Hey sports fans, it's time to take a look at the local athletics scene and see who has been moving and shaking.
I'll start with a salute to the high school students who
competed in the 66th annual SDSSAA Track and Field
Championships last week.
Despite blistering and sweltering temperatures, the athletes,
some 585 strong, put on a heck of a show.
The sun was relentless, but it didn't keep the competitors from
creating even more heat on the track and in the field.
Numerous city records were smashed to bits. Twenty alone on the
first day of the two-day event.
The athletes simply stayed in the shade under big, blue tarps
in the grandstands and only emerged to get water or get ready
to compete.
The always-hyped senior girls' 100-metre dash served to be the
hottest ticket on the hottest day in 2007.
How do I know this? Because when the participants lined up for
the race, the entire throng of athletes, coaches, fans,
officials, and any one else in the area stopped what they were
doing so they could watch.
The people running the concession stand even closed up shop for
a few minutes so they too could watch the race.
What was all the hype? Well, it was the final city race between
cross-town rivals Rebecca Johnston (Lo-Ellen) and Celine Loyer
(Sacre-Coeur).
Like last year, Johnston stole the thunder by charging her way
to the gold medal. Loyer placed second.
These two will continue their 100-m supremacy battle at the
NOSSA Championships Thursday and Friday in North Bay.
I also have to give a nod to those athletes, and there were a
lot of them, who gave their all in the track and field finals,
and then immediately headed over to the fields of Sacre-Coeur
for the city soccer championships.
It was quite a sight to see some athletes race across the
scorching track and then minutes later show up at the soccer
field across town sweating and huffing, pulling up their soccer
socks and going right into the heat of battle on the soccer
pitch.
It was a wild two days of high school action. Hopefully, next
year, there will be some more sensible planning for these types
of city championships where some athletes in different sports
can have at least a day's rest before their next big
challenge.
It would have been interesting to see if Lo-Ellen would have
given Lockerby a better run in the city senior girls' AA/AAA
final if their players had been a bit more fresh and not spent
from two days of track and field. Lockerby won the city title
2-0. Some of Lo-Ellen's top players all missed time in the
match due to track.
In other news…
The Chinese consider this to be the Year of the Pig. It could
be the Year of the Wolf in the hockey world though.
Everyone knows the Sudbury Wolves went on a great run to the
OHL final in the 2007 playoffs.
Many former players of the Wolves have also made impressive
runs in their respective hockey leagues across North
America.
The NHL Stanley Cup Championship will be won by either Ottawa
or Anaheim, and both teams feature three former Wolves' players
on their rosters.
Anaheim's head coach Randy Carlyle (born in Azilda) and
assistant coach Dave Farrish both played for Sudbury in the
70s. Carlyle scored 151 points in 139 games. Farrish recorded
166 points in 184 games.
Anaheim defenceman Sean O'Donnell played three seasons for
Sudbury in the 90s, picking up 67 points in 186 games.
Ottawa has forwards Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly and Brian
McGrattan, who all spent time with the Wolves.
Fisher played 134 games and had 155 points. McGrattan was known
more for his punching power during his 78-game stay with
Sudbury, while Kelly played just 19 games and the playoffs in
2001 for Sudbury after coming over in a trade with London.
A former Wolves' player will also hoist the American Hockey
League (AHL) Calder Cup this season. The finalists - Hamilton
and Hershey - have Wolves' flavour.
Hamilton features Sudbury's own Zack Stortini, who played four
seasons in the Nickel City, and defender Dan Jancevski, who
played 31 games for Sudbury in 2001.
Hershey has scrapper Kip Brennan, who played four seasons with
Sudbury and racked up 567 penalty minutes.
In the Central Hockey League (CHL), Sudbury's own Bobby
Chaumont, who played four years for the Wolves and set the OHL
ironman record, came close to winning that league championship.
Chaumont and the Laredo Bucks made the CHL final, but bowed in
six games to Colorado.
Finally, Wolves defenceman Jonathan D'Aversa, who just wrapped
up his four-year Sudbury OHL career, got a big break last week,
when the Pittsburgh Penguins signed him to a three-year
entry-level contract. D'Aversa had two training camp tryouts in
the past with NHL clubs, but they never worked out for him.
This contract gives him the luxury of having three solid
chances of making it to the NHL.
