HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 3, #12 September 2014

When Julianne Zussman first started playing rugby in Grade 9 at Ashbury College, she didn’t know how far it would take her. As fate would have it, the transformed soccer player would wind up going all the way to the biggest stage possible in her new sport.

The 27-year-old Ottawa native was a key contributor in Canada’s run to its first-ever appearance in a Rugby

World Cup final, helping her team to three victories and a tie to reach the Aug. 17 championship game, which England won 21-9.

The Canadians’ biggest triumph came in the semi-finals when they scored the first tries of the tournament against host France and withstood a big comeback attempt by the French in front of a sold out Stade Jean Bouin crowd in Paris to prevail 18-16.

“It was great to see all the work we put in come to fruition. We’ve

been building for this goal since 2010, so it’s amazing to bring home a medal,” smiles Zussman, whose country had never before earned a place on the World Cup podium in men’s or women’s competition. “It just feels so special to be a part of this team and to put in a strong perform-ance to the very end.”

After trouncing Spain and Samoa in their opening contests, Canada earned a 13-13 tie against England in their last group match, but the Eng-

lish – appearing in their fourth con-secutive final – won the rematch to claim their first title in 20 years.

Zussman appeared in each one of Canada’s games as a key back three defender, thriving on the opportunity after largely sitting on the sidelines during her World Cup debut in 2010.

“They brought me (in 2010) more to get experience by playing in a sup-porting role,” she recalls.

Ottawa rugby player helps Canada to breakthrough appearance in Women’s World Cup fi-nal, but her next athletic steps remain in limbo without Olympic athlete funding assistance

RUGBY continues on p.3

By Jon Willemsen

Pinnacle moment, uncertain

future

photo: ian muir / rugby canada

HISTORIC FIELD HOCKEY SILVERS

PARALYMPICS SILVER MATCHED

P. 10

P. 9

Local field hockey players earned Ontario Summer Games & Youth Olympics silver medals for the first time ever in August.

Wheelchair rugby player Patrice Da-genais got in on Ottawa’s August silver medal party, placing second at his worlds.

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Ottawa native Julianne Zussman and the Ca-nadian women’s rugby team reached a Rugby World Cup final for the first time in Canadian history with a semi-final upset of host France at the August event in Paris.

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The Barrhaven Scottish won their first premiere provincial women’s title and became the first Ontario-

based team to capture a Fédération de rugby du Québec Super League title since its formation thanks to their 20-10 victory on Aug. 23 victory over the Montreal Barbarians in Montreal.

“It was four years in the making,” smiles Dan G a u t h i e r , who began coaching the Scottish wo-men in 2011. “It feels nice.”

The Scot-tish women

had to win their way up to the Super League during Gauthier’s first year at the helm, needed a final-game victory to avoid relegation in the second year, and then became a true chal-lenger last year but lost in the semi-finals.

Gauthier says the difference in becoming a champion team this year was having a core of players familiar with one another, as well as receiving consistent forwards coaching from Duncan McNaughton, and adding a couple of star players.

Fly-half Jackie Tittley made a big

impact with her kicking abilities.“She’s a game-changer,” high-

lights Gauthier. “Any time we’d ba-sically get a penalty inside the other team’s half, Jackie had the range on her kick to make those.”

Recording the second-most tries on the team was prop Asya Bartley

– unusual for a position more accus-tomed to rucking than scoring.

“But Asya is not exactly your typ-ical prop,” Gauthier says of the player who was one of Canada’s last cuts be-fore the Women’s Rugby World Cup. “She was absolutely phenomenal.”

See SportsOttawa.com for more.

Barrhaven wins provincial crownBy Dan Plouffe

photo provided“That was a really valu-able opportunity for me, just in terms of growing and un-derstanding the importance of how it takes a full team of 26 people to win – which we did this year.”

Although Zussman says she could not have predicted her remarkable success, the person who introduced her to rugby has always been a firm believer.

“She’s come a long way since Grade 9, that’s for sure,” reflects Jen Boyd, now the University of Ott-awa Gee-Gees coach. “In my coaching career, I haven’t seen anyone tackle like her at that age. And she always had great vision to read plays.

“Not everyone will be-lieve me, but I knew when she first started that she could play for Canada. It just depended on whether she wanted to, and as she got older, she wanted to chase her dreams more.”

Zussman says her time at Ashbury playing under Boyd is a huge reason for her suc-cess.

“I built up a lot of my skills there, and it’s where I really fell in love with the sport,” recounts the former Ottawa Irish club player. “Jen is someone who could pick out athletes and knew right away that I could excel at rugby, so I’m glad she en-couraged me to come out to practice because it changed my life.”

A pivotal moment in Zussman’s journey came in 2011 when she decided to move out west to British Columbia to practice regu-larly with the first centralized women’s national team train-ing program. The former Mc-Gill University Martlet has now built her life in Victoria.

“It was really challenging to move my whole life across the country for rugby, but I’m so glad that I did and I never questioned that decision,” Zussman underlines. “For me and anyone else who made the move, it wasn’t a sacrifice – it was a choice. And look at what it’s done for our team and our sport in Canada.”

With the World Cup now over and national team train-ing set to take an extended hiatus of 8-10 months be-fore the next cycle kicks off, Zussman says she doesn’t know what her rugby future holds. She starts work full-time this month with the Canadian Sport Institute’s Pacific branch and as Ath-letics Canada’s western hub manager.

Zussman explains that a big reason she’s decided to work more is because she’s not carded by Sport Canada’s athlete assistance program, since Own The Podium has shifted all its funding to-wards rugby sevens – a less prominent version of the game internationally, but the one that is set to make its Olympic debut for Rio 2016.

After playing internation-ally for the national women’s sevens squad for several years and helping Canada qualify for the 2013 Sevens World Cup on her home Twin Elm Rugby Park field in the fall of 2012, Zussman was dropped from the Canadian program before the global competition.

“It was the coach’s de-cision,” indicates the athlete who felt in the past that her all-around game was bet-ter-suited to sevens play. “So I’ve just been concentrating on 15s.”

Despite thoughts of re-tirement creeping into her mind, the eight-year national team veteran doesn’t plan to make any decisions until the next 15s event is announced.

“I’m not convinced [re-tiring] is the right decision for me at this point,” she sig-nals. “I’m not done yet.”

Regardless of what lies ahead in the sport she loves, Zussman is enthusiastic to have played a part in her country’s breakthrough mo-ment and is optimistic it will help rugby continue to rise in Canada.

“Hopefully this will act as a catalyst for more rugby in the mainstream in Canada,” she adds. “I’ve been in the rugby community for a long time, and every year it grows and it gets big-ger and stronger.”

continued from p.1

RUGBY: Zussman’s future career unclearQuebec Women’s Super League- champion Barrhaven Scottish.

Being asked to represent Canada is a treasured moment for many ath-letes, but for Ottawa native Maddie Walker-Byron, getting the call to compete at the FINA World Junior Synchro Championships in Helsinki was all that more special since she’d been excluded from last year’s junior national team.

“This year really pushed me to try and make it, especially because it was the worlds team,” reflects the 17-year-old with Gloucester Synchro Club roots. “I couldn’t have been hap-pier to get to go over to Finland with these girls. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Walker-Byron says that being cut from the team last year gave her a completely new mindset and helped

her identify what she needed to do differently in 2014.

“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty devastated (last year),” recounts the Roberta Bondar Public School grad. “But it was good, in a way, that I got to have last summer off and got to re-think stuff while resting, so going into this year, I just kept telling myself that I had to make it.”

Earning the national team oppor-

tunity was especially rewarding for Walker-Byron since she’d taken the bold step to move to Toronto at the start of high school to pursue her sport at the next level.

“I was scared to move at first, but I love it there now,” signals the Grade 12 student who’s part of a specialized program for athletes at Silverthorn Collegiate Institute. “It’s been great to go to school and still train a lot. I just thought it was the right thing for me to do, and it’s starting to show now.”

The 10-member Canadian team earned a sixth-place result overall at the July 30-Aug. 3 worlds, which they viewed as a success.

“It was awesome because after prelims, we dropped to seventh and we were kind of disappointed,” Walker-Byron recalls. “The team really came together and made it our goal to finish sixth in the final, so it was amazing to come back and do it.”

Now entering her final year of high school, and her final year as a ju-nior, the Granite Club Synchro mem-ber says that her breakthrough season helped build her confidence to an all-time high, and leads her to believe she can continue to excel in the future when she enters the senior ranks.

“I think I improved by immense amounts this summer, and I definitely think it’s going to take me further in

the sport,” Walker-Byron highlights. “It’s really hard to say what kind of future I’ll have in synchro because things always change, but I want to keep going and we’ll see what happens.”

NAT’L & INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

Nepean’s Jade Warren and Gloucester’s Taylor Rushworth fin-ished side-by-side in the top half of the 12-and-under figures standings at the Aug. 10-16 UANA Pan American Championships in California, pla-cing 28th and 29th. They also helped Ontario/Canada to a third-place result in the team event.

At the Aug. 9-11 Speedo Ju-nior Elite Nationals, Henry McKay of the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club placed 4th in the platform event, 6th in 3-metre and 7th in 1 m in the age 14-15 division.

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Denied a prior berth, swimmer earns coveted jr. worlds spotBy Jon Willemsen

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Golden homecoming

Ottawa’s Thea Froehlich (above) won a Canadian title on the whitewater course where she spent plenty of summers in her youth at the Madawaska Kanu Centre in nearby Barry’s Bay. The 22-year-old kayaker topped the women’s K-1 division at the Aug. 26-29 Canoe Slalom National Championships.

Local paddlers Cam Smedley, Liam Smedley and Spencer Pomeroy finished 1-2-3 to sweep the men’s C-1 podium. Cam Smedley also easily topped the C-2 event with international teammate Ben Hawyard, while Ottawa River Runners coaches Jamie Cutts and Michal Staniszewski were second, just ahead of Pomeroy and Ottawa Olympian Mike Tayler.

Tayler placed second in men’s K-1, while Ottawa resident John Hastings, a former national team member, was third. Alexandra McGee rounded out the local national medalists with her silver in women’s C-1.

photo: doug de la matter

photo provided

Maddie Walker-Byron.

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Sadiku would have liked to add French tutoring to their slate, “but there was no time in the day,” he ex-plains. “It was just not possible.”

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“It’s all about getting them active,” he adds. “If we can engage them in organized activities, it develops their confidence, it helps them develop teamwork, and develops their passion, whatever they are passionate about – music, dance, piano, football, soccer, tennis, etc. Attending these activities, and being there consistently so that they can see their improvement, fuels their confidence and self-image.”

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It’d be tough to find another summer sport where Canadians feel some disappointment when they finish second, fifth and sixth in the world, but that was the case for the three members of the Ottawa Rowing Club who competed at the World Rowing Championships Aug. 24-31 in windy Amsterdam.

Cristy Nurse and the Canadian women’s eight were fairly pleased to win a silver medal, but were still un-satisfied to see the U.S. crew beat them to the finish line by a boat length.

“We would have liked to stay closer to the United States in the middle 1,000 metres of the race - that’s where they started to slip away, and unfortunately we weren’t able to respond and reel them back in,” Nurse says by e-mail. “I am happy with the aggressive race plan we rowed though. I think on the day everyone in the boat gave everything they had, and this time out that was good enough for the silver.”

Nurse, who was injured just before the London Olympics and forced to watch as an alternate, feels good about where her eight crew stands in advance of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games and Rio 2016 Olympics, although she emphasizes that she’s learned not to make the Olympics her one and only goal.

“Medalling at a World Championships is always a special experience, because it’s the culmination of a full year of training,” highlights the University of Ott-awa grad who won 2013 worlds bronze in the women’s eight. “This boat is full of young talent that is going to keep improving, so I’m excited about the potential of the crew over the next couple years.”

Sarah Black and Kate Goodfellow both reached their respective finals in the women’s four and wo-men’s quadruple sculls, but given Canada’s strong tradition in the sport, finishing off the podium was an unpleasant end to the season.

Goodfellow, who’d won bronze at last year’s World Championships and silver at a mid-July World Cup race, placed sixth of six boats in the final that took place in weather that led some to re-brand Amsterdam “The Windy City” in place of Chicago.

“It was a pretty devastating way to end out season,” signals the Ottawa Sports Awards 2011 female athlete of the year. “It was pretty unfair wind conditions and we were in the least favoured lane, so there wasn’t much we can do to impact the result of the race.”

Goodfellow emphasizes that it’s important for her team not to let one unfortunate race overshadow the overall progress they made this summer.

“The World Championships is the end goal of each season, but ultimately, we’re looking long term at standing on top of the podium in Rio,” indicates the Perth native who took up the sport with the University of Ottawa’s club. “We certainly wanted to medal, and we certainly wanted a closer margin between all six boats, but all three of the medalling boats beat the pre-vious world record, so it was a really deep field.

“Obviously it’s disappointing, but we’re proud we made the ‘A’ final against that strong of competition.”

Ottawa Rowing Club athlete wins worlds silverBy Jon Willemsen

ELITE

Kate Goodfellow placed 6th with the Canadian women’s quad.

photo : katie steenman images, courtesy of rowing canada aviron

ROWING WORLDS continues on p.6

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For Black, the fifth-place finish was a “disappointing” end to a fairly disap-pointing season overall. The 25-year-old Ottawa native was shifted to the less-prominent four event, which is not an Olympic discipline, but she has plans to make her way back up in time for the Rio Olympics.

“My personal goal is to get back into the women’s eight, which I raced last summer,” underlines Black, who won bronze in the eight and silver in the four at the 2013 worlds. “There’s also other Olympics events for women, like the quad, the double, or the pair, so there’s a bunch of different options. I just want to do whatever it takes to be there.”

continued from p.5

ROWING WORLDS: Black seeks return to

Olympic discipline boat in time for Rio 2016 East end embraces 4 new Richcraft Sensplex rinks

COMMUNITY CLUBS

The Richcraft Sensplex opened to much fanfare in August as Ot-tawa’s east-end community wel-comed the new four-pad arena that will take a big bite out the area’s ice time shortage with open arms.

“There just isn’t enough ice in the east, so it’s nice to have a big rink on this side of the city,” highlights Jacques Boisvert, a hockey parent from Orleans. “Whenever there were big tournaments, they’d be out in Kanata and that made it hard for travel. But now we don’t have to drive as far because we can have tournaments here.”

Boisvert’s wife Pamela is equally enthused about the potential impact of the $26 million facility – the city’s third Sensplex along with the four-surface Bell Sensplex in Kanata (built in 2004) and the single-pad Cavanagh Sensplex (2007).

“We always hoped for something like this out here, and I think we have the numbers and need for it,” she in-dicates. “Now there’s a big rink in the east and in the west, so I think it’s just a testament to the Sens organiza-tion and what they’re trying to do by reaching across the city.

“Hopefully this encourages more kids in the east end to play hockey now that there’s more ice.”

The Richcraft Sensplex is loc-ated a few minutes north of the Hwy. 174 Montreal Rd. exit and was built on the long-time Shefford Rd. site of J.B. Potvin Arena. Before receiving a sum-mertime facelift, the Potvin rink

remained open last winter while con-struction on the three new rinks took place next door because available ice time was at such a premium in the area.

RAVE REVIEWS FOR FACILITY

Built in partnership with the City of Ottawa – which will buy 2,277 hours of ice time each year from the Ottawa Senators’ Capital Sports Management Inc. company – the building also features an upstairs res-taurant and bar, a sitting area with

couches beside the main entrance, and will act as the new home for Hockey Eastern Ontario.

“Everybody loves something new, so to have something state-of-the-art like this here makes people excited,” notes Orleans resident Steve Lacroix, who attended the Aug. 7 official opening with his son Janick.

“I like the ice surface and how big it is,” the younger Lacroix adds. “It’s not small like the other rinks around town, and it’s really fun to play on.”

The mid-summer kickoff event attracted a crowd of around 700, including east-end NHLers Grant Clitsome, Erik Gudbranson and Cody Ceci, members of local minor hockey associations, the builders, the Senators organization (including Spartacat and the bounce castles that surface outside Canadian Tire Centre come playoff time) and politicians that helped bring the project to life, starting back in 2012.

“It was a zoo,” laughs Beacon Hill-Cyrvile ward city councillor Tim Tierney, a Gloucester Centre Cougars hockey parent himself who was well aware of ice shortage in his end of town. “It was a pretty impress-ive turnout. You can just see how ex-cited people are to have this beautiful facility out here.”

By Jon Willemsen The official opening of the Richcraft Sensplex was held on Aug. 5.

photo provided

photo provided

Spartacat & City Coun-cillor Tim Tierney.

7

The Kanata Rhythmic Gym-nastics Club received confirmation in mid-August that they receive a full 15-minute time slot for their perform-ance at next summer’s World Gym-naestrada, an international event held every four years that’s again expected to draw over 20,000 participants to

Helsinki in 2015.“Everyone is really excited,” says

team manager Paula Preston, who’d learned at June’s national gymnaes-trada in Calgary that they’d likely be granted a position of some sort after impressing evaluators with their three performances.

“The kids were hugging and screaming in delight then,” Preston

adds, “and now the hard work be-gins again.”

Twenty-seven members of advanced programs at the Kanata club took part in the Calgary event, presenting a major chal-lenge to choreograph a routine of that size while ensuring each ath-lete has sufficient training time and a solid understanding of the

movements required to make a produce the desired big visual impact.

A regular compet-itive rhythmic gym-nastics carpet meas-ures 13x13 metres, but their space at the world event will be much larger at 30x40 or 40x40, and the per-formance will have to be tailored for spec-tators seated on three sides of them instead of just judges in a row.

“They have to be physically fit too,” emphasizes Preston, whose athletes will put on a performance of the cowboy-themed part of their routine to kick off the club’s new season on Sept. 13. “Fifteen minutes takes a lot of effort – on

top of the fact that you’re away from home, that you’re sleeping on a school floor probably on air mattresses and you’re sharing washrooms with 25 other people.

“It’s a whole different environ-ment for these kids.”

The world gymnaestrada is not a

competition, but rather a celebration of all forms of gymnastics. Preston – who has attended four world gym-naestradas along with head coach and founder Dasa Lelli – estimates that half the participants are over age 30, and likens some of the signature large group performances to an opening ceremonies for a major international games in terms of its mass perform-ance aspect.

“Gymnaestrada highlights the fact that gymnastics and movement is for all ages,” underlines Preston, whose gymnaestrada group features a 12-year-old as its youngest member as well as a club coach in her early 30s. “It’s neat to have them be part of the whole experience.”

Kanata Rhythmic earns world event spotCOMMUNITY CLUBS

On Wednesday, August 27th, the Ott-awa Royals and Knights celebrated the season by handing out our the annual player awards.

The Paul Villeneuve Award is the highest award bestowed by the Club. The recipient is chosen annually by all coaches and given to a player who ex-udes not only incredible skill, but leader-ship and compassion as well.

Paul Villeneuve was an original founder of the Ottawa Royals. In 2014, the Paul Villeneuve Award was presen-ted to Hamza Khan with the Knights

18U AAA team. This was Hamza’s final year with the

program, but has he has agreed to re-turn in a coaching capacity in 2015.

Future coach Hamza Khan wins Club’s top award in final playing yearRoyals 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.

Paul Villeneuve Award (for incred-ible skill, leadership & compassion):HAMZA KHAN

18U AAA TeamBest pitcher: PHIL LAFLÈCHEBest hitter: CONNOR FITZGERALDMVP (as voted by players): VAUGHAN RAWES

18U AA TeamBest Hitter: RAPHAEL PAYANT Best Pitcher: DOMINIC MURRAY Team MVP: RAPHAEL PAYANT

16U AAA TeamBest Pitcher: KOLTEN KUDRINKOBest Hitter: KEENAN FOXMVP: KYLE REYNOLDS

Bantam AAA (Blue) TeamTop hitter: KYLE MATHIEUTop pitcher: CORBEN PETERSMVP: NOAH WESTON

Bantam AAA (White) TeamBest Hitter: JOSH CULLENBest Pitcher: DOMENIC PETROCCOMVP: BENNETT STOCKDALE

Peewee AAA TeamBest Hitter: COLBY SCHROEDERBest Pitcher: JOE TOMSMVP: BEN LINDGREN

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Making a special visit at their summer camp, Team Canada Olympic hockey goalie Geneviève Lacasse was the second international Games gold medalist members of the Kanata Rhythmic Gymnastics Club got to meet this sum-mer. While in Calgary for the Canadian Gymnaestrada, they toured the WinSport high-performance sports facility with Erica Wiebe (the daughter of team manager Paula Preston) and then listened to a motivational speech from the Commonwealth Games wrestling champion and her boyfriend, Olympic bobsledder Chris Spring.

By Dan Plouffe

photo provided

photo provided

8

Ottawa native Carmen Marin made her in-ternational soccer debut in August at age 13, helping Costa Rica to a quarter-final appearance at the CONCACAF under-15 girls’ continental championships in Cayman Islands.

“It was a really good experience,” recounts Marin, smiling as she reflects on the fact that it’ll be a story she’ll be able to tell her kids one day. “I’m never going to forget it, ever.”

Ottawa-born Marin – whose father grew up in Costa Rica and has many extended family mem-bers still residing there – was originally spotted by the Costa Rican federation during their prepar-ations for the U17 Women’s World Cup.

While she didn’t make their final squad for that event, Marin wound up filling the critical centre-midfield position for the U15 side. The Grade 8 Fisher Park Middle School student left for Costa Rica in late June, living with her grandmother as she prepared for the Aug. 6-17 event and reveling in the culture where kids will play soccer in the streets until 10 at night.

Marin’s Spanish improved immensely, and she got to know her teammates well, especially as five of them bunked together in the same room at the tournament. The Ottawa Royals Futuro Soccer Academy player was impressed overall with the formal match proceedings and professional atmosphere at the event.

“Before my first match, I was really, really nervous,” relates Marin, who plays for a boys’ team locally. “But my first game was actually

my best one out of all of them.”The tournament couldn’t have started any

better for Marin as she scored two goals in Costa Rica’s 5-0 win over Anguilla.

“I was really happy. I made a celebration – I slid on my knees, I did the airplane and everything,” describes the regular defender. “It was probably the best feeling I’ve had in my life.”

Costa Rica beat Belize 7-0 and tied Jamaica 0-0 to close out the group stage and advance to the knockout round, setting up a match against Marin’s current country of residence.

There was a very familiar face on the Ca-nadian sidelines – Ottawa’s Tania Singfield. Seeing her former coach before the game made Marin think that she “never, ever, ever” would

have expected them to meet there, under those circumstances, just a short time ago when she was a nine-year-old goalkeeping prospect work-ing under Singfield.

“I was crying when she first came over,” re-counts Marin. “She talked to me a little bit, she hugged me and said, ‘Go hard. Play your best like I know you can.’ She was really supportive.”

Seeing the Canadian crest on Singfield’s jacket served as a reminder that she was playing against her other home country.

“It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” signals Marin. “You’re listen-ing to the Canadian national anthem, but you’re singing the Costa Rican one.”

Featuring a powerful lineup of mostly 15-year-olds, Canada thrashed Costa Rica 8-1 in the quarter-finals and went on to win the event.

“It was definitely heartbreaking at first since I was representing Costa Rica, but I am happy for Canada,” Marin says. “They’re also my second home and they deserved to win the whole tournament.”

While she’s ineligible to compete for Canada at the U15 level, Marin sometimes gets asked what she’d do if the opportunity to repres-ent Canada came up in the future.

“I think I’m going to stay with Costa Rica,” she indicates, explaining that the Central Amer-icans were the first to take an interest and offer her such a treasured opportunity. “My heart’s with Costa Rica.”

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Ottawa player revels in international debut for Costa RicaBy Dan Plouffe

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Carmen Marin.

SOCCER continues on p.10

9

OSU Force Academy ZoneHalf a

dozen Ottawa South United Soccer Club players got a little taste of life in the pros

recently as they took part in training sessions with Toronto FC.

Matteo De Brienne (2002 OSU Force Academy) and Dylan Greene (2003 Force Academy) visited the Major League Soccer club in mid-August, while four members of OSU’s Ontario Player Development League program – 2003-born Danny Assaf, Bryan Sun, Antonio Carlini and Nana Nuama Mensah – spent another three days there just before school began.

“They all had a great time,” recounts OSU Club Head Coach Paul Harris. “They were all pleased to be given that wonderful oppor-tunity.”

To have such a significant number of players invited to train with the professional club’s youth academy speaks to the relation-ship OSU has been building with TFC, Harris underlines.

OSU BUILDS LINKS TO MLS CLUBSOSU’s provincial-champion 1997-born

team performed well in a friendly with TFC to initially help open the door to locally-brewed talent, and the club has stayed in touch with TFC staff, including Senior Kia TFC Academy Team Head Coach Michael Stefano, who saw some Force players in action while in Ottawa earlier this summer.

The 2002 and 2003 Force groups also traveled to Montreal on the Labour Day weekend to play friendlies against Impact teams from the MLS club’s academy.

“We’ve obviously got credibility with how well our teams do and move players into the next levels,” notes Harris, highlighting past Force Academy members Kris Twardek and Vana Markarian, now with London, UK’s Mill-wall FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS, respectively.

While in Toronto, the OSU players trained with TFC’s youth academy teams under the club’s renowned coaches, did video analysis work, toured the club’s facilities and overall received terrific hospitality from the club, Harris details.

“The training ground is magnificent – probably the best in Canada for sure and would rival some clubs in England,” adds the former Everton FC academy coach. “Here in Canada, it’s still very much an amateur game, so we wanted to show them what it’s like to live and train as a professional.”

It’s unlikely for players from Ottawa to leave home and setup shop with Toronto’s academy when they’re barely teenagers, but OSU is eager to help them progress to the next level when they’re ready, emphasizes Harris, noting that others in the soccer world sometimes would rather hold onto players in a quest for championships instead of doing what’s best for players’ development.

“We know that it might be (age) 16 before our boys leave, but we still want to try to give them that opportunity and an understanding of what it’s like in that professional environ-ment when they’re younger,” Harris explains. “For some of our players, they found it hard, and some of them performed well. It showed them all the level they’ve got to get to.”

Getting exposed to the game at some of the highest levels can act as a motivator to push players accustomed to success locally a bit further, indicates Harris, noting that it’s only the top few even from academies that wind up with pro contracts.

“It’s such a hard sport to be successful in,” Harris signals. “But TFC is a realistic pro-position for the kids if they can improve and compete and get to that level.

“This keeps them on TFC’s radar, and if some time in the future, they’re still at that level, when they’re a little bit older, they could look at moving down full-time or even sign down there. It’s another great opportunity that we’re creating for our players.”

Toronto FC training sessions show OSU players the path to the prosPatrice Dagenais has his eyes set

on one thing next: a gold medal.The 29-year-old member of the

Canadian wheelchair rugby team settled for his second silver medal in a row from peak international competition at the Aug. 4-10 World Championships in Denmark.

“I’m pretty satisfied with the tournament,” Dagenais reflects. “We were aiming for the gold medal, so I guess we didn’t achieve our goal. But we came pretty close and second is still a good achievement for our team.”

In the worlds qualifier last fall in Alabama, Canada lost to USA by a wide margin, 63-40, but turned the tables in their meeting at the World Championships, scoring with two seconds left to force overtime and then finishing the upset 59-56.

“We were able to beat the United States in the semis and they were the #1-ranked team. That was really huge for us,” adds Dagenais, whose team went on to fall 67-56 to de-fending Paralympic champion Aus-tralia in the final.

A premiere international wheel-chair rugby competition takes place only every second year – the Para-lympic Games and then the World Championships in the middle of the quadrennial. Despite the long wait between peaks, Dagenais says his hunger always remains high.

“It’s good to take a break after those major competitions,” details the Embrun native. “We work hard, we do a lot of training, we’re very disciplined in our on and off the court tendencies. It’s good to take a break, but after you take about a month off, when you’re an athlete,

you’re itching for competition. So it doesn’t take too much motivation to get back at it.”

That’ll be especially easy this coming year since the Canadian team has a home competition to look forward to – the Toronto 2015 Par-apan American Games, which will serve as the Paralympic qualifiers.

“It’s going to be nice to have the crowd behind us. I haven’t really experienced that since I started this sport,” highlights Dagenais, who be-came paralyzed from the waist down and lost some upper-body functional ability in a construction accident at age 18. “We’re looking forward to competing in front of our friends and family and the people in the Toronto

area, and we definitely want to be competing at the Paralympics.”

Dagenais made his Paralympic debut at the London 2012 Games, earning the same result as at the World Championships – a thrilling semi-final victory over USA and a defeat to Australia in the final.

“I’m done with silver. I need a gold medal,” says the former St. Isidore junior hockey player. “I’m feeling really confident. It’s still two years away, but we have some players on our team that are still young and they’re still improving every day, so if we play how we played at the World Championships, I feel confident that we have a good chance of winning the gold medal.”

Dagenais wins worlds silver half way to RioBy Josh Bell

ELITE

Patrice Dagenais.

file photo

McCulloch 2 for 2 in gold & records at debut nationals

Shona McCulloch’s star continued to rise in her first national competition as the two-time OF-SAA provincial high school champion set a pair of records en route to gold medals at the Aug. 15-17 Canadian Youth Legion Track & Field Cham-pionships in Langley, B.C.

“It was a little more intense than OFSAA, because you had incredible athletes coming from around the country,” notes McCulloch. “But

Ontarios is also very intense so nationals was just a small step up.”

Running shorter distances than the cross-country athlete enjoys, McCulloch won both her individual races in spectac-ularly close fashion, including a razor thin win by .1 seconds in the 1,200 metres, which her first of two Canadian under-16 record- setting performances (3:31.70 in the 1,200 m and 6:14.15 in the 2,000 m).

“During the high school season, Shona won all her races by such large margins, we wondered how she would handle a race when there were still people hanging around in the final lap,” reflects Kirk Dillabaugh, McCulloch’s coach with the Ottawa Lions Track-and-Field Club, explaining that several shorter races helped build up her speed.

“Not only is she incred-ibly strong, Shona has great closing speed and she can

change gears very quickly,” he adds. “She can win races taking off and making the race a battle

of attrition, or she can sit in the pack and close with a lot of speed. Those are great tools to have in such a young runner.”

It was a busy meet all around for the Grade 10 Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School student. McCulloch also won a gold medal with Team Ontario in the U16 medley relay, and moved up an age group to help the Ontario U18 women to silver in the 4x400 m relay.

“It was an incredible experience,” recounts the Ottawa South United Soccer Club player who only began training with the Lions this season, thanking all those involved in her success.

“This year I performed really well because I had a lot of other athletes pushing me,” she adds. “It was really hard and I couldn’t have done as

well without them.” Other local youth nationals medalists in-

cluded Shyvonne Roxborough (silver, U18 100 m), Keira Christie-Galloway (silver, U16 long jump), Erinn Stenman-Fahey (silver, U18 800 m), Colle Thompson (bronze, U18 200 m), Han-nah Kelsey-Smith (bronze, U18 triple jump) and Austin White (bronze, U18 300 m hurdles).

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games gold medalist Sultana Frizell placed sixth against a world-class field in the women’s hammer throw event at the Aug. 31 IAAF World Challenge Meet in Berlin. The Lions athlete has also been selected to compete for Canada at the Sept. 13-14 IAAF Continental Cup in Morocco. And the Lions’ Ashlea Maddex was a women’s 100 m hurdles bronze medalist at the Aug. 8-10 North Amer-ican, Central American and Caribbean U23 track and field championships in Kamloops, B.C.

By Eric Thompson

file photo

10

Marin wasn’t the only Royals player to get a taste of international soccer recently. Noah Abatneh, 9, attended trials with English Premier League youth academies at Fulham FC and Arsenal just before the school year began.

“I’m happy for any kid that makes it to that kind of level,” says Royals/Futuro Academy director Sanjeev Parmar, who had both of his players keep logs of their experiences to share with their teammates. “We’ve been real excited about it all.”

HOPES ALIVE FOR 2ND LOCAL OYSL TITLEThe Ottawa South United Force under-14

boys remain in contention to join the Ottawa Fury FC U18 girls as local Ontario Youth Soc-cer League east division champions this sea-son.

OSU tied the Gloucester Hornets 2-2 for the second time this season in late August. The 7-2-5 Force sit just 2 points back of Vaughan in 1st place with 4 games remaining, while the 5-5-5 Hornets would need lots of help to reach the top rung. Gloucester’s Jonathan David re-tains the league’s top scorer spot by 5 with his 20 goals.

The 7-4-3 OSU U14 girls maintain a math-ematical shot at 1st place in the OYSL east, sit-ting 5 points back with 2 games to play. They’ll be back to defend their Ontario Cup title in a Sept. 6 match against Darlington thanks to their 2-1 semi-final victory over Pickering on Aug. 23.

A pair of losses on the Aug. 30-31 week-end removed hopes of a repeat OYSL title for the OSU U17 boys, who competed without several members of last year’s champion team that moved on to professional club youth academies.

OSU’s U15 and U16 girls remain safely above the relegation line, while the FC Cap-ital United U14 girls and U16 boys, Cumber-land United U15 girls, West Ottawa U15 boys, Nepean U16 girls and Gloucester U17 girls are fighting to avoid a return to regional play.

The Level 4 Ottawa Royals knocked off West Ottawa’s Level 3 team in penalty kicks to claim the girls’ U17/18 East Region Cup title on Aug. 17, while a pair of Cumberland United L4 squads battled in the boys’ U17/18 final, with the Simon Birch-coached team prevailing 3-0 over club president Anatoly Gann’s side.

The ER Cup finals for U13-U16 age groups will be held on Sept. 14 in Kemptville.

Last year’s national-champion Gloucester Celtic fell in the semi-final round of men’s Ontario Cup play against Vaughan.

SOCCER: Fulham & Arsenal visitscontinued from p.8

OTTAWA AT THE YOUTH OLYMPICS

Nepean Nighthawks play-ers Braedon Muldoon and Liam Manning wrote their way into the history books and collected Youth Olympic Games silver medals as they became the first-ever Cana-dian field hockey team to reach an international final on that type of stage.

“It’s indescribable. I’m so proud to be able to go there and win a medal for Canada,” beams Muldoon, who wore Canadian colours for the first time in his ca-reer at the Aug. 16-28 Games in Nanjing, China. “No one expected us to make it past the quarter-fi-nals, but we were confident as a team and wanted to show everyone that Canada can play with the best out there.”

Competing in a modified 5-on-5 game that includes boards, the Canadians were quietly confid-ent entering the first global field hockey 5s competition, hoping their athletes would find success in the form of the sport that carries more similarities to ice hockey.

However when they were faced with a quarter-final matchup against international powerhouse Pakistan following a 2-2 round robin, the Canadians weren’t given much hope. But Canada jumped out to a 5-1 lead before Pakistan pulled back to level the score at 7-7 and force a shootout. Led by several stellar saves by goalkeeper Manning, Canada pulled off the upset with a 3-2 shootout triumph, and then continued their Cinder-ella run by knocking off pre-tour-nament favourite Spain in the semi-finals – again prevailing in a tense 6-5 shootout.

“When we made the finals, it got the attention from everyone, which is something Canada doesn’t get often in field hockey,” high-lights Muldoon, a former Nepean Raiders competitive ice hockey

player. “We were on the front page of the international field hockey website, and it was awesome to see that Canada is finally going some-where in the sport.”

Canada’s luck in the shootout ran out in the final when they took the world’s top-ranked men’s field hockey nation to the extra session with a pair of goals in the last two minutes of the game before falling 3-2 to Australia in the shootout.

“When that last goal went in, it was just so devastating,” recalls Muldoon, calling the silver medal “bittersweet” because of the way it ended. “Even watching the high-lights now, it still hurts to go so far and be so close that it was easily within reach, and to not be able to get it is heartbreaking.

“But at the end of the day, you realize, ‘Wow, we just got silver at the Olympics, and look how far we came.’”

Canadian coach Indy Sehmbi says his players have nothing to be upset about in falling one shootout goal short of gold, noting how cru-cial the two Ottawa players on the team proved to be in that success.

“You can only have one goal-tender, so Liam was the only guy on the pitch for the entire tourna-

ment, and I thought he was the best goalie out there – getting better and better each game, and going to shootouts three times,” signals the coach of the under-18 squad. “Braedon was just a workhorse for us out there, scoring big goals and working hard every game.”

MORE FIELD HOCKEY HARDWARE

Back at home, there were sev-eral other significant moments for local field hockey to close the 2014 season. The Nighthawks hosted the Junior Women’s Provincial League finals for the first time in Ottawa, Nepean’s Dylan Singh, Harkirat Sekhon and Marek Chopra celeb-rated a U16 men’s national title with Team Ontario, and Ottawa’s boys’ team won a silver medal at the Ontario Summer Games.

YOUTH OLYMPICS RUGBY SILVER

A third local athlete is also the new owner of a Youth Olympics silver medal as Ottawa Irish club rugby player Pamphinette Buisa helped propel Canada to a second-place finish in the women’s rugby sevens competition.

“It was my first time (playing for Canada), and the whole exper-ience was just so cool,” Buisa re-

counts. “I think we all did our best and we lost to a really good team that really deserved it, so getting the silver is amazing.”

Canada knocked off host China in a tight 26-19 semifinal matchup before falling to Australia 38-10 in the championship game.

Buisa says that although that loss hurt, the entire event is some-thing to build on going forward towards her ultimate goal, which is to play for Canada at the seni-or-level Olympics, which will wel-come rugby sevens to its fold for the Rio 2016 Games.

“It’s always been my dream to play in the Olympics, so I’m going to prove myself and try my best to make Rio. If not, then the 2020 Games are also an op-tion,” highlights the 17-year-old from Gatineau. “I really just want to make it one day, whenever it comes.”

UNIQUE BRONZE FOR ARCHER

Competing in a mixed interna-tional team event, Ottawa archer Eric Peters brought home a bronze medal alongside Finland’s Mirjam Tuokkola thanks to their opening victories over pairs from Bul-garia/India and Australia/India, a quarter-final win over Kazakhstan/Brazil, a defeat to China/Philip-pines in the semi-finals, and a vic-tory over Guatemala/Belgium for bronze.

Canada’s lone archery repres-entative also tied for 17th in the individual men’s recurve event, falling in his first knockout match against a Polish rival after qualify-ing in 18th out of 32 in the ranking round.

Two other Ottawa athletes competed at the Youth Olympics – fencer Jenny Zhao reached the round of 16 in women’s foil and sprinter Shermar Paul narrowly missed the men’s 200 metres ath-letics final, finishing third in his heat.

Nepean players push Canada to new int’l bestBy Jon Willemsen Liam Manning

(left) & Braedon Muldoon.

photo: indy sehmbi

11

Ottawa’s Connor Byway placed 19th in the scratch event (3rd out of 17-year-olds) and 8th in the team pursuit for Canada at the Aug. 8-12 UCI Track Cycling Junior World Championships in Seoul.

CYCLIST PLACES 19TH AND 8TH AT TRACK WORLDS DEBUT

EAGLES DOWNED AT NATIONALS, ORIMOLOYE FLIES TO BIG TIME

AXEMEN FALL 3-1 IN LACROSSE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIESIn front of an Earl Armstrong Arena crowd, the Ottawa Axemen took one game from the Kahnawake Mohawks in their Quebec Senior Lacrosse League cham-pionship series, but wound up dropping the best-of-5 series 3-1 to the winners of seven consecutive league crowns. The Axemen were eliminated with an 11-7 de-feat during an Aug. 16 match that was shifted to Richmond Arena due to flooding at

the planned Stittsville venue. The Nepean Knights reached the quarter-final round in the province’s top novice division at the Aug. 1-10 Ontario Lacrosse Festival in Durham.

RIDEAU PADDLER REACHES FINAL IN WORLDS DEBUT, CLUB TOPS ONTARIO & WINS NATIONAL HARDWAREIn his debut at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships Aug. 6-10 in Moscow, Ben Tardi-oli of the Rideau Canoe Club advanced through to reach the men’s K-1 200-metre final, pla-cing ninth. Host Rideau emerged as the province’s top club at the Aug. 9-10 Ontario Canoe Kayak Championships on the Mooney’s Bay course that will welcome 1,200 athletes for the 2015 national championships next August, collecting division titles in the Open, U19, U17, U15 men’s, U19 and U13 women’s, and U19, U17, U15 and U13 overall classes. Rideau also earned seven gold, 14 silver and 16 bronze medals at the Aug. 19-23 Canadian championships

in Regina, with August Sibthorpe leading the way with four gold medals in U17 women’s K-1 200 m and 500 m, K-2 500 m, and C-15 200 m.

MENG SIBLINGS 7TH IN FIRST SKATE CANADA JR. GRAND PRIX ASSIGNMENTIn their first international assignment, Ottawa natives Melinda & Andrew Meng placed 7th in ice dance at the Aug. 20-24 ISU Jr. Grand Prix in France, scoring 106.74 points.

Competing as Team Ontario at the Aug. 4-7 Senior-level Little Little Canada championships, the East Nepean Eagles won their first match 10-8 over host

Victoriaville, were then blown out 12-1 against B.C.’s entry and were then knocked out with a 3-2 defeat to Quebec’s representatives. The Ottawa West Crusaders also competed in a Little League nationals this season, going 3-3 at the Big League event in Thunder Bay. Now set to compete for Canada in the Sept. 5-14 18U Pan American Championship, Ottawa Nepean Canadians star Demi Orimoloye participated in the Aug. 16 Under Armour All-America Game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, an event that features the top high school seniors eligible for the 2015 Major League Baseball first-year player draft.

The Ottawa Phoenix placed 13th overall in the Open category at the World Championships of Club Ultimate, which wrapped up on Aug. 9 in Lecco, Italy.

PHOENIX FINISH 13TH AT CLUB ULTIMATE WORLDS

Canadian women’s national team members Holly Costanza, Kelsey Martin, Emma Dickin-son, Margo Legault and tournament MVP Aimee Legault of the Ottawa Swans helped Canada to its first-ever Australian Football League International Cup victory at the Aug. 9-23 event in Melbourne. The “Northern Lights” team downed Ireland in the final to avenge their defeat from the last edition of the International Cup tournament in 2011. Swans Nathan Strom, Mike Kozlowski and Ronan Shaughnessy helped the Canadian men to their best-ever showing at the event, placing fifth, while Swans women’s national development team members Lisa Dalla Rosa, Roberta Kramchynsky and Emily Legault fin-ished fourth. Strom, Dickinson and Aimee Legault were all named to the all-star world team. Note to readers:

The Sportspage’s August story on the Swans misidentified Kramchynsky in the photo by Brier Dodge.

SWANS PLAYERS CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL CUP AUSSIE RULES TITLE

OTTAWA PLAYER, COACH EXCEL AT FIBA U17 BASKETBALL WORLDS

FORMER CROSS-COUNTRY SKI STANDOUT HEADED TO FISU ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPSFormer Nakkertok Nordic cross-country skier Andrew Stewart-Jones is in the midst of an online fun-draising campaign to help cover the cost of his flight to France for the Sept. 12-14 World University Rowing Championships. The 24-year-old moved to Victoria this past January to pursue his new sport

at the national team’s training centre. Donations can be made through: makeachamp.com/andrewstewartjones

Three Ottawa natives are set to represent Canada in international cycling competitions this month. Chosen by Cycling Canada for the Sept. 12 and Sept. 14 Grands Prix Cyclistes events in Que-bec City and Montreal, Mike Woods and Matteo Dal-Cin will take part in the first-ever UCI WorldTour race series stop to be held in the Americas. Meanwhile, Evan McNeely will compete for Canada’s U23 men’s cross-country team at the Sept. 2-7 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Norway.

3 LOCAL CYCLISTS SELECTED FOR MAJOR RACES

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

Ottawa native Emily Kemp, who moved to France in 2010 to pursue her sport at the highest level while studying chemistry, placed 5th in the middle distance race at the Aug. 12-16 World University Orienteering Championships in Czech Republic. “I had an absolute ball and the result was icing on the cake” Kemp, who finished 5 seconds from the podium, said in a media release.

OTTAWA ORIENTEERING CLUB ALUM FINISHES 5TH AT WORLD UNIVERSITY CHAMPIONSHIPS

1ST OTTAWA SPORT SUMMIT SET FOR NOVEMBER 1STThe inaugural Ottawa Sport Summit – an annual event created by the Ottawa Sport Council to provide a venue for local community sports organizations to learn, connect and discuss relevant issues – will be held on Nov. 1 at Ben Franklin Place. See sportottawa.ca

for more details and to complete a survey to assist organizers in offering relevant sessions and engaging speakers.

Ottawa native Erika Selten-reich-Hodgson placed 7th in the wo-men’s 400-metre individual medley at the Aug. 21-25 Pan Pacific Swim-ming Championships in Gold Coast, Australia. Her 4:46.45 time was well off the sparkling personal-best mark of 4:36.98 she set at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The 19-year-old University of British Columbia student also placed 8th in the 200 m IM at the Pan Pac meet.

POOR PAN PACS FOR SWIMMER

--By Colin Walker, SportsCan

One of the biggest mistakes youth ath-letes make is they skip or only go through the motions of their warm-up. If you haven’t done a thorough warm-up, you can’t perform at your peak!

If you talk to any elite athlete they will tell you the warm-up is the most important part of their routine. Former staff member and professional volleyball player Brett Dailey spends up to 45 minutes warm-up his body before the team’s warm-up.

He says he does this because he feels that it would be silly to not make sure his body was not fully prepared to train or play.

“Why would I risk not performing well or getting hurt simply to have a few extra minutes to do something else?! I love my job and I don’t want to do anything to risk that.”

Properly warming up wakes the body up, gets your blood pumping and improves flexibility. Start your training session off right with a proper warm-up.

GET YOUR BLOOD PUMPINGWe always preach the need to do a dy-

namic warm-up, but you can’t forget to get a quick sweat in. The goal here is to increase your core temperature and heart rate, break a sweat and increase blood flow to your muscles.

Start your warm-up with various calisthen-ics, jump rope or shadow boxing drills. You can also try slowly jogging or biking. And it should only take five minutes.

LOOSEN UP & INCREASE MOBILITYYour day-to-day routine takes a toll on

your body—probably more than you think. Simply sitting in a chair causes your hip

flexors to tighten and your posture to de-grade. So, before you work out or train, it is recommended to reset your body back to neutral.

To do this, foam roll three to five target areas and perform exercises such as Floor Slides and Glute Bridges designed to restore range of motion.

Next, move into more dynamic drills to

prepare your body for athletic movement. This focuses on mobility so you can move your joints through a full range of motion and activate your muscles for the coming training.

PREP YOUR MUSCLES TO WORKThe last step is to prepare to lift heavy

weight or move at high speed. If you’re doing a sprint workout, you may do some skips be-forehand. If it’s a strength training workout, we’re going to do a lightweight warm-up be-fore we start working.

SUMMARYMake sure that your first working set or

your first drill is not performed until you are ready. That means that you are lightly sweat-ing, with a charged central nervous system that’s primed for action. Talk to your athletic trainer to get specific exercises that will have you primed and ready to train.

Ottawa’s Long-Term Athlete Development Leaders for Over 10 Years, SportsCan helps piece together your athletic success – from nutrition to strength & conditioning, to mental training, to video analysis programs and ath-letic therapy. Learn more at sportscan.ca or contact us at info@sportscan.ca .

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

VIDEO ANALYSIS - ATHLETIC THERAPY

SPORTSCAN.CA

Warm-Up: Do You Want to Perform at Your Peak?

Former Ottawa Guardsmen basketball player Eddie Ekiyor helped Canada to a strong sixth-place performance at the Aug. 8-16 U17 FIBA World Championship in Dubai. Ekiyor led the Canadian team in minutes played at the event and was second with 10.6 points per game. “Can’t say enough of how proud I am of this group and how they represented Canada,” Ottawa’s Dave DeAveiro, the Canadian cadet team’s coach, said in a Canada Basketball media release. “From day one each guy gave us everything and we are extremely thankful for this.”

Ottawa native Charlotte Sider won a Canadian championship at Volleyball Canada’s Aug. 22-24 Beach Nationals in Toronto. Alongside Ali Woolleey, Sider defeated a fellow Ontario pair 21-18, 21-19 in the women’s final in front of a packed centre-court grandstand at Ashbridges Bay. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues player went on to win one of her three matches at the Aug. 29-31 Canadian National Team Beach Volleyball Championship in Halifax.

MAVERICK VOLLEYBALL ALUM EARNS BEACH NATIONAL TITLE

Ottawa native Carol-Anne Chénard refereed the second FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup champi-onship game of her career on Aug. 24 at Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Germany, which knocked Canada out in the quarter-finals, won the tournament final 1-0 over Nigeria. Ottawa will be a host city for next summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.

OTTAWA REFEREE OFFICIATES FIFA U-20 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME ON HOME SOIL

12

Dunrobin wraps up Kids of Steel seriesCOMMUNITY CLUBS

On the heels of the provincial championships earlier in the month, some of Ontario’s finest young triathletes were in town for a second time in August for the 2014 edition of the Dunrobin Kids of Steel Triathlon on Aug. 24.

“I think we can definitely say it was a suc-cess,” says Greg Kealey of the Bytown Storm Triathlon Club, lead organizers of the competi-tion. “We had beautiful weather, a great location to be at, and were surrounded by great people.”

The event, which attracted entrants as young as age 6, served as an introduction to the sport for some, while other older participants traveled from points near and far in the province to earn points in the Ontario Youth Cup Series.

“I think this is my sixth or seventh triath-lon this summer,” indicates 12-year-old London resident Cal Lewis, who enjoyed the Dunrobin course despite the tough climb from the water to the bikes. “I love the sport because it’s three things I love: swimming, running, and biking. So, when I found a sport with all three, I just was all over it.”

The seventh-annual edition of the Dunrobin Triathlon was the final Storm-organized Kids of Steel event of a trio that also included a stop at Sharbot Lake, west of Perth, earlier this summer.

“It takes about 200 man-hours of work into getting everything organized,” notes Kealey, emphasizing the key role of community and vo-lunteer support and the club’s partners at the city and the YMCA-YWCA. “At the end of the day, we just to make sure the kids have fun.

“Triathlons are a great sport because they encourage healthy lifestyles, so seeing everyone enjoy being active like this is awesome.”

Kyle Caie earned the biggest prize out of Ottawa participants, winning the male draft-legal competition for ages 14-17, while other local category champions included Isla Hardie

(female under-7), Zachary Dube (male U7), Brandon Dube (male U9), Rachel Cameron (fe-male U15) and David Aguillar (male U15).

STORM’S KLUS WINS JUNIOR SERIES TITLE

Bypassed in selections for Canada’s world juniors team, the Storm’s Samantha Klus won the final event of Triathlon Canada’s National Junior Series on Aug. 16 in Kelowna, B.C., while Bytown teammate Meagan Adams was 10th.

Competing at the Aug.26-Sept. 1 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final, Ottawa’s Christine Rob-bins placed sixth in the PT5 paratriathlon cat-egory, former Storm athlete Joanna Brown with-drew during the bike portion of the under-23 women’s race, and London 2012 Paralympic rower David Blair – who’d earlier been named to the world championships team by Triathlon Canada – did not enter in the end.

photo: jon willemsen

BYTOWN STORM BULLETINNEW Training Centre to Focus on Youth Endurance Athletes

Since 2001, Bytown Storm Triathlon Team founder and Head Coach Greg Kealey has dedicated his coaching career to developing the best training en-vironment possible to encourage young triathletes to reach their potential.

Over the past 7 years, Bytown Storm athletes under Kealey’s watch have accumulated more Provincial, Na-tional and International podium finishes than any other youth-based triathlon club in Canada.

Kealey’s commitment to excellence is evident in the constant stream of athletes he helps develop and his constant desire to improve his knowledge and coach-ing resume. It is with this commitment to excellence that has brought him to develop a dedicated training centre in partnership with LiquidGym Ottawa.

LiquidGym is one of the nation’s most progress-ive training and physical therapy facilities, featuring advanced rehabilitation services and programs with world-leading equipment like the HYDROWORX un-derwater treadmills and bikes.

While the training centre has slowly been added to the LiquidGym space all summer, it is officially sched-uled to start programs in late September.

The idea to add a sport-specific training centre was developed last spring in discussions with LiquidGym owners Karen Snyder and Irene Hammerich. Kealey had been using LiquidGym’s HYDROWORX treadmills for the Storm’s High Performance program and was seeing some good results with increased run volume and strength – in fact run volume for some athletes in-creased by 30%, without any negative performance or injury concerns.

The addition of hydro-training is quickly becoming standard for many high performance running programs such as Nike’s Oregon Project and Michael Johnson’s High Performance Training Centres, which use the HY-DROWORX systems in all of their U.S.-based centres.

To add to the training environment, the Storm have installed a number of WAHOO Kickrs cycling stations,

personal strength and conditioning stations, and are awaiting delivery of a CURVE Woodway treadmill. The centre is also equipped with DARTFISH video analysis software for sport movement analysis sessions.

“The centre will not just be for youth or just for en-durance sports,” says Kealey. “We have already rolled out a sport-specific strength program, run assessment program and power-based cycling programs for mas-ters-aged athletes. The centre will also provide team training for lacrosse, soccer and other team sports.”

CITY’S LEADING TRAINING/RECOVERY HUBKealey notes that the LiquidGym centre may have a

few advantages over other options in the city.“We are professional full-time coaches,” indicates

Triathlon Canada’s 2010 Elite Coach of the Year. “I’ve worked with the best elite triathlon coaches in the world and have picked up ideas and philosophies that I’ve adapted and implemented in our programs.

“We teach swimming and running – two extremely technical sports – so we have adapted a technic-al-based approach to training. Movement patterns are important to us. When I see a team out doing plyo-met-rics or core work and half the kids are doing the move-ments wrong, it’s a waste of time.

“Strength work is only useful if the movements are done properly and the loads are being applied to the area intended. We take the time to instruct proper movements before we embark on a program.”

Another important advantage is that the training centre programs have full access to LiquidGym’s HYDROWORX equipment, with the added benefit of having LG’s professional physio and massage therapy staff right there. This makes it the most complete train-ing/recovery and rehabilitation centre in the city.

LiquidGym is located at 34 Stafford Road in Bells Corners. For more information, contact the Bytown Storm at 613-323-5255 or visit online at:

www.bytowntriathlon.com

BYTOWNTRIATHLON.COM

By Jon Willemsen Cal Lewis.

54-yr-old still competitive against city’s tennis best

Colin McAlpin is a bit of a living legend in the local ten-nis community, and at age 54, he showed he’s still got plenty of life (and game) left in him by reaching the semi-finals of August’s National Capital Tennis Association Adult City Championships.

Eventual champ Adrian Frei knocked McAlpin out of the competition en route to his second career NCTA victory, but he’s still got a long way to go to match McAlpin’s nine or 10 previous singles city titles (depending on whether you believe the record books that say he won in 1981, ‘82, ‘83, ‘85, ‘88, ‘89, ‘90, ‘92, ‘94 and 2004, or the trophy engraver who’s etched his name just nine times).

“Adrian played extremely well all match, and he’s a great player, so I can’t feel too bad after losing to him,” says Mc-Alpin, also a five-time doubles

city champ. “Every year is different, so to be playing in it for all these years and still be competitive, it’s still fun to be in the mix.”

A holder of seven national crowns in the junior ranks, the University of Florida alum-nus has continued to flourish with age, winning two over-50 Canadian titles and captain-ing Canada’s 2012 ITF Super Seniors World Championships team.

“I just love the game,” highlights the Elmdale Tennis Club pro who now teaches the sport to many kids and enthu-

siasts. “It’s fun to play the city championships at various ages and various circumstances and still be able to play well, so I have no plans of stopping. Tennis is lifetime sport, and I want to keep playing it as long as I can.”

EARLY ROGERS CUP EXIT

Ottawa native Gabriela Dabrowski, a Women’s Ten-nis Association pro player, couldn’t replicate her 2013 run to the Rogers Cup semi-finals this August, falling in the first round of women’s doubles competition.

By Jon Willemsen

photo: jon willemsen

Colin McAlpin.

13

Ottawa native Courtnay Pilypaitis was fully psyched up for her biggest competition since her team’s quarter-final appearance at the London 2012 Olympics.

And she still is despite sustaining a concussion in practice prior to Canada’s departure for a series of European exhibition games in advance of the Sept. 27-Oct. 5 FIBA women’s basketball world championships in Turkey.

“Just with the timing of the injury, I wasn’t going to be able to go right before we left for our pre-tourna-ment games in Europe, so instead of flying and making it worse, I didn’t go on the trip and decided to rest,” ex-plains Pilypaitis, calling it a “minor” concussion. “I’m recovering now and all signs so far point to me playing. Concussions are a tricky thing, so you never really know for sure. But if I keep getting better every day, then I should be able to come back for worlds.”

The 26-year-old from Orleans is unfortunately no stranger to concussions, but she’s thankful it has never been anything too serious.

“I’ve had a few concussions before, but only mild ones,” says the 2012 Ottawa Sports Awards female athlete of the year. “Nothing I’d describe as extreme, and I’m al-ways able to bounce back from them with no problems.”

Pilypaitis is also no stranger to international compet-ition, having worn the maple leaf several times before, including her 2010 senior worlds debut. But big game action is somewhat rare for the former University of Vermont star who’s now an assistant coach for her alma mater Catamounts.

“Any time you get a chance to represent your coun-try, it’s a huge honour,” underlines the St. Peter Catholic High School grad. “I’ve been lucky for the last couple of years to represent Canada, so I would love another opportunity this year and I can’t wait for the tournament to start.”

One of the reasons Pilypaitis is particularly eager to be ready for the upcoming worlds is because she’s very optimistic about how her Canadian team will fare.

Canada went just 1-7 in 2010, but the team then earned a berth in the 2012 Olympics and went on to reach the quarter-finals before falling to champion USA before continuing the upswing and finishing an all-time best 2nd at the 2013 FIBA Americas championships.

“I think Canada basketball is growing – both men and women,” states the team MVP of the 2012 Olympic qualification tournament. “Doing well and showing what we can do is what everyone aspires to do, but this year at worlds I think we’re ready to take the next step.”

Pilypaitis expects to be back for worldsBy Jon Willemsen

ELITE

Courtnay Pilypaitis.

photo provided

Ottawa bball teams win Ontario Summer Games gold & silver

The nation’s capital proved they were the provincial capital when it comes to basketball at the 2014 Ontario Summer Games, with its girls’ and boys’ teams coming away with gold and silver medals respectively from the Aug. 7-10 event in Windsor.

“Looking at the team we had, we did have quite a bit of talent,” high-lights girls’ team coach Jamie McLean. “I knew we were going to be a really strong team with lots of skill. I was really excited going in to the Games.”

Twenty players under age 16 from

Ottawa and the surrounding area tried out for the 12-member team – many of them rivals during their regular club seasons.

With players coming from differ-ent areas, it was difficult to prepare for the event, indicates McLean, who was thrilled to see his team come together as the Games progressed and the com-petition grew stiffer.

“The fact that every single player understood their role and ultimately played together as a team, it just played a big factor in what we accom-plished,” adds McLean, whose team posted a convincing 65-47 victory

over host Windsor in the champi-onship game. “This team gave it 110% and wanted to win.”

Guard Katelyn Elliott says the entire Games experience, and the end result, was surreal, calling it “right up there with the most memorable moments of my life.”

“I’ve never been part of any-thing like this before,” notes the Nepean Blue Devils Basketball Club player. “The whole event was just amazing and the Opening Ceremonies was really the coolest thing I have ever seen. Everyone just made you feel so welcome. I can tell everyone I know and I can even tell myself that I now have a Summer Games gold medal.”

Elliott remains focused on her up-coming season, but aspires to one day carry on the nation’s capital’s strong hoops tradition in the university ranks.

“My whole family went to Car-leton so if I could go there one day and play basketball that would be a dream come true, for sure,” signals the 16-year-old St. Paul Catholic High School student.

On the boys’ side, the Ottawa entry missed their targeted top step of the podium by one place behind the Tri-County team from the Kitchener- Waterloo-Cambridge area.

“We fell short, but I felt we still played really good basketball,” un-derlines Danny Dupuis, a point guard with the Ottawa Next Level club. “We got to know each other really well, where we would be on the court. We just needed to come out with a bang. And I felt like we did.”

Coach Jeff Wilson says it was dis-appointing not to bring home the gold, but praises his group for the competit-ive edge they showed.

“What really impressed me with this group is that these players, they really pushed each other,” Wilson adds. “These guys are highly com-petitive and highly focused. They are constantly striving to be the best.”

Around 3,000 athletes from across

the province competed in 19 different sports at the Ontario Summer Games, which serves as a stepping-stone to the Canada Games and ultimately larger stages such as the Olympics for the best of the best.

Online results from the Ontario Summer Games were incomplete, however some local medalists in-cluded: Eastern Ontario winning base-ball gold, Ottawa taking silver in boys’ field hockey, fencers Aidan Heffernan and Patrick Fournier earning gold and bronze in cadet men’s foil and silver medal-winning golfer Grace St-Ger-main, who added to an impressive summer that already included Ca-nadian junior, Quebec amateur and Ontario junior match play titles.

By Anil Jhalli

file photo

UPCOMING RAVENSVARSITY GAMES

RAVENS FOOTBALL @ TD PLACESept. 20 vs. uOttawa 1pm

(PANDA GAME)

RAVENS HOCKEY @ THE ICE HOUSE

Sept. 13 Men vs. Nipissing 7pmSept. 18 Men vs. PEI 7pmSept. 20 Men vs. PEI 7pm

Sept. 27 Women vs. Toronto 6pm

RAVENS SOCCER @ RAVENS FIELD

Sept. 17 Men vs. RMC 6:30pmSept. 21 Women vs. uOttawa 1pm

Sept. 27 Women vs. Nipissing 12pmSept. 27 Men vs. Nipissing 2:15pm

Sept. 28 Women vs. Laurentian 12pmSept. 28 Men vs. Laurentian 2:15pm

RAVENS BASKETBALL @ THE RAVENS NESTSept. 27 Women vs. Montmorency 3pm

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT GORAVENS.CAOR TICKETS@CARLETON.CA.

Sept. 6 Men vs. Ryerson 3:15pm

Sept. 6 Women vs. Ryerson 1pm

RAVENS RUGBY @ RAVENS FIELDSept. 6 Women vs. Nipissing 6pm

Ontario Summer Games girls’ basketball gold medalists.

photo: greg smith

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, Mathieu Fleury, David Chernushenko, Katherine Hobbs and Scott Moffatt, Mayor Jim Watson, Members of Provincial Parliament Grant Crack, Phil McNeely, Yasir Naqvi,John Fraser, Bob Chiarelli and Madeleine Meilleur.

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

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EDITORIAL

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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: Ottawa Fury FC Under-15 Boys’ Soccer TeamTeam Members: Gabriel Bitar, Noah Campagna, Gabriel Cinanni, Sean Devanderschueren, Alex Dimock, Justin Earle, Liam Harb, Zachary Hart, Lucas Hervato, Quinn Honeyman-Wootton, Spencer Hubble, Abdullah Juma, Sam Laviolette, Federico Leal, Thomas Licursi, Ahmad Olleik, Claudio Rossi, Connor Smith, Noah Stanford, Ryan Therriault, Robert Vranas, Coach Steve Hill, Assistant Frederick McCallum & Manager Marc-Andre Stanford.

About: The Ottawa Fury FC U15 boys’ team cruised to a perfect record and a first-place finish in the USL Super-Y League North Atlantic division regular season standings. The Fury conceded just two goals while scoring 43 to post a dominant 10-0 season despite numerous back-to-back games on the road. The team will play in the North American Finals later this year, from Dec. 5-9 in Florida.

Athlete of the Month: Sam CoganSport: Hockey

Club: Nepean Wildcats

School/Grade: Grade 12 Glebe CI

About: 2014 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship gold medalist Sam Cogan donned the maple leaf for a second time this year in August, helping the U18 na-tional women’s team to an exhibition series victory over the U.S. in late August. The forward who’s bound for the University of Wisconsin in 2015 set up two goals during Canada’s three games – 3-2 and 5-2 wins and a 4-1 loss in Calgary. Cogan’s Nepean Wildcats PWHL teammates Lindsay Eastwood and Josiane Pozzebon were also part of the Canadian team for the series.

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

One year removed from making history, the Myers Riders picked up right where they left off.

After capturing Ottawa’s first-ever Ontario Varsity Football League title at the Senior level in 2013, the west-end club replicated the results in 2014 – Senior and Bantam champions, and Junior finalists – and this time they got to do it at home on Aug. 16 at Carleton University.

“I didn’t expect anything less than being in the championship game,” says Senior Varsity coach Max Palladino, whose lineup featured 39 returning players from the 2013 champion team. “With the depth that we had, we should have been able to do what we did. And that’s win.”

While several veteran players moved on, others stepped up to take on greater challenges, most notably quarterback Matt Duffy.

The 19-year-old spent most of last season watching and waiting in the wings as Nick Gor-gichuck (now a Carleton Raven) rewrote the league record books and led the Riders to the championship.

But Duffy cemented a legacy of his own by not only guiding his team to its second consec-utive OVFL banner, but putting up impressive individual statistics, throwing for 3,054 yards, 32 touchdowns to just seven interceptions, and posting a QB rating of 188.7.

“You know, for a guy who really didn’t play much last year, Matt sure showed everyone what he could do,” Palladino underlines.

Duffy believes the biggest factor to the

team’s success was the veteran players taking the rookie players under their wings and helping them adjust to the system.

“We played together as a team,” emphasizes the Carleton University paleontology student.

“We bonded a lot and it really showed on the field.”

Duffy says he didn’t feel pressure to live up to what the team achieved last season.

“Our coaches made sure that what we did

last year was out of our heads,” explains the quarterback of the 11-0 club that scored a single on the last play of the game to down the Essex Ravens 25-24 in the championship game. “They wanted to make sure we were ready to work and not get to high on ourselves.”

BANTAM RIDERS REPEAT

Several new faces got to step up in the Ban-tam Riders’ run to second consecutive crown as well, including offensive captain Eric Bento.

“I didn’t play a lot last year, and it was spe-cial, but I really didn’t get to play,” indicates the team’s centre and long snapper, calling the home title the best moment in his life. “Having a chance to play and be part of it means a lot to me and it still hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Coach Ralph Siciliano says that initially he didn’t feel this year’s squad was as strong as years past, but they proved their mettle in the way they responded after a very physical Week 4 defeat to Metro Toronto.

“After that game, no one lost focus,” under-lines Siciliano, whose team won the final 43-30, also over Essex. “We became a very strong group with lots of character.”

Honoreal Iloki rushed for over 300 yards and earned game MVP honours in his Riders’ Bantam final victory.

After avenging their lone regular season loss with a 23-19 semi-final victory over the crosstown Cumberland Panthers, the Junior Varsity Riders fell to the London Mustangs 49-27 in the championship game.

Riders replicate dream season with 2 more Ontario titlesBy Anil Jhalli

JUNIOR LEAGUES

photo: dean joncas

Jaegar Prot booted a single through the end zone on the last play of the game to down the Essex Ravens 25-24 and win his second consec-utive Ontario Varsity Football League cham-pionship with the Myers Riders.

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For more information on the Ottawa Sportspage’s CAMPS Initiative, please contact 613-261-5838 or editor@sportsottawa.com

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