U15 A’s wrap up undefeated season with championship
The St. Catharines Athletics U15 capped off an undefeated season with a championship at the Ontario Field Lacrosse championships in Brampton last weekend.
The A’s defeated the Orangeville Northmen 9-7 in the championship final to wrap up their season with an impressive 15-0 record.
“We played Orangeville in the finals and beat them which felt really good for me because I spent most of my childhood losing to Orangeville,” A’s head coach Alec Tamas said. “It felt good to knock them off.”
Belal Hamdani, Qasim Hamdani and Adam Ponting had two goals each for the A’s in the final while Lucas Williams, Joaquin Gatt and Gabriel Caschera also scored.
The A’s earlier defeated Orangeville 12-8, Newmarket 14-3 and Toronto 14-6 in the round-robin portion of the tournament.
Tamas, a 24-year-old St. Catharines native and former member of the St. Catharines junior A Athletics, was proud of the way the A’s handled the challenge of being ranked first heading into the final weekend.
“That first day we just really wanted to make sure we didn’t have any letdowns,” Tamas said. “We were the top seed going in and we knew we were going to get every team’s best effort.
“We had beaten teams up pretty badly all year so we knew everyone was gunning for us. We just wanted to make sure we didn’t have any letdown spots and we played a really good first three games. The guys kept focused and we had a really good first day to set us up for the finals.”
Tamas, a member of the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League, took over as head coach this season and was assisted by Sam LeClair (Colorado Mammoth draft pick and Brock captain), Simon Bellamy (starting Brock goalie), and Jeff Wittig (Rochester Knighthawks and Brock player).
“They were a great help and did a fantastic job,” Tamas said.
The staff quickly realized they had a special team on their hands with a group of core players who have been together since they were six years old. The squad kept training as best they could through the COVID lockdowns, whether it was five or 10 players at a time or the full squad.
“When the season started, I really had no idea,” Tamas said. “I’ve never really coached this age group before so it was hard to scope out what the competition would be like but after the first couple weeks we won some pretty lopsided games and I could tell we had a pretty legit chance at winning the entire provincial championship.”
With that in mind, the staff made sure to keep the club focused on playing the game properly.
“One of the biggest things we were preaching was not developing any bad habits, don’t think you can just do whatever you want, because when it comes to the championship weekend you’re not going to be able to do that,” Tamas sad. “Make sure you’re playing within the system, make sure you’re working the ball around and not trying to do anything or be a one-man show or anything like that.”
Tamas said sportsmanship was also factored in.
“I was trying to emphasize with this age group to try and be respectful, don’t do anything to offend your opponents,” he said.
Tamas loved coaching the U15 age group.
“I really enjoyed it. I worked with most of the kids throughout the winter a little bit and it’s a really fun age group, the kids are really good,” he said. “They’re really fun to be around at that age and I thought they were hilarious. We liked being around them and they seemed to like being around us.
“We had a really good connection. And what I really liked about our age group was they wanted to get better every day. They were willing to learn, willing to listen, willing to get better, which is what I really appreciate the most about that group.”
Members of the team are: Belal Hamdani, Qasim Hamdani, Adam Ponting, Lucas Williams, Joaquin Gatt, Cole Sicard, Gabriel Caschera, Mike Welsh, Dylan Devries, Aaron Jackson, Liam Larocque, Reed Ozog, Andrew Scarlett, Max Wojtowicz Liam Vanderweir, Casey Brander, Owen Scott, Sullivan Russell, Evan Scriver.
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 3,500 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpotrecz@outlook.com for more information.
