It's been said many times, but it definitely bears
repeating. Such is the breadth of the sports community in
Sudbury that it is a physical impossibility to cover even 10
per cent of all athletic events, let alone try and provide
details on each and every competition.
When both the houseleague and rep hockey programs are in full
gear, they will team with the high-school sports schedule to
provide an average of anywhere from 30 to 40 different games
weekly from Monday through Thursday.
Compounding this is the fact that weekends are even busier.
Tournaments at basketball, volleyball, ringette and hockey
venues across the city, meets bringing together countless young
gymnasts, swimmers and figure skaters, indoor soccer
facilities, running from morning till night, and we've only
scratched the surface of fall and winter activites.
That is why, from time to time, I will take advantage of the
opportunity provided via this column to highlight some recent
results from sports that perhaps would fly under the radar
screen when it comes to grabbing their fair share of the
spotlight.
Let's start out in Falconbridge where last Friday more than 600
young elementary school athletes gathered for the first annual
Rainbow District School Board Cross-Country Race.
The youngsters braved a stiff northern wind to cover courses
ranging from two to three kilometers, with medals awarded to
the top three finishers in each of the four divisions.
Medal winners included Hanna Bird (Northeastern), Tatum Hurley
(Jessie Hamilton) and Karli Shell (George Vanier) in the junior
girls race, Bray Crowder (Jessie Hamilton), Noah Lapierre
(Northeastern) and Archie Scully (Levack) in junior boys, Jenna
Hellstrom (Carl Nesbitt), Alex Smuland (Pinecrest) and Kelly
Hotta (MacLeod) in senior ladies and Scott Sirkka (Algonquin),
Curtis Campbell (Levack) and Sean Moore (Algonquin) in the
senior boys finale.
Still with the great outdoors, kudos go out to those hardy
high-school paddling souls who took to the waters of Lake
Ramsey on Saturday morning, excited by the prospect of learning
the art of dragon boat racing from a handful of volunteers with
the Sudbury Canoe Club.
Crews representing St. Benedict, St. Charles and Chelmsford
participated in a series of races on a day where a capsized
boat was clearly not a welcome relief. When all was said and
done, the Bears from St. Ben's had proven that they were every
bit as adept with the paddling ores as the football scores,
sitting alone atop the standings and taking home the hardware.
Out from the cold and to the warmth of the St. Charles College
gymnasium as the New Sudbury Catholic Secondary School plays
host to the Cardinal Classic Boys Volleyball Tournament,
bringing together 18 teams for the junior and senior events.
The Lockerby Vikings seem to be quite at home with the
Cardinals' nest, sweeping both of the divisions as the Junior
Vikes knocked off the Sacre Coeur Griffons in a three-set final
(23-25, 25-20, 15-8) while the Lockerby Seniors disposed of the
host team 25-16, 25-16 in straight sets. In fairness, a
shortened St. Charles bench was beset by injuries to key
players while the Vikings were coming off an emotional
semi-final comeback victory over Champlain as the Requins had
the south-end school on the ropes earlier in the afternoon.
And it wasn't just within the city limits that SDSSA schools
were enjoying tournament success. The Lo-Ellen Park Knights
remain the favourites to repeat as Senior Boys City Volleyball
champs and continue to look ready to take on all comers,
picking up gold in North Bay.
The Knights downed the Lively Hawks in the semi-final round
(25-21, 25-18) before bettering the College Notre-Dame
Alouettes in the final, 25-19, 25-16.
Further to the north, the Horizon Aigles senior girls
basketball team returned home with the championship banner from
the "Black and Gold Challenge" being hosted at Temiskaming
District Secondary School.
The Aigles downed the host team 38-25 in the final as Tessa
Bertrand hit a trio of baskets from beyond the arc as part of
her 15-point performance, enough to solidify the Horizon guard
as Tournament MVP.
Jasmine Roy chipped in with a dozen points in the final,
averaging 16 per game throughout the tournament and earning a
spot on the all-star team in the process. Of course, this
covers off five events from the weekend - apologies go out to
the 20 or 30 more that we simply could not fit in.
Randy Pascal is the voice of Persona 10 Sports and the founder of SudburySports.com.
