 point team in the six OFSAA races. “With four runners in the top 36 places you know you are going to do really well.”

Coming off an early-season injury, 2013 OFSAA silver medalist Claire Smith led the team in 6th place, followed by Katherine Mar-

shall in 8th, Alexa Livingstone in 18th and Nata-sha Wong in 36th.

“It was amazing,” recounts Smith, who also celebrated team gold last year. “The first time we won (the team competition), we were happy. This time we knew it would be tough. We knew there were a lot of strong teams, so it was a really good surprise to do so well.”

The Glebe midget girls narrowly missed a

provincial title by four points (156 to 152). Mei Mei Weston won the individual bronze medal, followed closely by teammate Beth Rhead in 5th, while Kailey Young and Mzia Lee Pot-tie also helped towards the team silver. The school’s large team and supporters who made the trip down played a big role in the success, indicates Weston.

“My parents and my dog and my friend

Lauren were all there,” highlights the provin-cial-level Ottawa South United soccer player. “Definitely the more people to cheer you on the better. No cheers means I might slow down be-cause no one is really pushing me.”

The Glebe junior boys’ team had one main goal for OFSAA this year: don’t get sick. The entire team was wiped out by colds prior to last year’s championships, but they suffered no ill effects this time around. National capital bronze medalist Teagan Harris led the way in 8th place, while Finn Perreault, Pierre Grall-Johnson and Ryan Salvino helped pave the way to bronze.

The Glebe senior boys’ team of Alex Bernst, Farah Abdulkarim, Darion Dillabaugh and Jake Weston followed suit to match their junior coun-terparts’ bronze.

Louis-Riel’s Jonathan Rioux cracked the top-10 in the midget boys’ race, placing 9th.

UNBEATEN OFSAA RUNNER REPEATS AT XC

After winning a sprint to the finish in her OF-SAA XC debut last season, Longfields-Davidson Heights’ Shona McCulloch decided to establish her lead much earlier than the final hundredths of a second this time around, winning the 4 km event by 4.6 seconds.

“Shona won the junior girls’ race about a mile into it,” reports Dillabaugh, McCulloch’s coach with the Ottawa Lions Track-and-Field Club. “She was the favourite going in and a little nervous. Then she found herself alone for most of the race.”

Glebe dominates OFSAA XC to win grand aggregate goldBy Anne Duggan

HIGH SCHOOLS

photo: dan plouffe

OFSAA XC continues on p.7

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7

It was a cold afternoon, but Minto Field was fired up on Nov. 2 for the hottest rivalry in local youth football as the Bell Warriors and Cumberland Panthers clashed in back-to-back ‘A’ Cup division finals at the National Capital Ama-teur Football Association champion-ships.

All four Cumberland and Bell teams entered the Mosquito and Peewee finals with perfect 10-0 re-cords, but only the Panthers held onto zeroes both in the loss column and their opponents’ score with 62-0 and 24-0 shutout victories.

“For the last four or five years that I’ve been coaching, it always seems to be us and Bell – we come out of the east and they keep coming out of the west,” highlights Cumber-land Mosquito coach Jeff Koradi. “It’s great to have this success be-cause it means all the hard we put in as a program is worth it.”

Remarkably, this was the second consecutive year that Bell and Cum-berland produced undefeated regu-lar seasons in both the under-13 and U-15 levels.

“There’s absolutely mutual re-spect between us,” underlines War-riors Peewee coach Mike Polito. “Cumberland are always well-coached, and they deserve tons of credit. (...) If we’re going to win an ‘A’ Cup at Peewee – which we never have – I honestly believe that we have to match, and beat, our friends from the east.”

While neither club tastes defeat very often, Cumberland Mosquito quarterback Christian Veilleux says a rare loss in last season’s playoffs

made this year’s triumph that much more special.

“It was really fun and exciting to win because last year we lost in the semifinals and it was pretty disappointing,” indicates Veilleux, who threw four touchdown passes in the championship game and wore a smile ear-to-ear after earning re-demption. “The fact that we get to win this year is pretty awesome.”

Cumberland was the only club to win two ‘A’ Cup championships this season. The Nepean Eagles and

Orleans Bengals each played in two ‘A’ Cup finals. The Eagles won their head-to-head matchup 35-28 for the Midget title, while the Tyke Bengals downed the North Gloucester Giants 59-48 and the Bantam Eagles fell to the Bel-Air Lions 16-8.

Winning ‘B’ Cup crowns were Cumberland (Tyke), Corn-wall (Mosquito), Gloucester South (Peewee) and Bell (Bantam), while Bell (Tyke), Bel-Air (Mosquito), South Ottawa (Peewee) and Orleans (Bantam) were ‘C’ Cup champs.

Cumberland blanks Bell in battle of unbeatensBy Jon Willemsen

COMMUNITY CLUBS

The only club to win more than one ‘A’ Cup crown, the Cumberland Panthers shutout the Bell Warriors in back-to-back champion-ship games at the Nepean Sportsplex to win NCAFA Mosquito and Peewee titles. All four teams involved in the matches were undefeated prior to their meeting.

photo: dan plouffe

Ottawa Knights News

www.ottawaknightsbaseballclub.com

Ottawa Knights club gears focus to elite athlete developmentThe Ottawa

Royals have adopted a new name: the Ott-awa Knights.

Since the Ottawa Royals joined forces with the Ottawa

Knights in 2012, the programs operated under two separate names. It made sense at the time as both programs were geared toward different levels and ages of play.

But baseball in Ottawa is continuing to evolve for the better of youth development. There are increases in clinics being offered, Little League in the area is adjusting to of-fer more varied competition, and new travel teams are cropping up to fill the void.

The result is the club’s decision to focus on elite student-athlete development, with all teams operating as the Ottawa Knights.

For over 20 years, the Ottawa Knights have been focused on developing opportun-ities for players to continue to play in college, universities and professionally.

The difference now is that baseball has grown, the talent levels have expanded, and the Ottawa Knights have added teams at the U14 and U15 levels to complement the U16 and U18 squads. All teams are focused on preparing our student-athletes for the rigors and discipline required to continue to excel in their baseball careers.

The Ottawa Knights are not only focused on teaching the skills, but are committed to help our players realize their goals by giving them the tools and opening the doors to fu-ture collegiate opportunities. Some of these elements include:

> All teams play in the Fergie Jenkins Showcase League, a premiere leagues ded-icated showcasing players in front of college coaches;

> Personal skill showcase videos – the videos are critical in their marketing of their skills to collegiate coaches

> Exposure to U.S. collegiate coaches while playing at Spring Training in the States

and select showcase tournaments> Providing each of our players with their

own web-based portfolio to help players and their parents with their recruitment efforts

BUILD LINKS TO THE NEXT LEVELAll of our coaches and management focus

on developing key relationships with a num-ber of NCAA, NJCAA and NAIA coaches to help match players and schools. This is an ongoing dedicated effort made by the Ottawa Knights staff.

Finally, baseball doesn’t only have to be played in the U.S. There a number of ex-cellent quality teams and programs being played in Canadian Universities. The Ottawa Knights are fortunate to have both Head Coaches of the University and Carleton Uni-versity as part of our coaching staff.

The Ottawa Knights are committed to continuing to give back to the community. Players, coaches and management provide development clinics and support community- based initiatives to develop the game.

The Ottawa Knights are proud of their history in our community and look forward to continuing to do so for the next 20 years!

The XC competition was McCulloch’s first of two OFSAA appearances in the span of a week. The former OSU player painstakingly decided recently to leave competitive soccer behind in favour of a focus on running, but when the chance came to pick up a field hockey stick at school, she couldn’t resist.

“It’s so much fun. I love it,” signals McCulloch, whose Ravens squad won their first city championship over Ashbury on Oct. 30 before bowing out in the pre-liminary round at the Nov. 6-8 OFSAA event in Burlington. “I like to be a busy person, and I like training. I love being a part of the team.”

Of course, Glebe also left with some hardware from the junior girls’ event.

Silver medalists Keili Shepherd, Kendall Saravamutto, Anna Larkin and Cassidy Grimes were the best four for an excep-tionally deep team that would have qual-ified for OFSAA even without its first six runners at the national capital finals.

Big numbers is a key ingredi-ent to Glebe’s championship formula, Dillabaugh emphasizes.

“I handed out 85 forms at the first meeting this year and 78 students ended up running,” he details. “I try to encourage the kids to spread the word. It is so much more successful to have a friend ask a buddy to come out.”

It’s a wave that’s certainly hit with full force and shows no signs of slowing.

“Every year it’s been growing and growing,” Smith smiles. “I guess cross-country is cool at our school.”

OFSAA XC continued from p.6

After serving as #3 goalie during Canada’s gold medal win at the 2014 Olympics, goaltender Geneviève Lacasse took centre-stage at Team Canada’s first ma-jor competition since Sochi.

Lacasse, who calls Limoges home and trains in Ottawa when hockey doesn’t take her elsewhere, denied every U.S. attempt in the shootout that decided the winner of the Nov. 4-8 Four Nations Cup in Kam-loops, B.C., allowing the Canadians to prevail 3-2.

Two other Ottawa natives made their debuts for the senior Canadian women’s team at the event. After capturing an NCAA women’s hockey national title together in their final year at Clarkson University, former Ottawa Lady Sens players Jamie Lee Rattray and Erica Howe, now also teammates with Brampton of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, took the latest step in their joint hockey journeys with Team Canada.

Howe didn’t see any game action in goal for Canada, while Rattray scored in her first game – a 2-0 victory over Sweden – and then added two assists in Canada’s 3-2 preliminary round win over the U.S. to finish in a tie for fourth in tournament scoring despite missing one game vs Finland.

GOLDEN AGAIN

photo: steve kingsman

Sochi 2014 Olympic

Games gold medalist

Geneviève Lacasse led Canada to a victory at the Nov. 4-8

Four Na-tions Cup.

See SportsOttawa.com for more details.

8

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Ottawa’s hidden hub of world-class badminton talent continued its growth this fall as the eighth Olympian in the RA Centre club’s history chose to setup shop in the nation’s capital.

After completing her structural engineering degree at the Univer-sity of Western Ontario, London 2012 Olympian Alex Bruce chose Ottawa as her new home training base, inspired in large part by the RA club’s tradition of producing many of Canada’s best interna-tional players.

“It definitely made it a more attractive option when I was thinking about going there to train, knowing there is all that experience,” signals Bruce, who won a mixed doubles gold medal at the Oct. 13-18 Pan American Badminton Championships in Toronto, her hometown. “There are so many national champions that hang around and they’re al-ways willing to chat with you if you need any advice.”

Another attraction was the chance to work under the direction of coach Andrew Dabeka, a past Olympian himself in 2008.

“He takes a lot of care in what he does and how he treats every-one in practice,” notes Bruce, 24. “I like how much energy and effort he puts in to our high-per-formance group.”

There are a number of other rising stars based at the RA Centre, including three of Canada’s top-ranked men – Joseph Rogers, Andrew D’Souza and Sergiy Shatenko, who were also Cana-dian representatives at the Pan Am Championships.

“Everyone is bringing up everyone’s game and that for me is the cool thing,” highlights coach Dabeka, who was ranked as high as 20th in the world during his playing career – an all-time best for a Canadian male.

Dabeka trained in Denmark and coached in Switzerland before returning to work his magic in his hometown.

“I think all of those experi-ences have helped me acquire a very high level of knowledge that a lot of Canadian coaches don’t have,” indicates the 36-year-old. “I think I’m bringing that to this program here.”

TOUGH ROAD FOR CANADIANS

Unless your name is Michelle Li (the Pan Am and Common-wealth champion who’s ranked 11th globally), it’s a big challenge for Canadian badminton players to make noise on the international stage.

Limited funding is a major hurdle. A number of RA players received Ontario Quest for Gold program funding and have equip-ment sponsors, but Bruce is the only one who receives national carding assistance.

Still relying mostly on tour-nament winnings, Bruce is able to pursue badminton full-time, al-though as a doubles specialist, her struggle is to sync up with Phyl-lis Chan and Toby Ng, her Van-couver-based women’s and mixed partners.

“It’s tough because our coun-

try is so big,” underlines the #61 and #52-world ranked women’s and mixed doubles player. “You want to improve your own skills and make sure your partner is on the same page, wherever they are.”

For D’Souza, finances are a major hindrance to improving his world ranking, currently outside the top 200. The 20-year-old Uni-versity of Ottawa human kinet-ics student tends to perform well when he takes part in international competition – he knocked off the event’s second seed en route to a quarter-finals appearance at the Pan Am Championships – but can’t afford to attend enough tour-naments to climb the ladder.

With help from a fundraiser at the RA Centre, D’Souza self-fun-ded his trip to the Commonwealth Games this summer.

“I’d never seen a full stadium for badminton. Hearing the roar-ing crowd really makes me want to keep going,” smiles D’Souza, who also takes inspiration from the many past local players who managed to make their way down the same difficult road.

“I really just latch on to all of them to be honest,” he adds. “If they can do it, nothing is stopping me.”

RA badminton churns out new wave of Canada’s bestBy Jamie Shinkewski

ELITE

Alex Bruce.

photo: steve kingsman

On top of the emotional challenges, McGuire also had several other practical hurdles to overcome.

Her weak 2013-14 results meant she lost her place on the national develop-ment team, along with the associated Sport Canada athlete assistance funding. The University of Calgary biology and Italian student had to put her studies on hold, instead working as a jazz performer at a downtown restaurant called Galla Bistro.

“I guess it gives me a bit more of an edge,” says McGuire, who wasn’t one of the 46 speed skaters selected for carding. “You really want to make a point.”

The St. Patrick’s High School grad is thankful to have “so much support from back home,” – in particular from sponsors Mark Sherbonneau and Brett Stott from Foundation Private Wealth Management, who arranged to have investment compan-ies pay her coaching and facility fees.

The other piece to the puzzle was creat-ing a good training environment in Calgary.

“I needed a coach that was very support-ive and had a very focused plan for my de-velopment as an athlete,” details McGuire, who now works with her past mentor Crispin Parkinson instead of the national team group. “I’ve really done a 180 physic-ally and technically in my skating, and in my race preparation. A lot of that is because of the support I have with Crispin. He’s really

helped me get back on my feet here.”McGuire sent a loud message that she

was back in full force at the Oct. 23-26 Fall World Cup Trials, coming within .66 seconds of her personal-best time in the 3,000 m to qualify for events in Japan, South Korea, Germany and the Netherlands.

“It’s going to be the beginning of really great things this year,” pledges second-place finisher who topped a pair of Olympi-ans in the 3,000 m at the fall trials.

McGuire felt a bit overwhelmed at last year’s World Cups.

“Perhaps even star-struck,” she ex-plains. “I feel like this year I have really good focus leading into the World Cup races. I’m feeling very fit and very strong.”

Last season definitely wasn’t the way McGuire would have drawn it up, but she feels there were indeed lessons to draw on to help her on her future journey.

“I’ve definitely learned that I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was,” reflects the former Ottawa Pacer. “I was dealing with a lot and I was still able to qualify for World Cups, and I don’t think anyone else on the team has really experienced even a fraction of what my family has gone through. I def-initely gained a lot of perspective.”

CONCORDES SPARKLE AT TRIALSMcGuire was sandwiched between

two other skaters from her hometown’s east end in the 3,000 m results. In first was the owner of the world’s fastest 3,000 m time of the season thus far, 2014 Olympian Ivanie Blondin, who’s skated person-al-bests in three distances this fall.

In third, McGuire’s training partner Isa-belle Weidemann also earned the right to compete in the World Cups, but declined the opportunity since she missed a large chunk of summer training due to ankle surgery.

“That was pretty cool (to have Ott-awa skaters finish 1-2-3),” says Blondin, one of three Gloucester Concordes on the long-track national team. “It goes to show that Ottawa has really good programs for kids growing up.”

After setting the first record of his ca-reer – the Canadian 1,000 m time trial mark in track cycling – 2014 Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games competitor Vincent De Haitre carried his speed back to the ice, besting Olympic 1,000 m silver medalist Denny Morrison in the discipline to post a personal and world-best time, and also winning the 1,500 m at the trials.See SportsOttawa.com for more detailed coverage on the 3 Concordes athletes.

SPEED SKATING: McGuire loses national carding

ZAMBONI ICE BUCKET CHALLENGETons of people took part in the ALS

Ice Bucket Challenge as it spread like wildfire on social media earlier this summer, but Lauren McGuire was per-haps the only one to incorporate a zam-boni into the equation.

McGuire endured a massive dump-ing of water, snow and slush from the Olympic Oval’s ice resurfacing machine.

“I was just sitting in the oval and I was trying to decide how I’d do my ice bucket challenge, and the zamboni passed by, so I put 2 and 2 together,” recounts McGuire, who was pleased to see the attention the challenge gen-erated for ALS. “It was excellent. The first step to change is awareness and for people to really understand and know about the disease.”

The next step, she indicates, is to ad-vocate for increased compassionate care support from government to help famil-ies who have loved ones with ALS.

continued from p.1

9

Khoury, also a Hornets coach, says she “absolutely loves coaching” and enjoys having the chance to con-tribute to a local soccer community that’s allowed her to live the “greatest experience” of playing university soc-cer in front of family and friends in her hometown.

“It’s just been a tremendous jour-ney so far,” smiles the health sciences student who plans to return for a fifth and final year next season. “I want to tell young women that dreams can happen. I never thought that I’d be playing university soccer, and here I am. That belief takes you a long way.”

Back when Khoury was a goal-

keeper in her early days with the Hornets, the thought of being one of Canada’s top-5 goal scorers was a long way away.

“I actually went though every single position until I was 16,” details Khoury, who finally decided she wanted to be a striker like Cristiano Ronaldo. “I think it’s really beneficial (to play many posi-tions). It helped me a lot.”

Johnson says Khoury really is exactly what he likes a Gee-Gee to be – a local player who savours stay-ing in their hometown, a hard worker who’s developed into a special talent, and who’s now eager to help along the next generation.

“She’s at a point where she’s got something to give back to the game,

she’s doing it, and helping younger kids,” highlights Johnson, noting that having the best local youth players join the Gee-Gees is crucial to the team be-ing able to compete nationally. “And hopefully some of those younger kids will be able to follow in her footsteps.”

LOCAL GRYPHONS RETAIN XC GOLD

Former Bytown Storm triathlete Tristan Woodfine placed second and Glebe Collegiate Institute grad Yves Sikubwabo was fifth as the local pair helped their Guelph Gryphons to their ninth consecutive men’s team title at the CIS cross-country running cham-pionships on Nov. 8 in St. John’s, NL.

The Gee-Gees women were ninth, with Katie Phillips claiming CIS

rookie of the year honours with her 27th-place performance.

THUNDER MEN’S SOCCER BOW OUT

The Ontario-champion Algonquin Thunder won their first game 7-0 but were then knocked out of contention for a national title with a penalty-kicks defeat to Vancouver Island University in their second match at the Nov. 5-8 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Associ-ation Men’s Soccer Championships in Oakville. Third-year Thunder mid-fielder Stephane Emard was named Canadian college player of the year.

GEE-GEES 4TH AT ULTIMATE NATS

Gee-Gees women’s ultimate team fell 10-9 in semi-finals to nation-

al-champion Guelph en route to a fourth-place finish at the Oct. 17-19 Canadian University Ultimate Cham-pionships in Montreal.

GGS, RAVENS ROMP IN BBALL

Ranked first and second in the national pre-season poll, the Carleton Ravens and Gee-Gees men’s basket-ball teams lived up to their billings on the season-opening weekend, easily handling the same opponents on re-verse nights Nov. 7-8 in Ottawa.

Reigning CIS player of the year Philip Scrubb dropped 33 and 32 points in Carleton’s 106-58 and 92-75 wins over Brock and McMaster, while uOttawa beat McMaster 106-83 and Brock 103-68.

Nepean Nighthawks Gurtej Dhaliwal, Braedon Muldoon, Liam Manning and Rohan Chopra were amongst 46 players recently named to the 2015 Canadian junior men’s national development squad. Muldoon and Manning won silver medals this past summer at the Youth Olympic Games.

NIGHTHAWKS PICKED FOR JR. NATIONAL FIELD HOCKEY TEAM PROGRAM

MANLEY & BULAU INDUCTED INTO CANADIAN SPORTS HALL

OTTAWA PADDLERS LOAD CANOE-KAYAK SPRINT NATIONAL TEAM RANKSAngus Mortimer, Drew Hodges and Ben Tardioli of the Rideau Canoe Club were named to Canoe-Kayak Canada’s national team for the 2014-2015 sea-son in October, while Rideau’s David Evans, Stephen Frodsham, Madeline Schmidt, Kate Braddon, Megan Sibthorpe, Scott Braddon, Nick Brownlie,

August Sibthorpe, Naomi VanWalraven, and Genevieve L’Abbee and Victor Turcanu of the Ottawa River Canoe Club were selected for Canada’s development team.

PAIR OF BEAVER BOXING CLUB WOMEN REACH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FINALSErica Adjei and Kaitlyn Clark of the Beaver Boxing Club were both finalists at the Oct. 28-Nov. 1 Elite Canadian Championships in Toronto. Clark was the runner-up in the women’s 64 kg class, while Adjei was the champion at 54 kg. Adjei was not one of the five athletes selected to compete at the Nov. 13-23 World Championships, but will have the chance to get into con-tention to represent Canada internationally in the future with strong results in the coming year.

FORMER GLOUCESTER RANGER TOPS CANADIAN TEAM IN POINTSGloucester native William Bitten was the leading scorer for Canada Red at Hockey Canada’s World Under-17 Hockey Challenge Nov. 2-8 in Sarnia. The Plymouth Whalers OHL player scored two goals and three assists in his team’s five games – two wins to start followed by three losses. None of Canada’s three entries advanced to the medal round at the event, won by Russia.

Ottawa sports legends Horst Bulau and Elizabeth Manley were inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 22 at Mattamy Athletic Centre in

Toronto. Bulau earned 13 World Cup ski jumping titles from 1981 to 1983, while Manley is best known for her women’s figure skating silver medal win at the Calgary 1988 Olympics.

Bytown Storm athletes Meagan Adams, Alec Jarvis, Samantha Klus and Patrick Smith were named to Triathlon Ontario’s provincial development team in October. The quar-tet traveled to Toronto on the Oct. 25-26 weekend to take part in a series of high-tech athletic tests at the new multi-million dollar Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.

4 BYTOWN STORM TRIATHLETES CHOSEN FOR PROVINCIAL DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Former Ottawa Fury youth academy soccer player Lauren Hughes was named the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year. The third-year midfielder for the

Rice Owls led her conference with 12 goals and 31 points this season. Hughes was also a tourna-ment all-star as the Owls won the C-USA championship to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

FURY FC GRAD EARNS CONFERENCE MVP HONOURS & TITLE

LOCAL RAVEN BASKETBALL GRAD NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-CANADIAN

DABROWSKI COMEBACK SECURES 1ST PRO TENNIS EVENT WINOttawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski won the first professional singles title of her career on Nov. 2 in Toronto at the Tevlin Challenger, a $50,000 International Tennis Federation Pro Circuit event. The 8th-seeded 22-year-old came back from a 5-2 deficit in the deciding set to win the final 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7) over an American opponent.

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

Joel Langford won a bronze medal with Canada at the Oct. 24-Nov. 1 Men’s Pan American Softball Championship in Argentina. The Orleans player scored the final run in a 5-1 win over Cuba – Canada’s fourth of six in a row to start the event before three straight losses put them in bronze medal position.

PAN AM BRONZE FOR ORLEANS SOFTBALL PLAYER

Former Carleton Ravens star Tyson Hinz, now a pro basketball player in Holland, was recog-nized as a Canadian Interuniversity Sport top-8 academic All-Canadian for achieving a 10.56 out of 12 GPA in his final year of commerce studies.

The Rachel Homan Ottawa Curling Club rink made an appearance in one final and one semi-final at their past two events. The former teammates of new Team Homan second Joanne Courtney got the upper hand in the semi-final of the Oct. 28-Nov. 2 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling Masters in Selkirk, Man., with Val Sweeting’s rink prevailing 4-3 in an extra end en route to their tournament victory. Ottawa native Dawn McEwen won a pair of

World Curling Tour events with Team Jennifer Jones in October, including the Oct. 10-13 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic in Calgary, where the Olympic gold medalists knocked off Team Homan 6-5 in the final.

TEAM HOMAN PLACES 3RD & 2ND, MCEWEN WINS PAIR ON WORLD CURLING TOUR

CIS SPORTS continued from p.3

EDITORIAL

Mailing address:902 Pinecrest Rd.

Ottawa, Ont. K2B 6B3

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

Contact:Editor: Dan Plouffe

613-261-5838Editor@SportsOttawa.com

Team of the Month: Ottawa South United Force Academy U14 Boys’ Soccer TeamTeam Members: David Chung, Kallel Coltess, Nic Diberardino, Keenan Foley, Cedric Gravel, Has-san Hamed, Kristian Johnson, Ian Kerr, Nick Marriott, Ryan Massoud, Tony Mikhael, Barou Junior Mbuyamba, Stef Nicastro, Matt Pacheco, Luc Rowlands, Anthony Sartzetakis, Head Coach Russell Shaw, Ast. Coach Arie Daalder, Club Head Coach Paul Harris & Trainer Dave Foley.

About: The OSU Force became the first team in Ottawa soccer history to win an Ontario Youth Soccer League championship and the Quebec-Ontario Cup in the same season. Facing Sherbrooke in a two-game series south of Montreal on Thanksgiving weekend, the Force tied their first game 2-2 and then cemented their place in the record books with a 4-2 triumph in the second match, with Ryan Massoud scoring two goals and setting up another . See SportsOttawa.com for full details on this story.

Athlete of the Month: Owen DunnSport: Tennis

Clubs/Coach: Carleton University / Nick Mook-Sang

School/Grade: Grade 5 First Avenue Public School

About: Selected by Tennis Canada as one of four boys to compete at the Americas Team Games in Florida, Owen Dunn’s dream of playing for his country came true this tennis season. The 10-year-old who trains out of Carleton University and the National Training Centre in Montreal earned victories over counterparts from Puerto Rico, Bar-bados and USA to help his team to victory at the event.

To nominate Stars of the Month, go to SportsOttawa.com and follow the link on the right-hand bar under the Stars of the Month feature. Courtesy of the Ottawa Sportspage and the YMCA-YWCA of the National Capital Region, the selected Athlete of the Month will receive a free one-week Family Pass to the Y, while each member of the Team of the Month will receive free one-visit passes.

YMCA-YMCA OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

STARS OF THE MONTH

It was a young partnership, the first international competitions for both skaters, and injury struck at the last moment, but Jeff Hough and Audrey Croteau-Villeneuve threw all obstacles aside and made a big splash in their debut on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit, placing seventh and sixth in Estonia and Croatia.

“Until this season, I’ve mostly spent my career competing against the same 20 or so teams within Canada, so having the opportunity to see so many different and talented teams from all around the world was very eye-opening,” recounts Hough, a long-time Minto skater from Russell. “Neither of us really had an issue with nerves. Our main focus was just to en-joy every moment, and try to give the

audience performances they would love and remember.”

The Minto Skating Club ice dancers only joined forces this past February and were promptly thrust into uncharted territory with a short-er-than-usual deadline. Last season, they each competed with different partners.

Hough had previously skated with Samantha Glavine (and won a national novice bronze medal in 2012), but she decided to retire following last Janu-ary’s Canadian Tire National Skating Championships. Croteau-Villeneuve also lost her partner, Montreal-based Dominic Barthe, after they mutually agreed to part ways.

When Croteau-Villeneuve came for a tryout with Hough, the chem-istry was instantaneous.

“Skating together felt very natural

for both of us,” recalls Hough. “We both have a very similar style.”

Croteau-Villeneuve traveled to Ottawa frequently while completing high school in Montreal, staying with a family Minto skating coordinator Darryl VanLuven knows through coaching. The first-year criminology student now lives in residence at the University of Ottawa.

INJURY FAILS TO DOWN SKATER

Accustomed to working towards a peak much later in winter, the new pair instead geared up for their first international assignments from Skate Canada Sept. 24-28 Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and Oct. 8-12 in Zagreb, Croatia.

They were dealt some additional adversity when Croteau-Villeneuve sustained an ankle injury during prac-tice in Croatia.

“(It was) kind of a challenge to keep the focus and stay confident, but my partner and my coach were there for me, and they knew that in my mind there was no way I was not going to perform that week,” Croteau-Villen-euve underlines. “I really wanted to skate over there, and in working with the doctor, we just made sure that I would be OK for the rest of the sea-son, and he told me I could skate.”

Seeing Croteau-Villeneuve on

crutches with the competition loom-ing was a stressful sight, “but luckily she is very mentally strong,” says Hough, who was left with the strange task of skating of his own in the final practice before the event.

“I’d never done it before, and I knew the entire panel of judges would be watching,” adds the Carleton Uni-versity aerospace engineering stu-dent. “I tried to sell it the best I could, and in hindsight, I believe it really helped make me feel comfortable out on the ice once Audrey was there with me.”

The pair made it through the event and came home with with scores of 111.75 from Croatia and 122.54 in Estonia – well above the 110.84 and 111.30 totals Croteau-Villeneuve and Hough attained separately in finishing seventh and eighth respectively at last season’s junior nationals in Ottawa, and especially impressive since inter-national judges tend to award points less easily than domestic ones.

The solid results provided a lift for the pair as they strive to become junior Canadian champions later this season.

“It’s definitely going to require a lot of work to get there since Canada has such a deep field of talented competitors, but we like to set our goals high,” indicates Hough.

Looking further down the road, they want to raise the bar even higher.

“We want to reach the Olympics and be on the podium,” signals Cro-teau-Villeneuve. “I know it seems like a big goal, but I know we can do it and I trust our training.”

CHARTRAND 7TH AT GRAND PRIX

Alaine Chartrand of the Nepean Skating Club placed seventh at the Oct. 30-Nov. 2 Skate Canada Inter-national Grand Prix of Figure Skat-ing event in Kelowna, B.C., scoring a total of 156.22 points.

The Eastern Ontario Sectionals – the first qualifying event on the road to the Jan. 19-25 nationals in King-ston – were held Nov. 8-9 in Napanee. Results were not yet made available as of press time.

New Minto ice dance partners shine in international debutBy Ron Guillet

file photo

Jeff Hough.

Fresh field

New artificial playing surfaces were recently installed in time for the winter season at both Carleton University (above) and the Dome @ Louis-Riel.

photo: dan plouffe

10

photo: clive cohen /

tennisprints.com

11

OSU Force Academy ZoneO t t a w a

S o u t h United Force A c a d e m y player Antonio Carlini earned the chance

to make a guest appearance with Toronto FC and took full advantage by starring in his debut matches against fellow Major League Soccer academy sides on Nov. 1-2 in Toronto.

“It was an awesome experience,” reflects Carlini, an OSU U13 boys’ Ontario Player De-velopment League team member. “I loved it.”

The chance to dress for TFC sprung out of Carlini’s performances earlier this season. From OSU’s OPDL game against TFC early this season, four Force 2001-born players (and two more younger athletes) were iden-tified to train in Toronto late in the summer.

Traveling with teammates and OSU Club Head Coach Paul Harris, Carlini impressed TFC Academy Coach Danny Dichio during the stint, and was asked to return for the exhibitions – a true indication of the budding relationships OSU is forging with professional clubs, Harris notes.

The Grade 8 Mother Teresa Catholic High School student trained with TFC Monday through Wednesday prior to the matches, then came back to Ottawa for a couple days of school before returning on the weekend.

Adapting to a whole new set of teammates in a different setting wasn’t a piece of cake, Carlini notes.

“It was a bit nerve-racking,” signals the midfielder who’s known for his strong field vision, ball distribution, and ability to get out of tight traffic. “When I first got there, no one really talked to me or anything.”

As the week went on, Carlini felt more com-fortable, and by the time the matches were through, his initial troubles had flip-flopped.

He performed well in both matches against the Montreal Impact and Chicago Fire. In the first game, Carlini played holding midfield – not his favourite position, but he got a lot of touches in the 1-1 draw.

In his preferred attacking midfielder role the next day, Carlini stepped up in a big way, knocking a cross into the far corner to score the winning goal, and then hitting a teammate with a low pass from the box for a tap-in insur-ance marker in TFC’s 2-0 victory.

“I was so ex-cited,” Carlini re-counts. “The other guys were really happy for me.”

After the games, Dichio said he’d like Carlini to be a part of their team whenever he can make the trip down to Toronto (December will likely be the next op-portunity), and would also like him to join the club for a March tournament in Switzerland.

“We always felt that Antonio would thrive in this environment,” Harris underlines. “This is a similar pathway that we have followed with players in the past at OSU – getting them opportunities to continuously test themselves in a professional environment against a high caliber of players.

“Understanding how to mix with new team-mates and how to adapt to possible different coaching styles and philosophy of plays is part of true development.”

OSU PLAYER TRAINS AT BARÇAAnother player seeking to follow in the

footsteps of past Force Academy members Kris Twardek and Vana Markarian – now pro academy players with London, UK’s Millwall FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS – is 2003 boys’ Force Academy mem-ber Ronan Kratt, who recently spent a week training at the famed FC Barcelona Escola after securing the opportunity through a camp in Ottawa.

It was Kratt’s third trip to Europe in 2014 – he was one of two Canadian players chosen to compete at April’s FC Barcelona Escola International Tournament (which sprung out of a Florida camp), and the 2003 boys’ Force Academy member joined his team for a tour of England arranged by OSU and Harris, which saw them train at Premiership clubs Chelsea, Fulham, Liverpool and Man City, and play games against Everton, Fulham and Wrexham academy sides.

OSU is keen to continue building these types of opportunities with more pro clubs to help give players the best possible chance of mov-ing into a professional environment when they are old enough to leave home, Harris adds.

“It’s great to see the credibility OSU has earned in these circles,” he underlines.

OSU player shines for Toronto FC in MLS academy contestsIt began to look a lot like Christ-

mas as snow descended plentifully during afternoon Ontario Player De-velopment League soccer games on Nov. 8 at Carleton University.

With three more weekends still left, season length was one concern cited by local OPDL participants, but the reviews were largely positive from those involved in the inaugural season of the provincial youth soc-cer league that will eventually fully phase out a promotion/relegation system in favour of only admitting clubs that meet high standards for facilities, coaching, administration and organizational financial stability.

The May 3-Nov. 30 season de-manded a high level of commitment from the under-13 players as well, which left several of them with mixed feelings.

“It’s starting to get dark early, so I often feel pretty tired in the car on the way to practice,” says Carina Vincelli, who travels from Corn-wall to train with her Ottawa Fury team three times per week. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like the long season. It’s a lot of fun,” indicates Vincelli, who gave up dance to focus on soccer. “The other leagues aren’t as challenging. Our seasons were only like two months. They’d come and go really fast.”

Nepean Hotspurs player Sophie Burt concurs.

“It’s long, but it’s good. It’s what you want to do, so you do it,” ex-plains Burt, whose lone organized sport activity is soccer as well. “It’s been fun. We’ve learned a lot.”

Ottawa South United’s Antonio Carlini has played a ton of soccer this season, including a recent appearance for Toronto FC’s youth academy.

“(OPDL) is alright. I mean, it’s a long season,” signals Carlini, who’s also not involved in any other sports. “I like it better since you get a lot more soccer in, but at the same time, it’s a lot. It’s pretty much a practice

every single day.”A season that ends before

November is part of the plans for year 2, along with eliminating in-stances where Ottawa teams travel to Toronto to play one another at the league’s central weekend site.

A major challenge pinpointed by many at the outset was the cost, which remains an issue, says West Ottawa Soccer Club technical dir-ector Kristina Kiss.

“It is a pricy program,” notes the former women’s national team player. “If the cost could come down, if the league could find some spon-sors, that would be really important.”

Another worry expressed was related to level of competition. In order to reinforce the league’s focus on player development, no scores or standings were kept, which was per-haps a positive for many local teams that felt the talent squeeze of four OPDL clubs in town.

“What is it about – getting the best team or developing players?” poses Fury coach Kwame Telemaque. “You can see the development, even though everyone knows that the player pool was a bit diluted.”

The Fury won’t be a part of the OPDL next year, so a number of Telemaque’s players will move with him to West Ottawa, where he was recently chosen to lead the Warriors’ OPDL girls’ U13 and U14 teams in 2015, while former Fury general manager Chris Roth will coach the Warriors’ U13 and U14 OPDL sides.

HOTSPURS BIG OPDL FANS

It was a trying introduction to the OPDL for the Hotspurs girls’ team, which struggled initially to recruit enough bodies to compete, but even-tually brought on several first-time competitive players to join them.

“They all bought in and they’re all coming back next year,” signals coach Adam Knight. “That’s a huge testament that they’re having fun.”

A past coach of eight years in the Ontario Youth Soccer League, Knight says that removing the win-at-all-costs mentality from the game has been a huge breath of fresh air.

“(Knight) gives us feedback, and he encourages us to try new things in practice, and then what we do in practice, we try to do it in the game,” highlights Burt. “He doesn’t say negative things. He says things to motivate us and help us.”

OSU SEES BRIGHT FUTURE

The strong OSU Force boys’ team craved higher-quality oppon-ents fairly regularly, notes OSU club head coach Paul Harris.

“I think what’s happened is there were a lot of people looking from the side to see how the league went,” indicates Harris, who was especially pleased to see a clear pathway estab-lished alongside the OPDL to link players to provincial and national programs. “But I think it’s going to be stronger and stronger every year.”

OSU and the Ottawa Gloucester Hornets are the latest clubs to form a pact pledging to work together to ensure the best local players com-pete in OPDL. See SportsOttawa.com for more details.

OPDL clubs near finish of lengthy seasonBy Dan Plouffe

JUNIOR LEAGUES

photo: dan plouffe

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