For those who have Loblaws cards ordered, they will be available for pick-up at the banquet. We will be providing your orders for June, July and August, in order to facilitate distribution of the cards now that practices are over. We won’t be cashing your cheques, though, until the 1st of each month. PARENTS, if you will not be attending the banquet, please send instructions with your older athlete to pick up your cards, or make arrangements with another parent to pick them up for you, or come in and get your cards when you drop off your son/ daughter at the banquet.
16U Girls Nationals
Celso said the coaches were very pleased with both the Seals and the Stingrays performances and results this weekend! Celso pointed out that our club had the top result of the clubs that sent more than one team. He also noted that our Stingrays team was much younger than most of the other teams, with only one athlete born in 1993 and the rest younger, so he was very proud of their accomplishments this weekend.
Seals Win Bronze at 16U Girls Nationals
Submitted by Val Walker
The Seals were one of two Titans teams who travelled to Montreal to play in the 16U National Club Championships in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, from May 28-31, 2009. This event hosted 16 teams from across Canada. The Seals were joined by two players from Scarborough, Steph McDonald and Emma Wright.
Our first two games were pretty one-sided matches with the Seals winning against Edmonton 25-3 and defeating Laval 20-2. All-stars for the Edmonton game were Lia and Danielle and then Veronica and Danielle for the Laval game.
The Seals had their work cut out for them when they faced DDO 1 on Friday; this was one incredibly dramatic game! The pressure didn't let up and the score was very close at the half with DDO leading 7-6. Our girls played with grit and didn't give up and the game ended in a tie, 9-9. Danielle was once again an all-star for this game.
The girls played Fraser Valley bright and early on Saturday and this was an equally exciting game with the Seals leading 3-2 at the end of the first quarter. The Seals pulled ahead with a 2 point lead and the score was 7-5 at the end of the half. The final score was 11-9 for the Seals. All stars were Danielle and Lia.
Saturday afternoon was the game against the powerhouse Calgary team and the girls played hard, but in the end they lost to Calgary 16-10, putting the Seals in the Bronze medal game. Danielle was our game all-star.
The Bronze medal game saw the Seals face DDO 1 on Sunday afternoon and at the end of the first quarter DDO was leading 4-2. The girls played with determination and by the end of half the Seals were leading 9-7. The final score was 15-13 for the Seals and the reward was the Bronze medal. Congratulations girls on your fine performance and to treating the crowd to a spectacular game of water polo! Game all-stars were Rebekka and Steph.
Danielle Hirsh was named to the All-Star team; congratulations Danielle.
As the team chaperone and co-manager of this group of girls, I was really proud of their performance, congratulations girls!
Stingrays Place 8th at 16U Girls Nationals
Submitted by Greg Sidebottom
The Stingrays had a great time at the 16 and under girls Canadian Club Championships last week and weekend at the DDO pool in Montreal. It all started Wednesday afternoon with a car pool for the Seals and the Stingrays with drivers Sue Jones, Sue Sidebottom, Wendy Wright, Alison and Celso. Alison and Celso did double duty as coaches of course, along with Adrian who joined later. And you may be wondering who Wendy Wright is and why she was driving. Wendy is the president of Scarborough Shadow Water Polo and mother of Emma Wright who joined the Seals for this tournament. Also joining the Titans girls were the Scarborough McDonald sisters Stephanie for the Seals and Samantha for the Stingrays. Scarborough does not have enough 16U girls to field a team so Water Polo Canada rules allow them to join another team to play in the National Championships. Several teams do this, with Hamilton including girls from York and KW, and Laval/Hull sending a combined team including our friends Ceilidh, Natalie, Tina and Jelena. We arrived in Montreal in time to check into the hotel before a nice pasta dinner to fuel the girls up for the competition.
The tournament included a record 16 teams this year including 3 from DDO, 2 from Calgary, the 2 Titans teams, CAMO, Regina, Winnipeg, Pacific Storm (Vancouver), Fraser Valley (also Vancouver), Hamilton, Saanich (near Victoria BC), Laval, and Edmonton. With 16 teams, the round robins divided neatly into four pools of four teams each. The top two teams in each pool advanced to an elimination tree to determine positions 1-8 and the bottom two in each pool played off for positions 9-16.
Having beat Hamilton at provincials, the Stingrays qualified for the second Ontario seed, 8th overall, based on the placing of Ontario teams at last years national championships. This pool also included CAMO, last years national championship and first seed, Calgary Renegades Black, Calgary's younger team seeded 9th, and DDO3, seeded 16th.
After cheering on the Seals in their first game Wednesday morning, it was time for the Stingrays to play their first game against DDO3 at noon. The home pool DDO team was full of jump from the start and scored the first 3 goals before Chantal got us on the board. But from then on Taylor made save after save and the Stingrays scored 16 unanswered goals for a 16-3 win. Almost the whole team got in on the scoring with Chantal burying an outstanding 6 goals to earn first star of the game and Demi's 3 goals and strong defensive play earning her second star.
That finished the first day of competition for the Stingrays. Post game Stingrays and Seals went for a late lunch at a Greek restaurant and the Stingrays decided to forgo an afternoon activity and stretch and relax at the hotel before a light dinner. The Stingrays were lights out and asleep before the Seals even started their 8:45pm game against Laval due to a 5:30am wake up call for a 7am game versus Calgary Renegades Black Thursday morning. The girls grabbed a light snack on the way into the cars as this was too early for the hotel breakfast.
The Stingrays knew they had their work cut out for them playing Calgary Black as the Calgary Renegades teams are select teams composed of the many water polo clubs in Calgary. The Renegades teams finished 2nd and 9th at last year's 16U Girls Nationals, the best combined result of all clubs that sent more than one team. The Calgary Black team looked similar to the Stingrays in age and experience with the bulk of the players born in 1994, one born in 1993, and several players still young enough to play at the 14U level. Calgary also had a longer bench with 12 players compared to the Stingrays 10.
The first quarter was tense with Calgary scoring on the first possession and the Stingrays taking until one minute left for Chantal to tie it up 1-1. But the Stingrays then took control of the game with 5 more unanswered goals by Demi, Monique, Sophie and Chantal to build up a 6-1 lead by early in the third quarter. By the final seconds of the third, due to two more goals by Sophie and Demi, the Stingrays had a 8-2 lead. But the momentum shifted back to Calgary due to a goal in the last second of the third, and they clawed their way back to a 9-6 score with two minutes left in the game. But two big stops by Taylor held off Calgary and the game ended in a 9-6 win for the Stingrays. With three goals Chantal was again selected first star in the game. We thought Demi also deserved a star for her 3 goals and big defensive plays, but the other two stars went to Calgary.
So it was a great start to the tournament with both Titans teams undefeated and assured at least second place in their pools and a top 8 finish. But next up for the Stingrays was their biggest challenge yet, a game against the defending national champion CAMO team to decide first and second place in the pool. So it was back to the hotel for breakfast and to rest up and get psyched up for the noon game.
As expected, CAMO came out strong and built up a 5-0 lead before Sophie got the Stingrays on the board with a nice skip shot in the second quarter. CAMO dominated the rest of the second quarter building up a 10-1 lead. But the Stingrays fought their way back in the third and early fourth quarter with goals by Channelle, Demi, and Chantal to narrow the margin to down 11-5. But there was no more scoring after the first possession of the fourth quarter, so 11-5 for CAMO was the final score. Demi's two goals and strong defensive play earned her third star of the game. CAMO went on to finish second in the tournament.
After a quick lunch, it was back to the pool to cheer on the Seals in an 9-9 tie with DDO1. With both the Seals and DDO1 undefeated in their pool, the tie breaking rules resulted in both the Seals and the Stingrays finishing second in their pools and earning cross over games with the first place teams in the two other pools. This time, the Seals had the 7am game Saturday morning with Fraser Valley but the Stingrays didn't get much of a break with an 8:15am game with Calgary Renegades Gold. So it was a quick dinner, some stretching, and early to bed for both teams.
The Stingrays still early 6:30am wake up call on Saturday allowed them to have breakfast at the hotel and get to the pool in time to watch the start of the Seal's 11-9 win over Fraser Valley.
It was clear that the Calgary Gold team was going to be tough with 10 players born in 1993 and 3 born in 1994 and posting 15 or more point victory margins in all of their round robin games. Calgary Gold overpowered the Stingrays with speed and power, posting a 22-0 win. But I think the Stingrays learned a lot about what an elite experienced team with loads of international experience plays like. Calgary Gold went on to beat the Seals 16-10 and win the tournament undefeated, and capture 2 of 6 on the all star team and all of the most valuable player, goalie, and coach awards, so this loss wasn't too hard to take.
As it turned out, due to the Seals win over Fraser Valley and the Stingrays loss to Calgary Gold, the Titans teams swapped partners for the second games on Saturday. The Seals played at 5pm and the Stingrays at 7:30pm, so the Stingrays were free for the day. So it was off to the mall for many fashionable purchases and lunch followed by an afternoon of resting up and stretching. The Stingrays ordered subs and pitas to go in order to cheer on the Seals in their game before prepping for their match against Fraser Valley. Fraser Valley was another strong experienced team with 12 players, all but one born in 1993 or 1994. And they had won their pool knocking off third seed and BC provincial champions Pacific Storm 11-5 as well as soundly beating Saanich 13-7 and Hamilton/York/KW 15-3. But with a chance at 5th or 6th place on the line, the Stingrays were psyched up for a winnable game.
Fraser Valley came out strong, building up a 5-0 lead by early in the first quarter. But the Stingrays got on the board at the end of the half with a 5m shot drawn by Monique which Demi converted into a goal. The Stingrays showed lots of promise in the third quarter with many big saves by Taylor and a shot that hit the post by Monique, but they didn't score. With Fraser Valley up 11-1 early in the fourth, Johanna drew a kick out allowing Sophie to score with another of her excellent skip shots. The Stingrays had the upper hand for the next few minutes with more big saves by Taylor and a kick out drawn by Monique which allowed Chantal to score. The Stingrays final goal came on a pass by Mira to Monique in the hole followed by a quick flip back to Mira who scored. So the Stingrays often stopped an strong team and generated some offense, going down 14-4. In spite of collecting her second kick out by 2:37 in the first quarter, Demi managed to stay in for the remainder of the game and collect the third star for her excellent play in the hole and most other positions after her second kick out. It was a pretty good game against a tough Fraser Valley team that went on to beat Storm 9-2 to claim 5th place in the tournament.
Tired after two tough games, the Stingrays went back to the hotel to relax and get to sleep for a reasonable 10:30pm and an even more reasonable 9:15am wake up call, as their final game to decide 7th and 8th place wasn't until noon on Sunday. As it turns out, this game was against 7th seeded Regina and this looked like a very close matchup. Regina also finished second in their pool, beating DDO2 7-3, beating Winnipeg 12-3, and losing to Calgary Gold 17-2 in the round robin. Regina had a fairly close game with CAMO in the quarter finals, keeping within striking distance but going down 11-7, and then lost to Storm in the 5-8th placement game by a score of 12-5. Like the Stingrays, Regina was a fairly young team with almost half of their 13 players still able to play at the 14U level. With the Seals and Titans parents filling the stands, it was almost like playing in Ottawa for this final Stingrays game.
Monique struck on the first possession, drawing a foul outside 5m and scoring on a quick shot. But Regina tied it up a short time later. Then, while being crashed in the hole, Monique made a pass to a wide open Mira who was stopped by the Regina goalie. Next, Taylor came out to make a big steal from a Regina player who had beaten our hole check. Then Demi drew a kickout which set up another Sophie skip shot which was blocked by the hot Regina goalie. Bad news came at the end of the first quarter with Demi again being kicked out for the second time. But as in the Fraser Valley game she managed to avoid trouble and play for the rest of the game. The nerve racking first quarter ended in a 1-1 tie. In the second quarter, Monique again drew a foul outside 5m and scored. And on the next possession Monique overpowered the Regina hole check only to be stopped by the Regina goalie. Then Regina scored two goals to take a 3-2 lead. Regina scored again in the third quarter before Chanelle beat the Regina goalie with a nice long shot in the third quarter to cut the Regina lead back to one goal. After Annie won the swim off, Monique drew a foul outside 5m and scored for the third time in the game to tie it up 4-4. But Regina scored on a kickout within a minute to take back the lead. The back and forth continued with Sophie scoring on a Regina kick out to tie it up again but Regina struck back on a Stingrays kick out to take back the lead 6-5. Regina added two more goals but Taylor kept the Stingrays within reach of a win with a huge save on a deflected shot. But the Stingrays couldn't score again and went down 8-5. It was not too disappointing to lose such a close game as the Stingrays played well and were in the game until the end. Monique was awarded third star in this game.
With the tournament done, the Stingrays grabbed lunch, returning to cheer on the Seals in a 15-13 win over DDO1 for Bronze and watch Calgary Gold beat CAMO 11-8 for the Gold. Then, after watching the awards ceremony it was back to Ottawa with a great nationals experience complete. The coaches were very happy with the Stingrays performance. Well done girls!
Many thanks to our coaches for a great season and to the drivers, chaperones, and team managers for taking care of the many logistics of this four day tournament. Also appreciated is all the support from the parents at the tournament and throughout the season! It was great to see all the parents in the stands on the weekend.
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