The Citizen, 2010-04-08, Page 8PAGE 8. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2010.SportsBlyth native competes at college nationals
Hoops star and Blyth-resident
Darcy Young recently joined his
team in a shot at college basketball
greatness.
Young, a member of the
Fanshawe Falcons, went to the
national finals to show what had
made his team start off the season
undefeated, and end it with a silver
medal finish and a strong record of
14-4.
Starting off his career in public
school, Young said that his arrival
at the championships was not a
path taken lightly. He attributed his
success to those who helped him
get there.
“My coach at [F.E. Madill
Secondary School] helped me out
by preparing me mentally. He knew
I’d be coming up against fourth or
fifth year players, and he really
instilled the confidence in me I
needed to compete,” Young said.
“I’d also like to thank all the
coaches I’ve had in the past,” he
added. “Coaches at public school
instilled me with the love of
basketball, and all my summer
camps and the Ontario Basketball
Association helped develop my
skills. I also want to thank my
parents, for driving me to practice,
and back and forth from Stratford.”
Fanshawe’s playoff run started
with a first-day close loss to the
University of Northern British
Columbia Timberwolves.
“We started off on Thursday
[March 18] against the number one
ranked team from British
Columbia,” Young said. “We went
into the second half with a 17 point
lead, but over the next two quarters
they caught up.”
Starting with a loss, the Falcons
turned things around on day two
with a big 88-64 win against Cégep
de Sainte-Foy.
Their third match, a 91-88 win
over the Champlain Cavaliers
clinched them a spot in the bronze
final.
The bronze final would be
against fellow-Southwestern
Ontario school, and first-place
division finisher Humber College.
While Fanshawe had bested
Humber in the year, having been
the only team to do so, they
couldn’t work that same magic
again, losing 72-66 against the
Hawks.
“Personally, I feel I did really
well,” Young said. “I was the first
or second [player] to come off the
bench for our starters,” he said. “I
didn’t score a lot of points, but I
did my part in shutting out the
other teams.”
Young said that, while bringing
the Huron-Perth championship to
Madill for the first time in 20 years
was tough, it was a whole different
game when he got to Fanshawe.
“At Madill, I was the biggest
player, and everyone had to think
about how to stop me,” the 6’9
defender said. “Coming into
Fanshawe from a small town, you
see all sorts of new people, and I
became a small fish in a big sea.”
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Coaches week offers
chance to recognize
April 17 through 25 is Coaches
week in Ontario, and The Citizen
wants your help in recognizing the
volunteers who teach youth about
sports, life and having fun.
To recognize your coach, send in a
short write-up about why they are so
great. Entries will be printed in The
Citizen (as many as can be fit) and
posted online at northhuron.on.ca.
Coined by the Coaches
Association of Ontario (COA)
(www.coachesontario.ca), the
week is designed to “proclaim,
declare, and designate” great
coaches.
The group calls for individuals to
nominate coaches for awards like
coach of the year through provincial
sports organizations (like the
Ontario Hockey Federation, or the
Ontario Soccer Alliance), or coach
of the month through the COA’s
website.
Coaches Week also serves as an
opportunity to recruit and prepare
new coaches through free coaching
clinics. A full list of dates and
locations is available at the COA’s
website.
So grab your pen, your typewriter,
or your word processor and tell us
why the coaches of Blyth, Brussels,
North Huron, and everywhere in
between are great.
Submissions can be made on
paper to The Citizen’s offices in
Brussels or Blyth, through the mail
at PO Box 429, Blyth, Ontario,
N0M 1H0, faxed at (519)-523-9140,
or through e-mail at
reporter@northhuron.on.ca.
Look up, look way up
Darcy Young, a first-year member of the Fanshawe Falcons
and Blyth native, had a great rookie year with his club. The
team went 14-4 throughout their season, ending with a silver
medal and a wild-card spot in the nationals. The Falcons lost
to Humber College in the Bronze medal game. (Anthony Chang
photo, Fanshawe Publications)
Blyth Novice LL takes second
place in year-end championship
The Blyth Novice Local League
Bulldogs had four games to play in
the final round for the White
Division Championship. The
opponents were Ripley and
Walkerton in a home-and-away
round robin.
The opening game was against
Ripley in Blyth on March 20. The
team played well and won the game
2-0. The goals went to Griffin
MacDonald and Snowden Renaud.
Clarissa Gordon played well in net
and earned the shutout.
The next game was in Blyth
against Walkerton on March 24.
The team got off to a very slow start
and found themselves down by
seven goals heading to the third
period. They came out firing in the
third period with Connor Brooks,
Tyler Drennan, Josh Plunkett and
MacDonald all scoring. The result
was a 7-4 loss.
The return game with Ripley was
on March 26 and the team found
themselves down by a 2-1 score
early in the third period. This team
never quit playing and managed to
score three times in the final eight
minutes to take the victory by a 4-2
score. MacDonald netted the
hattrick and Jason Wilts added the
other goal.
It all came down to the final game
in Walkerton on March 31. The
team would have to win the game
and win two or maybe three of the
periods to grab the championship.
The game started well and Ethan
Scrimgeour scored in the second
minute of the game.
The home team would even the
score two minutes later. The first
period ended tied at one. The second
period was back and forth with
many chances to score and
Walkerton got the go-ahead goal
with three minutes to go in the
period. MacDonald would answer
in the final seconds of that period to
head to the third period tied at two.
The third period was full of action
from start to finish. Gordon played
very well in net to keep her team in
the game. At the midway mark of
the period Scrimgeour notched his
second of the game and Brooks
added an insurance marker less than
a minute later. The team held on the
rest of the way despite tremendous
pressure from the home team and
won the final game of the year 4-2.
The teams were tied with a record
of three wins and one loss each in
the finals. The teams lined up on the
blue lines to hear the tie breaker
results from the WOAA. Walkerton
finished with 13 points and Blyth
had 12. The team delivered a
championship effort to earn the
runner-up medallions.
Congratulations, it was good to
finish the season on a high note and
it was a very exciting hockey game.
The other members of the team
are: Alex Coultes, Myea Fleet,
Kayla Gauthier, Sara Kerr, Ryan
McMichael, Marissa Nesbitt,
Kelden Pawitch, Mackenzie
Wightman.
A big thank-you to the coaching
staff of Matt Drennan, Tim Coultes
and Mike Pawitch. It was a great
year of hockey.
Coaching soccer, baseball, or
another warm-weather sport?
Let us know how your team is doing!
reporter@northhuron.on.ca