Bulldogs save best for last
The Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs boys hockey team was anything but the favourite heading into the Zone 4 AAA final against the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association champion Blessed Trinity Thunder.
In Niagara Region High School Athletic Association regular-season play, the Bulldogs were winless, losing 5-4 to Greater Fort Erie. 3-2 to E.L. Crossley, 6-3 to A.N. Myer, 5-3 to Governor Simcoe and 4-3 versus Grimsby.
Despite the record, Churchill head coach Jeff Flood, who was assisted by Wayne Chapman and Dave Kamatovic, wasn’t surprised when his team captured the Zone 4 crown with a 6-1 victory over Blessed Trinity.
“We are the only AAA team in the public board and our team was aware that we were playing in the zone final on Day 1 of tryouts,” he said. “We just had to be ready for that game.”
Knowing the team was going to the zone final no matter what allowed the coaching staff to give various depth players the opportunity to play in games during the season.
Flood attributed his team’s success to the Bulldogs continual focus as a program on developing both junior and senior skaters.
“As it is every year at SWC hockey, six or more players graduate and the success of the junior program continues to supply the program with talented players,” Flood said.
Hockey is only part of the equation at Churchill.
“It is great to have the players come to us in Grade 9 and see them develop as players, but more importantly develop as people by their Grade 12 year,” Chapman said.
The Bulldogs finished with an overall record of 6-7-1, including tournaments, and saw their season come to an end with a 1-0 loss to the Waterdown Warriors at the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association championships. Waterdown ended up being seeded third at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA championships in Barrie, where it lost in the quarter-finals.
Members of the team were Henry Allan, Liam Armstrong, Benjamin Aylward, Benjamin Brendzy, Nathan Brockington, Ethan Chase, William Dale, Reid Edmands, Bryson Essery, Owen Faris, Tyler Faris, Blake Gowling, Dawson Groff, Andrew Harley, Aidan Harper, Brayden Hudson, Nathan Little, Alexander Meffe, Nolan Phelan, Isaac Prantera, Nathan Ramsden, Samuel Read, Evan Rewbury, Austin Smith-Koopmans, Evan Spurr, Braedon Vanecko, Keaton Zavitz and Hunter Zoccoli.
A key component to the past four years of Bulldog hockey was the Kid Line made up of Smith-Koopmans, Read and Harley.
“They were a big influence on the team,” Flood said.
Eight or more players will be graduating from the team this spring and the coaching staff are looking forward to next year’s squad which will be bolstered by athletes from the promising junior team.
