A first for Penticton — Lakers girls win the B.C. championships in Terrace Feb. 25
Penticton Secondary School’s Lakers Girls Curling Team not only took home gold last weekend, they made history at the BC High School Provincial Curling Championship in Terrace on Feb. 25.
It is the first time in Penticton history that the Lakers Girls team has won the title.
The last time Pen-Hi won the junior curling provincials was the Laker Boys Team in 2018 and before that, the boys took the title in 1962.
During the weekend tournament, Team Penticton won the round-robin championship five games straight, with zero losses. The final match was between Penticton and Grand Forks on Feb. 25.
Since Team Penticton won the most games advancing to the final, this gave them the hammer advantage and choice of colour stone they wished to play.
The Pen Hi Girls Curling Team beat Grand Forks Secondary in the gold medal game with a score of 9-2.
Coach Laura Tomlinson led the girls to the win.
The girls will present the banner and trophy to the principal Chris Van Bergeyk and the athletic director Brian Hurst on Wednesday.
Penticton Rotary Sunrise donated $500 towards travel costs to the tournament.
Pen-Hi’s provincial champion girls’ curling team includes Lead – Audrey Gosse (curling for nine years), Second – Miranda Allen (seven years curling), Third – Rachel Lane (nine years curling), Skip – Erin Manning (10 years) with coach Laura Tomlinson.
Penticton and Grand Forks win gold at B.C. School Sports curling provincials in Terrace
Young curlers from across the province attended the High School curling championships in Terrace last week.
The B.C. School Sports curling provincials wrapped up in Terrace on Saturday, Feb. 25 with the Penticton Secondary girls team and the Grand Forks Secondary boys team taking home gold after Zack Wolfram broke the tie in a tight extra-end shot right to the button over Salmon Arm Secondary, who took silver for the boys after losing only one game.
Grand Forks Secondary won silver for the girls over Kitimat’s own Mount Elizabeth Secondary, who won bronze early in the day before Langley’s Walnut Grove Secondary won bronze for the boys.
Terrace’s Caledonia Senior Secondary had a shot at the finals but would have needed two wins in a row on Friday to make the final cut.
The week-long tournament brought teams from across the province together at the Terrace curling rink with the top two teams from each round robin facing off for the weekend championship.
Zone representative and Kitimat coach Dave Durrant came up with the idea to have the event in Terrace and coordinated through BC School Sports, the Terrace and Kitimat clubs.
“I’m from Kitimat and our ice plant has not worked for the last two years. And the the Terrace people embraced me and my team like they were members of this community. They’ve just been awesome.
“This is an absolutely brilliant facility. I’ve been so fortunate to get to know all of the people. We’ve had over 30 volunteers helping us with this tournament. It’s just been fantastic.”
Seven boys teams and six girls teams participated in the championships, with some arriving late due to flight delays. But it all came together and went smoothly at the end of the day, said Durrant.
“Some teams who arrived 24 hours late had to basically get off a plane, scramble to the hotel and then run to the rink to play their first game with all the jet-lag and everything else.
“I breathed a real sigh of relief when those last teams got off the plane.”
The teams got a chance to mesh and socialize at a banquet on Friday with about 100 people including coaches, some parents and all the athletes, followed by a dance.
They wrapped up Friday with a friendly tournament and are again facing cancelled flights on Saturday due to inclement weather.
“We’re trying to promote mixed doubles concept for BC School Sports so we’ll have randomly placed teams out on the ice,” said Durrant.
Durrant added that curling is a great sport to promote among youth and it can become a life-long pastime.
“In my experience as a coach, and I’ve been doing this for a while now, it’s about seeing the absolute happiness and quality people that participate in curling and the kids are absolutely no exception.
“They’re just a pleasure to be around and a joy to coach.”
The 75th Anniversary of OFSAA will be celebrated during the 2023-24 school year.
We asked for the assistance of Ontario students in gaining a design concept towards the final completion of a special logo to mark the anniversary. OFSAA’s 75th Anniversary Planning Committee judged the entries.
We are very pleased to reveal the logo which will be featured prominently on championship banners, apparel, and other merchandise items in 2023-24.
Congratulations to Grade 12 student Reese Rossignol of Adam Scott Collegiate Vocational Institute (COSSA) in Peterborough!
Reese has won a commemorative Canuckstuff hoodie and a sporty prize pack of 75th Anniversary items.
We thank for Reese for his artistic contributions towards the logo which uniquely captures the spirit of our heritage and of our “Diamond Anniversary”!
The inaugural P.E.I. School Athletic Association Brodie McCarthy Student-Athlete Award will be presented in June to a Grade 12 student, honouring the memory of McCarthy. PEISAA chair Darryl Boudreau, left, and Brodie’s parents, Lisa and Dave, display the award. – PEISAA/Special to SaltWire Network
The P.E.I. School Athletic Association (PEISAA) is launching an award to recognize a graduating student while honouring the memory of a former student-athlete.
Phil Bridges, school sport co-ordinator for the PEISAA, announced the PEISAA Brodie McCarthy Student-Athlete Award during the association’s senior AAA basketball championships at Holland College on Feb. 15.
“The basic criteria around this (award) is it will be awarded to a student in Grade 12; it is a person who is involved in school sport; a person who demonstrates leadership; a person who has good academic standing and not necessarily the best student in the school, but a student who is working well within their academic abilities,” said PEISAA chair Darryl Boudreau.
“We will also look at the non-sport activities that a student might be doing within their own school as well. It could be something with student involvement, it could be volunteering for events going on in the school that is not sports-related.”
The award is named in honour of McCarthy, who died following a head injury that happened in the Three Oaks Senior High School’s David Voye Memorial rugby tournament in Summerside in May 2018. The son of Lisa and Dave McCarthy of Cambridge, near Montague, was 18 and in Grade 12 at Montague Regional High School.
“We were pretty pleased and surprised that Phil approached us with naming the award after Brodie (in the fall of 2022),” Lisa told SaltWire Network in a phone interview. “It was a really nice gesture, and we were happy about it.”
Brodie McCarthy – Lisa McCarthy/Special to SaltWire Network
Brodie McCarthy – Contributed
Lisa said it is “quite the compliment” for the family to have the award named after Brodie. Lisa said Brodie loved sports and would eat, sleep and breathe sports.
“There were more sports that he loved than he didn’t love,” said Lisa. “He was a well-rounded athlete I’d say.”
The fact there is a broader span to this award that is more than just athletics means a lot to the McCarthy family.
“It just doesn’t go to the best athlete necessarily or (someone) not necessarily who has top, top marks,” said Lisa.
At a glance
Here is the citeria for the P.E.I. School Athletic Association Brodie McCarthy Student-Athlete Award:
Student must be in Grade 12 and meeting requirements to graduate in the current year.
This is a student-athlete award and not an academic award, but the student must have an average of over 70 per cent in their Grade 12 year.
Student must have participated in at least two PEISAA-sanctioned sports – individual or team – during their Grade 12 year, along with being a good sport.
Involvement in other activities within their school.
Involvement in the community, volunteer work, etc.
It wasn’t easy, but the Superhoops League title again belongs to the Crusaders! We needed a huge 3pt shot from @jeffrumbaoa22 and some end of game fortune to go our way, but wins like this are worth it for character-building, grit, and confidence heading into the Yukon Championships. We were pushed and down for much of the game late, but we never hung our heads.
FH Collins played great and we know they’ll be inspired to learn from this narrow loss. But the good news for us? We’re back at it on Monday to work on our deficiencies so they won’t be exploited in a game again. It’s going to be a fun finish to the season!
A new venue and a return to in-person competition. That’s a recipe of success for the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT and its Traditional Games Championships.
The 2023 edition was held at Sir John Franklin gymnasium from Feb. 10 to 12 with a total of 20 teams doing battle in a mix of Dene games and Arctic sports to win the overall title. In the end, it was William McDonald School which took home the big banner with a total of 33 points scored from all of their events. Mangilaluk School of Tuktoyaktuk finished in second while St. Joe’s School was third.
Katey Davis, one of William McDonald School’s coaches, said it was an excited bunch once the final results were revealed.
“The kids were all sitting on the floor with their fingers crossed,” she said. “When it was announced, they all jumped up and shouted. I was telling them that it didn’t matter because they were having fun and learning, but they have that competitive spirit.”
Each of the 20 teams had a roster of four boys and four girls all between the ages of 10 and 12. The teams competed in such events as hand games, pole push, stick pull and the one-foot and two-foot high kicks over the weekend.
Points were given out based on the final results in each event and the team that garnered the most points was declared the winner.
Davis said she felt her students fared best in the kicking events.
“I know a lot of our boys were in the top-10 or top-12 and we did really good in the stick pull as well,” she said. “We weren’t a tall team, so some of the strength events were tougher, but we certainly did well in the other ones.”
Davis added that Darren Wicks, the school’s phys-ed teacher, played a big part in why the team did so well as he incorporated traditional games into his curriculum.
Carson Roche, the events manager for the Aboriginal Sports Circle, said everything went as well as it could have.
“We were coming off of a two-year absence of the in-person competition because of Covid, so I was a bit nervous how it would all work out,” he said. “We had four or five teams signed up with about a week to go, but then 10 teams got in on one day. We knew we’d be in good shape.”
When action began, Roche said it was obvious who had been working on technique.
“You could tell which teams had been practising because they had the form down,” he said. “Some teams were there for the experience, but you have those teams which take this seriously.”
Just to make sure everyone knew what they were doing, some of the officials demonstrated exactly how to do each event before the competition began, he added.
As mentioned, Sir John Franklin was the new venue this year; William McDonald gymnasium had been the venue since the inception.
Roche said making the move meant more room and a better atmosphere.
“We had the bleachers out and they were full all weekend,” he said. “We were able to have more kickstands out; we fed everyone in one venue. The weather was perfect for the outdoor events (snowsnake and pole push).”
William McDonald’s victory came with quite the bonus prize as they will now be heading to Juneau, Alaska, to compete in the Traditional Games Alaska event in early April. They’ll be flying into Juneau from Seattle after getting permission from the Yellowknife Education District No. 1 board to do so.
Davis said the team is practising for that event with some extra attention being given to some disciplines that are new to them.
“They play some games over there that we don’t,” she said. “The scissor broad jump is one and the seal hop is another. The seal hop looks a bit like the knuckle hop. It’s a different area of the North there and what’s traditional there may not be traditional here.”
The Junior Cager basketball tournament was just finishing up and all was going well. So well, in fact, that there was talk about how things would go for next year.
Little did the Cager know that it would end up being the last school sports tournament until September 2022.
For the first time since that fateful year, the Junior Cager was back this past weekend with games happening all around the city. Six banners were up for grabs — boys and girls in each of Grade 6, 7 and 8 divisions — with most of the winners determined on Saturday. The only division which went to Sunday was the Grade 8 boys, a battle between St. Pat’s White and St. Pat’s Green.
That contest ended up being a 68-59 win for St. Pat’s White, a bittersweet win in the opinion of Jozuard Mercado, who was one of the student coaches for the team.
He said it was a shame only one of the Irish teams could come out on top.
“We wanted both to win, but we knew that would be impossible to do,” he said.
St. Pat’s White jumped out to a big lead in the first half and that gave the team a chance to empty the bench. St. Pat’s Green, though, used that to their advantage and slowly crept back into the picture.
Justin Quito, who was one of the St. Pat’s Green student coaches, said had there been some more time, things could’ve ended differently.
“Time just wasn’t our friend,” he said. “We could’ve done it with a few more minutes, I think.”
St. Pat’s also won the Grade 8 girls division to give the Irish a sweep. William McDonald also had a sweep of their own as the Wildcats took both banners in the Grade 6 division. The Grade 7 division saw St. Joe’s win the girls title and Princess Alexandra School of Hay River claim the boys crown.
It was a rather exciting win for the Panthers as they had the Grade 6 boys and Grade 7 girls teams on hand at Range Lake North Gymnasium and they were celebrating right along with champs, said Panthers coach Jason Morrissey.
“We had our fans and Weledeh had their fans, so it had a hometown feel to it,” he said. “It was just sheer joy for our kids and the parents. We had some of the kids in tears and some of the parents as well. Just a really cool feeling.”
That was the sentiment among some of the other student coaches at St. Pat’s, including Naledi Ndlovu, who was coaching the St. Pat’s Green team.
“It felt really good seeing the kids get back to doing what they love and that’s playing sports,” she said. “Being away from it took a toll on the athletes and the morale level was really down, but you can see the difference now that it’s back.”
The Senior Cager, featuring the older students, is set to tip off on Thursday.
The new Mental Health and Sport Resource Hub launched on February 16 through the efforts of the Coaching Association of Canada.
Enhance your coaching with positive mental health practices.
Coaches and sport leaders play an important role in the lives of millions of athletes in Canada. With training and tools to support our own mental health and care for those around us, we can positively impact communities across the country and improve mental well-being as well as performance.
The goal of the hub is to increase coaches’ mental health literacy and give them the knowledge and skills they need to support sport participants. This free online portal offers tools and information to overcome stigma and guide conversations around mental health.
The Hub compiles up-to-date, culturally informed and evidence-based resources in one place, making it easier for coaches and athletes to navigate mental health challenges and proactively integrate positive mental health practices into their sports. Resources include eLearning modules, videos, workshops, events, research papers, infographics and more.
Launching February 16: Mental Health and Sport Resource Hub
It’s essential for coaches to have the mental health literacy, knowledge and skills to support athletes and sport participants. The new Mental Health and Sport Resource Hub gathers up-to-date, culturally informed and evidence-based resources in one place, making it easier for coaches, athletes and other members of the sport community to navigate mental health challenges. Featuring eLearning modules, videos, workshops, events, research papers, infographics and more, the Hub’s range of resources will help coaches proactively integrate positive mental health practices into their sport.
Get involved!
Spread the Word Once the Mental Health and Sport Resource Hub has launched at 12pm ET on February 16, use the resources and copy in the Marketing Toolkit to share the news through your communications channels.
À venir bientôt : Portail de ressources sur la santé mentale et le sport
Il est essentiel que les entraîneurs aient de bonnes connaissances en santé mentale ainsi que les outils et compétences nécessaires pour soutenir les athlètes et les participants sportifs. Le nouveau Portail de ressources sur la santé mentale et le sport réunit à un seul endroit des ressources à jour, fondées sur des données probantes et sensibles à la culture pour aider les entraîneurs, les athlètes et autres membres de la communauté sportive à aborder les problèmes de santé mentale. Riche en modules de formation en ligne, vidéos, ateliers, événements, rapports de recherche et infographies, l’éventail de ressources du Portail vous aidera à intégrer de façon proactive des pratiques de santé mentale positive dans le sport.
Soyez de la partie!
Passez le mot Lorsque le Portail de ressources sur la santé mentale et le sport sera lancé à 12 h HE le 16 février, utilisez les ressources et le texte dans la Trousse de marketing pour partager les nouvelles via vos canaux de communication.
View this email in your browserLe français suit l’anglaisExplore the resources availableThe Mental Health and Sport Resource Hub is officially live!Coaches have the potential to positively impact the mental health of those they coach, especially when they’re equipped with the right tools and training.Visit the Hub today to browse a range of mental health and sport resources, including eLearning modules, videos, workshops, events, research papers, infographics, and more.Check out our FAQs to learn more, or submit a resource you think could be valuable to others.Visit the HubOur Partners:
Explorez les ressources à votre dispositionLe portail de ressources sur la santé mentale
et le sport est maintenant en ligne!Les entraîneurs ont la possibilité d’avoir une influence positive sur la santé mentale des participants sportifs, surtout s’ils ont les bons outils et la bonne formation.Visitez le portail dès aujourd’hui pour explorer les ressources en santé mentale et en sports comme des modules de formation en ligne, des vidéos, des ateliers, des événements, des articles de recherche, des infographies et plus encore.Consultez la foire aux questions pour tout savoir ou soumettez une ressource qui selon vous pourrait être utile pour d’autres personnes.Visitez le PortailPartenaires :
Congratulations to all the students that participated at the 2023 PEISAA Gymnastic Provincials sponsored by ADL. Top teams were Spring Park Pre Novice Girls, West Kent (pictured) Novice Girls and LM Montgomery Novice Boys. The event was held at Kensington Int\Sr High.
Over 240 P.E.I. athletes competing in PEISAA gymnastics championships in Kensington
KENSINGTON, P.E.I. — Kensington Intermediate Senior High School will once again be the site of the 2023 ADL P.E.I. School Athletic Association provincial gymnastics championships on Feb. 11.
A total of 241 athletes, representing 22 different schools, will compete in six age categories for the P.E.I. School Milk Foundation Awards.
“We are very excited to be hosting our provincial after a pause of two years due to COVID restrictions at the Kensington Intermediate Senior High School. It’s such a beautiful facility, it can hold so many spectators and the gym is very spectator friendly …, ” said PEISAA gymnastics commissioner Paul Goguen.
“Looking forward to seeing these students compete, there is always so much excitement and certainly always fun to watch”
The morning schedule features 123 registered pre-novice boys and girls from grades 3 and 4. This competition will begin at 9 a.m., with the presentation of awards at noon. Defending pre-novice team champions –West Kent Elementary boys and LM Montgomery Elementary girls – will both be there to defend their team titles.
The afternoon will see 118 novice boys, novice girls, bantam girls and intermediate girls from grades 5 to 9 compete at 1 p.m., followed by the presentation of awards at 3:25 p.m. Spring Park Elementary (novice boys) and LM Montgomery Elementary (novice girls) will defend their team titles.
Each gymnast will perform two vaults and one floor routine. Event and all-around awards will be awarded with schools also competing for provincial team honours.
Spectators are welcome.
Across P.E.I. schools, teachers have been busy working with their students since the start of December. All four zone championships were held with over 550 students taking part. All four zones will be sending their top three teams and top 20 all-around gymnasts in each category.
P.E.I. School Athletic Association school sport co-ordinator Phil Bridges is pleased with the continuing growth of gymnastics in schools across the province.
“This year, our numbers will be down, and it’s probably related to no gymnastics program in our schools for the past two years,” said Bridges. “We are looking forward to seeing these acrobatic athletes return for a provincial meet.
“The participation, alone, provides our students with both mental and physical health benefits through strength and endurance conditioning “
For the first time in 3 years, the PEISAA will host their Gymnastics Provincials Saturday, February 11 at Kensington Int\Sr High. Admission is Adults $3 (Cash only at the door). Thanks to our major sponsor for Gymnastics, ADL. Good luck to all participants.
Coaches have the potential to positively impact the mental health of those they coach, especially when they’re equipped with the right tools and training.
