U13 Rep secures silver medals in St. Catharines

By Casandra Turnbull

– with game details supplied by

Kim Scherer

The U13 Rep Wolfpack team travelled to the Niagara region last weekend and came home sporting silver medals after six hard-fought games.

The Paris hockey team, sponsored by Paris Optimist Club, competed in the St. Catharines Warriors Tournament

Their round robin play started with a solid game against Norfolk, with both teams firing many shots and exchanging attempts to gain the upper hand. Norfolk was winning the battle, securing a 3-0 lead with six minutes left in the game. That’s when Paris stormed back with goals from Xavier Cormier, assisted by Marshall Lerno and James Baxter, Lerno, assisted by Eldred Martin and Logan Lahey, unassisted for the tying marker. Cayden Williams was solid between the pipes and ensured Paris owned the third period.

The U13 Rep team, sponsored by the Paris Optimist Club, claimed silver at a recent tournament in St. Catharines. The team outplayed several physical, hard-hitting teams on route to the finals.

Game two was a different story with Paris dominating against the Saugeen Valley during a hard-hitting game. The physical game only fuelled Paris’ resolve to put some points on the board since goals for and against mattered in this tournament. With a strong offense, Christian Watts brough the defense to earn the 10-0 shutout. Sean Baxter, Eldred Martin, Jared Rossi (2), Luke Cochrane (2), James Baxter, Carter Durrer, Lahey, and Ryan Steeves lit up the score board with goals

Garden City was up next, and the Wolfpack showed their pack mentality by working together for a 6-1 win. Cayden Williams in net, along with great D from Evan Mattingley, Lahey, Alex Scherer and Steeves held down the fort while the boys continued to light up the offense with a hat-trick from Cormier, and single goals from Rossi, Durrer and Martin.

It was during game four of the tournament where Paris ran into its first roadblock

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Port Colborne was relentless in hammering out shots, giving Christian Watts no time to rest in net, even as his defense did their best to keep the opponents at bay. The offense provided some relief and after falling 3-0, Paris opened the scoring with goals from Rossi and Lerno Cormier put up one final Paris marker with six second left on the clock, but it wasn’t enough as Port Colborne handed them their first loss, 8-4

With a two-win, one tie and one loss record, Paris earned a seat in the semifinals where they faced Frontenac in another tough hitting game. The first period came with two shorthanded goals. The hardhitting Frontenacs put Paris in a power play just one minute into the game. Paris quickly capitalized when Martin grabbed the puck and without hesitation brought it down and buried it in the Frontenac’s net, to score. A determined Frontenac squad was determined to keep up, so they posted their own short-handed goal three minutes later to tie the game There were plenty of back-and-forth battles throughout the first half of the game. Mid-way through the second, Cormier put the boys in the lead and Watts held his ground and kept the puck out the rest of the game. It was an awesome team effort that sent the team to the finals.

The boys went into this game knowing what they were up against and were prepared for battle as they faced Port Colborne again An entire team effort kept Port Colborne off the board until well into the second period. Cayden Williams stood tall and solid the whole game. The defence and forwards worked tirelessly, and the boys left it all on the ice. In the end Port Colborne shut them out 3-0.

It was an excellent weekend of hockey with a lot of awesome saves, great goals, and many perfect assists (accounted and unaccounted). They proudly left with the Silver Medal, home to rest and prepare for their OMHA Playdowns series that started this week

During an intense three game series with Delhi, Paris emerged victorious on Thursday, earning a spot in the OMHA Tier 2 finals. Watch for series details in next week’s Paris Independent.

Only one week remaining to register for Paris youth softball

If you have a youth interested in playing softball this summer, don’t miss out on registration. The Paris Youth Softball Association announced in midFebruary they opened registration for the 2024 season Registration must be completed online. Registration is closing at the end of this month.

If you want to get some cool swag to support the association and sport some Paris Predators gear, apparel is also available on their website. The executive also put a call out for anyone who would like to sponsor a team to reach out via email to parisyouthsoftballassociation@gmail.com.

PYA is always looking for umpires. It’s a fun way to earn some extra money this season so if you’re interested email nathan1.smith80@gmail.com. Finally, PYSA is also looking for youth to volunteer in the concession stand on game nights to earn their high school volunteer hours. For more information on that opportunity email Amy at aluyben@me.com

Covering high school sports has been an entertaining ride – and just a little bit educational too!

SPORTS Report

with George Le Gresley

Unfortunate for me there are no games to report, so I thought I would reflect on the people that I have covered.

First the students who participate in student sports are wonderful people. They behave well, articulate well and show what good sportsmanship is all about. We should all be proud of these young people and if you have nothing better to do, should try to come out and support them at their games. I promise you’ll be entertained.

Two, I learned a lot about games, that I used to watch my children play. Case in point, in volleyball, if you think that you can only score points when you serve and games go up to 15, then you are as old as me. I’m not sure when this paradigm changed, but I have accepted these changes and have to say that watching the junior and senior girl volleyball teams each go to 5 game matches on the same night, was so exciting, that the second match ended at 8:30 PM. The other discovery, was how good and entertaining girl’s hockey was. The players all showed off their hockey skills and played competitive hockey and for me, it was a privilege to watch these athletes play

Three, I witnessed a lot of passion that the volunteers had for these student athletes. This group of course included the coaches, but also the timers, scorekeepers, convenors and I’m sure I missed somebody. Without these people sacrificing their time away from being home, should all be applauded, praised and thanked for providing their guidance and knowledge to these young people. I am looking forward to the spring sports, to perhaps explain to you what a ruck or a hooker is in rugby, what the offside rule in soccer is and how it is the same as hockey, except the blue line moves, to learn why frisbee is ultimate and see if they still do the hop, skip and jump at track meets! All this means you’ll be up to date until the end of the school year, and I’ll have fun watching these young people play.