High School Sports blog

Hawks are top dogs

The Jacob Hespeler Hawks are the team to beat.

The Hawks dismantled the St. Benedict Saints by a 37-0 margin on Thursday under the lights to erase any doubt -- if there really was any -- about which team deserves top billing in the WCSSAA senior boys football league. The Hawks are now 3-0 on the season and barring a setback, will cruise through the remainder of their A division schedule.

Second best in A looks to be the SJAM Highlanders, who manhandled the Resurrection Phoenix to the tune of 51-14. SJAM's only setback was a 31-16 loss to Jacob Hespeler in Week 1 play, but they at least showed they are worthy opponents.

Time will tell, but Cameron Heights, Grand River or Waterloo-Oxford also deserve to be in the discussion as all three B division teams were perfect going into Friday's action.

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A shout out to the St. Mary's Eagles golf team of Keaton Jones, Brett Kudoba, Colton Clemmer and Brett McDonald. The lads captured the CWOSSA boys golf championship by four shots at the Saugeen Golf Club in Port Elgin and advanced to next months' OFSAA tournament in Belleville.

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Familiar names came out on top at Thursday's University of Waterloo cross-country event as Woodland Christian's Visscher sisters -- Madison and Jordyn -- won their races. Not surprisingly, Elmira's Hildebrand twins -- Alex and Julia -- finished one-two in the junior race.

Click here for full results.

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Thursday's biggest blowout belonged to Preston's junior boys football team, which posted a 64-0 win over Glenview Park.

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The girls field hockey games that were cancelled on Tuesday will be played Monday and Wednesday at Budd Park.

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Still time for nominations for Monday's best of the week feature.

 

Coaches want tiering system shelved

WCSSAA girls hockey coaches want to do away with the tiering system that has been in use for the past several years.

Any such move must be approved by the WCSSAA executive and board of directors.

The coaches' decision, according to an email, was because of problems with the tie-breaking procedures that didn't work last year.

Could lead to a few more blowouts. We'll see.

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Woodland Christian and St. Mary's are tied at the top of both the junior and senior boys District 8 volleyball standings with 4-0 records. The Cavaliers and Eagles will meet next Wednesday in what should be an exciting doubleheader at St. Mary's.

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The St. Benedict Saints gave the St. Mary's Eagles all they could handle in senior girls basketball play, falling 43-38 as Kaitlyn Schenck led the Eagles with 28 points. Could be a preview of the D8 final.

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Don't forget to suggest names for the Monday feature that recognizes the area's top student-athletes from the previous week. Send nominations to mbryson@therecord.com

 

 

Policy shift waters down junior soccer

The jury is still out on CWOSSA's "One Season" policy that came into affect last year.

WCSSAA adopted the policy this year and we assume District 8 did as well, although that organization hasn't updated its online constitution since 2005. OFSAA also followed suit.

The CWOSSA policy reads as follows:

"Athletes may play one season in a school year in any sport."

That's it.

OFSAA's rule:

"A student may only play on one team in the same sport (team or individual) at the OFSAA level during a school year."

The policies target two specific areas, CWOSSA executive director Barry Mutrie tells me.

Soccer is the obvious one as, for years, boys could play junior soccer in the fall and step up to play senior in the spring. It's the only sport where this is possible and the new policy stops junior players from taking the place of a senior, said Mutrie.

The policy will also prevent students from playing for both the girls and boys teams in a given sport. For example, a girl can't play senior boys volleyball in the fall and then played senior girls volleyball in the winter.

It's definitely made a splash in soccer, or so I've been told. Several top-notch Grade 10 players have been forced to pass on the junior season and wait until spring to play. The junior leagues are weaker as a result and senior-age players will still lose their spots to more talented Grade 10 players in the spring. Not sure what was exactly accomplished, other than allowing less-skilled Grade 9 and 10 players stick with the junior team, likely in a bench-warming role.

As for playing for both the girls and boys teams, how often does this really happen? We had Michelle Hudyn playing senior boys and girls basketball at Eastwood last year and Nicole Boyd doing the same in volleyball at Galt, but it certainly doesn't happen often.

While I understand the intentions of the policy shift, I'm still looking to find a teacher-coach or athlete that believes it's a move in the right direction.

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A tongue-in-cheek thanks to WCSSAA for letting me know about the cancellation of Tuesday's field hockey games because of soggy fields.

I kind of figured something was up when I rolled into the near-empty parking lot at Budd Park at 3:20 p.m. to take in the doubleheader of games that were slated to start 10 minutes later.

Junior boys soccer was also affected.

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Heading to Breslau on Wednesday to take in a little District 8 volleyball at Woodland  Christian.

 

 

Looking ahead to the big game

 

A little hype for Thursday's big game in Cambridge between St. Benedict and Jacob Hespeler.

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Sticking with the Hawks, Jacob  Hespeler is still an honourable mention in CanadaFootballChat.com's top-25 rankings.

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The location for the Forest Heights-KCI football games on Saturday, Oct. 1 is St. David. Times are listed on the schedule.

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There has been a location change for the Grand River vs. Cameron Heights volleyball and basketball games on Oct. 20.

The locations have been flopped, with volleyball to be played at Grand River and basketball at Cameron Heights.

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Three high school students were honoured by Athletics Ontario as it handed out their Athletes of Excellence awards on Saturday night.

Bluevale's Kailee Sawyer of the Laurel Creek Track and Field Club won midget girls distance races.

WCI's Nicholash Bedi of Laurel Creek won for midget boys distance races.

Forest Heights' Mitch O'Donnell of Supreme Athletics won for youth boys jumps.

 

A week of great performances

 We're only one week in but there  were a number of outstanding performances last week from both Waterloo County and District 8 athletes. Thanks to all the people who took a moment to suggest an athlete for this feature. The list is heavy on football but that's only because football types took the time to suggest names. Some are long on information, while others are a little light. The plan is to make it a top-10  list starting next week. A few of these played performed well in events that I took in. Here are just a few of the athletes that had great performances.

Trevor Ranton, Tyler Douse, Jordan Hoekstra, Will Mitchell (WCI) - The Vikings golf team captured last week's WCSSAA championship as three Grade 9 players led the way. Ranton shot rounds of 74 and 75 to finish as the low scorer for the entire tournament, Douse went 77-75 and Hoekstra was 77-76. Mitchell shot 91-87 but only the top three scores counted as the Vikings finished 14 strokes ahead of the Huron Heights Huskies.

The three Grade 9 golfers have been friends since Kindergarten where they attended Northlake Woods. They have played almost every day since the beginning of June together at Whistle Bear and have all got in close to 100 rounds and spent countless hours on the range.

Douse's father Steve was an outstanding junior who attended Bradley University on a golf scholarship, while Tyler is also a solid hockey player.
Hoekstra plays triple-A hockey for the Waterloo Wolves and is the newest golfer of the three. His natural athleticism has allowed him to excel at the game in a short period of time.

Ranton was a  very good basketball player but had to give  up high impact sports due to a heart condition. As a result, he turned his focus to golf and curling and excels at both. He is a member of Whistle Bear's Junior Performance team.

Jordyn and Madison Visscher (Woodland) - The Visscher sisters won their respective races at the Shade Mills cross-country meet in Cambridge. Jordyn, a Grade 11 student, easily won the senior girls 4-kilometre race in a time of 16:07.29 to finish well ahead of second-place finisher Sarah  Reed of KCI, who finished in 17:44.59. Madison, a Grade 9 student, finished the midget girls 2-kilometre race in 9:18.5 to finish 12 seconds ahead of St. David's Breanne Steven. The Visscher girls both train with the Speed River Track Club in Guelph.

Michelle Hudyn (Eastwood) - The Grade 12 player had a monster week, starting with a 25-point performance in a two-point OT victory over the St. Mary's Eagles in the annual Eastwood senior girls basketball tournament. She followed that up in the WCSSAA league with a 39-point effort in a win over Preston and 33 points in a loss to Elmira. One of the league's top players, she also competes for the K-W Lightning club team.

Kaitlyn Schenck (St. Mary's) - The Grade 12 player led the Eagles to a pair of convincing victories in District 8 senior girls basketball play. She poured  in 17 points in a 51-19 win over  St. David and counted 16 in a 52-24 win over  Resurrection. The leagu'e's reigning MVP also plays for the LIghtning.

Emma Stairs (Forest Heights) - The Grade 12 player had a big week as the Trojans jumped out to a 3-0 record in WCSSAA field hockey play. She scored once in a 3-1 win over  Waterloo-Oxford, twice in a 3-1 win over Jacob Hespeler and three in 5-0 win over Glenview Park. She was also a player  on the Ontario under-18 team that won a national championship this summer.

Ryan Tomas (SJAM) - The offensive lineman is not only a great performer on the field, he's also a team leader on the Highlanders football squad that scored a 41-0 romp over the Preston Panthers in senior football play. A positive influence on the sidelines, he has started as a backside tackle in all four years of high school at  SJAM. He and Daniel Hayes played a key role when SJAM's juniors won a WCSSAA title two years ago. 

George Monaghan (St. Benedict) - In his first high school football game, the Grade 9 student caught seven passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns, with both scores from more than 50 yards out. He also rushed 85 yards on five carries in the Saints' 30-27 win over Resurrection. The rookie also played big on special teams, coming up with a number of tackles.

Carlton Smith (Jacob Hespeler) - The versatile Grade 11 student caught four touchdown passes and ran 60 yards for another as the powerful Hawks crushed the Bluevale Knights 48-0 under the lights in senior football play. Smith also plays free safety and returns punts and kicks.

Joseph Fife (Elmira) - The Grade 11 quarterback had five touchdowns in the Lancers'  49-12 win over the Galt Ghosts. An honour roll student, Fife will play a key role if Elmira is to make noise in the senior boys B division this year.

Garret Burke (Cameron Heights) - The fifth-year defensive back recorded a pair of defensive touchdowns as the Gaels senior boys football team scored a 26-0 win over Eastwood and improved to 2-0 in B division play. He also recorded a number of key tackles and knocked down a couple of passes. He was the Ontario Varsity Football League's top defensive back in 2010 and is interested in attending Queen's University next year.

 

Shuh winners return to Waterloo

Need evidence of exactly how good the  Waterloo County senior boys football league really is?

Look no farther than Saturday's OUA game at  University Stadium where the past three Doug Shuh MVP Award winners will be playing a starting role for the visiting Western Mustangs against the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks.

And  defensive back Beau Landry (Resurrection, 2008), wide receiver Andrew Thibaudeau (Cameron Heights, 2009) and running back Tyler Varga (Cameron Heights, 2010) aren't the only locals suiting up for Western.

Defensive back Trevor Lass (Waterloo-Oxford), defensive tackle Brandon Murphy (Cameron Heights) and defensive end Alex Todd (Waterloo-Oxford) are also now calling London home.

The Golden Hawks have a massive WCSSAA contingent with defensive back Chris Ackie (Preston), receiver Karsten Beney (Bluevale), offensive lineman Gregory Borovilos (SJAM), receiver Scott Campbell (Galt), quarterback Jason Chris (Resurrection), linebacker Jesse Collins (Bluevale), quarterback James Fracas (SJAM), linebacker Drew Galpin (Forest Heights), kicker-punter Nathan Hawkes (Preston), receiver Dillon Heap (WCI), defensive lineman Mike Nagy (Resurrection), kicker-punter Ronnie Pfeffer (Cameron Heights), running back  Josh Pirie (Jacob  Hespeler), receiver Jordan Schulz (WCI), offensive lineman  Drew Silverstein (KCI), offensive lineman Brent Wilson (WCI), and receiver Steve Woolner (Rockway).

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A handful of interesting results from Thursday's WCSSAA games but none bigger -- to me, at least -- than Elmira's 49-12 win over Galt. This is the same Lancers squad that laid an egg in a 33-0 loss to Grand River during Week 1. Why the turnaround? And off day against Grand River or are the Rens really that good?

The Renegades made it 2-0 in Week 2 with a 31-17 win over Huron Heights, the same Huskies squad that fell 21-7 to Waterloo-Oxford one week earlier.

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Michelle Hudyn of Eastwood had her second straight massive game with 33 points in a losing effort against Elmira.

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WCSSAA senior boys volleyball followed the D8 trend with five 3-0 blowouts of the six games played. Only Bluevale's 3-1 win over KCI looked to be close.

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Emma Stairs of Forest Heights had five goals in two field hockey wins, three in a 5-0 win over Glenview Park and two in a 3-1 win over  Jacob Hespeler.

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And thanks to those  who have taken time to nominate a student-athlete for the Monday feature. Contact me at mbryson@therecord.com with suggestions. I'm especially looking for help in the volleyball department as it's the only fall sport that doesn't keep individual stats.

 

 

Nominations wanted

Coaches, teachers, athletes, students and parents ... I need your help.

I'm once again looking for nominations for a weekly list I'm going to be putting together on Mondays. Simply submit the names of student athletes, what they did to help their team during that week and a small bio to mbryson@therecord.com and there's a very good chance they'll be recognized on this blog.

I'd like to make it 10 student-athletes every week, but that is flexible.

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Looking back on Wednesday's District 8 volleyball action, all eight games  -- four senior and four junior -- finished with 3-0 scores. Odd stat and not exactly sure what to make of it.

One game also jumps out and that would  be Monsignor Doyle's 29-4 win over Rockway in junior girls basketball. Sadly for the Flames, it's a big improvement on their season-opener on Monday, a 53-3 loss to St. David.

Ouch.

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The plan today is to take in some cross-country running in Cambridge.

 

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The start time for Friday's WCSSAA junior boys football game between Rez and St. Benedict has been changed to 2:30 p.m. with the senior game to follow.

 

 

A long run to victory

 

Exciting finish -- I wouldn't call it incredible -- to a recent high school football game  in Oklahoma.

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Jacob Hespeler teacher Mark Frayne is the Hespeler Scorpions Youth Volleyball Club's new developmental coordinator for their Spikes 11 and House League programs.

Frayne played volleyball at the University of  Guelph for four years and for the last five years has coached the senior boys and junior girls teams at Jacob Hespeler.

Check out scorpionsvolleyball.ca for  more information.

 

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A couple scores stand out from Tuesday's WCSSAA senior girls basketball games.

First up, Eastwood star Michelle Hudyn poured in 39 points in a 64-54 win over Preston. Not a bad start for Hudyn, who also suited up for the boys team at Eastwood last year.

Second, the WCI Vikings came flying out of the gate with a 52-13 win over Southwood as Lindsay Lessard led the winners with 15 points. The Vikings, of course, have won the senior girls championship every season since the beginning of time and appear to be well-positioned to take another run.

And yes, the beginning of time was a slight exaggeration, but not too far off.

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In junior girls play, hard not to notice Grand River's 70-20 win over Galt. It's not too often you see a 70-spot posted at that level. Too bad about  the 50-point margin of victory.

 

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The  WCI Vikings are seen by many as one of the teams to beat in the senior boys volleyball league and they did nothing to change that thinking with their easy 3-0 (25-4, 25-11, 25-7) win over Southwood.

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On tap later  today for me is a little D8 girls roundball between St. Mary's and St. David in Waterloo.

 

 

A full week of action

A late start to the week thanks to a little emergency dental surgery but it should be an exciting week as D8 and WCSSAA sports get rolling.

D8 action started on Monday with the full results posted on that league's very cool, new-look website.

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The senior boys football poll is now closed and it seems most believe WCI will repeat as WCSSAA champions with the Vikings capturing 24 per cent of vote, followed by Jacob Hespeler (21),  SJAM (15.5), Rez (15), Bluevale (8.5),  St. Benedict (7), Preston (5.5) and Glenview Park (3.5).

Based on Week 1 results, Jacob Hespeler, SJAM, St. Benedict and maybe Rez would be my choices with a clear nod going to the  Hawks, who receive an honourable mention nod in this week's CanadaFootballChat.com's top-25 ranking.

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Heading to  Galt shortly to take in a senior boys volleyball game between the Ghosts and visiting Grand River Renegades.

 

 

 

 

 

OFSAA website looking good

Thumbs up to the new OFSAA website . . . a good-looking effort that is easy to navigate. Not everything is up and running yet, but I particularly like how the new site lists all the OFSAA-sanctioned events.

Check it out.

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The WCSSAA open tennis tournament will now be played on Oct. 7.

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What a great afternoon for  football. Looking forward to the Week 1 matchups, especially the SJAM-Jacob Hespeler clash in Waterloo.