HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 3, #10 July 2014

Ottawa will be represented in about half the sports on the Glas-gow 2014 Commonwealth Games programme, with five Ottawa Lions Track-and-Field Club members lead-ing the way into this year’s biggest international multi-sport competition.

Melissa Bishop, Josh Cassidy, Segun Makinde, Mike Robertson and Sultana Frizell will all be in the

hunt for medals at the July 23-Aug. 3 Commonwealth Games in Scotland.

The biggest threat for the podium out of local athletes is unquestionably Frizell. The 29-year-old is a defending Commonwealth Games gold medal-ist, she’s this season’s top-ranked wo-men’s hammer thrower out of Com-monwealth countries, and comes into the Games throwing lifetime bests and fresh off a fourth career Canadian title on June 29 in Moncton, N.B.

“I guess I better not f--- it up, eh?” Frizell says in her always-quotable style, along with her trademark laugh. “No, I feel very good about it. I don’t feel pressure. I just feel really excited to ‘go home’ to Glasgow.”

Like many of the Canadian team members, Frizell carries a connection to her Scottish Commonwealth coun-terparts. Her first first overseas com-petition came at the 2007 Scottish Championships in Glasgow.

“I have a couple friends there who are going to be rooting for me. They sent me some pictures of them with their Scottish flag and Canadian flag,” highlights Frizell, who’s now based in Kamloops, B.C. at the na-tional team’s throwing centre. “Plus Scotland – home of the big hammer, with the Highland Gamers – it’s gonna be awesome.”

A year after almost leaving sport due to serious family health problems, hammer thrower Frizell reaches new heights to lead Ottawa’s double-digit Commonwealth Games contingent

GLASGOW 2014 continues p.15

By Dan Plouffe

Games face

photo: marc grandmaison / athletics canada

DOUBLE THREAT FOR OYSL TITLE

LIFELONG LIFTING GOAL REALITY

P. 9

P. 15

OSU & Gloucester’s U14 boys sit 1-2 in the top provincial league, marking a new era of local soccer competitiveness.

It’s been a tough road for weightlifter Isa-belle Després, but the 33-year-old is set to make her Commonwealth Games debut.

LOCALS LOAD CANADA HOOPS

P. 13Biniam Ghebredikan & Corey Johnson won U18 Americas silver medal in a busy month for Ottawa’s basketball best.

Pan American Combined Events Cup

JULY 16-18

(& Canadian Jr. & Sr. Combined Events Championship)

Athletics Ontario Junior/ Senior Championships

JULY 19-20For details & full schedule, visit:

The back-to-back Canadian women’s 800 m champion, Melissa Bishop, is one of five Ottawa Lions athletes set to compete in the Glasgow 2015 Commonwealth Games.

LIVE, FROM GLASGOW!Visit SportsOttawa.com & see August’s news-paper for the Ottawa Sportspage’s coverage of the 2014 Commonwealth Games from Scotland.

2 BYTOWN STORM BULLETINBytown Storm programs develop endurance athletes & life skills

The Bytown Triathlon Club was founded in 2001 and has become a leader in developing and implementing training programs for athletes of all ages and levels. We are the only club in Ottawa that offers competitive draft legal triathlon training programs for youth, Junior and U23 athletes.

STORM TROOPERS – AGES 8-11The Bytown Storm Troopers program is designed on

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

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

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

This approach is based primarily on Sport Canada and Triathlon Canada’s LTAD model (http://www.ca-nadiansportforlife.ca/learn-about-canadian-sport-life/ltad-stages)

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

DRAFT LEGAL DEVELOPMENTThe Development program is designed to introduce

young multi-sport athletes to the processes and skills for success in sport and life.

Improvements in sports like triathlon is largely based not only on sport specific skills but also many external skills sets that contribute to overall success. As part of the Bytown Storm Development Team, athletes are coached and supported in developing:

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

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

For more information, contact the club at 613-323-5255 or email bytowntriathlon@yahoo.ca

BYTOWN STORM KIDS OF STEEL

TRIATHLON SERIES

Sharbot Lake > July 27Dunrobin > August 25

SWIM BIKE RUN. .

The Bytown Storm’s Kids of Steel Triathlon Series offers youth aged from 5 & under to 16-19 the unique opportunity to exper-ience the sport in a positive, safe and fun environment. The event caters to kids of all abilities, from introductory active start to com-petitive specialization in Triath-lon Ontario’s Youth Cup points series. To find out more and to register, visit our web site at:

BYTOWNTRIATHLON.COM

Medals, records setup Athletics Week in OttawaCOMMUNITY CLUBS

Local track-and-field stars will face an almost impossible task when they return home for Athletics Week in Ottawa – trying to somehow put on an even better show than they have out of town.

They’ll show up at Athlet-ics Week with piles of medals, records and Team Canada swag from recent major meets held elsewhere, providing an op-portunity for Ottawa’s athletics community to celebrate a pile of accomplishments alongside the six big events set for Terry Fox Athletic Facility from July 16-20 (see sidebar for list).

Patrick Arbour won’t ar-rive as decorated as many oth-ers, but the local attraction in the Pan Am Combined Events Cup is eager to get in on the

action. He’s had to wait for his version of the national champi-onships along with the rest of Canada’s top decathletes and heptathletes headed to Ottawa.

A national silver medal-ist last season, Arbour would have never pictured himself as a contender for a top place amongst the Americas’ best decathletes six years ago.

“I will never do decath-lon,” was the answer he re-members giving as a 20-year-old when the idea of trying the 10-event track-and-field com-petition was presented to him. “I just didn’t know how much more time I had. I had to learn so many new things. I just didn’t think it could be done.”

But coach James Holder saw things differently.

“When I first met him, he was a thrower,” recounts Holder, who moved to Ott-awa from Calgary in the fall of 2006 and joined the Ottawa Lions Track-and-Field Club as a volunteer coach shortly thereafter. “I took a look at this kid and I thought he looked strong and in good shape. I said to myself, ‘Hey, that kid could really be something if I worked with him.’”

The throws remain Ar-

bour’s strength, but there’s been major progression in the jumps, and even on the track.

“Patrick is a big boy and we have really worked on his flexibility and fitness level, and within the first year of working together, I felt that he made some really astronom-ical advances in all aspects,” highlights Holder, a former Canadian decathlon champion.

In Arbour’s first year com-peting, he placed fourth at the Canada Summer Games. The former ‘AAA’ hockey player went on to place third at the 2012 Canadian Olympic team trials, made the national team the next year, and finished second at the 2013 Canadian championships behind World Championships bronze medal-ist Damian Warner.

“If it wasn’t for James, I really don’t know where I would be,” indicates the University of Ottawa grad. “He works with me on his own time and has been with me since the beginning. Everything I am today, all the credit goes to him.”

Arbour won’t have Lions training partner Mark Chen-ery at his side for the Ottawa event due to injury.

By Anil Jhalli & Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

OFSAA gold medalist Claire Smith capped her record-breaking season with a new Ca-nadian youth benchmark in the 3,000 m.

July 16: High-Performance Twilight Track MeetJuly 16-18: Pan American Combined Events CupJuly 16-17: Canadian Jr. Com-bined Events ChampionshipJuly 17-18: Canadian Sr. Com-bined Events ChampionshipJuly 19-20 Athletics Ontario Jr. & Sr. ChampionshipsDetailed schedule available through ottawalions.com

ATHLETICS WEEK SKED

Patrick Arbour.

file photo

ATHLETICS cont’s p.3

But he remains eager to tackle the competition after placing seventh at last year’s Pan Am combined events.

“Patrick has such natural abilities, and I am really excited to see how he does,” Holder says. “You never know what’s going to happen until it does. So we will just wait and see.”

WICKED WINNERS’ CIRCLE

The five Commonwealth Games-bound Lions (see p. 1) were far from the only local athletes to rack up some big feats in the past month.

Four others from Ottawa earned the opportunity to represent Canada – Erinn Stenman-Fahey at the July 22-27 IAAF World Junior Champion-ships in Eugene, OR, Shermar Paul at the Aug. 16-28 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, and Devin Biocchi and Ashlea Maddex for the Aug. 8-10 NACAC continental under-23 cham-pionships in Kamloops, B.C.

Maddex put on a highly impress-ive display at the June 27-29 Cana-dian Track-and-Field Championships in Moncton, N.B., equaling her per-sonal-best time of 13.34 seconds to place third in the women’s 100 m hurdles behind Olympic finalists Phylicia George and Jessica Zelinka.

Fellow Lion Biocchi will compete for Canada in the 4x400 m relay.

Stenman-Fahey, who just finished Grade 11 at Canterbury High School, wasted no time in earning her world

juniors place even though she still has two future seasons remaining at the under-20 level. The OFSAA pro-vincial high school senior girls’ 800 m silver medalist stormed to a new personal-best time of 2:08.79 to place second at the July 4-6 Canadian Ju-nior Championships in Blainville/St-Thérèse, Que. and dip below the required 2:09.10 international quali-fication standard.

Stenmann-Fahey’s fellow Lions training partner Claire Smith did just about everything in the past month except get the call for the world ju-niors. The Grade 11 Glebe Collegiate Institute student set a new Canadian youth (under-18) record with a time of 9:35.39 to win OFSAA senior girls’ 3,000 m gold in Oshawa on June 7.

“It was a dream, so it was nice to see it come true,” Smith says.

The 2014 NACAC junior cross-country running bronze medal-ist later improved her record with a 9:22.75 clocking at a Lions twilight event to easily satisfied the 9:35 ju-nior worlds qualifying standard.

But leading the pack in windy conditions early in her 3,000 m race at the Canadian juniors left her outside the required top-2 positions in fifth – a blow that became even tougher to swallow since she’d turned down the chance to represent Canada at the Youth Olympics in favour of chasing a world juniors berth.

“It was very, very, very hard,” Smith says of her decision. “There

was many an hour spent fretting over that.”

Athletics Canada asked eli-gible athletes to choose either the Youth Olympics or junior worlds before the national juniors, ex-plains Glebe/Lions coach Kirk Dillabaugh, and the July juniors date was preferable to late August.

“(The Youth Olympics) would impact her cross-country season,” Dillabaugh notes. “It shows a lot of maturity for an athlete to give up a big trip like that.”

Paul, who placed fourth in the 100 m at junior nationals, elected to take the opposite approach and accepted his Youth Olympics op-portunity to race for Canada in the men’s 200 m in Nanjing.

The C.A.N.I. Athletics sprinter also celebrated gold and bronze medal victories with his club team-mates in the 4x100 m and 4x400 m relays at the Canadian juniors, while the Lions men’s 4x100 m relay team took bronze.

Zach Kerr, who completed his high school career with four OFSAA pole vault titles in four years for Hillcrest, was a silver medalist at the Canadian juniors but missed the worlds qualifica-tion standard.

Other local Canadian Champion-ships medalists included: Sekou Kaba of the Lions (3rd, 110 m hurdles), C.A.N.I.’s Bryson Patterson (2nd, triple jump), and Lions para-athletes Rachael Burrows (2nd, T34 100 m & 200 m), Jared Broughton (1st, T13 800 m & 2nd, T13 1,500 m), Jon Dunkerley (3rd T11 400 m) and Jason Dunkerley (1st, T11 5,000 m).

Winning OFSAA gold medals were Longfields-Davidson Heights’ Shona McCulloch (midget girls’ 3,000 m), Garneau’s Maggie Scheunert (open girls’ 1,500 m steeplechase), Woodroffe’s Jacob Pitter (senior boys’ 110 m hurdles) and St. Mark’s Larissa Brown (girls’ visually-im-paired 100 m in an OFSAA-record

14.20 seconds).Taking OFSAA silver were Fran-

co-Cité’s Hans Marvin Lafleur, Long-fields’ Sadian Hinds-Blackstock (MG 300 m hurdles), St. Matthew’s Keira Christie-Galloway (MG long jump) and South Carleton’s Shyvonne Roxborough (junior girls’ 100 m).

Winning bronze were Cairine Wilson’s Alexia Lamothe (SG 100 m hurdles), Sacred Heart’s Alex-andra Tierney (SG 400 m hurdles), Gloucester’s Farah Abdulkarim (open boys’ steeplechase), Glebe’s Keili Shepherd (MG 1,500 m) and the Glebe junior girls’ 4x100 m relay team of Arden McAlpin, Remy Wade, Megan Frost, Maya Kamah, Alison Pouw and Haggiozah Poullard.

There was one other rather unique record set in June. With OFSAA medalists Smith leading it off and Kamah anchoring, Glebe CI com-pleted a 100x1 km relay on June 16 at Commissioners Park near Dow’s Lake. Although not an officially-re-cognized record category, Glebe is putting the challenge out to any high school group to beat their total time of 6 hours, 3 minutes and 13 seconds, which is an average time nicely under 3:40 per runner.

“We’re a pretty fit school, I guess,” smiles Dillabaugh, whose cross-country team used the event as a fundraiser for their fall trip to Min-nesota for a race. “Everyone had a lot of fun.”

3

photo: joe ross

Maya Kamah completes Glebe C.I.’s 100x1k relay.

--By Richard Way, Canadian Sport for LifeThe question of sport specialization –

when to begin and how best to approach it – has been a topic of much debate for years, and one that Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) has discussed at length in determining a Long-Term Athlete Development approach.

Though some have argued that early specialization in a sport is the only way to become an elite athlete, more and more research shows that later specialization in a sport (aside from artistic and acrobatic sports) better equips athletes to succeed at the highest levels.

But it isn’t just late specialization that gives elite athletes the edge – it’s the way in which they train once they begin specializing.

Moesch, Elbe, Hauge and Wikman (2011) compared the specialization and training pat-terns of elite athletes with those of near-elite athletes. While they found that late special-ization is more likely to lead to success than early specialization, their findings showed that training patterns were the true indicator as to eventual elite versus near-elite status.

Interestingly, elite and near-elite athletes ranked the same in involvement in other sports, suggesting that elite athletes didn’t gain an edge over their near-elite counter-parts through multi-sport involvement alone.

TRAINING HABITS KEYWhen looking at the practice hours per-

formed by the two samples in the main sport, near-elite athletes accumulated significantly more by age nine, and continued to do so through adolescence until age 15.

By age 18, both elites and near-elites had accumulated roughly the same number of practice hours in the main sport. The elite athletes began to amass more practice hours after this point, and had reached a substan-tially higher total than their near-elite peers by age 21.

While the near-elite athletes had per-formed more specific-sport practice at an earlier age, their training increase didn’t de-velop intensively beyond age 18, whereas the elites’ training did.

Practice hours aside, the two samples also experienced a different timeline in terms of

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

SPORTSCAN.CA

Sport specialization: what’s the best approach, is there a right age?

the significant moments in their careers. While both groups took important steps within their careers (when they started the sport, when they took part in their first com-petition, when they had their first national team involvement), elite athletes reached these benchmarks at a much older age. Also, the elite athletes spent less time on junior na-tional teams than the near-elites, but spent more time on senior national teams.

So, while multi-sport involvement at an early age doesn’t alone guarantee elite status within sport, it is key for the develop-ment of physical literacy.

Both the elites and the near-elites had this. But the true indicator of whether an athlete will reach the elite level or the near-elite level appears to be in the training regimen.

Practice hours in the sport of choice should not increase dramatically until the athlete is ready to specialize, and that shouldn’t be until later in the teens for late-specialization sports.

Targeting the appropriate period to in-crease practice time and then increasing practice time accordingly looks like the surest bet to becoming elite.

Richard Way is the Senior Leader of the Canadian Sport for Life movement and a member of the Leadership Team. He has extensive leadership experience in the Ca-nadian sport community including working with countless organizations on strategic planning and management functions, the Director of Sport for Vancouver’s successful 2010 Bid Corporation and twelve years with the Government of BC primarily in coaching education and training. A two-sport athlete, Richard represented Canada as a Luge athlete and coach as well as being an All-Canada-West soccer player with the Univer-sity of Calgary. He now coaches his children at the community sport level.

continued from p.2

ATHLETICS: Team Canada berths, records & OFSAA medals

Olympic obedience

Sochi 2014 speed skater Ivanie Blondin (playfully) abuses her powers as an Olympian, punishing her young pupils with push-ups during a clinic at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Centre in Orleans. The Gloucester Concordes Speed Skating Club star was one of numerous Olympians – including Sochi silver and bronze medalist Denny Morrison, Gilmore Junio, Kali Christ, Lucas Makowsky, Charles and François Hamelin, William Dutton and Brianne Tutt – to skate with the next generation of local speed skaters. They were in town for Speed Skating Canada’s annual general meeting, where Concordes club founder Sandra Chénard received the Jean Grenier Award, recognizing an unsung hero who has worked tirelessly for the betterment of the sport as a volunteer. Concorde Vincent De Haitre, a Sochi Olympian at age 19, was named Rising Star of the Year.

photo: dan plouffe

Victor Turcanu isn’t quite a household name in international kayaking yet, but the 17-year-old is ready to show the world what the Ott-awa River has been brewing when he competes at the July 17-20 ICF Junior World Championships in Szeged, Hungary.

“It means a lot to be able to make it to this level,” says Turcanu, who’s slated to race in Canada’s K-4, 1,000-metre crew boat. “It’s kind a of a culmination of all my work that I’ve put in over the years. I still can’t be-lieve it’s all brought me to this.”

Turcanu’s path to the worlds began at age 11 with a spontaneous trip to the Ottawa River Canoe Club in Dunrobin.

“One day I was playing soccer in the park with my friends and they were in a kayaking program at the club,” recounts the Bell High School grad. “I had nothing better to do, so I hitched a ride with them and went. I had no idea I would get to this level when I started.”

Before long, Turcanu became obsessed with the sport. And even though it is seen by many as a fringe sport, he loves it for that very reason.

“I was instantly hooked on the sport because it was something dif-

ferent,” he recalls. “There was just something about being on the water – it just drew me in and made me want to keep coming back, and I took it more seriously as I got older.”

ORCC coach Joel Hazzan raves about the dedication and drive one of his brightest students maintains.

“His training shows how much he wanted to make junior worlds,” Hazzan explains. “Victor has the ded-ication, work ethic, and talent that’s required to make that level of com-petition.”

Turcanu also made a little piece of history with his selection to the Cana-dian junior team – he’ll become the first paddler to represent his club at an official World Championships.

“It’s a pretty big milestone for us, since we’ve only been around for 13 years,” notes the Dalhousie Univer-sity kinesiology student. “But we’re growing every year and that it feels good to show that with my selection.”

Although other ORCC-brewed athletes have competed at worlds, they’d all moved on to bigger clubs in the region or beyond by the time they reached that stage in hopes of advan-cing their careers. But not Turcanu.

“I started here and I learned everything here, so I didn’t want to leave for somewhere else that I didn’t know,” he reasons. “I’ve been with this club for six or seven years of my life and seen it progress from a small, non-competitive club to send-

ing people to national regattas, so it’s a huge honour to help put my club on the map.”

JUNIOR WORLDS LAUNCH PAD

In preparation for what he de-scribes as the biggest competition of his life, Turcanu trained with other members of the Canadian junior team in Dartmouth, N.S. before leaving for Hungary.

Turcanu says his three teammates in the K-4 1,000 m race have a spe-cific goal in mind as they get ready to take on European kayaking powers.

“It’s going to be unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, but we’re work-ing hard to break the three-minute mark in the K-4 1,000 and finish in the

top-6 so we can make the final,” Turc-anu outlines. “Anything more than that is just a bonus because it’s our first international competition and we don’t really know what we’re facing.”

Regardless of results, Turcanu plans to soak up as much of the exper-ience as possible in Hungary in hopes of building towards greater heights in the future.

“It’s just a small milestone for me in a career that can last 10 to 15 years from now,” he reasons. “This is only junior worlds, but there’s U23 worlds after this, then senior world champi-onships and the Olympic Games – I want to do it all.”

OTTAWA LOCKS UP CANADA SPOTS

Three other local paddlers from the Rideau Canoe Club will also be making the trip to Hungary.

A winner of four medals at last summer’s Canada Games, Drew Hodges was selected for the Canadian U23 worlds team, which takes place at the same location and dates as the junior competition.

The sister act of Megan and Au-gust Sibthorpe will take to the Szeged water in a canoe and a kayak for the U23 and junior competitions, respect-ively.

4

Paddler set to make club history with junior worlds debutBy Jon Willemsen

ELITE

photo provided

Ottawa River Canoe Club paddler Victor Turcanu.

PADDLING continues p.6

Field hockey’s traditional roots and its new face came together June 21-22 at the Nepean Sportsplex, as the Nepean Nighthawks Junior Fest-ival presented a promising blended future for the emerging Canadian sport.

Fifteen teams in total took part in four divisions for players under age 14. Out-of-town representatives included Halton and the Brampton/Misssissauga-based Canadian Field Hockey and Cultural Club – clubs populated heavily by players whose families claim Punjabi backgrounds and a stronger traditional link to the sport – while local sides Nepean and Chelsea sported lineups of athletes more accustomed to the hockey game played on ice.

It was a small sample size, but the competitors at the Nepean Junior Festival represented a microcosm of the diversity that’s shaping the Ca-nadian field hockey scene.

“The Indian and Punjabi com-munity in particular is extremely involved in the field hockey com-munity in Brampton and Mis-

sissauga. Here in Ottawa the demo-graphic is very different,” notes Nighthawks founder Sandeep Chopra, whose club has begun to produce numerous players cracking provincial and national team rosters.

“We like when the kids and parents get together for something like this because the kids are all the same, they’re getting along, where they wouldn’t normally come in contact with each other.”

On top of the different demo-graphics, there are a growing num-ber of players from winter sports getting on board.

“Our group from Chelsea is all cross-country skiers and ice hockey players, they come out of the winter and they want to be out-side,” highlights Ian Bird, a member of Canada’s Olympic field hockey teams in 1988 and 2000 and now head of the Chelsea contingent. “This is how they’re spending their spring and their summer.”

For the Nepean group – made up of 90% ice hockey or ringette play-ers by Chopra’s estimation – it’s an easy transition for many from the arena at the Nepean Sportsplex to its

backyard at Minto Field.“Every day I hear at least one

comment about the cardiovascular fitness that’s required for field hockey is way beyond what we expect with other sports,” Chopra adds. “When they go back to the ice, they’re in the best shape they’ve ever been in.”

Chris Randall, who coaches Nepean Raiders competitive ice hockey, has become a big fan of the sport’s summer equivalent.

“I like field hockey because there’s a lot of perspectives in ice hockey that relate here,” indicates Randall, a parent of Nighthawks players. “I find that the kids get a great workout, and they’re learning the stick skills, a lot of the principles of ice hockey. A lot more coaches should be getting their players in-volved in the summertime.”

NHS STAR HEADED TO UVM

Kyra Lee, the graduating co-cap-tain of the Nepean High School girls’ field hockey team, will be attend-ing the University of Vermont on a full scholarship next year to play NCAA Div. 1 field hockey, the UVM Catamounts announced in June.

5

Diversity shapes rising field hockey community

By Alex Quevillon

COMMUNITY CLUBS

photo: dan

plouffe

Ottawa Royals & Knights Baseball Club Player of the Month

#13 Dominic Petrocco was outstanding in two outings early in June, both in league play and against the Electric Charge from the United States, winners of the Montreal Titans tournament.

The Bantam Royals White ‘AAA’ player posted a line of 15 innings

pitched with 14 strikeouts, and a 1.26 WHIP (walks plus hits per in-ning pitched).

Royals Report & Knights News

www.ottawaroyalsbaseballclub.com

The Ottawa Royals & Knights Baseball Club provides the region’s premiere competitive development program for players aged 10-18.

DOMINIC PETROCCO

Honorable mention goes out to #43 Joe Toms of the Royals Peewee ‘AAA’ team. Toms was outstanding in his performance against the Hull Gris, pitching five innings and striking out seven batters. He also contributed at the plate, going 3-for-4, including a triple. His efforts to support the team contributed greatly to the Royals’ 4-3 victory.

#42 Corben Peters of the Bantam Royals Blue squad has continued to improve as the season progresses. The team leader in innings pitched and strikeouts has dropped his WHIP to 1.59 while registering 44 total strikeouts for an average of 1.5 per inning pitched this season. As lead-off hitter, Peters has contributed at the plate as well, batting .436.

www.actKIDvity.com

Keep calm. Call .

actKIDvity: Pick up. Drop off.

KIDS: Learn. Play.

YOU: Time.

No stress.

provides a Pick-up & Drop- off service for kids’ activities in Ottawa

613-422-8914 613-716-2110

FALL REGISTRATION OPENS JULY 7TH!

The Nepean Nighthawks hosted a 15-team compet-ition for U10/U12 coed and U14 girls’ and boys’ squads on June 21-22 at the Nepean Sportsplex.

They’ve all got different athletic backgrounds and out-looks, but the three Ottawa natives set to compete in the July 20-26 World Junior Ulti-mate Championships in Lecco, Italy can certainly agree on one thing: there’s nothing quite like getting the call to represent your country.

“Right now, I’m just very excited and very happy that I am getting this chance to play for my country,” says Owen Watt, who will compete in the 25-team Open division. “Play-ing against the best players in the world, it just doesn’t get any better than this.”

A former soccer player, Watt took up ultimate in high school and now plays for Phoenix, Ottawa’s top Open team, whenever he’s home from university. The 18-year-old Waterloo mechanical engineer student would like to play on a professional ultimate team in the future, but for now his focus is a strong showing in Italy.

“All the players on the team are very good – the best players in the country,” Watt indicates. “We know our goal and while I can see a podium finish, we can do more. The talent is there, it’s just a matter of coming together as a team.”

DREAM-COME-TRUE FOR WICKED PLAYER

The day Camille Bedard was told she’d been selected to play for Canada’s women’s team at the junior worlds changed her life, the 18-year-old recalls.

“There were a few tears when I heard,” recounts Bed-ard, who was heavily involved in track-and-field before mak-ing ultimate her sport of choice. “I have been playing for so long and I have worked so hard, so getting this chance, it means

so much to me.”Bedard started playing the

disk game at age 12 and has ex-perienced the competitiveness involved in the sport as she’s made her way up to the Ottawa Wicked women’s team.

Despite this, she feels that her sport doesn’t get the respect it deserves from those outside Ottawa’s close-knit ultimate community, who are always eager to spread the word and showcase ultimate any chance they get to grow the game.

“People don’t see it as a sport, and that’s unfortunate,” Bedard says. “It is just as in-tense as any sport. You have to be moving all the time and it is so much fun. It is a self-ref-ereed game, so that’s where sportsmanship and team spirit become important.”

NIGHTMARE-COME-TRUE FOR STELLA PLAYER

Natasha Cloutier was also chosen to play on the Canadian junior women’s team, but she believes her chances of going to Italy are slim due to a torn ACL knee ligament.

“Recovery has been go-ing well, but right now, I don’t know if my knee is where I need it to be,” laments the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees player. “It has been a difficult few months because I have worked so hard to get this chance and I feel like it is getting taken away from me.”

While she may not join her teammates, Cloutier has faith that the Canadian women – de-fending bronze medalists from the 2012 world juniors, where Canada’s Open team also won bronze – will come out with a strong finish.

“I have just been blown away by what these girls can do,” says the member of the Stella club team. “I think, be-cause we live in different parts of the country, we just need to

get that chemistry going and work stronger as a team. We have the talent.”

For the majority of her 18 years, ultimate has played a big role in Cloutier’s life. Her par-ents were avid players, and she used to watch them as a child.

“To be honest, I was never really fond of it when I was younger,” recalls Cloutier, who was convinced to try out the competitive side of the game at age 16. “Then I just saw how many people played it just came to me what could happen if I really gave the time and effort.”

Despite her injury setback and the derailed junior worlds journey, Cloutier plans to con-tinue playing ultimate at the highest level possible and hopes that will lead to another chance to represent her country in a fu-ture ultimate competition.

“Ultimate has become a lifestyle for me,” indicates the 2013 Eastern Canadian univer-sity ultimate champion. “I grew up around it, everyone around me has been or is an ultimate player. If I can just continue to be part of the ultimate com-munity in any capacity, it would be great.”

ST. PETER TAKES HIGH SCHOOL CITY CROWN

It’s a long way from the world championships, but many local high school students got their first introductions to the disk sport through a local league headed by the Ottawa Carleton Ultimate Association.

The springtime circuit con-cluded with the Ottawa High School Cup, where the city’s top-5 teams were determined based on their participation, spirit score and final standing.

The St. Peter Knights were crowned champions, followed by the St. Joseph Jaguars, All Saints Avalanche and a pair of Bell Bruins entries in fourth and fifth place.

6 ELITE

Rideau’s Ben Tardioli, who shot onto the interna-tional scene with a fourth-place finish at his first career World Cup, celebrated his Canada Day by being offi-cially named to Canada’s team for the Aug. 6-8 ICF Ca-noe Sprint World Champion-ships in Moscow.

CAPITAL LANDS 2 BIG EVENTS

Just days before welcom-ing hundreds of athletes for its massive annual Canada Day International Regatta, the Rideau Canoe Club an-nounced it would be bringing an even bigger event to town.

Over 1,200 paddlers are expected for the 2015 Ca-nadian Sprint Canoe-Kayak Championships, which will be from Aug. 25-29 next year.

Just a day later, the 2015 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships will begin nearby on the Ottawa River. Canada was recently awarded the global competition, which will be run by Wilderness

Tours in the Ottawa Valley from Aug. 30-Sept. 5.

NEW ORCC ACCESSIBLE DOCK

The Ottawa River Canoe Club celebrated another sig-nificant milestone when they officially opened a new ac-cessible dock on July 2 at the club’s home next door to the Bonnenfant Y Outdoor Edu-cation and Leadership Centre.

“We put in the ramp for our para-athletes to have an easier time getting down to the water,” explains ORCC club founder L.A. Schmidt. “It’s been a dream for me be-cause I think everyone should get to go on the water, which is such a great calming place to be. I think anyone with a disability would value getting out in a boat and getting to ex-perience that.”

Having an accessible ramp down to the water was a long-held desire for the club, but putting the pieces together to fund it was another challenge. ORCC secured an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant for construction four years ago,

but it didn’t come to life until the City of Ottawa matched the grant to fund the project valued around $75,000.

Many participants from a spinal cord injury group have already used the new facilit-ies, and Schmidt is eager to see the club’s para program continue to grow rapidly.

It’s an initiative that’s close to Schmidt’s heart, hav-ing first witnessed the impact that’s possible decades ago in her teaching career.

“Thirty years ago when I was at the Rideau Canoe Club, I took a bunch of my students from Ridgemont High School with one form or another of a disability out in canoes, and I remember everyone telling me it was crazy,” Schmidt re-calls. “But I thought they were just like anyone else who has needs in life and deserves to try as many things as they can.

“I’ll never forget seeing those kids paddling on the water that day. Hopefully this ramp will encourage many more people to experience paddling.”

Canada players primed for ultimate jr. worlds

By Anil Jhalli

file photo

PRE-COMPETITIVECOMPETITIVE

OttawaNationalDiving.ca

Visit our website for information and registration.

FOR

FIRST CH ICE DIVING

OTTAWA’S

Fall RegistrationON NOW

NEW

3 SKILL LEVELS

DROP IN CLASSES

$10/hr

Crestview Outdoor Pool

Tuesdays Noon to 1pm

Begins: July 8 / 2014

General Burns Outdoor Pool

Thursdays Noon to 1pm

Begins: July 10 / 2014

photos: katherine ho / ultimate canada

(From left) Camille Bedard, Owen Watt and Natasha Cloutier of Ottawa were picked to play for Team Canada at the July 20-26 World Junior Ultimate Championships in Italy.

continued from p.4

PADDLING: Ottawa a hotbed for canoe-kayak of all kinds

In just their second season of existence, the Ottawa Axemen are leading the way in the Quebec Senior Lacrosse League with an 11-1 record. 24-year-old Tim Bergin, a former Gloucester Griffin, is the runaway scoring leader for Ottawa and in the league with 24 goals and 40 assists in 10 games. The Axemen, who own a perfect home record, are 2-1 against the traditional powerhouse Kahnawake Mohawks, with their final regular season meeting scheduled for 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 19 at Howard Darwin Memorial Arena.

photo: dean joncas

Chopping down the

competition

7

Lauren Hughes just can’t get enough of playing soccer in her ho-metown. The Ottawa native’s talents have taken her away to Houston, TX to play for the NCAA’s Rice Uni-versity Owls for the majority of the year, but she certainly savours the opportunity to come home during the summer and dress for her old club, the Ottawa Fury.

Competing in the USL W-League loop, Hughes’ Fury have been totally dominant in Central Conference play, racking up an undefeated 10-0-1 record to ensure they play the maximum number of home contests possible in the post-season.

“I believe that this team has the potential to do very well in the play-offs if we perform to the best of our abilities,” Hughes signals. “It will be awesome to be able to have playoffs at home in front of a home crowd.”

This season is the third cam-paign for the forward who made her first W-League appearance while still studying at St. Peter Catholic High School in Orleans. Hughes has become a standout performer at Rice, earning conference and re-gional all-star selections in her first two seasons, which she believes wouldn’t have been possible without the opportunities she received as a Fury youth player.

“The Ottawa Fury does a phe-nomenal job of getting their youth players seen by collegiate coaches,” indicates the 2010 USL Super-Y League U-17 champion and finals tournament MVP. “If it hadn’t been for the Fury club (…) I would not be at Rice.”

Even though Fury players hail from many corners of the globe – USA, England, Australia and Nor-way amongst players’ nationalities on this year’s squad – Hughes en-joys the feel of a “very close and tight knit team,” which she credits in large part to Fury W-League coach

Dom Oliveri.“He creates a relaxed soccer en-

vironment that allows us to enjoy playing soccer but keeps the intens-ity of our practices high,” Hughes adds.

Second-year Fury defender Sh-elina Zadorsky agrees that there’s a strong bond between the club’s play-ers.

FAMILY FEEL TO FURY FC

“My favorite part of being a Fury player is having the opportun-ity to play and live with new team-mates,” says the London, Ont. native who played for Canada at the 2012 U-20 Women’s World Cup. “Work-ing every day with these girls has been so fun and very beneficial as a player.”

With out-of-town Fury players living together in club-funded ac-commodations in Lowertown while

they’re with the squad, Oliveri takes particular care to select a group that’s going to get along well.

“Character is something that is really important to us when we are recruiting. The players truly become a family while they are here,” high-lights the 2012 W-League-champion Fury coach. “We have been fortu-nate enough to recruit great people to Ottawa this season.”

It’s a short campaign overall with the season opening in late May and concluding with the league champi-onships set for barely two months later from July 25-27 in Florida.

“For our club, anything less than winning the W-League champion-ship is a disappointment,” Oliveri underlines. “So far, we have played well but it is extremely important for us to continue to grow as a team over the next few weeks before the play-offs start.”

Fury float to 1st in W-League divisionBy Arielle Follett

ELITE

photo: dean joncas

photo: dan plouffe

Shelina Zadorsky.

The Cumberland Cobras Snakebite Tournament took place June 21-22.

A mixture of two popular summer sports is now avail-able for the first time in Ottawa as the Thunderbird Sports Centre recently opened a FootGolf

course alongside its Par 3 golf course on Richardson Side Road in Kanata.

For the uninitiated, the best way to de-scribe FootGolf is a hybrid between soccer and golf, where players kick the ball like in soccer and try to get it into a hole (with a 53 cm diameter) in the lowest number of shots possible, like in golf.

West Ottawa Soccer Club leaders came up with the idea of bringing FootGolf to town and asked their partner, TMSI Sports Man-agement, if they could look into installing a FootGolf course at Thunderbird.

“Once they told us that we could make a (FootGolf) course work, we put some holes off to the sides, got some lids for cover, and put in flags whenever people wanted to play,” WOSC Multisport Manager Gord Mac-donald recounts. “It wound up being very easy to do.”

WOSC CEO Bjorn Osieck says that des-pite some initial uncertainty as to how people would react to the new FootGolf course – the first of its kind in Eastern Ontario – the sport has received highly popular reviews from the community now that the “test-drive” process is underway.

“The awareness in the larger community has not developed yet because a lot of people don’t know about the sport, or see it as a novelty,” says Osieck, whose club ran a big “kick off” day on June 7 where many players and club members gave it a try. “Overall I would say those that have played it have been overwhelmingly positive about it, and those who hear about it are curious and might want to try it out.”

What has made the initiative so success-ful is the lack of impact the new FootGolf course has had on golfers.

“The FootGolf holes that TMSI installed are off the golf greens and usually much closer to the tee box than the golf holes,” Osieck highlights. “And if there’s no FootGolf being played, the covers over the bigger FootGolf holes mean people wouldn’t even

notice a difference if they’re golfing.”

FUN SKILL-BUILDING ACTIVITYMacdonald has become an avid FootGolf

player himself. He loves not only the chal-lenges that come with the sport – such as avoiding water hazards and bunkers – but he also views the game as an opportunity for soccer players to improve their skills.

“It’s soccer-related, yet it’s not soccer,” Macdonald underlines. “It’s sometimes really nice to get away from what kids and people are doing all the time in practice, but still develop soccer fundamentals.”

FootGolf isn’t only for advanced soccer players seeking to hone their skills, however, Macdonald notes, it’s also easy for regular, non-soccer players to try a new experience.

“It’s something that anyone can do and your skill level doesn’t have to be very high,” he emphasizes. “It’s not exactly like soccer, and easier than golf with bigger targets, so it’s a great way for anyone to have fun.”

The sport has taken off in the U.S. and Europe, and is in the early stages of doing the same locally.

“We’re excited about the addition of Foot-Golf to the activities at Thunderbird and the potential for growing the sport,” explains TMSI’s VP of Operations and Business Development, Rob Knights. “The support WOSC has given to this initiative has been tremendous, and through our partnership, we hope to create a buzz for FootGolf in the Ottawa area.”

Visit www.thunderbirdsportscentre.com or call 613-836-2256 for more information.

West Ottawa Soccer ScoopWOSC enthusiastically welcomes footgolf to local sport landscape

International flavour, Mini World Cups, Friend-ships and Snakebites colour local tourneys

Soccer pitches all over the city each surely have their own tales of drama to tell from the past month, which featured big youth soccer competitions each weekend with the June 7-8 Nepean Hotspurs Friendship Tournament, FC Capital United’s June 14-15 Mini World Cup, the June 21-22 Cumberland Cobras Snakebite Tournament and the July 5-6 Gloucester International Boys’ Soccer Tournament.

The Hotspurs earned a pair of titles in the 20th anniversary edi-

tion of their tourney, winning the U16 boys’ and U14/15 girls’ divi-sion, while Gloucester topped the U13 boys’ event.

Cap U were also champions at their home event (see story on p.8 for full details).

The Cobras followed suit by taking the U13 girls’ crown at their tourney, while St. Anthony’s earned the U14 and U15 boys’ titles.

In the tournament with the greatest number of compet-itive divisions of the bunch,

Gloucester reached five finals on their Hornets Nest and Potvin fields.

The Hornets downed the West Ottawa Warriors 2-1 in the U16 Tier 2 championship game and beat Newmarket in U16/17 Tier 1 for two titles, while they fell to Nepean City in U14 Tier 2, Bradford in U14 Tier 1 and Pier-refonds in U17/18 Tier 2.

West Carleton won the U13 Tier 2 event, while the Cobras were finalists in U15 Tier 2.

—Dan Plouffe

8

A familiar face returned to the national wo-men’s soccer team for a June 18 friendly against Germany in Vancouver, as former Ottawa Fury youth player Christina Julien was back in Ca-nadian colours a year outside of the FIFA 2015 Women’s World Cup on home soil.

The striker from Cornwall was a mainstay alongside Christine Sinclair during qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics – where Canada went on to win its historic bronze medal – but wound up serving as an alternate for the Games, and saw very limited action with the national team in the following years.

Although she didn’t see any game action, Julien says being on the national team roster again made her feel happy knowing that her hard work in recent years is paying off.

“It was great to see all the girls again and train with them,” Julien adds. “It was really nice to get the call.”

Reflecting on the path leading up to London 2012, the 2011 World Cup veteran points to an unfortunate timing of events as a reason for why she fell off the national team’s radar.

“I just accepted a professional contract right before the girls went to residency, and I just think that disconnect from the environment didn’t help my chances,” Julien recalls. “Then I had a partially-torn hamstring when they were making the final selections, so it was just a bunch of little things that added up.”

But now she feels positive about where her

game is at and hopes it is enough for another chance to play for her country.

“It wasn’t my time then, but hopefully it is now,” Julien says. “I was young and didn’t have as much experience and confidence as I do now.”

Joining USV Jena in the Frauen-Bundesliga – an elite German soccer league regarded as one of the world’s best – has proven beneficial on many fronts.

“I definitely wanted a challenge, so I moved, and got to play almost every minute,” Julien de-tails. “I knew if I wanted to help us win gold (at the World Cup) that I had to play against the best players in the world.”

KNOCKING ON CANADA 2015 DOOR

Team Canada coach John Herdman was also eager to see Julien test herself against a higher level of competition. Herdman asked Julien for game film from her matches in Europe so he could see how she was handling the challenging German league – and now says he’s observed big signs of improvement in her game.

“Being a consistent starter in one of the toughest leagues in the world, and scoring and setting up big goals is almost a prerequisite in what we look for now,” Herdman indicates. “I think Christina did really well in what was def-initely a huge change for her, and you can see that she’s more confident out there now.”

It’s still a fairly long time before decisions have to be made regarding the final World Cup

roster for the June 6-July 5 event that will be played in six Canadian cities, including Ottawa.

But after watching her progress this past season in Germany, Herdman says Julien will certainly have a shot at reclaiming her national team spot in time to perform on the world’s biggest stage.

“Watching her game develop says a lot about her resilience,” adds the Canadian coach of four years. “This consistent improvement shows that she’s still motivated, and that says a lot about how much she wants this.”

Getting on the roster for a friendly is far from the end goal Julien desires, but she’s hop-ing that first step will translate into the chance to live her dream of wearing the maple leaf – this time on home soil.

“I’m going to give it everything I’ve got be-cause it would be the pinnacle of my career to play at home, and I’ll know I did as much as I can to get that opportunity,” Julien underlines. “Hopefully I’m a part of that group. I want to win a World Cup.”

Fury grad Julien resurfaces on Canada soccer rosterBy Jon Willemsen

ELITE

Christina Julien.

file photo

As the 2014 FIFA World Cup continues in Brazil, the tournament hosts can only dream of a result similar to what played out for FC Cap-ital United’s under-13 boys’ soccer team.

At their Mini World Cup event on June 15 at Leitrim Field, the home team wound up raising the World Cup rep-lica trophy as champions.

“It’s quite neat for the hosts to win at any tourna-ment,” says Cap U technical director Raz El-Asmar, who doesn’t remember one of his club’s ever winning their own tournament in previous editions. “It’s special for our kids to win it because they look forward to the tourna-ment every year, and the good competition makes it hard for anyone to win.”

Capital United president Kumar Saha has volunteered to help run the Mini World Cup every year since its incep-

tion alongside the 2006 World Cup, and served as chair of the 2014 edition.

MIMICS WORLD CUPSaha explains that the

event changes every year to model the big international competition taking place at the time. Each team assumes the colours of one of the parti-cipating countries, while each player receives that nation’s jersey.

“It’s a fun event every year,” notes Saha, “but with the real World Cup happen-ing as we speak, the timing of it with all the best players in the world playing makes it so amazing for the kids.”

In this year’s final, the victorious Capital United U13 boys’ side represented France and beat the Russell Raiders, playing as Germany, by a 3-1 score. The Seaway Valley Blazers/Portugal rounded out the top three teams.

Wearing French colours was only natural for the Cap

U boys, El-Asmar highlights, since the team had made a pre-season trip to France to com-pete in the globally-known Mondial Pupilles De Plome-lin tournament where they matched up against a number of French youth teams.

“It’s crazy because we played against them, but now we’re playing for them,” sig-nals Cap U player Ryan Saint-Fleur, who felt proud to wear the French colours.

Saha rates the 2014 edi-tion a success and says he’s excited to see the event keep growing every year (a girls’ tournament alongside the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada is an idea that’s come up) and continue to provide a memorable weekend for all participants.

“This tournament keeps growing in age, sort of like a fine wine,” Saha smiles. “We keep getting better at what we do, and we get to see more kids every year get to enjoy the beautiful game here.”

Cap U hosts prevail at Mini World Cup

By Jon Willemsen

Representing France, the host FC Capital United U13 boys won the 2014 Mini World Cup.

photo provided

9

It’s rare sight – perhaps never be-fore seen even – but midway through their seasons a pair of local soccer teams find themselves at the top of the standings in the same division of the highly-competitive Ontario Soccer League.

With just one loss in 10 games alongside five wins and four ties, the Ottawa South United Force lead the OYSL under-14 boys’ east division, while the Gloucester Hornets are just three points back with four wins, two losses and four ties.

“We probably didn’t anticipate that,” acknowledges OSU club head coach Paul Harris. “I think we were both surprised because both ourselves and Gloucester are up there early.”

In the previous two seasons, only once have two local clubs stayed above the relegation line in the same age group (finishing third and fourth), while 15 out of 26 teams were de-moted back to the regional level. The historical struggle for local OYSL entries kept the Hornets’ expectations in check heading into their first foray at the top provincial level.

“To be honest, we were very un-sure. We knew we had a strong team but we also knew the strength of the league,” signals Gloucester U14 boys’ coach Hanny El-Magraby. “We had a lot of mixed feelings, but we wanted to at least give these boys the oppor-tunity to give it a try.

“They worked very hard in pre-season training, they committed to it, and to their system, and they’ve played incredibly well to this point. I’m very proud of them.”

El-Magraby says his team’s suc-cess comes from a strong commitment to playing a physical game – despite a number of players who are consid-erably smaller than many opponents – while maintaining tactical discipline, and moving the ball well.

“Passing a lot in this league against the bigger, faster sides is not easy, but they’re committed to it and they’ve done an extremely good job,” El-Magraby adds. “Their confidence is growing after every weekend.”

GLOUCESTER STRIKER LEADS OYSL

A testament to confidence fuel-ing the team’s success came in a June 21 home game against North Mississauga. Seemingly destined for a scoreless draw late in added time, North Mississauga earned a corner kick, but Gloucester defended well and caused a turnover, setting Jonathan David free on a break for half the pitch. He was taken down in the penalty area, went on to convert the penalty kick, and then celebrated the final whistle seconds later.

“I didn’t think we’d get that kind of chance,” recalls David, who felt nervous and stressed about the pos-sibility of missing the penalty kick but fired a confident boot to the left

corner nonetheless. “I was very happy. It was a very important win in our league.”

The Grade 9 Louis-Riel high school student has reveled in the oppor-tunity to compete at the highest provincial level, scoring a remarkable 15 goals in 10 matches to lead the league in scor-ing by seven goals.

“I like it a lot. We’re getting good compet-ition, and we’re get-ting better,” signals David, who’s enjoyed sharing the new exper-ience with a group of close-knit teammates. “I’ve been with them for the last three years.

They’re like my second family.”

OSU GROWS WHILE IN 1ST

OSU experienced the oppos-ite emotion as Gloucester on the same weekend. The Force led 2-1 at home against Oakville before their opponents leveled the score in the dying minutes.

“We’ve found with the OYSL that it’s a learning curve,” notes Harris, who was calling the shots that day in place of regular coach Russell Shaw. “These boys played in the regional level last year – played 16 games, won 16, scored 120, conceded five. All of a sudden they go to a different level and they have to get used to playing for 90 minutes.”

The Force have discovered a much more physical style of play provincially, and have struggled at times to remain calm and make the smart play after being in-volved in a battle for the ball.

“We have to find that nice happy medium between com-peting and being relaxed enough to play,” Harris underlines. “We think they’re a good group. We think they could be as good as our ’97 group, who were provincial champions.”

2013 TITLES BOOST OYSL SIDES

With three breakthrough titles last season – OSU’s U16 boys’ OYSL championship, OSU’s U13 girls’ Ontario Cup and FC Capital United’s U17 girls’ OYSL east division and Que-bec-Ontario Cup – there’s been a not-able change in mentality for the region’s OYSL teams, Harris adds, stating that survival is no longer the goal, it’s about competing for championships.

“We want to keep on emulating the successes at this level,” emphas-izes the OSU director of three years. “I say to all our groups: ‘They set the

benchmark. Now you’ve got to go and follow it.’”

In their lone meeting to this point on June 8 at George Nelms fields in Manotick, the clubs tied 2-2.

“After last year, we thought we were stronger than Gloucester, but they’ve strengthened massively,” Har-ris details. “We’re hoping both can challenge for the league. It would be phenomenal, wouldn’t it?”

MORE LOCAL TEAMS IN OYSL RACE

OSU’s defending OYSL champs, now in the U17 league, remain in the running for a repeat crown, just two points out of first with a 5-3 record.

The Nepean Hotspurs and OSU Force U16 girls find themselves in the

midst of the most tightly-contested OYSL division, as just two points sep-arates first place from last.

At 5-2-1, OSU sits atop the U14 girls’ standings, while 1-5 Capital United is tied at the bottom. The Ott-awa Fury are off to a solid start in U18 girls’ OYSL play with a 2-1-2 record.

The West Ottawa Warriors are holding their own in U15 boys’ com-petition, carrying a 1-4-2 record des-pite allowing only two fewer goals than they’ve scored.

OSU and Cumberland look to be fighting to avoid relegation and main-tain their OYSL spots in the U15 girls’ ranks, while the Capital United U16 boys and Gloucester U17 girls are in the same boat.

Ottawa OYSL squads switch to contendersBy Dan Plouffe

JUNIOR LEAGUES

photo: dan plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

Gloucester’s Jonathan David (right) has leapt way out front in the U14 boys’ Ontario Youth Soccer League scoring race.

OSU has made many op-ponents miss the mark en route to a 5-1-4 record.

OSU Force Academy ZoneThere are

many players who could c e r t a i n l y relate to Isabella Han-isch’s experi-

ence last year. She’d been cut at the final stage of trials

for a team she desperately wanted to be a part of.

But Hanisch’s response to the news that she wouldn’t be a member of the East-ern Canadian team vying for a spot at the Danone Nations Cup was precisely what coaches dream of.

It made her hungrier. It gave her extra motivation. And she was willing to put in the extra training time to become better.

A year later, Hanisch completed her mis-sion and earned a place on the Eastern Ca-nadian Danone squad – out of approximately 5,000 11- and 12-year-old hopefuls who at-tended initial tryout camps.

“I made it through the first cut last year, but in the end, it wasn’t what I was hoping for,” the Ottawa South United midfielder recounts. “I knew I had to be more aggressive and just work harder, and I did. This was a great op-portunity for me and I’m really happy I got this far.”

MORE TRAINING TIME BEARS FRUITOSU Club Head Coach Paul Harris

watched first-hand as Hanisch displayed model resiliency when attending additional training opportunities with the OSU Force Academy’s Centre of Excellence and Striker School.

“She was determined to go that next step, and she did. We couldn’t be happier for her and what she has accomplished,” Harris sig-nals. “Isabella is a great example for all bud-ding players. She’s shown us what self-be-lief, combined with hard work and putting in extra training time, can help you achieve.”

Hanisch was one of the few female play-ers competing in Danone action, but facing off against boys didn’t intimidate her in the least. The 12-year-old says that believing in her abilities on the field was important, and also ensuring that others could see that she wasn’t afraid of the challenge.

“I had to show everyone that I am confid-

ent and not shy at all,” Hanisch explains. “I knew I had to be more aggressive and keep up with the pace, because the boys can be a lot quicker. So I needed to be faster and just show people that I don’t get tired and could play with this team.”

COMPETES AT SAPUTO STADIUMAlthough her Eastern Canadian side ulti-

mately fell to their Western counterparts in the match to determine who would wear Ca-nadian colours at the international Danone event later this year in Brazil, Hanisch non-etheless relished the opportunity to take part in the June 21 showdown at the Montreal Impact’s Saputo Stadium.

She also felt honoured to be recognized with the distinction of being selected for the squad, and one of her country’s best in the age group.

Hanisch sends thanks to all those who showed faith in her and helped her advance in soccer training, and would love to repay them by attaining some even bigger goals in the future.

“Someday, I want to play on the women’s national team,” she indicates. “And I want to get a scholarship somewhere for soccer. Where yet, I don’t know.

“But I know if I keep training harder, I will get there.”

OSU player rebounds from past exclusion to earn Danone team spot

With the Ontario Varsity Football League nearing the con-clusion of its regular season, it’s become clear there’s one type of team to watch out for: Ottawa.

While neither of the two local squads east and west of Bank St. actually carry their city’s name in their monicker, junior football clubs from across the province have learned to fear matchups against the Cumber-land Panthers and Myers Riders.

Having captured their club’s first title at the (senior) Varsity level in 2013, the Riders haven’t slowed down at all this season, recording the division’s lone perfect record at 6-0.

“I think we have an excel-lent chance right now,” signals Riders coach Max Palladino, whose club has already nailed down home-field advantage throughout their conference playoffs with two regular season games left to play. “The games we have left, they’ll be tough, but they were tough last year too, and that was when they said we had no chance.”

Mathew Duffy admirably stepped into the quarterback role vacated by Nick Gorgichuk, now a Carleton University Raven, posting a 224.5 QB rat-ing while completing 96 of 138 passes for 1,855 yards with 20 touchdowns and 4 interceptions.

Returning receiver Jaeger Prot is averaging over 100 yards per game, while the Rider de-fence hasn’t allowed more than eight points in any contest aside from the team’s season-opening 51-18 win.

“I tell the kids from the be-ginning of the year that with the talent we have on this team, they should win a championship,” adds Palladino, whose squad has outscored opponents by a combined total of 281-50. “The only way I see us not winning a championship is if we beat ourselves.”

LOCAL JV TEAMS UNBEATEN

A major showdown looms large for the OVFL’s lone un-defeated Junior Varsity teams. The 6-0 Panthers and 6-0 Riders meet July 12 at Minto Field.

Cumberland bested Myers in the regular season last season, but the Riders turned the tables in the post-season to knock the Panthers out en route to an ap-pearance in the league final.

“I want it to be our turn this year,” emphasizes Panthers JV coach Warren Steeves. “I think

we have a good chance. We’re athletic. We’re a physical foot-ball team. I think we are a talen-ted group of kids and coaches.”

Facing an opponent with multiple rushing threats – My-ers boasts four runningbacks who have carried for over 350 yards in six contests – will be his team’s biggest challenge to date this season, Steeves recognizes.

“I have a ton of respect for Myers,” he underlines. “They are very well coached and they always have a number of good players that buy into their sys-tem. For us to beat them, we just have to execute.”

BANTAMS POUND THE GROUND

With a powerful ground game led by runningback Kian Williams – who is averaging 19.3 yards per carry for 1,253 in total for six games – the Bantam Panthers have an overtime loss and five wins this season.

Featuring their own standout runningback – Honoreal Iloki, who’s gained 1,337 yards for 21. per carry – the defending OVFL Bantam-champion Riders sit 5-1 heading into their July 12 show-down with Cumberland.

The Varsity Panthers sit in the middle of the pack at 3-2-1.

FOOTBALL SPIRIT RISES

Ask coach Palladino the secret to Ottawa clubs’ success in the OVFL and he’ll tell you it comes down to the amount of football played in town.

“With high school and NCAFA, it brings a lot of play-

ers into the OVFL,” he explains, saluting the National Capital Amateur Football League in par-ticular for being one of Canada’s biggest and best youth football organizations. “When you get that many kids playing football, you get great talent out of it.”

Palladino hopes that the re-turn of the Ottawa Redblacks to the CFL will spur even greater football participation in the city.

“Hopefully with the Red-blacks here, we can get maybe another 10 or 15% across the board of kids who become inter-ested in football and start picking it up at the 10, 11, 12 age group,” says the coach who also led the Myers Jr. Riders for many years until the Quebec Junior Foot-ball League team folded in the off-season. “You get that sort of growth and everyone’s going to benefit down the road.”

Palladino highlights Ott-awa’s strong tradition of mov-ing players onto university foot-ball, and outlines the exploits of many young local CFLers – the Redblacks’ Connor Williams, Edmonton’s Kyle Norris, and Calgary’s Brander Craighead & Tyler Crapigna – who were all playing in the city’s youth foot-ball ranks only a short time ago.

“These are all guys who have played on the same (Ot-tawa) field, in the CFL now,” Palladino underlines. “The kids see that opportunity, and they actually put that extra effort for-ward. I think that’s what brings a lot of excitement to Ottawa foot-ball right now.”

10

330 Vantage Dr. Orleans (off Lanthier Dr.) 613.834.4334

SUMMERCamps 2014

Gymnastics, trampoline,games, crafts & more!

Full Days & Half Day CampsFor children ages 4 and up

RegisterToday!

Half of Ottawa’s OVFL teams perfect at 6-0By Josh Bell

JUNIOR LEAGUES

photo: dan plouffe

Jamal Mavinga hauls in a touchdown pass during his Cumber-land Panthers’ 56-49 victory against previously unbeaten Toronto on June 21 at Millennium Field.

11

Email Head Strength & Conditioning Coach Nicolas.Wescott@carleton.ca or

visit Athletics.Carleton.ca for more information.

CARLETON UNIVERSITY HIGH PERFORMANCE CENTRETake your athletic performance to the next

level. Train where champions train!

• Individualized off-season strength and conditioning programs for Elite Athletes

• Knowledgeable, educated Certified Strength and Conditioning Coaches

• Program includes initial assessment, movement screen, performance testing and individualized, scientifically based program design, appropriate periodization and continued assessment

• Elite 3 Month Membership for $1500 (for 5 days a week, other options also available)

Cam Smedley produced the best finish out of Ottawa River Runners athletes compet-ing in the first three World Cup canoe slalom events of the season overseas in June. The men’s C-1 competitor placed 14th in the season-opening event in Great Britain.

SMEDLEY EARNS TOP LOCAL RESULT AT WHITEWATER WORLD CUPS

OTTAWA ROWING CLUB PACKS TEAM CANADA RANKS

MULTIPLE LOCAL CYCLISTS WIN NATIONAL MEDALSOttawa’s Emily Flynn won a silver medal as her Stevens Racing P/B The Cyclery team swept the podium in the challenge sprint race, one of four events at the Global Relay Canadian Road Cycling Championships on June 29 in Lac Megantic, Que. The Stevens/Cyclery girls were also fresh off a sweep of the top-4 positions at the June 15 Preston Street Criterium, including Ottawa’s Ariane Bonhomme in fourth. Named as one of five members of the Canadian team that will compete in the

Aug. 8-12 UCI Track Junior World Championships in Seoul just a few weeks earlier, Ottawa’s Connor Byway placed second in the junior men’s time trial at the nationals.

LOUIS-RIEL BOYS’ SOCCER TEAM THE CAPITAL’S TOP PERFORMERS AT OFSAA, WINNING HISTORIC SILVERSpurred on by the past success of their school’s girls’ soccer teams, the Louis-Riel Rebelles won the first OFSAA boys’ soccer medal in program history at the ‘AA’ high school provincial championships June 5-7 in Leamington. Other local OFSAA medalists included the Cairine Wilson Wildcats (‘AA’ girls’ soccer bronze) and Glebe’s Jack Meireles & Lindsay Hawkins (high school mixed doubles ten-nis bronze). St. Mark collected antique bronze for fourth place at the ‘A/AA’ field lacrosse festival, while St. Peter was the top performer out of local rugby teams, winning the ‘AAA/AAAA’ girls’ consolation side. Ottawa track-and-field athletes also won a pile of medals (see p.2 for full summary). Visit SportsOttawa.com for more detailed OFSAA coverage.

ZUSSMAN CRACKS CANADIAN ROSTER FOR WOMEN’S RUGBY WORLD CUPIn early July, Ottawa native Julianne Zussman was officially named to Canada’s roster for Au-gust’s IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup in Paris. The 27-year-old Ashbury College grad is one of seven players who helped Canada to a sixth-place finish at the last World Cup in 2010.

Two Ottawa Rowing Club athletes raced for Canada at the season’s second row-ing World Cup event in France. Cristy Nurse came away with a silver in the women’s 8 event, while Kate Goodfellow was fourth with the Canadian women’s quad at the mid-June competition. Four local rowers will be heading to France for the Sept. 12-14 World University Rowing Cham-pionships. The University of Ottawa women’s lightweight double pair of Jenna Pelham and Lili-anne Page, uOttawa’s Marika Kaye (in lightweight women’s four) and former Nakkertok Nordic cross-country skier Andrew Stewart-Jones of Trent University (in men’s double) will all represent Canada. ORC’s Matthew Fournier and Louise Munro will also row for Canada in the coming months. Fournier will take part in

the Aug. 9-10 Commonwealth Regatta on Scotland’s Strathclyde Park course shortly after the Commonwealth Games – which rowing is not a part of this year – wrap up next door to Glasgow. Munro will stay on home soil for the July 11-12 CanAmMex regatta in Lochaber, N.S.

London 2012 Paralympian Patrice Dagenais and the Canadian wheelchair rugby team earned a silver medal at June’s Canada Cup International Wheelchair Rugby Tournament in Rich-mond, B.C., dropping the final to Australia 62-54. The 29-year-old Ottawa Stingers player will now prepare for the Aug. 4-10 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Denmark.

DAGENAIS TAKES SILVER AT WHEELCHAIR RUGBY EVENT

The Capital Wave Water Polo Club honoured two local water polo fig-ures for the price of one at its first-ever end-of-year banquet on June 21 in Old Chelsea. The two-year-old club named its highest award after Ottawa water polo icon David Hart, a former coach for all six of Canada’s national team programs who’s built up the sport locally over the course of many decades. Hart was on hand to present the award to Cana-dian youth national team athlete Megan MacCormack, the player who best exemplified the qualities the club strives for. Meanwhile, at the World League Super Final in Dubai, Ottawa natives Alec Taschereau and John Conway placed sixth with the Canadian senior men’s national team.

CAPITAL WAVE PICKS 1ST WINNER OF DAVID HART AWARD

NATIONAL JUNIOR RACE BRONZE FOR BYTOWN TRIATHLETEBytown Storm triathlete Samantha Klus earned a bronze medal at the

June 14 National Junior Triathlon Series stop in Pike Lake, Sask., completing the course in 1:04:04, just over a minute off the event champion’s time. Carp native Joanna Brown, 21, had a rough outing at the June 28 World Triathlon Series event in Chicago, finishing 29th.

7 YOUNG LOCAL SYNCHRO SWIMMERS CHOSEN FOR PROVINCIAL TEAM OPPORTUNITIESThird- and sixth-place finishers respectively at Synchro Ontario’s Trillium 12 & Under Champion-ships June 14-15 at the Nepean Sportsplex, Gloucester’s Taylor Rushforth and Nepean’s Jade Warren were selected to represent Ontario and Canada at the Aug. 10-16 UANA Pan American Synchron-ized Swimming Championships in Riverside, CA. Nepean’s Celia Batchelor, Clara Thomas & Annie Liu, and Gloucester’s Meaghan Lapierre and Noémie Guindon Riopel were also identified for a pro-vincial 10U high-performance camp thanks in part to their strong performances at the Trillium event.

The Mark Lowry Memorial Drive for the Podium Golf Tournament raised $23,000 for Olympic podium potential sports on June 23 at Stonebridge Golf Club. A group of 160 – including numerous local past and present Olympians and Paralympians such as Cody Sorensen, Nancy Brawley, Dan

Thompson, Michael Slipchuk, Jeff Bean, Bill Meyer, Sue Holloway, Laurie Gra-ham, Jason Dunkerley, Josh Karanja and Iain Brambell, along with curlers Rachel Homan and Lisa Weagle – attended the ninth-annual edition of the event.

LOWRY EVENT RAISES $20,000+ FOR OLYMPIC SPORT

PAN AM JR. BRONZE FOR NATIONAL CAPITAL WRESTLERAugusta Eve of the National Capital Wrestling Club won one of three matches at the June 27-29 Pan American Junior Wrestling Championships in Toronto to finish third out of four athletes in the women’s 44 kg competition. At the July 5 Canada Cup in Guelph, NCWC’s Rhiannon Digweed was a gold medalist in the junior cat-egory, while Alex Brown-Thériault took bronze at the senior level.

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

Ottawa modern pentathlete Melanie McCann finished in 18th place at the UPIM World Cup Final on June 5-9 in Sarasota, FL, earning her best result in fencing where she cracked the top-10. The World Championships will be the London 2012 Olympian’s biggest event of the season, coming up Sept. 1-9 in Poland.

MCCANN 18TH AT MODERN PENTATHLON WORLD CUP FINAL

Ottawa natives Alex Corsi Caya, 25, and Ryan De Bruyn, 28, made it through Volleyball Canada’s open trials in June to earn the right to compete on the NORCECA continental beach volleyball circuit. The pair grabbed the sixth and final available position by placing sixth at the event held in Toronto.

OTTAWA BEACH VOLLEYBALL PAIR SNAG NORCECA TOUR BERTHS

ONTARIO COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL RECORD SETTER PLANS TO KEEP MARKS A 4-YEAR TOTAL Ottawa native Keith Marier put the final touches on a standout collegiate volleyball career at the end of the Ontario Collegiate Athletic Association season. The La Cité collégiale Coyotes outside hitter established new all-time provincial highs for kills (910) and points (1,069) in just four seasons, includ-ing his first with Algonquin College. The recent respiratory therapy graduate doesn’t expect to return to school for his fifth year of college eligibility. Read more on Marier’s career at SportsOttawa.com.

Ottawa’s Adam Simac ranked third in stuff blocks for Group 2 countries, but 6-6 Canada was eliminated from 2014 FIVB World League play. He’ll now reset for the Aug. 30-Sept. 21 Volleyball World Championships.

CANADA BOWS OUT IN VOLLEYBALL WORLD LEAGUE POOL PLAY

After a rough tournament in May, Ottawa fencer Kelleigh Ryan took a few days off from the sport she had found herself starting to hate.

Ryan had just traveled all the way to Shanghai for a World Cup event and came away with nothing at all to show from it – her 113rd-place fin-ish wasn’t even worth a single world ranking point.

The break proved fruitful. Ryan came back in time to earn a national silver medal, and since then she’s been on the best run of her career, winning three international medals in June and coming into her own just in time for the July 15-23 FIE World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

“She is recognizing when (fen-cing) starts to feel like it’s work, and she is backing off and letting herself rest a little bit,” notes Alex Martin, Ryan’s personal coach. “She’s just having a lot more fun… She has let go of a lot of the pressures she puts on herself.”

Ryan won a pair of silver medals at the early-June Pan American Fen-cing Championships in Costa Rica, taking second place in women’s foil and the team event (alongside Ca-nadian counterparts Alanna Goldie, Eleanor Harvey and Shannon Comer-

ford) and followed that up with a bronze medal at the North American Cup in Columbus, OH.

Both of Ryan’s medal round de-feats at the events came against USA’s Lee Kiefer, the fifth-place finisher at the London 2012 Olympic Games, by close scores of 15-12 and 15-14.

“I think I figured out something about myself – just don’t think too much,” signals Ryan, who’s also made a tactical adjustment by trying to fence at a larger distance from her opponent, which is where she’s at her

best.Based in Ottawa throughout her

career since taking up the sport at age 10, the former University of Ot-tawa and Carleton University athlete moved to New York last year, where she lives with her boyfriend, Mar-tin. It’s been a financial challenge making the arrangement work, Ryan highlights, but it provides access to a greater number of strong training partners to help her progress.

“I do it because I know it’s im-portant,” states the 27-year-old. “It’s

important to have a very specific training plan and a good trainer, be-cause injury prevention is so huge.”

NEW TRAINING BASE IN NYC

Paul ApSimon, Ryan’s longtime coach at Ottawa Fencing and with the Canadian national team, is supportive of the new setup.

“Kelleigh is doing what she needs to do to succeed. She’s a full-time ath-lete,” ApSimon emphasizes, noting that only time will tell how far Ryan can progress. “Generally hard work

pays off over talent. We expect bigger and better things from her.”

Ryan’s next big competition is the World Championships. Currently the world’s 32nd-ranked fencer, Ryan’s best career worlds finish is 22nd place, but her coaches believe top-16 is well within her reach this year, given the boost her recent success has provided.

“Kelleigh has always had the po-tential to rise to the top,” ApSimon indicates. “It was just a question of letting go, being relaxed and allow-ing it to happen on a day. That’s what she needed – to have a good day and build some confidence leading into the Olympic qualifying period.”

Ryan, who even tries to avoid finding out who her next oppon-ent will be at competitions, doesn’t like to look too far into the future. However, there is no doubt that the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games and Rio 2016 Olympics are upcoming objectives, and that she’s committed to fencing over the long haul, even if it wears her down from time to time.

“I want to stick around until 2020. At that point I’ll be 33, so I’m going to hope that my body stays around and that I’m still enjoying it,” Ryan says. “I’ll definitely stick around until 2016, and then after I might take time off for school, but I’m not sure. We’ll see how it works out.”

12

Fencer rebounds from blown China trip with career bestsBy Eric Thompson

ELITE

file photos

SAM BAT Fall League

SEASON STARTS SEPT. 5, 2014

©

NEW WEST END & EAST END DIVISIONSTo Register, visit:

www.ottawaroyalsbaseballclub.com 2014 Copyright. Power Alley Marketing. All Rights Reserved.Sam Bat and the Sam Bat design are trademarks of The Original Maple Bat Corporation and are used under license.613-520-5655 | Ravens@caRleton.ca | athletics.caRleton.ca

Kids central summeR camps | leaRn to swim | Rec Days JR. Ravens pRogRams | BiRthDay paRties

Kelleigh Ryan.

Eleven local athletes leaped, tossed and rolled their way to medal performances at June’s Ontario rhythmic gymnastics pro-vincial championships in Toronto.

The 15 Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club provincials competitors averaged a medal apiece, with Cynthia Zhang lead-ing the way thanks to her all-around title in the Level 2A (Age 8-9) event.

Nine-year-old Zhang, who won gold for her rope routine and silver for free, has only been com-peting for two years, but already owns the physical abilities to ex-cel, says KRSG head coach Dasa Lelli.

“Rhythmic gymnastics is the sport for Cynthia,” asserts

Lelli, whose athlete left on a trip to China not long after the com-petition. “She is hyper-flexible, a jumper, a quick learner, coordin-ated, and has the desire to do well.”

At the other end of the age categories is Megan Kawai, who put in her final competitive per-formance at the Ontario cham-pionships, earning all-around bronze in the highest provincial category, Level 6C (Age 16+), along with bronze for hoop and silver for ribbon.

“The hardest part of the com-petition was knowing that it was my last one,” signals the long-time KRSG club member who followed her older sister into the sport. “I wanted to go out know-ing I had done my very best.”

A recent A.Y. Jackson Sec-ondary School grad, it’s Kawai’s love of performance that’s made her a star and brought her loads of provincial medals through her career, her coach indicates.

“Megan is always successful. She is a performer,” Lelli high-lights. “She is powerful and dra-matic and takes risks.”

“I love to perform,” echoes Kawai, who plans to continue coaching at KRSG next fall. “When I get on to the carpet it never feels forced.”

PAGE PRODUCES REMARKABLE REBOUND TO REPEAT

Cleo Page of the Ottawa Rhythmic Gymnastics Club had two previous all-around pro-vincial titles on her belt, but the possibility of a third just about evaporated with a “disaster” first performance.

“In my rope routine, I made many large mistakes and the routine itself was very messy,” Page recounts by e-mail from B.C., where she headed after the end of school. “After I finished,

I knew right away that it was not my day. But I put the pressure of the judges and the competit-ors in the back of my mind and I decided to continue on with my other routines with the attitude of doing my best.”

The Grade 10 Nepean High School student rebounded in a big way, winning gold medals in the clubs and choice events by a solid margin to wind up with all-around gold in Level 5C (Age 13-15).

The other local medalists in-cluded Ottawa’s Kristin Polegato (ball bronze in Level 6B, Age 16+), Vasilisa Coveny (all-around bronze, hoop silver & ball bronze in L3B, 9-10) and Jessie Yang (rope bronze in L2A, 8-9), and Kanata’s Sarah Manyoki (all-around silver, choice silver, clubs bronze and ball silver in L6B, 16+), Donya Hassan Zadeh (hoop bronze & ball silver in L6A, 16+), Brianna Lu (hoop silver in L4B, 10-12), Erika Lin (ball gold in L4B, 10-12) and Haley Miller (ball gold in L3C, 9-10).

GYMNAESTRADA A HIT

At the other end of the coun-try, 27 KRSG athletes took to the stage at a big event in Calgary that drew upwards of 1,000 par-ticipants from across the country. Called the Canadian Gymnaes-trada and modeled after the World Gymnaestrada – an open gym-nastics demonstration held every four years that is non-competitive in nature and borrows elements from all disciplines in gymnastics – the event provided an opportun-ity to qualify for the 2015 interna-tional exhibition in Finland.

It’s another avenue possible in a great sport, says Lelli, who founded the Kanata club 39 years ago after moving from overseas.

“What hockey is for boys here is what rhythmic gymnastics is for girls in Europe,” Lelli highlights.

13

Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club

W W W

6 1 3

8 6 7

5 7 7 4

-

-

K R S G

O R G

.

.

Register online now for our popular summer camps and 2014-15 recreational

classes!

KRSG.ORG

Two of the brightest budding local basket-ball stars swapped their club team uniforms for Canadian national team colours in June, as Corey Johnson and Biniam Ghebrekidan com-peted at the FIBA Americas Under-18 Champi-onship in Colorado Springs, CO.

“It was really an extraordinary experience. I’ve never been a part of something like that before,” Johnson signals. “Just the feeling of representing Canada and listening to the na-tional anthem every game before I played was amazing.”

Team Canada went on a great run at the event, winning four games to reach the final before falling to powerhouse USA. It was the best result Canada’s ever had at the competition, coming on the heels of bronze medal perform-

ances at each of three previous tournaments in 2008, 2010 and 2012.

“It definitely feels nice to make some history for Canada,” smiles Johnson, a West Carleton Secondary School grad. “It’s another time we showed everyone how much basketball is grow-ing here. We have so many good players trying out for our national teams now, and results like this keep coming.”

Johnson was impressed by the level of talent on his Canadian team.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys to play with,” says the 18-year-old Kanata Youth Basketball Association/Ottawa Next Level Basketball Academy product. “I loved all my teammates.”

One of those teammates is Ghebrekidan, a 6’ 9” centre from Gatineau who comes out of the Ottawa Guardsmen system.

Both local players saw plenty of court time at the event – Ghebredikan averaging about 17 minutes per game, Johnson a little over 10.

“They relied on me a lot for my shooting ability,” Johnson highlights. “I just tried to do everything I could out there for my team, and I felt like I belonged on the court.”

COREY JOHNSON LIKELY HEADED SOUTH

After wearing the Canadian jersey in such a big competition, Johnson believes the exper-ience will help him grow as a player going for-ward, now that he’s graduated from high school.

The 18-year-old is undecided on what the next step in his career will be, but attending a U.S. prep school next season in hopes of attract-ing more NCAA attention is a strong possibility.

“It’s only kind of been something in the past year that I’ve thought about doing since I’ve

been getting more exposure to American schools,” Johnson indicates. “I want to see if I can play in the States, so I’m expanding my horizons as much as pos-sible.”

PROVINCIAL PRIZES & CANADA GIGS

The Ottawa basketball community made some noise on many fronts bey-ond city limits last month.

London 2012 Olympian Courtnay Pilypaitis was back with the Canadian women’s national team for the Edmon-ton Grads International Classic from June 26-28 as they swept Brazil in three exhibition contests. The big event of the

season for the 26-year-old Ottawa native will be the Sept. 27-Oct. 5 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

Assistant coaches Andre Desjardins and Taffe Charles helped the Canadian U-17 wo-men’s team to a sixth-place finish at the June 28-July 6 FIBA U17 World Championships in Czech Republic.

The KYBA U17 boys were provincial silver medalists in the top Ontario Cup division June 6-8 in Whitby.

Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance CEO Rick Traer was named honorary president by the FIBA Americas association, recognizing his 14-year involvement with the continental gov-erning body’s executive committee, including six years as president from 2000-2006 – the first Canadian to hold that position.

Rising local basketball talents push Canada to best finish

By Anne Duggan

COMMUNITY CLUBS

photo provided

Cleo Page.

Pair of provincial rhythmic gold for Ottawa & Kanata

By Jon Willemsen

Corey Johnson.

photo: garrett w. ellwood / fiba

14

The Ottawa Sportspage is a volunteer-driven newspaper devoted to shining a spotlight on local amateur sport.

City Councillors Tim Tierney, Rainer Bloess, Bob Monette, Maria McRae, Peter Hume, Jan Harder, Mathieu Fleury, David Chernushenko, Katherine Hobbs, Mark Taylor & Scott Moffatt, Mayor Jim Watson, Members of Provincial Parliament Grant Crack,Phil McNeely, Yasir Naqvi, John Fraser, Bob Chiarelli & Madeleine Meilleur, and Photographer Dean Joncas.

Our publication would not exist without the support of our advertising partners. We thank these community clubs, sport

organizations and businesses for backing Ottawa’s vibrant sports community, and we encourage you to support these groups.

To learn more about becoming an advertising partner of the Ottawa Sportspage, contacteditor@sportsottawa.com

EDITORIAL

Mailing address:902 Pinecrest Rd.

Ottawa, Ont. K2B 6B3

The Ottawa Sportspage is printed on the first Tues-day of the month by Ot-tawa Sports Media, the locally-owned and op-erated publisher of the Ottawa Sportspage newspaper & SportsOttawa.com. Local sports news from high schools, universities, com-munity clubs and elite ama-teur sport is the name of our game. We’re at The Heart-beat of the Ottawa Sports Community.

Contact:Editor: Dan Plouffe

613-261-5838Editor@SportsOttawa.com

Team of the Month: Cairine Wilson SS Wildcats Sr. Varsity Girls Soccer TeamTeam Members: Players Jordan Lundin, Megan Foy, Hailey Bell, Kelly Brazeau, Morgan Lundin, Meghan Bryson, Lauren Firkins, Renee Bigelow, Megan McWilliams, Senna Koggel, Roshnee Mitchell, Dakota Chamberlain, Kelsey McKay, Sydney Anthony, Tara McWilliams, Jessi Anderson, Hilary Alexander, Anna Strieb, and Sydney Switzer, head coach Stuart Barbour and assistant Pilar Khoury.

About: It was a remarkable season for the Cairine Wilson Wildcats senior girls’ soccer team from start (an 11-day soccer-themed trip to England) to finish (a bronze medal at the OFSAA high school pro-vincial championships). An inspiring pre-game huddle lifted the national capital-champion Wild-cats’ spirits after a tough OFSAA semi-final defeat and allowed them to win the school’s second-ever provincial medal in a team sport, and first in soccer. Visit SportsOttawa.com for full coverage.

Athletes of the Month: Shaïnah Joseph & Leah Mousseau

Sport: Volleyball & Beach Volleyball

Club: Maverick Volleyball Club

School: ESC Franco-Cité grad & University of Florida (Joseph, left in photo), Ashbury College grad & Lake-head University (Mousseau)

About: Shaïnah Joseph and Leah Mousseau mean busi-ness at the beach this summer. Third-place finishers at the Ontario Volleyball Association’s Beach Tour stop in Ottawa on June 21, the past Maverick Volleyball Club players are keen to improve their games in anticipation of big university indoor seasons this fall. Mousseau is set to begin her rookie season at her parents’ alma mater, Lakehead University, while Joseph will be after increased playing time as she enters her second season at the NCAA Div. 1 University of Florida, who welcomed her as just the 11th Gators international recruit in 22 years last year.

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

15

Frizell hurled the best throw of her career earlier this season, improving her Canadian record distance to 75.73 metres. She and her coach de-cided last-minute to enter a May meet in Tuscon, AZ since she’d been throwing well in training.

Sitting in third place before her final throw, the two-time Olympian told herself it was time for a clutch performance.

“I let it go, and it was basically one of those ‘give birth’ screams,” recounts Frizell, whose throw also tied the North American record and is the fourth-best recorded in the world this sea-son.

“It’s kind of where I expected myself to be this year,” indicates Frizell, who believes her current capabilities can put her in “a good fight” with the top European and American throwers. “I’m very pleased to sit in the position that I am, and I’m very honoured to do it for Canada and put Canada in the spotlight for women’s ham-mer.”

FAMILY’S HEALTH NEARLY DERAILED PLANS

Frizell has been reaching new heights this year, but it came quite close to not happening at all. Last season, the Perth native was back home doing what she could to help her mom, who’d suffered a massive brain aneurysm.

Her father’s health wasn’t great either and her mom acted as caregiver for many others, so there were a lot of necessary new arrangements to be made.

“Last year was a pretty horrible year,” Frizell recalls. “It was a very difficult decision and a hard hurdle to get over to want to continue on with sport.”

Once they found a facility for Frizell’s mom to stay in and moved her dad into a new home that could eventually accommodate his wife should she return to health, Frizell felt comfort-able enough to return to full-time sport.

“Thinking about all those times where mom’s been there for me” provided a push to continue, adds Frizell, whose mom would give her a ride in from Perth to train with Lions on most days as a teenager.

“She was there with me through every single track meet – I don’t remember her ever missing a track meet in high school,” reflects the Perth and District Collegiate Institute grad. “She’s so excited about the Olympics, so I definitely want to go to Rio and make it a good one.”

FOCUS ON RIO FOR WHEELCHAIR RACER

Cassidy, a two-time Paralympic wheelchair racer, also has the Rio 2016 Games in the back

of his mind, stating that 2014 is a bit of an “ex-perimental” year.

“Commonwealth Games is extremely im-portant to me. It’s the biggest event this year,” states the 29-year-old. “But big picture, it’s Rio 2016.”

Cassidy began using a new racing chair just before the start of the season, and is still adjust-ing to new body positioning in hopes of improv-ing his top-end speed on the track.

The Ottawa-born athlete says it’s been a fairly tough road back from the London 2012 Paralympics, when he found himself on antibi-otics the week before the Games and unable to put in the performances he sought.

Cassidy was in a somewhat similar boat be-fore this year’s nationals, hit by a bug that left him dehydrated. The Toronto resident nonethe-less pulled out a victory in the T53/54 5,000 m, his longest distance out of four events.

“I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know if I was going to make it through,” Cassidy recalls. “I was pretty much dead by the end.”

Cassidy’s fourth-place result in the T53/54 1,500 m – the lone wheelchair event in the Com-monwealth Games – wasn’t as strong, however, and sparked concerns from Athletics Canada that others might be in a better position to com-pete if he’s unhealthy.

But the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist fully expects to feel better come Games time, however, and plans to prove his fitness with pre-Glasgow competitions in Atlanta, New York and a unique Paralympics anniversary 1-mile race down The Mall in Lon-don, England.

Sultana Frizell established a new Canadian Champi-onships hammer throw re-cord on June 29 – another big toss that came on the heels of her 75.73 m Cana-dian record throw in May.

OTTAWA AT THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

There haven’t been a ton of bright, shining lights on Isabelle De-sprés’ road to Glasgow, but the Ott-awa weightlifter is finally starting to see the fruits of a grinding journey.

Most of the time, there is little re-ward for the countless hours of train-ing she puts into her low-profile sport – it’s largely a story of personal sac-rifice, injury recovery and financial burden.

But throughout the challenges, the 33-year-old has remained committed to her sport and she’s now earned a coveted opportunity to represent Canada at the July 23-Aug. 3 Com-monwealth Games in Scotland.

“This is the first big games for me,” Després beams. “It was a long-time goal, so I’m pretty happy.”

With a background in track-and-field, the Moncton native discovered Olympic-style weightlifting while studying at the University of Ottawa and has remained in the nation’s cap-ital since then.

“For the level of coaching I need and availability of gyms, it’s much better to be here in Ottawa,” signals the member of Ottawa Elite weight-lifting club.

Després works 25 hours per week as a physiotherapist in addition to training and getting treatment, which takes up another 15-20 hours each week. She says finding enough avail-able time at the gym can be a chal-lenge in itself.

“It’s always a stress that I need to work a certain number of hours when I would prefer having the day off to rest, recover or have extra training,” Després highlights. “But that’s prob-ably the same thing for most athletes

in Canada.”Després earned her ticket to the

Commonwealth Games by posting a 180 kg combined total for the snatch and the clean-and-jerk at May’s Cana-dian championships, approaching her all-time best performance of 186 kg.

ATHLETE’S FIRST FUNDED TRIP

Going to Glasgow also represents a big financial milestone for Després – it will be the first event that she won’t have to pay for out of her own pocket.

“It’s amazing,” says the 58 kg weight class competitor. “One of the big perks is I don’t have to do any fundraising.”

However, if Després qualifies for November’s World Championships in Kazakhstan, she expects to have to come up with the funds herself. Finances have been an ever-present struggle during her career, but spon-sorship from the likes of Ontario’s Quest for Gold program and the Dairy Farmers of Canada and has helped.

“I’m just not digging the hole as fast as I used to,” Després explains. “I’m in a huge amount of debt, but I’m not going any further at this point. For me, that’s really positive.”

Winning two Canadian titles and competing in a few international events has helped gain more sponsors, adds Després, who’s also received

support from family, friends and fans by selling T-shirts through her web site, izzylifting.ca.

The eldest female on Canada’s Commonwealth Games weightlift-ing team says that there are a lot of variables that will determine how her career progresses.

“I’m definitely one of the older ones, so we’ll see how everything holds together physically, mentally and financially,” Després highlights.

There is no doubt, however, that she’d like the Commonwealth Games to be her first of many international multi-sport games, with the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games and Rio 2016 Olympics on tap.

“We’re definitely trying to use this as a stepping stone,” underlines the sister of 2006 Olympic bobsledder Serge Després. “Those are definitely goals of mine.”

Després is looking to improve on the year she is having in Glasgow. Her results have been good enough to qualify, but there remains lots of room for improvement, she maintains.

“‘Expect’ is a big word, I never like to say ‘expect’, but if everything goes well, I’m hoping to be in the top 5 if possible,” Després says. “I’m pretty excited.”

Mountain of debt & unwavering commitment pay off for weightlifterBy Jamie Shinkewski

file photo

ISABELLE DESPRÉS

Sport: WeightliftingAge: 33

Local Club: Ottawa EliteSchedule:

Saturday, July 26Women’s 58 kg event

continued from p.1

GLASGOW 2014: Commonwealth Games favourite ‘gives birth’ to new national record

GLASGOW 2014 continues p.16

photo: marc grandmaison / athletics canada

16

“It’s going to be a tight field (in Glasgow). Anything could happen,” underlines Cassidy, who will be up against one of the deepest Com-monwealth fields, including 11-time Paralympic medalist Kurt Fearnley from Australia, British London 2012 legend David Weir, who won four gold medals on home soil, and three-time Lon-don 2012 medalist Richard Colman of Australia.

“The goal is always to medal, and to go for first,” Cassidy emphasizes.

BISHOP POISED FOR NEW BESTS

Now a back-to-back national champ, rising star Bishop is continuing her ascension in the middle distance world in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games.

“It’s no walk in the park in Canada to even be top-3,” underlines the 2013 and 2014 Cana-dian 800 m gold medalist. “I’m really honoured and really excited to be national champ again.”

Entering nationals as a favourite represents a significant change from two years ago when she burst on the scene and earned the first opportun-ity of her career to represent Canada internation-ally, at the grand daddy of them all.

“The Olympics and then worlds (in 2013), I went in blind,” details the London 2012 30th-place finisher. “I was a totally different athlete then than I am now.”

More racing opportunities against top inter-

national fields has helped in Bishop’s evolution.“I’m just growing as an athlete, and learn-

ing things as I go, from every race,” indicates the 25-year-old. “I have more in me now, more experience.”

Bishop is now in her seventh season training out of the University of Windsor – her third as a full-time athlete since graduating with human kinetics and education degrees.

It’s largely a solo operation for the Eganville native who spent her teenage years training with the Lions in Ottawa – Bishop will join the uni-versity runners for light long runs, but 9 of 10 workouts on the track will be done on her own, under the watch of coach Dennis Fairall.

The formula has proven successful, notes Bishop, who says she’s currently the fittest she’s ever been and ready to surpass her personal-best time of 1:59.76 once she’s involved in a fast race.

“I wouldn’t be satisfied if I wasn’t in the final and probably close to the podium,” states Bishop, who will have a good cheering section in Glasgow, including family whose ancestors came to Canada from the Scottish highlands.

“I’m pretty excited,” she adds. “Any chance to put on a Canadian singlet is an honour.

“I’m really looking forward to competing for Canada, and I think this will be a good one.”

Lions sprinters Makinde, 23, and Robertson, 25, were both individual silver medalists at the Canadian Championships – in the 200 m and

400 m respectively – and each posted person-al-best times to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.

Robertson will be a member of Canada’s 4x400 m relay team in Glasgow, while Makinde will likely be slated to run the 200 m along with the 4x100 m relay.

“I’m not sure Ottawa has ever sent that many athletes to a major Games,” Bishop says of the local track-and-field quintet. “That’s pretty awesome. It’s pretty spectacular for the Ottawa Lions.”

ABUNDANT OTTAWA MEDAL THREATS

Without too much exaggeration, all the local athletes headed to Glasgow are legitimate medal threats. Canada is sending its largest number of athletes to a Commonwealth Games it’s not hosting, this despite the most stringent standards ever employed. The rough requirement is to be ranked top-8 in their sport amongst Common-wealth countries to be eligible for the team.

The youngest of the local athletes, 18-year-old Barrhaven native Erika Seltenreich-Hodg-son, has a good shot at the podium in the 400 m individual medley women’s swimming com-petition.

The next youngest, 19-year-old Cumberland native Vincent De Haitre, is expected to help Canada contend for a medal in the team sprint track cycling competition. In his second major international multi-sport games of the year, the

Sochi 2014 Olympic speed skater will also be a contender in individual races, including his fa-voured 1 km time trial – the distance at which he’s a national champ both on ice and on two wheels.

Stittsville native Erica Wiebe will be a medal favourite in the women’s 75 kg wrestling competition. The 25-year-old enters Glasgow with some impressive recent results in her back pocket, including last summer’s bronze medal at the FISU would university games, a title from the 2013 Poland Open – where she beat the 2012 Olympic gold medalist in the semi-final round and the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in the final – and June victories at the Austrian Open and German Grand Prix.

Weightlifter Isabelle Desprès, 33, will be making her international multi-sport games de-but in Glasgow, while RA Centre badminton player Andrew D’Souza, 20, will also be enter-ing his biggest international competition to date.

National champion Samantha Cornett, a 23-year-old Deep River native who spent her teenage years training in Ottawa to launch an in-ternational career, will be Canada’s lone female squash representative in Glasgow.

Canada’s Commonwealth Games table ten-nis team had yet to be announced as of press time, but numerous athletes based at the men’s national team’s home in Centretown West were contenders for Games berths, led by Eugene Zhen Whang.

OTTAWA AT THE COMMONWEALTH GAMESJOSH CASSIDY

Sport: AthleticsAge: 29

Local Club: Ottawa LionsSchedule:

Tuesday, July 29T54 1,500 m round 1

Thursday, July 31T54 1,500 m final

SULTANA FRIZELL

Sport: AthleticsAge: 29

Local Club: Ottawa LionsSchedule:

Sunday, July 27hammer throw prelims

Monday, July 28hammer throw finals

SEGUN MAKINDE

Sport: AthleticsAge: 23

Local Club: Ottawa LionsSchedule:

Wednesday, July 30200 m round 1

Thursday, July 31200 m semis & final

MIKE ROBERTSON

Sport: AthleticsAge: 25

Local Club: Ottawa LionsSchedule:

Friday, Aug. 14x400 m relay round 1

Saturday, Aug. 24x400 m relay final

MELISSA BISHOP

Sport: AthleticsAge: 25

Local Club: Ottawa LionsSchedule:

Thursday, July 31800 m round 1Friday, Aug. 1800 m final

GLASGOW 2014: Numerous local athletes carry solid podium potentialcontinued from p.15

SAMANTHA CORNETT

Sport: SquashAge: 23

Local Club: GoodLife Queensview

Schedule:July 24-28 singles

July 29-Aug. 3 mixed doubles

VINCENT DE HAITRE

Sport: Track CyclingAge: 19

Local Club: Ottawa Bicycle Club / Gloucester Concordes

Schedule:July 24, 11 a.m.-1:45 p.m. ET

team sprint

ANDREW D’SOUZA

Sport: BadmintonAge: 20

Local Club: RA CentreSchedule:

July 24-28 team eventJuly 29-Aug. 3 singles &

doubles

ERICA WIEBE

Sport: WrestlingAge: 25

Local Club: National Capital Wrestling Club

Schedule:Tuesday, July 29

Women’s Freestyle 75 kg

ERIKA SELTENREICH-HODGSON

Sport: SwimmingAge: 18

Local Club: GO Kingfish / Nepean-Kanata Barracudas

Schedule:July 24, 400 m IMJuly 27, 200 m IM