Showcase winners
The St. Albert Impact 2002 female youth soccer team conquered the heat and humidity as the winner of the top U16 division at the Ottawa Champions Showcase last weekend.Travelling with only 13 players, the Impact played in energy-sapping weather to finish 4-0 against Ontario teams with 14 goals and only four against.
The Impact, coached by Norm Odinga and assisted by Rob Bourbonnais and Elaine Kisilevich, scored more goals in the tournament than any other team in their flight and no other team conceded fewer goals.
In the U16 Nike HyperVenom division, scores were 4-1 against Woodbridge White and 3-1 against the Aurora Stingers and OSU Force White in bracket B and 4-1 against the Burlington Bayhawks in the final.
Matches were 80 minutes in length instead of 90.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team picture.
The tournament featured highly ranked teams predominantly from Eastern Canada as a showcase event for college and university coaches from Canada and the United States.
The 15-player Impact lineup in the Edmonton Interdistrict Youth Soccer Association concluded an 11-0-1 (40 GF/8 GA) season in the U17 Tier 2 division before heading to the Champions Showcase.
This weekend the Impact are competing at provincials in Calgary.
World junior lax
Hunter Aggus, a St. Albert Rams Lacrosse alumnus, is competing for Team Canada at the World Junior Lacrosse Championship in Saskatoon.Aggus, a transition player with the Hamilton Bengals of the Ontario Junior B Lacrosse League, was selected to the 23-man Canada roster comprised of players from Alberta, B.C., Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and five leagues.
Kyle Dziwenka, a defender with the junior A Edmonton Blues in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League, is also playing for Canada.
The lineup includes two returnees from the 2017 world juniors with Canada West.
Iroquois West won last year’s championship at Six Nations of the Grand River.
This year marks the first time in international box lacrosse history that each nation will be represented by one team as Canada, a centralized Iroquois team and the United States vie for the world junior title.
Midget A nationals
The Canadian Lacrosse Association midget A nationals start Sunday for two St. Albert Rams.Mathieu Gautier and Ronin Pusch are among 22 players on the Alberta roster at the seven-team tournament in Calgary.
Gautier is a returnee from the first Alberta team in history to win the Tackaberry Trophy in last year’s final, 5-4 over Ontario in Whitby, Ont., as the Alberta finished 8-0.
Gautier and Pusch were offensive leaders for the midget A Rams, silver medallists in the Greater Edmonton Lacrosse Council playoffs and Alberta Lacrosse Association championship, and in both finals lost out to the Parkland Posse.
They were also teammates on the 2017-18 midget 15 St. Albert Flyers in the Alberta Minor Midget AAA Hockey League.
Darian Mar legacy
The Darian Mar Golf Invitational tees it up Aug. 18 at Sturgeon Valley Golf & Country Club.The tournament honours the memory of Mar, a 13-year-old St. Albert bantam lacrosse player killed in June of 2017 in a collision with an Econoline van while riding his bike home from Sir George Simpson School.
All proceeds raised for the Darian Mar Legacy Fund will assist minor lacrosse organizers in the Greater Edmonton Lacrosse Council in covering the cost of underprivileged families that can’t afford or struggle to pay for lacrosse.
This year’s recipient is St. Albert Rams Lacrosse for the 2019 season and each of the following years a different GELC club will receive contributions from the tournament.
To register, contact Craig Lemiski at [email protected] or at 780-994-2775.
The tournament fee is $175. Shotgun start is 1 p.m. and dinner is at 6 p.m.
Sponsorship ($650 per hole), prize donations and volunteer opportunities are still available.
Tournament organizers include members of the St. Albert and Relics lacrosse clubs.
Rugby roundup
Sydney De La Mare of the St. Albert Rugby Football Club is a non-travelling reserve with the Canada U20 women’s team for the Tri-Nations Cup underway in Nova Scotia.De La Mare, the 2017-18 forward of the year for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, has previous international experience with U20 and U18 Canada.
The Tri-Nations Cup is a four-match tournament involving Canada, the United States and England over a 12-day period.
De La Mare also played for the U20 national champion Prairie Wolfpack, along with SARFC teammates Payton McNeil and Alexie Pusch, the 2017 recipient of the Shelaine Kozakovich Cup as the junior women’s player of the year in the Edmonton Rugby Union.
The following SARFC players also made their respective Wolfpack age-group teams.
U16 females: Julia Baniak, Ellie De La Mare and Ashley Rosychuk.
U16 males: Andrew Gargan, Jacob King, Josh Looker, Rowan Moorhouse-Andrews and Dylan Wilson.
U19 males: Cooper Kendra.
Senior men: Adam Bontus and Jordan Roberts.
Meanwhile, Looker and Jeremy Olson from the SARFC U15 provincial champions were selected to play for the Celtic Barbarians 7s at the recent North American Invitational 7s in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The tournament featured six matches and the U16 team with Looker finished first and the U14 team with Olson placed second.
Esso Fun Day
Find out what female hockey is all about at the fifth annual Esso Fun Day on Aug. 26 at Servus Credit Union Place.The free on-ice introduction for first-time female hockey players five years and older starts at 10 a.m. with registration, followed by the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ice session at Go Auto Arena.
Participants can bring whatever equipment they have and organizers will provide the rest, including a jersey through the Esso Fun Day program.
Esso Fun Day is presented by the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association and St. Albert Raiders Hockey Club.
For more information, visit www.raidershockey.ca or contact Trudy at [email protected].
In conjunction with the Esso Fun Day is an equipment swap (male and female selection and sizes are limited) from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
The drop-off of clean and usable equipment is Aug. 24 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Aug. 25 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at the tournament room.
