Dylan Bond takes GTHL, gets drafted to OHL
Dylan Bond (son of Karen (nee Semeniuk) and Terry Bond) and his Mississauga Rebels (AAA Minor Midgets) won the GTHL Minor Midget League Championship versus the Toronto Marlboros last weekend. Dylan, a defenseman, also scored the first goal of the Rebels 2-1 champ win.
Don Cherry was beaming about this Rebels squad and their dominance over the last few years on Coach’s Corner Saturday night. After showing their team picture, Grapes was incredulous when announcing that this team has won the GTHL for the last seven consecutive years.
To top off Dylan’s weekend in style, on Sunday he was drafted by the Saginaw Spirit in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection Draft. Way to go Dylan. Good luck!
Mustangs vault from NOSSA into OFSAA
The Manitoulin Secondary School Girls’ Gymnastics team was well-represented at the NOSSA Championship in Sudbury last Monday, with 12 girls competing. The Novice Aerobic Gymnastics team (comprised of Eden Beaudin, Donnshai Bruleigh, Jill Cooper, Alyssa Green, Yohana Ogbamichael and Roxy Rojas Brizuela) defended their NOSSA title by winning gold, qualifying them for OFSAA at the end of the month.
Other top ten finishes included: Donnshai Bruleigh (level 1: 8th on bars, 10th on floor), Maggie McDonald (level 3: 10th on bars), Jadah McGraw (level 3: 9th on bars), Yohana Ogbamichael, captain (level 3: 9th on beam, 10th on floor), Victoria Tardif (level 2: 8th on vault), Zabrina Cosby, Kendra Jordison and Brynn Kiley rounded out the team, and all represented MSS well.
The OFSAA Gymnastics Championship will be April 24-26 in Windsor. Good luck team!
CrossFit Open
The CrossFit Games (created with the daunting goal: to find the fittest athletes in the world) starts with the Open invitation to everyone who wants to put their hat in the ring. The amazing thing about the CrossFit movement and this competition is that there is an entry point for everyone. Although the Open required the Rx’d athletes to complete such superhuman feats as this: five weekly workouts that had competitors: Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 13 minutes of: 55 deadlifts, 55 wall-ball shots, 55 calorie row, 55 handstand push-ups. To complete “as prescribed,” men had to deadlift 225 lbs. and throw a 20-lb. ball up to 10-ft. vertical target and Women were to deadlift 155 lb. and throw a 14-lb. ball to 9-ft. target! That was just one of the five, weekly workouts that had to be verified by judges.
Congratulations to Mindemoya’s Kyle McDermid who finished 60th in all of eastern Canada and ex-pat Phil Cress was 118th. In the high school division hats off to Daniel Chapman, Phoenix Towers, Darrion and Douglas Robinson participated at the high school. Darrion and Doug are new to the school and CrossFit but are making leaps and bounds thanks to coaches, Jon and Tina Balfe.
On the gentler side, however, the Open and CrossFit in general, allows us mere mortals to scale down the prescribed workout so that we improve our fitness without ending up in the ER. The idea is to perform a wide variety of functional exercises to improve cardiovascular improvement, strength, skills, speed, etc too become an overall more fit person. Check out what it is all about at www.crossfit.com.
All-Ontario player
Manitoulin had another All-Ontario participant this past weekend in the Toronto area. Wikwemikong’s Dana Lewis backstopped the Sudbury Bantam BB Wolves at the Meadowvale arena. Along the way they tied Nepean and beat Hamilton (during which Dana contributed an assist from her goaltending position), beat Stratford and London Wilmot where Dana picked up a 1-0 shutout. After that terrific run they made the All-Ontario semi-finals only to lose their first game and be eliminated. Great tournament Dana, as well as a super season.
Hockey catch-up
Former Manitoulin power forward Matt Case and wife Leanne of Manitowaning have both sons playing Rep. hockey in Sault Ste. Marie. Youngest, Owen, with the Soo Greyhounds Major Atom AA is a Northern Ontario gold medalist. This past weekend at the OHF All-Ontario championship his team won their first four games to advance to the semi-finals. Unfortunately they were upset 3-2 in that game despite Owen’s 2 goal game. Great show Owen. Grandmother Lori Case of Manitowaning was an enthusiastic observer all weekend. Matt and Leanne’s older son, Noah, is a member of the AAA Soo Major Pee Wee Greyhounds.
Hats off to former Manitoulin Panthers’ Aysia Debassige. A member of the Sudbury Lady Atom A Wolves, Aysia was a large part of a Gold Medal Victory in Etobicoke this past weekend. The Lady Wolves downed such teams as Stoney Creek, West Huron, Markham etc. to capture the All-Ontario OWHA Championship. Last year Aysia was an important cog in the Atom Panthers winning the Nickel District Hockey League title. Keep up the hard work and winning attitude Aysia!
Wikwemikong’s Tanner Webkamigad and Gregory Trudeau-Paquet have been named to the All-Ontario Aboriginal Under 18 team. They will compete for Ontario in the National Championships in Mississauga between May 2 and 7th. It should be a very strong team composed mainly of AAA Midget and Junior players. Tanner and Greg skated for the St. Charles Cardinals High School this past year. These lads have grown some since they played on Manitoulin. Tanner is now listed at 6 ft., 200 lbs while Gregory is 5 ft. 11 in. and 190 lbs. Wikwemikong’s Marcia Trudeau is the Central Region Director for Ontario Aboriginal sports.
A good sport is good for sports.
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