High School Sports blog

Zach and the Tigers moving up

What a week for Erin Zach and the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers.

Just days after winning the NCAA Division III women’s hockey championship, RIT has announced it is moving its women’s hockey team to Division I, and has been accepted as a full member of the College Hockey America conference, effective for the 2012-13 season.

CHA commissioner Bob DeGregorio said the move to admit RIT immediately was due to Niagara dropping its women’s hockey program, announced Monday. The original plan had been for RIT to play an independent schedule next season before joining the CHA in 2013-14.

Zach, who played locally at WCI and Elmira District Secondary School, had a strong game on Saturday evening, as the RIT women’s hockey team (28-1-1) scored three third-period goals to defeat defending National Champion Norwich University (27-3-1) 4-1 in front of 1,195 fans at Ritter Arena in Rochester, N.Y.

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Grand River grad Teddi Firmi also had a great weekend, leading the University of Ottawa Gees Gees to the semifinal round of the CIS women's basketball championship this past weekend in Calgary.

After graduating from Grand River, she played basketball for three years at Queen's University before "retiring" from the sport in her fourth year because of knee issues.

She worked at RIM for more than a year before returning for a fifth year of university in the sports management program at Ottawa.

She was named co-captain by her teammates and earned a starting spot at the off-guard position.  Her role on this team is that of a defensive stopper, often drawing the opposing team's best player.

Firmi's athletic prowess isn't limited to the hardwood -- she's also a skilled rugby player and suited up for Canada's under-19 and under-23 teams.

 

Voll gets MVP nod

No real surprise as Adam Voll of St. Mary's has been named MVP of the District 8 senior boys basketball league.

The six-foot-seven forward with the massive wingspan led the Eagles to District 8 and CWOSSA titles and is a deserving winner of the award that last year was  captured by teammate Alex Thompson.

Voll also picked up a second team all-star mention at the Heinbuch Classic back in November and helped the Eagles to their first OFSAA win in school history (60-59 over Hamilton Westmount) earlier in March.

The league also announced its first-team and second-team all-stars in both the senior and junior divisions.

SENIOR BOYS

First Team All-Stars

Santo Dak (St. Benedict), Kueth Geng (St. Benedict), Cory Kenning (Resurrection), Isaac Lance (St. Mary’s), Tyler Schneider (Resurrection), Adam Voll (St. Mary’s)

Second Team All-Stars

Henry Bankazo (St. Mary’s), Josh Edwards (St. Benedict), Cam Gibbs (Resurrection), Uzair Khan (Monsignor Doyle), Alex Thompson (St. Mary’s), Steven Veltri (Rockway), Jake Winter (St. David)        

JUNIOR BOYS

Most Valuable Player

Mike Blumel (St. Mary’s)

All-Stars

Mike Blumel (St. Mary’s), Michael Born (Rockway), Bronson Bothelo (St. Mary’s), Omar Camanto (St. Benedict), George Dumitru (St. David), Sebastian Grasso (Monsignor Doyle), Dashaun Lalor (St. David), Jermaine Lyle (St. Mary’s), James McBride (St. David), Nathan Riley Riley (St. Mary’s), Mac Smith (Resurrection), Nathan Timmerman (Woodland Christian), Mark Wylie (Resurrection), Aaron Zammit (St. Benedict).

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Teams from Preston High School and St. Mary’s High School will begin their pursuit of gold starting Wednesday at Ontario Federation of Secondary School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championship tournaments.

The Preston Panthers squad of Kieran Scott, Nathan Scott, Justin Fraser and Coleman Ney will compete at the Welland Curling Club in the opening draw of the 20-team OFSAA curling championship.

The Panthers, who won the Central Western Ontario championship prior to the March break, will open against Central Algoma of Desbarats and then take on Georgetown’s Christ the King. On Thursday, they will compete at the Grimsby Curling Club against St. Paul of Niagara Falls in the morning and Aurora St. Andrew’s in the afternoon.

Quarter-finals will be played Friday with semifinals and the final to be contested Saturday.

The St. Mary’s Eagles, meanwhile, begin competition at the OFSAA boys hockey championship in Peterborough and will face Lasalle’s St. Thomas of Villanova in their first game on Wednesday.

The Eagles will face Uxbridge and Hamilton Sherwood on Thursday before closing out the round-robin portion of the tournament on Friday against West Ferris of North Bay.

Quarter-finals will be played Friday with the semifinals and final set for Saturday.

 

 

Busy days ahead

Best of luck to all the student-athletes from Waterloo Region that are competing at various OFSAA championships this week.

I'll be on the road for the next two days but will be providing Twitter updates at @BrysonRecord

As of Tuesday at noon, I can tell you that St. Mary's won its opener at the CWOSSA boys hockey championship while Grand River was playing Brantford North Park.

The SJAM Highlanders fell to Orangeville at the CWOSSA girls tourney and have been eliminated.

Forest Heights and Grand River were both winners in their opening game at the OFSAA girls quad-A volleyball championship, while Jacob Hespeler won and Galt lost at the  OFSAA girls triple-A volleyball tournament.

 

 

Top wrestlers

Here are the gold medalists from the recent WCSSAA wrestling championships.

Girls

Front row, left to right: Laurysa Tschirhart (Cameron), Rachel Schwegel (Grand River), Tia MacDonald (Cameron), Hannah Remillard (St. Mary's), Anna Marin (St. Mary's). Back row:  Kennedy Thompson (St. Benedict), Justine Walker (Waterloo-Oxford), Alicia Mighton (Cameron), Ainsley McPhail (St. Mary's), Bronwen Heilig (Cameron), Tayler Martin (Waterloo-Oxford), Sarah Robinson (Eastwood), Chantal Thorn (St. Mary's)

Boys

Front row: Charlie Goertz (Rockway), Elusha Bashir (St. Mary's), Taylor Hehn (St. Mary's), Sam Jagas (St. David's), Alex Pedrosa (Monsignor Doyle) Second row: Norbert Giron (St. Mary's), Yemerhi Mutuku (St. Mary's), Josh Polasz (Monsignor Doyle), Jorge Ortez (Monsignor Doyle), Alex Moher (St. Mary's), Matt Jagas (St. David) Back Row: Matt Schumacher (Waterloo-Oxford), Josh Pentecost (Cameron), Ryan Murphy (Grand River), Amin Ali (Eastwood), Adam King (Eastwood).

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Here is a list of the CWOSSA athletes that will compete at the OFSAA wrestling championship on Tuesday and Wednesday in Peterborough.

Time for CWOSSA hockey

Here's another picture from last week's WCSSAA hockey final, as per Eagles19's request. The image was snapped by Record photographer Phil Walker.

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I appreciate all the comments about last week's WCSSAA boys hockey championship.

Any thoughts on the CWOSSA tournament that starts Tuesday morning in Waterloo?

For local fans, wouldn't it be nice to see a Grand River-St. Mary's rematch in the final?  The Eagles and  Renegades are in different pools, so it could happen.

While we're at it, here's a link to the CWOSSA boys hockey tournament website.

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The Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders are the only local team to survive Day 1 at the CWOSSA girls hockey tournament in Cambridge.

Here's a link to all the results.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday morning thoughts

A couple thoughts on a dreary Friday morning.

* What an outstanding performance by Grade 9 goalie Ashley Forler in Bluevale's 2-1 win over St. Mary's. The Eagles dominated territorial play in the WCSSAA girls hockey final from start to finish, but Forler proved to be the difference.

* Much has been said about the officiating in Thursday night's WCSSAA boys hockey final -- some of it fair and some of it not so much.
Was St. Mary's third goal onside? The off-ice officials in my section of the rink -- actually they were Grand  River parents -- were certain the play was offside. It was close, for sure, but too close to say either way.
Why was a fourth Grand River goal called off? One official claimed to have lost sight of the puck, which prompted one Grand River teacher to comment -- "He lost sight of the puck because it was in the back of the  St. Mary's net."
When it was all said and done, however, the officials didn't decide the outcome. The players  did.

* Much respect to the vocal St. Mary's students that made the journey to Waterloo for the boys final. They were outstanding and the players appreciated the support.

* Don't count out any of the five local teams at next week's CWOSSA hockey tournaments as it wouldn't be the least bit surprising to see the Grand River boys and St. Mary's girls advance to OFSAA. The  SJAM Highlanders, who lost to St. Mary's in a WCSSAA semifinal, are also a contender at the  girls tournament in Cambridge.

* The OFSAA seedings are in.
The  St. Mary's Eagles are the 10th-ranked squad at the 18-team quad-A boys basketball tournament in Ottawa, while the Jacob Hespeler Hawks are 13th out of 16 at the triple-A tournament in Windsor.
In volleyball, it looks like Forest Heights is ranked No. 3 of 16 at the quad-A girls tournament while  Grand River is fifth.
Jacob Hespeler is seeded fifth at the 20-team triple-A tournament and Galt is ranked 15th.

 

 

 

A day of hockey

Looking forward to a WCSSAA hockey doubleheader today, starting with the girls final betweeen St. Mary's and Bluevale.

The much-anticipated boys final goes at 7:30 p.m. with St. Mary's trying to knock off the defending champion Grand  River Renegades.

I'll provide Twitter updates on both -- @BrysonRecord

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The Renegades currently lead the Eagles 52-48 in the online poll for tonight's game.