May Highlights

As the high school athletic season begins to wind down, we take a look at some of the lesser-known sports for the month of May. From Ultimate to golf to archery, high school athletes were busy in a wide range of sports this past month.

OFSAA High School Archery Invitational Tournament

Jordan Sequillion winning Gold

On May 18-19, the Richmond Green Community Sports Center hosted an OFSAA Invitational Tournament for Ontario archery athletes. The two-day tournament in Richmond Hill boasted an impressive turnout of 410 students who were representing 71 high schools. Attracting high schools from Manitoulin Island to Toronto, this archery invitational is one of the most exciting tournaments for Ontario high school archers.

The invitational featured four divisions for both males and females: Olympic, Standard, Compound Limited and Compound Unlimited. For those who aren’t familiar with archery, the targets have a diameter of 60 cm while archers stand 18 meters away. As a testament to the high level of competition, in order to qualify for the championships, participants needed to score at least 175 points out of 300 (30 shots in total with the bulls eye worth 10 points).

Jordan and younger sister Sydney before the tournament

In the overall school rankings, St. Joseph Scollard Hall from North Bay finished up with two team titles, placing first in both the Boys’ and Girls’ Compound Limited Classes. In the Boys Compound Unlimited Class, West Ferris Secondary School narrowly edged St. Joseph by 38 points, taking first place in the division.

In the Girls Olympic class, Jordan Sequillion from Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute placed first in her class with an impressive 547 points out of a possible 600 (2 rounds of 30 shots), beating Hannah Brunet from Turner Fenton Secondary School by an excruciatingly close margin of just 2 points. The victory was sweet redemption for Jordan, as she came up just short and finished second place in last year’s competition. Jordan’s younger sister, Sydney, was there to share in the victory, not just as a spectator but as an athlete. While Sydney might not be on the same level as Jordan just yet, with such a qualified mentor and teacher, she is bound to improve on her 25^th place finish in the Olympic class.

Confederation Spring Golf Classic

From May 6 to 7, OFSAA held the annual Spring Golf Classic at Parkside Collegiate Institute in London, Ontario. With over 140 students representing 20 high schools, the nation-wide competition was one of the largest gatherings of Canadian high school golfers. Students from Vancouver, BC all the way to Sussex, NB completed two rounds while vying for both the individual and team national titles.

Overall, St. Theresa’s High School from Midland Ontario won the tournament with the low team score of 455 strokes, beating out Sacred Heart Catholic High School from Newmarket who finished second at 462, and Parkside Collegiate Institute from St. Thomas who wound up third with a total score of 465.

The individual winner of the day was Colton Kalkanis from St. Theresa, who came first out of the 140 participants. Kalkanis shot an impressive score of 73 in both rounds to finish with a final score of 146, just ahead of Marc-Antoine Gagnon from Academie St-Louis in Montreal who finished with a score of 149, and Jamie Cherutti from Aurora High School with a score of 150.

Spring Fling Ultimate Tournament

On May 19, 32 high schools from all over Ontario traveled to Barrie to compete in the annual Spring Fling Ultimate Tournament. Students were especially excited for this tournament, as it is the only Ultimate tournament sanctioned by OFSAA. As one of the largest Ultimate tournaments in Ontario, Spring Fling certainly brought out the best from each team as they sought to claim the title of best high school Ultimate team in Ontario.

The tournament was organized into four different divisions – top, layout, hammer and spirit, with the winning team from the top division being named the Ontario champion. The first of the two semi final games in the top division was played between Aurora High School and Thornhill Secondary School, with Aurora dominating Thornhill 8 to 3. In the second semi final game, Barrie North Collegiate punched their ticket to the championship final with a 6-4 victory over Waterdown DHS.

The competitive championship game between Aurora and Barrie was a hard fought defensive battle that saw both teams give their all. Barrie jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead but the experienced Aurora side didn’t waver and played a patient game in order to eventually tie it up. The lead switched back and forth between teams, as each player did everything they could to shift the momentum of the match. Tournament Coordinator Pete Bowman observed, “Both teams were completely gassed [by the end of the game], but pride forced both defensive teams to play hard and deny each other the opportunity to finish the game.”

In a fitting end to a highly entertaining game, Barrie’s team captain made an excellent pass to a teammate in the endzone, scoring the final goal to make it 8-6 for Barrie, giving them the title of Spring Fling Champion. In the bronze medal game Waterdown and Thornhill put on a defensive display, with Waterdown squeaking out a 3-2 victory to take the bronze. Overall, the tournament was an excellent showcase of the talent and enthusiasm for a sport that is only getting more popular every year. As Bowman adds, “It was a terrific day of ever-improving Ultimate in Ontario.”

BCSS AA and AAA Provincial Tennis Championships

On May 25 in Burnaby, BC, the AA and AAA Tennis Championships took place and featured a championship rematch that pitted two familiar teams against each other. Another storyline featured two up and coming teams, in particular, who demonstrated the desire to always strive to be better.

For the second year in a row, Collingwood High School and Brentwood High School faced off in the AA division finals. After a grueling match, Collingwood took the win for the second consecutive year, forcing Brentwood to settle again for second place. While a second place finish in the provincial championships is an impressive feat in itself, the result will be sure to motivate the Brentwood team for next year.

Collingwood – AA Champions

Last year during the AAA championships, Magee Secondary School finished just outside of the medals in fourth place, while the Mennonite Educational Institute (MEI) placed sixth in the AA division. Throughout the year, both teams clearly matured and came together as a team en route to strong performances in this year’s championships. MEI’s strong team play resulted in a medal as they finished the tournament in third place. Meanwhile, Magee had a chance for the gold as they found themselves in the championship game against a familiar opponent. After losing to Sentinel in the preliminary rounds, Magee faced them again, this time with the championship on the line. The Cinderella story wasn’t meant to be, as Sentinel emerged victorious to take the championship. Despite these losses, the Magee team demonstrated significant improvement in their playing level and their future looks extremely bright.

NSSAF Table Tennis Championships

High school table tennis athletes gathered at the North Kings Education Center in Canning, Nova Scotia to compete in the NSSAF Championships. On May 14, the tournament brought together some of the most talented high school table tennis players in Nova Scotia for an exciting day of competition.

In the Intermediate Boys’ championship game, Hebbville Academy was up against the favored Truro Junior High. Although Hebbville was clearly the underdog going into the competition, the boys played hard and eventually defeated Truro, coming out on top with a match score of 5 to 2.

Unfortunately for the Junior Boys from Hebbville, their tournament didn’t end exactly as they had hoped. The team breezed through the preliminary rounds, making short work of both Cape Breton and Sir Robert Borden Junior High. The boys had momentum on their side, but unfortunately it was not enough to overcome Truro, who beat Hebbville in the championships 5 to 4.

Hebbville Team practicing (Courtesy: South Shore Now)