June 6 sports report: Lightning gymnastics; Niagara Selects basketball; Redcoats hoops camp; Canada pep rally; Beechwood golf
Members of the Niagara Falls Lightning Gymnastics Club performed well at the Level 3-5 Ontario Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Recording top 10 finishes for the team, coached by Andrei Gorodetskii, Valentina Kashkevich and Alexandra Gorodetska, were the following:
Level 3 Age 9 A: Mira Bussei, second on balance beam, seventh on uneven bars and six all around; Genevieve Heaton, seventh on vault, eighth on balance beam; Abigail Galante, ninth on floor and 10th on uneven bars.
Level 3 Age 12 C: Victoria Vacca, seventh on floor; eighth all around and on vault and ninth on uneven bars.
Level 4 Age 10 B: Sophia Slyva, fifth on floor and 10th all around.
Level 4 Age 10 C: Kyjiah Slowly, sixth on floor and special award for most dynamic tumbling.
Level 4 Age 11 A: Kendra Canham, sixth on uneven bars.
Level 4 Age 11 B: Sophia Beland, second on vault.
Level 4 Age 13 B: Aviah Facey, fourth on vault.
Also performing well were: Julia Thompson, Level 3 Age 12 C; Simone Moreau, Level 4 Age 10 A; and, Reece Dunne, Level 4 Age 11 A.
SELECTS WIN DIVISION 2 OBA GOLD
The Niagara Selects boys under-19 basketball team put itself behind the eight ball at the Basketball Ontario Division 2 championships following an opening 62-60 loss to the Oxford Attack.
“Losing the Friday night game put us at the mercy of waiting for the last game of the night to determine our fate,” head coach Ezio DiDomenico said.
The team improved its chances though by defeating the York South Silver Knights 68-39 and Wild Hawks Basketball from Waterloo 89-64.
“Oxford losing to the Silver Knights guaranteed us a chance to play for gold which set up a rival challenge against Blessed Sacrament,” DiDomenico said. “The boys were hungry to do what we started the weekend to do which was come home with the gold.
“For most of the boys, this was the final weekend of their club basketball careers and they wanted to finish on a high.”
The team did just that dumping Blessed Sacrament 65-49 in the final
“Our team had some of the best high school players in the region and definitely the best on their high school teams,” DiDomenico said. “With the depth and versatility of the players on the team, I never really had to worry about who was on the floor. We just made sure our matchups worked.”
The players bought in to whatever was required of them.
“I asked some players to take a different role than they may have played on their previous teams and they responded in a productive way,” he said. “The pressure defence we played from start to finish every game made it difficult for our opponents to handle. The way the boys executed our transition game on offence and defensively made it difficult for teams to respond to the speed of our game.
“Being able to have players that could go in and out made it easy for me to coach.
The team started the season preaching ‘Team and Together’ with emphasis on achieving its goal as one.
“Each and every player contributed 100 per cent effort and left everything they had on the court every minute they played,” DiDomenico said. “The all-star of this Ontario championship was the team and that’s the only way we could have won; together.”
Members of the team, coached by DiDomenico and assistant Jason Bray, were Victor Kariuki, Dusan Krkljus, Reese Radobenko, Connor Jolliffe, Rovenston Baptiste, Dainon Bango, Richard Werner, Jacob Bray and Thomas DiDomenico.
REDCOATS BASKETBALL CAMP
The Governor Simcoe Redcoats Basketball Camp will be held July 2-6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Governor Simcoe.
The camp is for boys and girls ages 8-14 and the cost is $150.
For more information, contact Jill Stiefelmeyer or Scott Madole at 905-934-4006.
Among the instructors are former Simcoe players Lauren Buschmann, Mary Ingribelli, Sam deJong, Jay Fast, Travis Berry and Andrew Ferguson.
CANADA BASKETBALL PEP RALLY
The Pen Centre and Canada Basketball will be hosting a pep rally for Canada’s entry in the upcoming FIBA U18 Americas Championship June 10-16 at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines
“We are excited to welcome Team Canada,” said Bawe Nsame, CEO of B&M Agency, Sport Marketing Agency. “We want to give Team Canada a warm welcome and to show them that the community is rooting for them. We welcome all sports club in Niagara Region, elementary schools and fans to attend this unique event and experience. In fact, we have Ridley College that will be bringing students and staff to the pep rally.”
The rally begins at 11 a.m. and will feature dance performance by Fusion Studio of Performing Arts, mascots, members of Team Canada and lots of crowd engagement.
GOLF
BEECHWOOD
Beechwood Mixed 9 and Dine
Game: Worst Two Scores Doubled Subtracted
Low net 16: Reg and Gert Kennedy. Second low net 17: tie Roy and Pat Marzetti, Mike and Rose DiLonardo.
Birdies
Ed and Noreen Gallagher #3; Dave and Kim Kanwisher #3; George Campbell and Val Zuk #3; Duncan and Marg Allan #4
Reg and Kennedy #6
Closest to the Pin in 3
#3: Dave and Kim Kanwisher
#8: Mike and Rose DiLonardo
