Mar12_2009

The Titans will hold their Annual General Meeting in May or June of 2009, and are seeking individuals interested in joining the Board of Directors as of the AGM. There are a number of roles to be filled. No Board experience is necessary! If you are interested in helping out with the important work of the Board, please contact President JP Caron at president@titanswaterpolo.ca.

A gold chain with medallions on it was lost in the Nepean Sportsplex boys' changing room last Sunday night March 8th. It has great sentimental value to the boy who lost it as well as his mother. If you saw it or found it, please contact Maria at 613-957-9368. She says "no questions asked and a reward is being offered".

Titans will be holding a merchandise sale of ALL our stock, in the lobby of Nepean Sportsplex, on Sunday, April 19, 5:30-8:30pm.

Competitive athletes- this is a final opportunity to get your Club bathing suits that are required for tournaments (you are expected to wear them at Provincial and National Club Championships).

GIRLS attending Nationals- if you wear a bathing cap under your water polo cap, you need to have a dark and light cap corresponding to the cap colour (or red for goalies). We will have these available.

Bathing suits, balls, t-shirts, knapsacks, bathing caps, etc will be available. Cash or cheque only please.

Tournament Reports from the 18&U and 14&U Provincial Championships, Etobicoke, March 6-8th, 2009

Submitted by Christine Taschereau

When the Manta Rays and the Great White Sharks departed last Friday, March 6, for the U18 Ontario Provincial Championship by coincidence, they happened to be on the 401 slightly ahead of the funeral procession for 3 fallen soldiers. I am not sure the boys were as moved as the adults on the bus. It was very moving to see that for 100 kilometres and more the highway was lined with Canadians paying their respect to these brave men. I counted at least 15 overpasses where local residents and police, firemen and paramedics were waiting with flashing lights and flags waiving. At an on ramp in Brighton, Veterans from the Korean War, if not WWII, were at attention with Canadian, Provincial and Regimental flags. I understand and appreciate now why that stretch of highway is also called Highway of Heroes. The procession passed us while we were stopped again, I don’t know if the boys noticed. The OPP blocked all lanes of traffic at the back of the funeral procession so that no one could pass. We followed a trail of red taillights all the way into Toronto.

After the drive from Ottawa the GWS were ready for action against the London Eclipse. The Eclipse may have won the 1st swim-off but they were thoroughly mauled by the GWS. James started the scoring off in the first 30 seconds of the game. By the end of the first quarter the score was 10-0 and the GWS never let up. Both goalies played equal time and all players scored in this 25-2 thumping.

The GWS’ second game of the tournament was delayed after the York - Scarborough’s game finished tied, forcing a 5-man shoot-out that also finished tied, forcing a sudden death shoot-out of 5 possible shots, that York won. The delay ensured that the GWS families in attendance had time to make it to the stands before the swim-off. At least half the players had family present including one set of grandparents. The odds were in favour of the GWS for this game as Hamilton had finished behind the GWS and Scarborough in the recent DDO tournament. Maybe overconfidence affected the GWS who just weren’t their usual dominant, speedy, ball stealing, play-making selves. The game was very close through 4 quarters and ended in a 5-5 tie. In the shoot-out 5 Hamilton players scored but only 3 GWS were successful and the game ended 8-10 in favour of Hamilton.

It was a very disappointed group that went off to lunch and rest before the next game. The game against Scarborough was to some extent a repeat of the prior game. Scarborough started the scoring early in the 1st quarter. John tied it before the end of the quarter and scored again half way through the 2nd quarter. Scarborough scored on a kick-out but Alec managed to pull the GWS ahead before the end of the 2nd quarter. Neither team scored in the 3rd and Scarborough scored twice in the 4th quarter so that the GWS lost the game 3-4. If the GWS were disappointed with the loss to Hamilton they were truly crestfallen with the lost to Scarborough and supper was eaten mostly in silence.

Sunday presented the GWS with many challenges. First, the clocks were moved forward so that the 7:00 am game felt like 6:00 am. Second, the players had to get up even earlier in order to get to some level of consciousness before the game. The only good thing was that everyone was so tired that everything seemed funny so there was a lot of laughing. Thirdly, the game was against York who are mostly of 2nd year U18 players, they outweigh the GWS by a 100 Kilos or more. Finally the team knew that even if they had beaten York they were only going to play for the Bronze medal, so Coach Jerry had a lot of motivating to do.

Despite all of that the GWS started strong with Alec winning the swim-off but then York scored 3 quick goals. Ogi, after what was a questionable kick-out, scored before the end of the 1st quarter and York got 2 more goals in the 2nd quarter. Coach Jerry, after Ogi’s kick-out, started to have some issues with the officiating and ended up with a yellow card before the end of the quarter. York scored 3 times in the 3 quarter before Luke was able to sink a fourth goal for the GWS. Very early in the 4th quarter Luke nailed a fifth goal, the most amazing backhand tip, to the cheers of the Titan supporters, but the GWS just couldn’t catch York. The game ended with a 6-11 GWS loss.

To end the tournament with a medal the GWS needed to beat Hamilton and that is what they did. Finally, with guns blazing the GWS took on Hamilton. With an average of 5 goals per quarter and half of those belonging to John, the GWS resoundingly hammered Hamilton 22 – 6. Where had these GWS been on Saturday no one knows.

The GWS won the Bronze at the U18 Provincials. The Manta Rays, who lost their first game, won the next three games to finish fifth in the tournament. John and Lyle were named to the all-star team.

Thank you to Lorraine and Denis Proulx who did a great job organizing the Manta Rays and GWS participation in this tournament and to our driver James who knew just how to get us home on time.

This past weekend the Ottawa Manta Rays competed in the 18+U Ontario Men's Provincial Championships. The team exceeded expectations as a "B" team in the tournament by placing 5th out of 8 teams. The MR's lost their first game to a strong team from Hamilton 12-2, the game was much closer than the score reveals. The MR's thus went into a round robin with 3 other teams to see who could take the 5th seed in the tournament. The MR's went on to defeat those 3 teams from KW, York, and London quite handidly on their way to placing 5th. The team was led on defence by Alex Ricketts who was assigned the strongest player on each opposing team and was very effective in shutting them down. In nets Ian Stonebridge stood on his head and kept the team alive, making key saves in key situations, in the 3 games the MR's won Ian only allowed 14 goals. On offence the team was led by its horse in hole Boris Misljencevic who was able to pot quite a few goals even though every team he played against was dropping at least two players. From up to the shooting was spectacular all weekend from Corbin Tremblay who lit the net up since teams were dropping on Boris. The team was sparked on the counter attack by Seb Dragnea and Stephane Walter who were swimming the opposition up and down the pool all game. Great contributions from Fred Proulx, Ryan Ing, Jeran Long, Alex Prescott, and Luke Shaw allowed this deep team to pull off 3 wins out of four games. Everyone on this came together played to their strengths and listened to the game plans set out for them and with their skill and determination placed where they wanted to in the tournament. Congratulations Boys you earned it.

Swordfish and Piranhas get Gold and Silver at Ontario Women 18&U Championships

The Titans 18U women traveled to the Ontario Women Championships this last weekend at the Olympium in Etobicoke. The Titans were divided into two balanced teams, the Swordfish in pool A with Hamilton and Scarborough and the Piranhas in pool B with KW and York. The tournament format was a round robin among the pools, followed by a second versus third cross over quarter final game with the quarter final winners playing the first place teams in a semi final, the winners of the semi finals playing for gold and the losers playing for bronze.

Pool A round robin started with the Swordfish comfortably winning 10-4 over Scarborough after initially having a slow start losing 2-0. As soon as the Swordfish found their path, it was a different game. The Piranhas led for the full game against KW for an 11-7 win, with another slow start; it looks like the long trip affected our early performance. The second and final round robin games were at a rather late 9:35pm Friday for both teams, with the Swordfish easily handling Hamilton 11-4 and the Piranhas again leading the whole game against York though only by one goal at the half for an 8-4 win. So both Titans teams finished first in their pools and earned a well deserved rest after a late night with a bye into the semi-final games not to be played until 5:50pm and 6:55pm the following day.

The teams spent their free Saturday sleeping in a bit, doing homework, going bowling, and relaxing. In the meantime, Scarborough, third in pool A, knocked off KW, second in pool B, to earn a rematch with the Swordfish in the semifinals. Hamilton beat York in the the quarter finals to earn a first match up with the Piranhas.

In the second Swordfish-Scarborough game, the Swordfish took control from the start, jumping out to a 4-0 lead after the first quarter and cruising to a 13-3 win. All the girls were playing a very disciplined game. The Piranhas also came out flying against Hamilton, piling up a 5-0 lead in the first quarter. This first quarter had a killing counter attack from our girls working in combination with the goalies who assisted them with great passes. The other team didn't expect this fast reaction. The Piranhas had an 8-2 lead when Hamilton scored in the last second of the half, and added two more early in the third quarter to cut the lead to 8-5. After some reorganization from a time out the Piranhas took the momentum back to prevail 11-7. So we were set for an all Titans final with the Swordfish battling the Piranhas for the gold.

The goalies performance was a key element to get both teams in the final and keep the other teams behind in the scores.

The gold medal game started with an increasingly well orchestratedcenter cheer, a tradition started this year, with the blue and white caps in an alternating circle with the two red goalie caps together on one side. The Piranhas had some good chances, but in the end were unable to score, with the game ending in a 5-0 Swordfish win. Congratulations to Annie and Veronica in being selected all stars and Veronica being nominated MVP for the tournament. Congratulations to Alison, Adrian and Celso in preparing our girls to be the best in Ontario. And many thanks to Penny and Val for all the organizing, managing, and chaperoning, Sue Sidebottom for your help, and all the parents for your support.

Celso says: "I'm really happy and proud of our girls for the performance in this part of the season, our girls showed good adjustment during the games and this tournament gave the chance to the girls to put in practices new plays. Even our team were divided in two, the scores reflect the big difference from the other teams in the province."

14 U Coed “AA” OWP Club Championship and OWP Winter Technical Foundation Tournament
Submitted by Iouri Tarnopolski

It was a big weekend for our Academy players. There were 35 kids, 4 chaperones, 3 assistant coaches and 4 parents in the bus, on their way to Toronto. Coach Joel Primeau had to join the teams in Toronto, as he was at a meeting in Montreal. He was busy before the tournament but somehow managed to prepare notes regarding all players and what he expected from them. Assistant coaches Evan, Patricia and David talked to each player on the way from Ottawa to Toronto.

The bus arrived to York University about one hour before the first game and the three “AA” teams – Pinecrest, Brewer and Walter Baker played their first games. The “A” team, Orleans, went to the Hotel because they did not have any games on Friday.

The “AA” teams had five games on day one. Unfortunately, they lost all of them, probably because kids did not have a chance to play with the new rosters before. Players and coaches were trying to find the best positions to improve the game but it always takes some time to do so. So, here are the results for day 1:

In the morning all teams had breakfast in the Hotel and after that Joel talked with all players to motivate them to work hard and to do their best. And they did! On day 2 the Titans played much better. They were more confident and focused. Plus they had a great support from their parents cheering from the stands. Here are the results:

“AA” teams played at the Etobicoke Olympium:

So, Brewer won both games, Pinecrest won one with confidence and lost another to very strong York team. Walter Baker were very close in all three games but lost them mostly because they did not have an experienced goalie. Orleans won two games and lost one.

As a result Brewer and Pinecrest got the third places in their divisions of five teams and had to play with each other for the 5th place on day three. Walter Baker was going to play for 9th place with Hamilton. Orleans had two more games on Sunday. The last day results:

So, Brewer got 5th place, Pinecrest – 6th place, Walter Baker – 10th place among ten teams in 14U Coed “AA” OWP Championship. Orleans seems to get the 2nd place in OWP Technical Foundation Tournament. This is unofficial data based on our own calculations.

On the way back the coaches announced MVPs for each team. Below is a list of MVPs and the scoring leaders for “AA” teams. Scoring leaders data is based on unofficial notes done during the tournament which may be not 100% accurate but should be very close.

Titans Brewer: The best defensive player – Dusan. The best offensive player – Kevin.
Scoring leaders: Dusan – 26 goals, Kevin – 10 goals.

Titans Pinecrest: The best defensive player – Boris.The best offensive player – Victor.
Scoring leaders: Victor – 10 goals, Alexei – 9 goals, Tessa – 6 goals.

Titans Walter Baker: The best defensive player – Nick. The best offensive player – Alex.
Scoring leaders: Alex – 17 goals, Duncan – 8 goals.

Titans Orleans: The best defensive player- Rachel. The best offensive player- Kyle.

In total there were about 20 players that scored one or more goals. All of the kids made very good progress. They played much better water polo then at the beginning of the season. Titans probably had the best player of the whole tournament (Dusan) and the best goalie (Boris). Besides, kids had a very good time, communicating with each other and making friends.

The team results could be better if kids had played couple of games with new rosters before the tournament. Some parents and coaches also agreed that it may be more reasonable to bring two “AA” teams and one “A” team. In this case “AA” teams would be more even and all teams would be more competitive. And it is easier to manage three, instead of four teams for coaches and chaperones as well.

The weekend flew by with unimaginable speed. The kids and coaches returned to Ottawa fatigued, but nevertheless, happy. Here is a link to pictures taken in Toronto:
http://iouritarnopolski.myphotoalbum.com/slideshow.php?set_albumName=album02

Newsletter Submissions

If you would like to contribute an item to the newsletter, please send your submission to Sue Sidebottom at news@titanswaterpolo.ca . I depend on the readers to submit articles to keep club members up to date with water polo news! Photos from tournaments or other club events are always welcome. Any submissions received before noon on Wednesday will go out with that week's news.