Ottawa Sportspage

HeartbeatThe Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community SportsOttawa.com Vol. 4, #7 May 2015

It’s down to crunch time for the four-dozen-or-so Ottawa athletes in contention for Canada’s 2015 Pan Am Games team, with most sports set to finalize their selections this month in advance of the July 10-26 multi-sport extravaganza in Toronto.

Out of the local group, the op-portunity likely isn’t any greater than for Jenna Flannigan and Han-nah Martensen. Simply put, the Pan Am Games are the biggest stage their sport of has ever seen.

They are two of 32 players headed to Toronto and the Rogers Centre for the May 10-17 final selection camp, where 18 will be chosen to compete for Canada in the first-ever Pan Am Games women’s baseball tourna-ment.

“To see it at the Pan Am Games is really exciting,” says Flannigan, not-ing the women’s national team pro-gram has only been in existence since 2004 – always under the leadership of Ottawa manager André Lachance. “It’s only been like 10 years. It just shows how much the sport has ad-vanced and improved.”

The local pair were both key contributors for Canada in their in-ternational debuts at the 2012 IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup in Ed-monton. Martensen earned the win on the mound in the bronze medal contest, and Flannigan was named a tournament all-star while batting .586 (second-best out of all players).

“The atmosphere with the crowd and everyone cheering for you, espe-cially in tight games with the U.S. or Japan, it was surreal,” recounts Flan-nigan, who’s now eager to relive that type of experience for the Pan Am Games. “To be part of that and hope-fully have success on home soil, in

the first time Canada hosts an event like this, that would be pretty amaz-ing. It’s really exciting.”

CAMP PREP A CHALLENGE

Since it’s not an Olympic sport, Canadian women’s do not receive national carding financial assistance, and their program’s funding is also limited, so the team tends to come together for training camps only in

advance of major competitions.That reality, along with winter –

an obstacle many Pan American rivals don’t face – has made it challenging to get ready for the camp, but both play-ers feel relatively well-prepared.

Martensen got in the cage as much as she could and did crossfit training, while Flannigan frequently joined the Ottawa Knights competitive youth club for their winter sessions at the

OZ Dome, along with Saskatchewan pitcher Melissa Armstrong, who stud-ies at Carleton University.

“That’s how we got our base-ball-specific training this past winter,” outlines Flannigan, who would help out with the Knights’ developmental teams at the same time. “That really helped a lot.”

PAN AM continues on p.10

By Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

Pan Am ma’am

Along with Carleton University student Melissa Armstrong and Pinecrest Little League alum Hannah Martensen, University of Ottawa human kinetics student Jenna Flannigan is one of three Ottawa connections amongst the final 32 players in contention for 18 spots on the Canadian team for the Pan Am Games de-but of women’s baseball coming up this summer in Toronto. It’s also crunch time for around four dozen local athletes in total who have good chances to make the Pan Am grade in other sports.

Biggest stage in sport’s history awaits local women’s baseball 2015 Pan Am Games hopefuls

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1ST TITLE WAVE FOR POLO CLUB

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P. 2

Ottawa Fury youth academy product Christina Julien was left off Canada’s roster for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The Capital Wave Water Polo Club won the first major championship in its short 3-year history at the Eastern Canadians.

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P. 7-8Benjamin Astorga is one of a dozen local gymnasts who qualified for the late-May Canadian Championships in Gatineau.

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It was a relatively short wait in the grand scheme, but the Capital Wave 14-and-under girls performed like they’d been chained up in-terminably when they were unleashed for the Water Polo Canada Eastern National Champi-onships.

Winning by no less than 10 goals in any of their five contests, the Wave girls captured the first major championship in their club’s young three-season history at the April 24-26 event in Etobicoke.

“I didn’t expect that kind of score,” says Wave coach Celso Rojas. “We had a strong team, for sure. And our top-3 players are more focused on the 16-and-under group. I knew those three girls would raise the level, and that’s what happened.”

Most Valuable Offensive Player Valeria Ro-jas and Sarah McGinnis tied for the tournament

scoring lead with 20 goals apiece, while Flor-anne Carroll – a provincial 16U all-star last year when she was just 13 – scored 16 goals and was named Most Valuable Defensive Player as well.

“(Playing with older players) makes you de-velop yourself,” signals Carroll, who’s enjoying more practice time with the club now that her family has moved to Gatineau from her pre-vious home in Belleville. “If I’d only played 14U, I probably would have stayed at the same level. Now I’m better.”

The Wave sometimes hold girls’ practices for players of all ages, coach Rojas explains, when the older 16U and 19U groups help the younger players. To have success at the young-est age level that participates in championship competition is perhaps the biggest prize possible for a club that’s so young as well, he adds.

“When this club started two years ago, I tried to put a program in place focusing on the new generation a little more to start from the base,” Rojas highlights. “Except for the three girls, all of them have been playing just one or two years of water polo. I feel a lot of pride because of the work we do.”

When the buzzer sounded at the end of the Wave’s final victory – another dominant 15-2 ef-fort against Kitchener-Waterloo – Rojas soaked

in the moment by plunging into the pool, clothes and all, along with his players.

“That was a great celebration,” smiles Va-leria Rojas, who believes strong teamwork – instead of individual play – was the major key to outclassing their opponents. “It was our last game together as a team for 14U, so it was great to win gold.”

The Eastern Championships is the highest of level of competition staged at the 14U level, however on the next weekend, the Wave 16U girls qualified for the National Championship League finals – to be held in Calgary at the end of May – with their 2nd-place performance at the Easterns in Etobicoke.

The Wave finished 5th in 16U boys compet-ition, while the Ottawa Titans were 4th in U14 boys and 3rd in U16 boys.

Playing in the FINA World League intercon-tinental round April 28-May 3 in New Zealand, Wave member Jessica Gaudreault backstopped Canada to a 3rd-place performance and a berth in the June 9-14 World League Super Final in Shanghair. The 20-year-old goalkeeper stopped a penalty attempt in Canada’s critical 11-3 quarter-final round victory over Kazakhstan to book their place in the World League champi-onship tournament. Canada then lost the USA 11-9 in the semi-final and overcame a three-goal deficit to beat China 9-7 to finish 3rd.

“We’re happy with the placing, it’s better than last year,” Gaudreault said in a FINA media release. “We’re just looking to grow as a team and we’re doing that.”

Wave utterly dominant in winning club’s 1st major crownBy Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

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Participants blast off in the 1 km fun run – the final event of the 5th- annual Alive to Strive race on April 26 at Terry Fox Athletic Facility. With over 700 participants in this year’s event, Alive to Strive broke the $100,000 fundraising mark for its kidney fitness/active living grant program.

photo: dan plouffe

Strivin’ for fitness

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They couldn’t have lost in much more heart-breaking fashion – double-overtime in the champion-ship game – but there were plenty of smiles nonetheless for the Nepean Wildcats as they collected their sil-ver medals from the Bantam ‘AA’ division at the April 9-12 Ontario Women’s Hockey Association provincial championships in Mis-sissauga.

“The pride the girls, coaches and parents carried after the tourna-ment was just unbelievable,” says Wildcats coach Mike Moloughney, whose team fell 2-1 to gold-medal-list London. “Even though we lost, I still feel like we won, and all the girls enjoyed their time and really pulled together as a team. It was easily the best hockey I’ve seen all year in that final game.”

Nepean’s OWHA silver came on the heels of a loss to the Kanata Rangers (who were provincial

quarter-finalists) in the district finals. That defeat was a rather stunning loss for the Wildcats, who compiled an overall record of 58-10-5 during league and tournament play.

“Kanata was great competition near the end of the year, and they pushed us,” signals Moloughney. “The girls realized it shouldn’t have happened, but we also realized that we had to step it up for provincials. I wouldn’t say it was a good thing that we lost the city championships, but I think it lit the fire under them and motivated them.”

The Wildcats weren’t exactly overpowering at provincials – their 4-1 tournament-opener was their largest margin of victory – but the team nonetheless posted five consec-utive wins over Saugeen-Maitland, Barrie, Vaughan and Burlington (twice) to reach the final.

“Game-by-game, minute-by-minute, we just plugged away,” Moloughney indicates. “It was just a pleasure to play in a final game

against such a strong team. I know our girls appreciated that amazing hockey.”

The group of players, coaches and parents were an especially close bunch who were all on the same page, Moloughney adds.

“The relationships that they’ve made last year and this year leading up to this really helped them along the way,” he smiles. “It wasn’t just that they were great hockey play-ers, but the girls themselves are just really good kids. They love each other and would do anything for each other.”

One more local team claimed a medal in the ‘AA’ ranks, with the Ottawa Ice taking bronze in the Atom ‘AA’ competition. The Midget ‘A’ Wildcats were the cap-ital’s lone champion team, while other medallists included Nepean Novice ‘B’ (silver), Bantam ‘A’ and Peewee ‘B’ (bronze), and ‘BB’ sil-ver-medallist Ottawa (Bantam) and Gloucester-Cumberland (Peewee).

Runners-up locally, Wildcats rise to Ontario silver

By Mat Labranche

Nepean Wildcats Midget ‘A’ Ontario champs.

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She’s only a few appearances into her career on Canada’s top sev-ens squad, but Natasha Watcham-Roy has certainly chosen a fine time to break into the lineup of one of the world’s best women’s rugby teams just a little over a year outside the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The former University of Ott-awa Gee-Gees captain played for Canada at the past two World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series stops, pla-cing 3rd in Atlanta and then getting to compete on home soil in front of 3,000+ in Langford, B.C.

“It was really exciting,” recounts Watcham-Roy. “We got lots of sup-port and energy from the crowd.”

Canada started off with a bang at the April 18-19 event, earning 19-15, 47-0 and 26-15 victories over USA, South Africa and Russia to go 3-0 in pool play.

The Canadians were then un-lucky to draw fellow powerhouse England in the quarter-final round, losing 12-5 en route to their lowest

finish in the first four events of the six-stage series.

“It wasn’t our best performance,” signals Watcham-Roy. “We didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but we’re really going to grow from that.”

Cracking Canada’s roster for the premiere international competition was nonetheless a major milestone for the 23-year-old from Gatineau.

“It’s amazing to play with that top-12,” says Watcham-Roy, who

scored four trys in her series appear-ances for Canada, coming on as a substitute in most games. “All my hard work paid off.”

After completing her Gee-Gees eligibility and winning bronze for Canada at the 2013 FISU World University Games, the uOttawa health sciences grad continued train-ing and working locally that fall. Watcham-Roy later earned an invit-ation to join the centralized national

Past uOttawa Gee-Gee emerges onto Canada’s rugby sevens team in advance of sport’s Olympic debut in Rio

By Dan Plouffe Natasha Watcham-Roy

photo: lorne collicutt

OSU Force Academy ZoneAlumni spotlight: from university afterthought to top Gaiters rookie

Her time at Ottawa South United Soc-cer Club was short, but just a little over a year at OSU

in the final stages of Aiden McGillis’ youth career opened up doors the Vankleek Hill native never before imagined.

McGillis had been a strong competitive player, and captain, growing up with her home Glengarry club, but by the time she reached Grade 11, there weren’t enough dedicated players left to form a team. So to feed her love for the sport, she began mak-ing the 200 km round trip to continue her soccer career at OSU.

“It was definitely worth it,” reflects McGil-lis, whose fondest memories were the out-of-town tournaments her team attended. “(OSU staff) gave that bit extra to make sure we could get what we wanted, that we were getting out there and being showcased to the right people, and asking which schools we were interested in so they could contact the coaches and make sure they would come to the games. They were always looking out for our best interests, and that’s what I love.”

McGillis found that OSU was very wel-coming – in particular her team’s coach, Mike Armstrong, who wound up selecting her as a captain even though she was new to the club. Armstrong says a season or two in high-level program can make a big differ-ence for dedicated players like McGillis.

“They’re at a point where they’re still de-veloping,” indicates Armstrong, whose team won an Eastern Ontario regional league title that season. “Those last couple years, they can really excel and go from being an L3 player right up to being a university player if they’re really focused and working at it.”

McGillis is a prime example of that, as are a number of her teammates – half a dozen of whom moved on to play university or college soccer despite being on OSU’s second-tier team most of the way through their careers.

We’ve had a lot of players going on to play at the college or university level, which is great,” Armstrong notes.

ON TO LENNOXVILLEAfter being exposed to university scouts at

showcase events her team participated in, McGillis chose to attend Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Que. The environmental sci-ence student enjoyed the feel of the smaller school, and liked the prospect of being able to earn playing time immediately as a rookie under an all-new coaching staff.

After struggling through an ankle injury from summer, and the early-season “Holy cow, these girls are huge!” shock, McGillis became a Gaiters starter soon enough. The centre- midfielder was one of seven players to ap-pear in all 14 games during the fall season.

With just a win and a draw to show for the campaign, “our year didn’t look very good on paper, but it was a good year of growth for us,” McGillis signals, since her coaches were committed to rebuilding the program long-term by trying players in new positions and giving opportunities to newcomers.

Half the team were first-year players in fact, and come the Bishop’s end-of-year ath-letic banquet in April, McGillis was selected Gaiters women’s soccer rookie of the year.

“It was definitely an honour. There were a lot of great soccer players that came in this year. I was not expecting it,” recounts Mc-Gillis, one of four OSU alumni who will play women’s soccer for Bishop’s next season. “It was just amazing. It felt like all my hard work had finally paid off.”

McGillis is excited for the road that lies ahead, and is also grateful to those who helped her reach this point in her journey.

“I’d definitely like to thank all the coaches,” she underlines. “I would not have been able to do any of this stuff without their encour-agement, especially Mike in particular. I wasn’t even thinking of playing in university. I didn’t think I’d be good enough to play in university.

“He encouraged me and was always there to help. I could not have done it without him.”

Aiden McGillis.

team program in B.C. and is now a full-time athlete receiving national carding financial support.

“I love it,” underlines the 2013 All-Canadian centre who trains 5-6 days a week. “I experienced being in school for five years, and having a job after. Now I can just focus on rugby 100%, which is great.”

Emerging into the exclusive com-pany of the national sevens team still represents an enormous leap from the university ranks, and came barely half-a-year after Watcham-Roy was only a reserve for the 15s squad that won Canada’s first Rugby World Cup medal with a silver last September.

“I always thought it was possible, especially after coming here,” reflects

Watcham-Roy, who chalks up the World Cup exclusion to being too new to the program at the time. “With the training, they really prepare you and challenge you every day.”

With the home Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games on tap, and Canada sitting 2nd in the overall standings for the sevens series that will award Olympic berths to the top-4, Watcham-Roy is fully embracing the opportunity to play alongside the best in the world.

“Oh my goodness, it’s amazing, I don’t know how else to describe it,” smiles the former Hull Volant club player. “I’ve worked my whole life for this, and same with a lot of the girls here, so it’s amazing to see that all the work pays off.”

4

Twisting and turning, head up and head down, local diver Henry McKay never loses sight of his goal of excellence when he’s plunging to-wards the water – especially when it comes to international competitions.

“While I am spinning it is a bit blurry, but not really,” explains the Grade 9 St. Joseph Catholic High School student. “There is always the board and the water. It’s muscle memory, so, really, I do know where I am the whole time.”

McKay is fresh off the first European competition of his career, and he’s ecstatic with the results. Billed by Diving Canada as the biggest meet for junior-aged ath-letes aside from junior worlds, the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club ath-lete placed 4th in tower event with a score of 439.05 points, which was less than 4 points from bronze and 7 from silver, and about 35 points ahead of a fellow Canadian in 5th.

“I did the best I ever have done – best performance and best score,” highlights the Group B (age 14-15) competitor who also placed 6th on 1 m springboard. “I think I was just really focused. I really like repres-enting Canada and I had a great team behind me.”

Matched up against divers from around the world for the first time, McKay had to get over an advanced case of the nerves prior to the event.

“I had a lot of stress leading up to the competition, especially when I saw the other divers – the ones from Russia, Germany and Japan,”

he indicates. “But, I really focused and became inspired by the other divers’ performances.”

McKay now intends to carry his momentum forward for the May 8-10 Summer Senior National Championships in Victoria and July’s Speedo Junior Elite National Championships in Edmonton.

ONDC DIVERS IN CUBA

Two other local divers also com-peting in international waters in April. Thanks to their clean sweep of gold medals at the Spring Provin-cials, Timothy Lewis and Kathryn Grant – along with their Ottawa Na-tional Diving Club coach Brennan Villemaire – traveled to Cuba to rep-resent Ontario at the Copa Yumuri competition.

Facing athletes from all across Canada, Cuba and Chile, as well as new natural elements such as the hot sun and wind for the outdoor compet-ition, the Group D Age 10-11 athletes rose to the occasion in a big way.

Grant set a new personal-best of 256 points to take tower gold, won the 3 m event, and took 1 m bronze.

Lewis opened his meet with a 4th-place 1 m showing, then earned a silver on tower, and blew away the competition with the most difficult 3 m dives of his group en route to

a gold in his final event.

“ O N D C couldn’t be more proud of our ath-letes in and out of the pool,” the club says in a media re-lease. “They are showing that they are strong ath-letes, and amazing peo-ple to work with.”

Local divers take international stage by stormBy Anne Duggan Henry

McKay.

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The Nepean Hotspurs Soccer Club’s summer youth recre-ational program for players un-der age 12 is called “Let the Kids Play” and more than just a

name, it’s also a statement about the philo-sophy behind it.

“Too often in sports we see way too much emphasis on trying to build the next super-star,” underlines Hotspurs Club President David Holder. “We definitely want to support the small percentage of athletes who can reach the top levels in the game, but that can’t be to the detriment of everyone else.

“Our focus is on fun, and our primary ob-jective is nothing more than allowing the kids to enjoy themselves and build a love for the sport.”

No standings or scores are kept in the LKP program, which encourages players to try new skills without the consequence of be-ing yanked off the field for making a mistake.

Players at similar levels of development are placed together for training, and small-sided games ensure players frequently touch the ball.

Amongst those leading LKP is Club Tech-nical Staff Coach Rocco Barresi, who car-ries an energy and enthusiasm that spreads amongst the legion of volunteers, parents and coaches who drive the program and make it special.

“We often get comments from parents saying that their kids’ summer soccer exper-ience is also a rich life experience,” Holder notes. “We certainly want our players to im-prove their soccer skills, but learning how to be a team player, and working and support-ing one another, are the kind of abilities they can acquire and apply away from the pitch.”

SOLID SOCCER FOUNDATIONSmiles are always abundant during “Soc-

cer Night in Nepean” while players particip-ate in sessions that include segments on physical literacy, technique and scrimmages.

The program is run by coaches who have all obtained minimum certifications from the Ontario Soccer Association and have taken

part in in-house training workshops with the club’s senior technical staff.

“Our coaches have studied the latest methodologies, so players won’t be doing some old drills with no purpose, they’ll be doing well thought-out activities that serve in their development,” Holder outlines.

Led by highly-qualified provincially and nationally-licenced staff, the Hotspurs also offer the TOP DAWG program for U9-U12 players who want more practice time, which can provide a boost for those who aspire to play in the competitive ranks.

“We are one of the few clubs in Ontario sanctioned to play in the top provincial de-velopment league, so we certainly have a very strong competitive program,” Holder highlights. “But our recreational programs are far from an afterthought like they often tend to be in other clubs. We really put a lot of effort into ensuring all our players have a great experience and that our rec programs are amongst the best out there.”

Hotspurs recreational players in the U12-U18 age group take part in the South Side Soccer League, which also features teams from the Nepean City, Ottawa Inter-nationals and Ottawa Royals clubs. Again, standings are not kept for the league, with the focus being on fun and exercise.

“Of course players will enjoy being active and playing the sport, but we also recognize that for a lot of them, it’s the social aspect that really keeps them engaged – and that’s great, we want to encourage that,” Holder says. “Our goal really is to make them soc-cer players for life, and that’s why fun has got to be #1.”

See nepeanhotspurs.ca for more inform-ation and registration.

Nepean Hotspurs Hotstove‘Let the Kids Play’ program emphasizes fun in youth rec soccer

5

In June of 1989, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake defeated “Macho Man” Randy Savage before a packed house at the Ott-awa Civic Center for the WWE.

Fast forward 25 years and the former WWE Tag Team Champion is return-ing to the Nation’s Capital to take part in a Great North Wrestling Event on Saturday May 30th at the Earl Armstrong Arena (2020 Ogilvie Rd.)

Brutus, who is 6’5 and 275 pounds of what he calls “muscle, steel and sex appeal,” had an illustrious career in the WWE feuding with wrestlers like The Brit-ish Bulldogs and Mr. Perfect.

The man known for cutting his opponents hair after “putting them to sleep” in matches with his signa-ture “sleeper” hold was even tag team partners with his real life best friend “Hulk Hogan” known as the “Mega-Maniacs.” Beefcake followed Hogan to Ted Turner’s World Champi-onship Wrestling in the late 1990’s.

Chez 106 DJ Eric “The Intern” will be guest referee when “The Barber” teams with “The Grapecrusher” to take on “The Hart Throbs” with their

devilish manager Asana in the main event on the 9 match Ottawa card.

In the semi-main event, Ottawa native HANNIBAL aka Devon Nich-olson, a former National Champion and Olympic Trials Silver Medalist Amateur Wrestler will defend his “Canadian Championship” GNW title against the 450 pound Soa Amin from the Sudan. The special guest referee for that bout is the controver-sial “Senator Patrick Brazeau.”

HANNIBAL, who just came off a successful title defence against former UFC Champion Dan “The Beast” Severn, has wrestled all over the world and squared off against

top names like Terry Funk, Kevin Nash and “Psycho” Sid Vicious. He is looking forward to wrestling in his hometown of Ottawa again for the first time in 6 years!

Also in action on the card will be GNW Women’s Champion Malicia, “The Lovely” Eve, “The 7 foot Monster” Darko, former Ca-nadian Champion Jeremy Prophet, “International Sensation” Sexy Eddy, The 6’6” Green Phantom, “Plat-inum” Preston Perry, The Spoiler and many more. The ring announcer for the

evening will be Dylan Black from “Boom 99.7!”

Brutus and the entire GNW crew will also be in Smiths Falls the night before, May 29th at the Memorial Center for an event starting at 8 pm.

For more information visit:hannibalprowrestling.ca

BRUTUS “THE BARBER” BEEFCAKE STRUTTIN’ AND CUTTIN’ HIS WAY BACK TO OTTAWA!

Tickets for the event start at just $15 and are available online through www.ticketweb.ca or in person at Compact Music (206 and 785 Bank St.) or Popeye’s Sup-plements (3900 Innes Rd and 1021 Cyrville Rd.) Tickets will also be available at the door the night of the show for an extra $5.

The Ottawa Outlaws lost their home opener 23-19 to the Toronto Rush, but there were plenty of reasons for the new American Ultimate Disc League franchise to celebrate nonetheless on April 25.

They were able to hold their own against the past AUDL champs who have lost only twice in their 2+ seasons in the league, and more import-antly, they’d just introduced pro ultimate to an en-thusiastic gathering of frisbee fanatics who filled the majority of the stands at Carleton University.

“Man, it was electric,” smiles Scott West-well, one of three team captains. “We play out in Manotick most days amongst ourselves. To come out here and to know that the ultimate community is reaching so many people that you never even knew, it’s really, really cool.”

Westwell took up ultimate a dozen years ago in high school and was previously the captain of Ottawa’s top amateur team, Phoenix. He says he

doesn’t want to think about how much he’s spent to participate in the sport throughout his career, but marvels at the fact his expenses are now covered and he can even make a few bucks playing.

“I got into it because it’s a fun sport to do. You got out with friends, and there was a great sense of camaraderie between teammates,” re-calls the Nepean High School grad. “Now you have a legitimate team, fans and a stadium, and TV and reporters – it’s unreal.”

Including some of the students Westwell now teaches at Canterbury High School and oth-ers Outlaw players worked with during a winter youth league, there were an impressive number of young fans amongst the crowd.

“I think it’s awesome for the future of the sport,” says Outlaws co-owner/coach/player/cap-tain Karl Loiselle, who started playing ultimate at age 20 himself. “When kids are getting into it when they’re 10 years old, that’s pretty cool.

“We’re happy that so many people came out to support us. It was amazing.”

Ottawa warmly welcomes Outlaws ultimate

By Dan Plouffe

photo: steve kingsman

ELITE

The Canadian women’s soccer team unveiled its 23-player lineup for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup on April 27 in Vancouver, and Ottawa Fury youth academy product Christina Julien wasn’t one of them.

“For as long as I can re-member, I have been working my butt off to get this chance,” reflects Julien. “It would have been an amazing experience and would have been a dream come true.”

The 26-year-old says the news that she wouldn’t get to play in the World Cup on home soil was disappointing – adding that it’s still difficult for her to talk about – but she remains ex-cited to see what the Canadians have in store for their oppon-ents.

“The right players were chosen, and I have complete faith in the team,” Julien adds.

Julien was a starter along-side fellow striker Christine Sinclair in Canada’s qualify-ing run to the London 2012 Olympics, but has seen limited action with the national team since then, appearing in the late stages of games at March’s Cyprus Cup most recently.

After the Canadians’ let-down performance the 2011 World Cup, Julien was added to Canada’s roster for the Pan Am Games and went on to win a gold medal – a scenario that remains a possibility to repeat itself this year. The London 2012 Olympic alternate hopes to earn her way back onto Team Canada again in the future.

“Any chance you get to represent your country, it is an honour,” she underlines.

Julien currently plays her club soccer for FF USV Jena in Germany, enjoying the Ger-man culture and the opportun-ity to play in one of the top leagues in Europe. While soc-cer has taken Julien to many different international destin-ations – including Australia, Russia and Sweden in recent years – adjusting to her new surroundings certainly came with its share of hiccups.

World Cup call doesn’t come for Christina JulienBy Anil Jhalli

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FIFA continues on p.6

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GOLD AWARD CLUB

JUNIOR LEAGUES

After establishing a formal alliance at the end of last year, the region’s two dominant clubs in Ontario Youth Soccer League representation are poised to create a superpower in the Ontario Player Develop-ment League as the summer provincial soccer sea-son gets set to kick off May 9.

The Ottawa South United Force have five out of a six possible teams that won their way into the un-der-15, U16 and U17 boys’ and girls’ OYSL ranks, while the Ottawa Gloucester Hornets enter four OYSL squads.

Along with the West Ottawa Warriors and the Nepean Hotspurs, OSU is one of three local clubs participating in the OPDL (a new league that re-moves the promotion/relegation system in favour of admitting only clubs that meet stringent standards for facilities, coaching, administration and organiz-ational financial stability).

In its second year of existence, the OPDL fea-tures U13 and U14 divisions this season and will eventually fully phase out the OYSL.

This past fall, OSU and Gloucester pledged to work together to advance Hornets players recom-mended by their club head coach to join the Force in the high-performance stream.

In announcing the alliance at the end of last sea-son, the clubs trumpeted the alliance as an opportunity to reshape the Ottawa soccer landscape and promote player development through cooperative integration.

“If we are going to be committed to player devel-opment, players have to have access to every path,” explains Hornets club head coach Mike Lanos.

With three OPDL clubs in Ottawa (down from four following the Fury’s withdrawal), it under-scores the need for the OPDL franchises to have the region’s best talent from all clubs so that players aren’t playing above their heads, Lanos adds.

The alliance came together thanks to a lot of hard work behind the scenes, indicates OSU club head coach Paul Harris.

“We were discussing ideas on how to help both clubs,” says Harris, noting that the partnership also excludes coaching development, international travel opportunities for players, and cross-marketing op-portunities, amongst other benefits.

HANDFUL OF CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS

Several local teams enter the 2015 OYSL cam-paign in contention for the top of the table following strong efforts in the league last season.

OSU’s 8-1-6 U15 boys would have been east division champs last year if their pair of ties against 5-5-6 Gloucester had been wins, and OSU’s U15 girls

are coming off an 8-4-3 debut season in the OYSL, while OSU and Nepean are both back in U17 girls’ play after battling to respective 6-4-5 and 4-9-3 re-cords in the OYSL’s second tightest division in 2014.

“It won’t be easy. It will be a real test our teams this year. Teams are getting stronger, but we expect good things from our boys” and OSU’s girls will be compet-itive at each level too, indicates Harris. “We just need to look at the opposition, and prepare ourselves.”

With its two boys’ academy teams set to play in the Quebec men’s leagues, the Ottawa Fury will have just one OYSL entry, although it’s expected to be a strong one. The Fury U18 girls were the east region’s lone division champions last season, and will look to take a step farther this year and bounce back from their 3-1 loss to Waterloo in the 2014 provincial final.

FC Capital United and West Ottawa – also club allies for OPDL – are the city’s other two clubs with entries in the OYSL. Cap U will bring a third local entry into the U15 boys’ ranks, while the Warriors have boys’ and girls’ teams in the U16 category.

Gloucester & OSU allies lead OYSL entriesBy Anil Jhalli

FIFA: Julien coming home for the summer

continued from p.5

“I can speak German pretty well now,” she smiles. “Everyone here is very organized and very punctual, so that was something I had to adjust to. I was laid back be-fore, but living here, it has changed me a bit.”

From her days as a youth – where she describes “destroying her parents’ living room with soc-cer balls” – to representing Canada at every opportunity she was given, Julien is now looking forward to helping the younger generation of soccer players develop their skills and work towards achieving their goals by hosting a soccer camp when she returns home to Cornwall in July.

“I want to help kids believe in themselves,” Julien details. “I want to help them get to where they want to be and help them reach for their goals.”

FORMER FURY MAKE WORLD CUPCanada’s roster will feature a

half-dozen players who competed for the now-defunct Ottawa Fury W-League team.

Kadeisha Buchanan, Ashley Lawrence, Robyn Gayle, Mar-ie-Ève Nault, Diana Matheson and Rhian Wilkinson will all participate in the June 6-July 5 World Cup, which includes games in Ottawa.

file photos

With 4 and 5 entries respect-ively, the Gloucester Hornets (left) and OSU Force have the greatest representation out of local soccer clubs in the Ontario Youth Soccer League.

7

Local athletes completed a number of comeback stories by overcoming illness, broken bones and earlier subpar com-petitions to secure their spots in the May 26-31 Canadian Gymnastics Championships at Branchaud-Brière Complex in Gatineau thanks to their per-formances at April’s provincial championships.

For Meaghan Smith, a 7th-place finish and a National Open Canadians berth was an absolute treasure. The Ottawa Gymnastics Centre gymnast trucked through last year’s provincials despite being ex-tremely sick but did not qual-ify for nationals, and found herself in a cast with compres-sion fractures in her ankle last summer and early this season.

“It was a really long process to come back,” indicates Smith, who came to the gym everyday for conditioning despite the injury that kept her from train-ing normally. “When I got the cast off, I was in great shape to come back. So after my fin-ish at provincials I was really proud because of that obstacle I was able to overcome.”

National Open 10th-place finisher Sofia Baggio snagged the final available qualifying position to return to nationals for a second consecutive year alongside her OGC teammate.

“When we found out we both made it, we just couldn’t believe it. We were so excited,” signals Baggio, a balance beam bronze medallist in her nation-als debut last year. “Meaghan and I are really close. It was great that she did well too and it’s awesome that we’re both going to nationals together.”

Beth Webster from Tum-blers Gymnastics Centre was sandwiched in between the OGC girls, placing 9th in Na-tional Open.

“To be honest, it wasn’t the goal really. My goal was to make it to Easterns, but it’s even better to make it to na-tionals,” smiles Webster, who is less than two years removed from a high jumping injury that resulted in a broken tibia and fibula in her leg. “It’s been a long journey, but I’m finally there.”

It took nine years, but Na-tional Open gymnast Eric Gau-thier earned the first provincial title of his career to qualify for Canadians alongside Tumblers teammate Justin Perry, who

won Ontario bronze in the same category.

The journey to nationals hasn’t been nearly as long as long for National Novice athletes Avery Rosales and Juliette Chapman, but the 11-year-old Tumblers have been side-by-side every step of the way.

The young Orleans pair have an amazing trend of leapfrogging one another in results. Earlier this year, beam silver medallist Chapman fin-ished ahead at Elite Canada to secure her place at nation-als, but at provincials, it was Rosales who was better in 7th place, with Chapman in 8th.

“I don’t think me and Ju-liette have ever separated,” re-flects Rosales, noting it’s great to have a teammate and friend at their side in competition. “It definitely helps you calm down. It really does pay off.”

SAM SEEKS 6-YR STREAK

The headline local attrac-tion at Canadians will once

again be Sam ZakutneyThe 16-year-old from

the National Capital Boys’ Gymnastics Academy was an all-around champion from 2011-2013 in youth high-performance categories, bookended by overall bronze in 2010 and 2014. The 2015 provincial silver medallist holds a five-year streak of na-tional titles on individual ap-paratuses as well, and is most definitely keen to keep that run alive.

“I’m pretty comfortable with the national stage at this point,” says Zakutney, who felt a big boost earlier this season when he topped the standings in leading Ontario to gold in the team competition at Febru-ary’s Canada Games in Prince George, B.C.

“It was such a thrill go-ing through my body at the moment,” adds the junior HP competitor. “Training’s going a lot better, I’m a lot more mo-tivated, so I feel like nothing can really stop me right now.”

OGC will send two men’s artistic competitors to nation-als – last year’s National Open all-around silver medallist Taylor Jackle Spriggs (now in senior HP) and National Novice provincial bronze medallist Benjamin Astorga, who’s excited to make his Ca-nadians debut.

“Nationals is definitely a big deal,” he underlines. “I’m sure I’ll have a few butterflies, but I know I’ll be training really hard before it, getting all my routines ready, and by the time it comes around, I’ll be feeling confident.”

Ottawa’s bouncing broth-ers – Benjamin, Vincent and Francis – compete on the other side of the river for Gatineau’s Unigym club and are expected to lead the local trampoline contingent. Benjamin and Vin-cent have both won medals at each of the past two nationals, while Francis is in his first year in the national stream.

Nationals qualifier beats broken boneBy Mat Labranche & Dan Plouffe Avery

Rosales

photo: dan

plouffe

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8 COMMUNITY CLUBS

The sister act of Bella and Catarina Musca followed one another to the podium in back-to-back sessions of Level 7 competition at the April 9-12 Ontario Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Champi-onships in Windsor.

The Ottawa Gymnastics Centre siblings earned respect-ive all-around gold and silver medals in the Age 10-11 and Age 12-13 categories to high-light a long list of local provin-cial hardware winners.

“At first I thought there was no way they actually called my name,” recounts Bella, who was consistent on each appar-atus, placing 3rd on vault and uneven bars and 5th on floor and balance beam. “Then when I finally realized it was actually me, I just couldn’t believe it.”

Catarina also had no clue that Bella had won, although that was because she was already busy warming up for her competition while Bella re-ceived her award. OGC coach Tobie Gorman wound up deliv-ering the unexpected news.

“When I told Cat, she star-

ted to do the ‘happy dance,’ she was so incredibly excited for her,” recalls Gorman, noting the sisters show a lot of ma-turity by training together in the same group and not letting sibling rivalry get the best of them. “They’re just so genu-inely happy for each other.”

Being able to count on each other for support can serve as a valuable tool, the Muscas note.

“I really think having my sister there did help me do bet-ter. She was in the audience for my competition watching and cheering me on,” Bella under-lines. “She always helps me out through rough times and it’s just great to have each other there to lean on.”

The Ontario bars gold and beam silver medallist concurs.

“It really helped having my sister there,” echoes Catarina, noting she felt more at ease after seeing Bella succeed. “When I need her help, she’ll be there for me, and she knows I’ll be there for her.”

Catarina wound up with another familiar face on the provincial podium as OGC clubmate Suzana Diacomescu earned all-around bronze in the

L7, A12-13 division.“It was amazing having

two of us from Ottawa on the podium, and knowing that the whole group did so well,” Catarina adds.

NEW OGC CLUB RECORD

It was a big meet across the board for OGC, highlighted by a pair of champions – Chel-

sey Louis-Jean (Pre-Novice Aspire) and Logan Lacroix (men’s L1 A10-11).

OGC also placed a club-re-cord six girls, plus four boys, on the Ontario team set to com-pete at the May 9-10 Eastern Canadian Gymnastics Champi-onships, while several more na-tional-stream athletes qualified for the Canadians.

“The entire weekend was just a blast,” signals Gorman, an OGC coach of 38 years.

OGC wasn’t alone amongst local clubs celebrating success at the provincial level.

Gold and silver all-around medallists Nathanael Teng

and Micky Geller from the National Capital Boys’ Gym-nastics Academy combined to win 5 of 6 L4, A10-11 events.

“When I heard my name called, it was pretty shocking,” details Teng, who struggled with an early high bar dismount but gained a big advantage on the field with his pommel horse victory by a large margin. “I really pulled through (on pom-mel horse), and that’s what made me succeed.”

Sophie Paquin of the Tum-blers Gymnastics Centre sat atop the L9 A14+ standings through three events but a fall on her final apparatus caused her to settle for silver.

“It was so close, but I was still really happy with 2nd place,” Paquin says. “I was proud of all the work I put in and finally had good results in competition.”

A number of local athletes also landed on the podium at the provincial trampoline championships the same week-end in Scarborough.

Spring Action’s Elisabeth von Schoenberg was the wo-men’s L1, A14+ individual champ, while Les Sittelles’ Nic-olas Dessureault won silver in men’s L3, A15+ and Spring Ac-tion’s Jasmine Boyer took bronze in women’s L2, A12-. Spring Action’s Alyssa Greenwell (L2, A15+) and Les Sittelles’ Maxine MacKinnon (L4) won double mini-trampoline events.

Gym sisters win Ontario Level 7 gold & silverBy Mat Labranche & Dan Plouffe

photo: dan plouffe

Whenever the equation of Team Canada plus hockey equals anything other than gold, it’s an unpleasant finish, but Ottawa’s Marc Dorion and Ben Delaney were able to find a bit a silver lining to their team’s runner-up performance at the April 26-May 3 IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship in Buffalo.

“I think that the real posit-ive to take out of these World Championships is that we walked away with a silver medal,” Dorion indicates. “(At the 2014 Paralympic Games) in Sochi, we came back with bronze, so getting the silver medal is a step further than last season.”

The 27-year-old Team Canada veteran of 12 years also enjoyed the opportunity to compete relatively close to home at this year’s event.

“We had a lot of friends and family able to come watch the games,” says the forward who scored 4 points over the course of the tournament. “It defin-itely gives the team and myself a boost. It means a lot having that fan-base there.”

The Canadians earned shutout victories in all three of their pool games against Japan, Norway and Czech Republic and then got past Russia 3-2 in semi-final to setup the gold medal game against the host Americans, who were also 4-0 with 3 shutouts.

The U.S. wound up knock-ing off the 2013 world champs to record one more shutout in the 3-0 final.

“Obviously I’m not happy. We go in to win gold, not sil-ver,” says Delaney. “We just didn’t play our game. We didn’t stick to our system and didn’t score any goals.”

After breaking into Canada’s lineup just before the Sochi Paralympics while still a high school student at St. Pius, Delaney had his best offensive showing for the national team yet, scoring 7 points in 5 games to place #5 in team scoring.

Despite the team’s 2nd-place finish, the 18-year-old also believes this year’s worlds were a step in the right direc-tion.

“We are going to learn from this,” Delaney pledges. “It’s going to motivate us to win gold in the next tourna-ment that we have.”

Unsatisfying sledge silver for Team Canada pairBy Josh Bell

file photo

Ben Delaney

MAG & WAG ALL-AROUND PROVINCIAL MEDALLISTS

GOLDBella Musca (Ottawa GC)

Level 7 Age 10-11Chelsey Louis-Jean (OGC)

Pre-Novice AspireLogan Lacroix (OGC)

L1 A10-11Nathanael Teng (National

Capital) – L4 A10-11Eric Gauthier (Tumblers)

National Open

SILVERCatarina Musca (OGC)

L7 A12-13Sophie Paquin (Tumblers)

L9 A14+Isabelle Allan (OGC)

L5 A14+Micky Geller (NC)

L4 A10-11Sam Zakutney (NC)

National Jr. HPBRONZE

Suzana Diacomescu (OGC) – L7 A12-13

Sarah Hu (OGC) L9 A12-13

Grace Boxer (OGC) L8 A12-13

Haley Turcotte (OGC) L5 A14+

Robin Tarnocai (Corona) L6 A10

Sebastien Baranyi Nichols (OGC) – L3 A14+

Justin Perry (Tumblers) National Open

Benjamin Astorga (OGC) National Novice

Taylor Jackle Spriggs (OGC) – National Sr. HP

Bella (left) & Catarina

Musca.

9

Pitcher Matthew Ianni and outfielder Demi Orimoloye participated in the junior national team’s extended spring training camp in Florida from April 17-25. The Ottawa baseball play-ers will compete for spots on Canada’s squad for the Aug. 28-Sept. 6 WBSC U18 World Cup in Osaka, Japan later this summer.

ORIMOLOYE & IANNA TAKE EARLY-SEASON SWINGS WITH JR. NATIONAL TEAM

OTTAWA FIGURE SKATER FINISHES 2ND FOR GREAT BRITAIN AT SLOVENIA EVENT

WALKLEY BOWLERS 6TH AT JR. NATIONALSThe Walkley Bowling Centre quartet of Trevor Beaulieu, Evan Davis, Austin LaPrade and Nathan Belval placed 6th in the junior boys’ five-pin team event at the May 2-4

Youth Bowling Canada National Championships in Oshawa.

FIGURE SKATER CHARTRAND HELPS CANADA TO 4TH AT WORLD TEAM TROPHYAlaine Chartrand from the Nepean Skating Club helped Canada to a 4th-place finish at the Apr. 16-19 ISU World Team Trophy in Tokyo. The national silver medallist placed 9th in the short program and 11th in the free skate to conclude her lengthy international season.

DISAPPOINTING IAAF WORLD RELAYS FOR LOCAL RUNNERSOttawa native Rachel Aubry moved Canada into a podium position with a lap to go in the women’s 4x800 m event but wound up finishing 6th at the IAAF World Relays in Bahamas. It was a disappointing meet for Mike Robertson and Segun Makinde of the Ottawa Lions. Robertson’s 4x400 m crew missed a chance to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics by placing 7th in their heat, and Makinde’s 4x200 m teammates bobbled the baton on the first exchange and were disqualified.

Competing for Great Britain thanks to his parents’ roots in London, Ottawa native Hugh Brabyn-Jones placed 2nd in the junior men’s event with a score of 140.76 points at the April 16-19 Triglav Trophy international skating competition in Slovenia. “I am really happy to have been awarded 2nd place at the Triglav Trophy, and am pleased that my hard work has paid off,” Brabyn-Jones said in a National Ice Skating Association of Great Britain and North Ireland story. “Getting to the Olympics is my ultimate dream, and it gives me great confid-

ence when I leave a competition with positive results and feedback.”

St. Peter Catholic High School grad John Shaw has been selected to compete for Canada’s na-tional men’s under-20 team at the May 12-24 World Rugby U20 Trophy in Portugal. Canada will face Hong Kong, Namibia, Tonga and Namibia in their pool in second-tier world champi-onship, with the tournament winner to receive promotion to the top class next year.

RUGBY PLAYER SELECTED TO PLAY FOR CANADA AT U20 WORLDS

Ottawa volleyball player Adam Simac will have very little down time between the end of his pro season with Asul Lyon Volley (French league semi-finalists who lost by 2 points in the 5th set to Paris in their series deciding match) and Team Canada’s World League

opener on May 16 in Calgary. See SportsOttawa.com for the full story.

SIMAC EAGER TO BUILD ON PAST SUCCESS THIS YEAR WITH CANADA VOLLEYBALL

WILDCATS ADD TO RIGHT TO PLAY FUNDRAISER TOTAL

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

The Cairine Wilson Wildcats brought their 13-year fundraising total for Right to Play up to $18,700 with the latest edition of their annual pre-season tournament at the Gloucester Superdome on April 17.

Ottawa modern pentathlete Melanie McCann won her qualifying di-vision at World Cup #3 in Rome and placed 20th in the final at the April 8-13 event. The 25-year-old also placed 21st at the season’s second World Cup March 18-23 in Cairo.

MODERN PENTATHLETE 20TH & 21ST AT WORLD CUPS

3 MEDALS FOR LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLS AT OFSAA BADMINTONNational capital entries claimed three medals at the April 30-May 2 OFSAA provincial high school badminton championships in York Region. Colonel By’s Minh Pham earned bronze in men’s singles, Earl of March’s Steve Lam and Yi Yang Jiang won bronze in men’s doubles, and Bell’s Jameson Weng and Molan Ren took antique-bronze for 4th place in mixed doubles.

Ottawa Knights News

www.ottawaknightsbaseballclub.com

Florida Spring Training and Winter Development Boost KnightsWhile most

local ball play-ers were just starting to get their gloves out of the closet, the Ottawa Knights were feeling in fine form for the

final tune-up games on the May 2-3 weekend prior to the start of their seasons.

With continued workouts throughout the winter at the OZ Dome and other indoor venues under their belts, as well as travel to university facilities in upstate New York and spring training in Florida of course, the Knights are ready to roll in 2015 instead of slowly getting back into shape.

“For players committed to improving and reaching for the next levels in the game, the importance of a dedicated year-round program can’t be overstated,” underlines Knights Director of Baseball Operations Bob Guy. “If players aren’t pursuing these types of opportunities, then there’s really no chance for them to get better and get noticed.

“Our goal for the club is really to elevate the standard of baseball in Ottawa, and offer those dedicated players and their families the chance to be the best they can be, in a pro-fessional type of atmosphere.”

The Knights got a closeup view of what their futures may hold this winter. The club’s teams (14-and-under, 15U, 16U and 18U) all traveled to the State University of New York at Canton and were put through the paces of a full three-hour NCAA practice by Kangaroos Varsity Coach Joe Carbone.

TOP MARCH BREAK DEVELOPMENTAs the region’s only club that travels south

for spring training, Knights players also spent a week in Fort Pierce, FL during March Break.

The Knights participated in a showcase day for local and visiting NCAA, NCJAA and NAIA coaches and scouts to evaluate all the Ottawa talent in action. Players were also recorded (on video and through radar) as they performed tests such as the 60-yard dash, fielders and basemen field & throw, catchers pop time & blocking, pitchers form

and velocity, batters tee exit velocity and live arm. The product was packaged as part of their Lifetime Locker video – a highly effective recruiting tool for young prospects.

“We’ve been working hard indoors through-out the winter, but you could really feel every-one’s energy rise once they got outside and onto the diamond in Florida,” highlights Knights President Andrew Beattie, noting it was inspiring to have big-league training camps taking place next door.

“For young aspiring players, you really can’t imagine a better way to spend your March Break,” he adds. “On top of the great development opportunity, I think it really mo-tivated a lot of our guys for the upcoming sea-son, and we’re really excited to see the fruits of those efforts this year.”

On May 2-3, the 18-and-under and 16U Knights teams played exhibition contests with one another, while the club’s younger players earning some experience (and wins) against private high school teams in a tournament run by Ashbury College.

The Knights are now keen to begin their summer season, which includes top show-case tournaments in southern Ontario and New York, as well as Fergie Jenkins Show-case League play and regular games against Montreal-area teams.

“It’s shaping up to be a great year,” Beattie indicates. “We’re looking forward to a busy schedule, lots of fun at the park, and some unique opportunities for our Knights.”

CLASSIC SMILEHundreds and hundreds of young gymnasts

took part in local invitational meets on back-to-back weekends. The Tumblers Gymnastics Centre hosted its 15th-annual Tumblers Classic from April 24-26 in Orleans, while Les Sittelles held their Envol meet for the 26th year from May 1-3. See SportsOttawa.com for a list of local category champions from the meets.

Sebastien Boucher may be a five-time champion in the Can-Am Baseball League, but for the past few months all he’s looked forward to is being a Champion.

The 33-year-old who grew up in the shadow of Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Park on Coventry Rd. is at last coming home to play for Ottawa’s new Can-Am franchise, the Ottawa Champions, who begin their 96-game season at home on May 22.

“Coming here was def-initely a first choice,” signals

Boucher, a veteran outfielder who brings 469 games and 1,769 at-bats of Can-Am ex-perience to the Ottawa’s ex-pansion club. “They made the announcement the team was coming, and I always said I wanted to be a part of it when a team moved here.”

Boucher grew up playing for the Vanier Voyageurs and Ottawa Nepean Canadians loc-ally, and frequently made the 10-minute bike trip over to Ot-tawa Stadium to peer over the outfield fence at Ottawa Lynx games.

For a number of years, it

seemed that would be as close as he’d even get to appearing on the diamond, narrowly missing a chance to do it early in his pro baseball career.

In 2007, the Seattle Mariners – who drafted Boucher in 2004 – traded him to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever John Parrish. The Orioles were the Ottawa’s major league affiliate for a num-ber of years, but by 2007, the Lynx were into their final season in town and were linked with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Had the O’s pulled the trigger a year earlier, Boucher would have been able to play

for his hometown Lynx.Boucher began his Can-Am

career in 2009, spending his summers with the Quebec Cap-itales while living in Ottawa the rest of the year. The current Or-leans resident won league cham-pionships in his first five seasons in Quebec and then earned the Can-Am batting title in 2014.

But despite all the success, “it wasn’t even a question” that he’d play for Ottawa, says Boucher, who followed Cham-pions owner and league com-missioner Miles Wolff from Quebec to start up the new club in town.

“It’s going to be special on opening day,” highlights Boucher, who operates a base-ball academy in conjunction with sports-études high school programs in Gatineau.

The Champions’ dual player/hitting coach expects

he’ll have at least 200 people he knows in the crowd to watch his long-awaited Ottawa debut.

“It’s going to be good for my family and my kids,” Boucher smiles. “They’re as excited as me.”

—with files from Dan Plouffe

Hometown debut a career in the making for Champions’ BoucherBy Alex Quevillon

photo: dan plouffe

The new king of RCGT Park,

Sebastien Boucher.

Flannigan lives in Ottawa dur-ing the week while she works on her University of Ottawa human kinetics masters degree thesis and then heads home to Cornwall on weekends for baseball training alongside teammates from the River Rats – Cornwall’s senior team in the National Capital Baseball League, which is managed by her father.

Travel has been a constant theme in Flannigan’s journey. The 23-year-old outfielder says her biggest chal-lenge has always been finding a team and a competitive place to play. That brought her to the Kanata Pirates soft-ball team as a teenager and later the Gee-Gees softball women, but mostly she’s found a home on boys’ baseball teams, which does carry benefits.

“It’s more of a challenge,” ex-plains Flannigan, who’s also appeared for women’s teams in the GTA. “The pitchers throw a lot faster, and more curveballs. They also hit farther, so playing outfield, I’ve got to cover a larger range.”

Martensen, who most recently played for the NCBL’s Ottawa Black Sox locally, has spent most of her ca-reer playing with the boys too. Since she’s been based closer to Toronto and its large population base of late however, Martensen has joined other women mostly from the Ontario pro-vincial team program to form an entry that competes in a GTA league.

“We’re the only all-girls team of course,” underlines the former Pinecrest Patriots Little League MVP.

While women’s baseball may not be widely recognized, the local products don’t mind taking on de facto trailblazing roles at all.

“When I tell people I play base-ball, they’re like, ‘Oh, you mean softball?’ and I say, ‘No, I mean base-ball,’” smiles Flannigan, a past OF-SAA high school provincial javelin finallist and Ontario Games badmin-ton competitor. “I have to explain it’s like they do in MLB, it’s 90 feet, you know, all that. And they’ll say, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize girls played that.’”

Martensen says inclusion in the five-team Pan Am Games competi-tion that will feature Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico and powerhouse USA is “a huge step forward” for the sport.

“It’s a great way to get exposure too because we’ll be playing at home in Toronto,” indicates Martensen, expressing hope that one day wo-men’s baseball could be part of the Olympics. “With that awareness, hopefully more girls will start getting involved and realize there are bigger opportunities.”

A unique experience the Sir Robert Borden High School grad never would have thought pos-sible was traveling to Japan for the

2014 World Cup (which Flannigan missed), but Martensen says the Pan Am Games will undoubtedly be the biggest show yet.

“Just because it’s a multi-sport event and people know more about it,” highlights the recent University of Western Ontario grad. “Especially my friends, they’re seeing all the signs up now – not only in the GTA, but even in London – and the commercials on TV, everyone gets pretty hyped up about it. It’s a great opportunity.”

HEAPS OF HOMETOWN HOPEFULS

The nation’s capital is sure to be well-represented in the provin-cial capital this summer. More than a dozen Ottawa athletes are virtual shoo-ins to make the Pan Am Games grade, with plenty more strong con-tenders lining up.

Orleans ball player Joel Langford faces an inverse scenario as Flannigan and Martensen. He’ll attend a May Team Canada selection camp as men’s softball makes its return to the Games after an absence from 2003-2011.

Angus Mortimer of the Rideau Canoe Club is one big step closer to doing the nearly unthinkable – un-seating four-time Olympic medallist Adam van Koeverden as Canada’s Pan Am Games representative in the K-1 1,000 m. The 29-year-old local paddler beat the Canadian legend at the May 2-3 sprint team trials in Geor-gia and can secure his Pan Am berth by finishing ahead of van Koeverden at the season’s first World Cup May 15-17 in Portugal (or face a head-to-head showdown for the Games spot if he’s not the best Canadian).

Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson of the Greater-Ottawa Kingfish and past Ottawa resident Tabitha Baumann have been officially nominated to the Pan Am team, while national team members Andrew D’Souza and Alex Bruce (badminton), Kelleigh Ryan (a recent team foil silver medallist at the Senior Pan Am Fencing Champi-onships), Lucinda Nowell (rhythmic gymnastics), Melanie McCann (modern pentathlon), Samantha Cor-nett (squash), Adam Simac (volley-ball), and Jessica Gaudreault, Dusan Aleksic, John Conway, Alex Tascher-eau and David Lapins (water polo) are all in line to participate.

The local Glasgow 2014 Com-monwealth Games crew of Segun Makinde, Mike Robertson, Sultana

Frizell, Melissa Bishop and Tim Ne-dow will be strong candidates in ath-letics, along with fellow Ottawa Lions Ashley Maddex and Sekou Kaba.

Cam Smedley, Mike Tayler, Alex-andra McGee and Thea Froehlich lead the list of Ottawa River Runners who are poised to grab the lion’s share of Canadian canoe slalom berths, while Ben Tardioli of the Rideau Canoe Club remains a contender on flatwater.

Glasgow 2014 competitors Vin-cent De Haitre (track cycling) and Isabelle Després (weightlifting) have a shot at more Games action, while Commonwealth Games gold medal-list Erica Wiebe missed her chance at the Pan Ams, as did fellow wrestler Alex Brown-Theriault.

Cristy Nurse, Kate Goodfellow and Sarah Black (rowing), Natasha Watcham-Roy (rugby), Jamie Bissett (diving), Gabriela Dabrowski (tennis) and Eugene Wang (table tennis) are also strong contenders, while Phil and Thomas Scrubb (basketball), Chris Bisson (baseball), Christina Julien (soccer), Xavier Therien and Hongtao Chen (table tennis), Joanna Brown (triathlon), Jonah Shaffer (water ski), Mike Woods and Alex Cataford (road cycling), Sam Zakutney (gymnastics), Garnett Stevens (modern pentathlon) and Evan McNeely (mountain bike) are also on the radar.

10 EDITORIAL

Mailing address:345 Meadowbreeze Dr.

Kanata, Ont. K2M 0K3

The Ottawa Sportspage is a volunteer-driven newspaper devoted to shining a spot-light on local amateur sport. The Ottawa Sportspage is printed on the first Tues-day of the month by Ottawa Sports Media, the locally- owned publisher of the Sportspage & SportsOttawa.com. Ottawa sports news from high schools, univer-sities, community clubs and elite amateur sport is the name of our game. We’re at The Heartbeat of the Ottawa Sports Community.

Contact:Editor: Dan Plouffe

[email protected]

Team of the Month: Maverick Stallions 13U Boys’ Volleyball TeamTeam Members: Maxime Gratton, Noah Archer, Antoine Ducharme, Zachary Call, Samuel Deschênes, Olivier Ducharme, Jacob Matheson, Josh Ruby, Tristan Godmaire, Coach Paul Gratton, Assistants Steve Call, Louise McNicoll & Patrick Deschênes.

About: The Maverick Stallions 13-and-under boys’ volleyball team went undefeated at the Ontario Championships, winning nine matches in three days at the April 17-19 event in Waterloo. Their fi-nal two matches were barnburners as they prevailed 15-13 and 15-12 in the deciding sets against teams from London and Markham in the semi-final and championship game. Their club counter-parts, the Maverick Broncos, also reached the 13U boys’ Tier 1 playoff round in the same division. See SportsOttawa.com for more coverage on the volleyball provincials.

Athlete of the Month: Meaghan SmithSport: Artistic Gymnastics

Club: Ottawa Gymnastics Centre

School: St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School

About: Meaghan Smith missed her first opportunity to com-pete in the Canadian Gymnastics Championships last year, but no obstacles could keep her from missing out on the second time around. Despite severe illness, the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre athlete competed at the 2014 provincials, but didn’t finish high enough. She started her 2015 season in a cast with ankle compression fractures, but was in fine form come the April 9-12 provincials in Windsor, where she earned her ticket to Canadians with a 7th-place performance in the National Open category.

To nominate Stars of the Month, go to SportsOttawa.com and follow the link on the right-hand bar under the Stars of the Month feature. Courtesy of the Ottawa Sportspage and the YMCA-YWCA of the National Capital Region, the selected Stars of the Month will receive free one-week Family Passes to the Y.

YMCA-YMCA OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

STARS OF THE MONTH

Angus Mortimer.

PAN AM: ‘Yes, girls play baseball too,’ trailblazers repeat

continued from p.1

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11

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Ottawa native Jamie Bis-sett came home in a big way after concluding his four-year NCAA diving career at Purdue University, making his interna-tional debut for Canada across the river in Gatineau for the April 8-11 FINA Diving Grand Prix in Gatineau.

“It was nice having my family in the stands, and it’s cool having the rest of Team Canada, and the fans, cheer-ing you on,” the 21-year-old said after placing 14th in the men’s 3-metre springboard event. “It’s definitely an hon-our to represent Canada, and it’s very humbling to dive with such incredible athletes. I just had a blast and really enjoyed it here.”

Bissett’s diving journey began at age 11 when his mother encouraged him to pick up another sport after a short-lived career in gymnastics, suggesting he try trampoline or diving. Because diving incor-porates trampoline in its train-ing, he decided to go with that.

That decision wound up not only carving out the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club product’s future athletically,

but also academically. Ap-pearing in his third-consec-utive NCAA Championships in late-March, Bissett earned All-American honours in his senior year by placing 8th on platform. He later received the Big Ten Medal of Honor recog-nizing his efforts in athletics and academics, thanks to his 3.86 GPA as a health sciences pre-professional major.

“Diving at Purdue was def-initely the best decision of my life,” Bissett indicated. “It’s a struggle being an athlete and a student there, but I’ve learned a lot and I really enjoyed the experience.”

BLAST ONTO INT’L SCENE

Bissett earned his Grand Prix opportunity rather un-expectedly after appearing at February’s Winter Senior Na-tional Championships in Scar-borough. Without a podium performance at any previous nationals to his name – youth divisions included – Bissett blew away the men’s 3 m di-vision with a personal-best 451.45-point total to win the event.

“Qualifying was amazing,” smiled the Sir Robert Borden High School grad. “I had gone

to nationals hoping to come top-4, which is what qualifies you for the Grand Prix. I didn’t expect to win, but that was a real bonus.”

His score of 375.25 was lower in Gatineau, netting him a 14th-place finish out of 31 competitors – two spots away from qualifying for the semi-fi-nal round.

“I didn’t have any expect-ations regarding a placement,” noted Bissett, who went on to place 16th at a Grand Prix in Puerto Rico a week later. “This was my first international meet, so I was just looking to come in and have fun, which I definitely did. I just missed the one dive, but other than that I’m really happy with my performance.”

With his collegiate career now in the books, Bissett plans to continue competing na-tionally, and hopefully plenty more internationally, with the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games looming on the horizon.

“I’m going to keep diving into the summer, then into next year, and just really see how it goes,” he explained. “Com-peting nationally was always a goal for me, and I’ll remember (the Gatineau Grand Prix) for the rest of my life.”

Local diver makes Team Canada debut at home

By Mat Labranche

After finishing his NCAA career with All-American honours and an academic award for his pre-med studies, Purdue grad Jamie Bissett returned home and competed in his first international competition for Canada at the April 8-11 FINA Diving Grand Prix event in Gatineau.

photo: steve kingsman

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12

Not since the 2006 Cana-dian Track-and-Field Champi-onships has runner-turned-cyc-list Mike Woods experienced a hometown crowd behind him, but the 28-year-old will get that chance once again for the Canadian Road Cycling Championships come June 25-29, 2016.

Ottawa and Gatineau will again host the event that brings together the nation’s top junior, elite and para-cyc-ling athletes in 2017 as part of Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

“I do not get too many op-portunities to race in front of my friends, and family, so this will be very special,” Woods says by e-mail from Mexico, amidst a stage race with his Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies continental team.

Competing at home also brings the advantage of sleep-ing in his own bed and know-ing he can find the right food, he adds.

“In almost all of the races that I take part in, I am on the

road, and don’t have access to, or at least know of, the best places to eat, and I don’t have the ability to tell you every crack in the road,” high-lights Woods, who recorded his second career pro cycling victory in the final stage of the Tour of the Gila on May 3, on the heels of his first win in Por-tugal on March 1.

Regarded as one of, if not the best climber in Canada, Woods says it will be helpful to his cause if the pass near Camp Fortune is included in the road race course, although even that is small potatoes compared to some other courses he races.

“Unfortunately, this climb is not a super long climb (it’s roughly a 3.5-4 minute effort and averages about 5% grade).

I typically excel on steeper, longer climbs (10-40 minute range),” recounts the past Pan American junior 1,500-metre running champion who turned to cycling after recurring in-juries. “However, if the race is hard, and there is a solid tempo, the route, and my knowledge of the area will certainly be to my advantage.”

The nationals will offer a great opportunity to showcase cycling in the area, Woods adds, not to mention local tal-ent, which also includes top Canadian riders Alex Cataford and Matteo Dal Cin.

While the Rio 2016 Olympic team will likely have already been chosen by the time nationals arrive, it will remain a key competition in the lead-up, and will also carry World Championships qualific-ation implications.

“It being an Olympic year as well, I think will only add to the excitement,” underlines Woods, saluting lead organizers Doug Corner and John Large and the rest of the Ottawa cyc-ling community for bringing the event to town. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

Cycling nats coming to town in ’16 & ’17By Dan Plouffe

file photo

ELITE

Mike Woods