Mike Hayakawa

Hockey girls hope to bounce back

The Stouffville District Secondary School Spartans girls’ hockey team has some unfinished business to tend to this season.

After seeing their two-year reign as Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association AA champions snapped last year when they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Ridley College, the Spartans have set their sights on getting back to the top.

Despite losing their first two York Region Athletic Association contests, including a 6-2 loss against Markham’s Brother Andre Monday, Spartans head coach Brian Shankman feels he has the ingredients to be contenders.

“We have a nice group of kids and I feel we have enough veterans where we can be in contention. We’re looking forward to having some fun and a good year. That’s where our expectations are,” he said.

Indeed the Spartans have some veterans who are expected to shoulder a big load this season.

Among those are forwards Heather Hughes, who was a member of the Team Ontario Red squad that won the recent 2008 National Women’s Under-18 championship.

There’s also team captain Brittany Crago, who scored both goals in the Spartans’ loss to Brother Andre, Jessica Ziegler and Vanessa Spataro.

While sporting a strong returning cast of forwards, Shankman said their effectiveness will be measured from the contributions they receive from each of their lines rather than one or two individuals.

“We can’t be a team that will rely too much on Heather (Hughes). We need scoring from all of our lines,” he warned.

Describing his defence as being mobile, Shankman said the blueline will be anchored by returnees Dayle Wilkinson and Lindsay Burrows.

In goal, the Spartans will be solid with the return of Courtney Humphreys.

Along with the returning cast, Shankman said this year’s team will be reinforced with seven or eight new faces. Included in that group are several Grade 9 students.

“It’ll take a while for our new players to get used to the pace,” said Shankman, who is assisted on the bench by Sarah Bubnic. “But as time goes on we’ll get better.”

Even the players voiced an air of optimism for the upcoming season.

“I think we’ll be pretty decent,” Hughes said. “I think the strength of this team is our work ethic and we have a group that are good skaters.”

SDSS jrs. caged in semis

The Spartans junior girls’ basketball team advanced to the York Region Athletic Association tier one semifinals before they were eliminated by the eventual gold-medal winning hosts, the Bill Crothers Secondary School Colts, 48-32 Saturday.

Brook Kiatipis had 16 points for the Spartans, who lost to the first-year Colts’ squad for the third time this season.

Haley Preston hit seven of eight free throws and scored another basket for nine points. Demi Chalkias pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds.

In reaching the semifinal, the Spartans won their quarter-final game over the Aurora High School Eagles 53-49 Friday.

Kiatipis led the Spartans’ offence with 24 points while centre Annalise Mathers added nine points and five rebounds and Chalkias eight points and 11 rebounds.

The Colts won the title with a 49-30 win over Dr. J.M. Denison Secondary School (Newmarket) in the gold medal game.

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