The Paris Independent
17
January 27, 2024
S P O RT S U9 Team 2 wins Consolation Championship Game at Delhi Hockey Moms Tournament; comes home with 4-1 record By Casandra Turnbull Tournaments have a way of solidifying teams and strengthening player bonds and last weekend’s trip to Delhi was no exception for the Paris Wolfpack U9 Team 2. Geared up and ready for their first tournament of the season, the local house league team competed in the Delhi Hockey Moms tournament and showed competitors the strength of their bench by blowing through the round robin games undefeated. With every win came a new sense of confidence for these young boys and girls and their momentum was contagious in the stands as well.
The action started with a 9-2 win over Alymer in game 1 Friday night. Simcoe proved to be a little more difficult, but Paris squeaked by with a 6-5 win early Saturday morning. In game 3, Paris dominated play once again with 9-1 victory over Lambton Shores, securing their seat in the semi-final game on Sunday. Faced against an equally talented Wainfleet squad on Sunday, the game was tied 4-4 into the final minute of play. Unfortunately, Wainfleet scored two quick unanswered goals to advance to the finals. It was Paris’ only loss of the tournament and they were down, but not out. The team regrouped, put on their game faces and skated
back onto the ice (with only a 15minute break between games) to claim the bronze medal and the consolation championship game, outplaying Simcoe in a dominate 51 victory. Lucas Wilkinson, Levi Blake and Jace Allgood finished among the top 10 goal scorers in this 11 team tournament. Lucas led the Wolfpack with 16 goals and four assists, Levi netted 6 goals and 6 assists, and Jace racked up five goals and five assists. Ben Turnbull stood strong between the pipes with a stellar goals against average of just 3.00 over five games – an impressive start to his first few games in net. Sloane Gal and Henry Bartscher both celebrated their first goals of the season. What makes this team remarkable was not how they celebrated the big wins but how they celebrated the little victories as well. When Sloane and Henry put the puck in the net first the first time, the entire team came to life on the bench, celebrating the moments with sheer excitement. The coach’s bench, consisting of Levi Blake, Ed Allgood, Mike Wilkinson, Jeff Bartscher and Mike Mendoza, were blown away by the collective effort, resilience and sportsmanship of everyone throughout the weekend. “The kids all demonstrated
exceptional teamwork and battled until the final whistle in every game. Their commitment did not go unnoticed, and all the coaches are incredibly proud and lucky to have such a dedicated group of players,” said Coach Blake. A special thank-you also goes out to the team’s sponsors, who graciously stepped up to help cover tournament fees, but also provide some pretty awesome swag for the team to show up to games and tournaments in style! Your support has not gone unnoticed. Thank-you to Helping Hand, Millards Chartered Professional Accountants, Blue Maple Digital, BM-IT inc, the Mendoza Family and Anchor Danly. Finally, one great big thank-you to all the coaches who’ve put in the time and effort to teach these kids how to play and how to play together. They’ve come a long way in a short period of time. The team continues with regular season, full ice games over the next couple of months and looks forward to their next tournament in Owen Sound in March.
