Junior Lions fall with two losses

The Seaway District High School junior and senior girls teams left their names on the Eastern Ontario Volleyball maps last week, when both worked their way to the championship finals where they collected silver medals following losses to some very tough opposition.

The Senior Spartans hosted their event last Thursday, February 23, while the EOSSAA junior championships were at North Grenville on Wednesday, February 22.

In their opening round robin game against Renfrew, the Junior Spartans lost the opening set 25-17. They rebounded with back to back, 25-15 and 15-5 set wins.

They had a fairly easy time of it in game two against Almonte (25-9 and 25-15 wins) and in the semi-final against North Grenville (25-10 and 25-11 wins).

That set the stage for the championship final against the very tough Plantagenet entry who claimed victory with two straight wins by 25-12 and 25-18 scores.

“They were a really strong club, but the girls were able to keep it close,” said coach Lindsay Waddell who was pleased with her Spartans’ silver medal finish. The girls played really well. We were simply out-matched in the final.”

“I am extremely happy with our season. I think the right team won in the end, but we played well.”

In senior action on the Iroquois courts Thursday, the Spartans and the Embrun Panthers charged through their round robin action. Neither lost a set as they worked their way to the final.

Seaway, in pool B, defeated Almonte (25-2 and 25-18) and Gananoque (25-2 and 25-9) and eliminated  Opeongo in the semi-final (25-12 and 25-18).

Embrun in pool A defeated Sharbot Lake (25-12 and 25-12), Opeongo (25-11 and 25-15) and Almonte in their semi-final (25-15 and 25-5).

The Senior Spartans knew they were up against some tough competition from the Panthers who were last year’s OFSSA champions and who had seven returning players this year, five of whom were starters. Five of their players are also club players who play pretty much year round. 

“I knew going into the finals that we faced stiff competition,” said coach Lilace McIntyre. “My squad has nine very dedicated players, but only one plays club. This makes a huge difference because club players typically play 10 months a year and have so many more hours of experience on the court.”

“My girls played a good first set (lost 25-17) but seemed to fall apart in the second (lost 25-12).”

While junior volleyball play ends at EOSSAA, the Senior Spartans (and Embrun) advance to OFSSA at Ryerson Univeristy in Toronto from March 4-7.

McIntyre is extremely pleased and proud to be taking her Spartans to the provincial championship

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Approximately 50 members attended the annual fall meeting of the Morrisburg Golf Club on Sunday afternoon with much of the discussion this year centering around the summer-long problems with several of the greens.

With three greens severely damaged by blue algae, and several others showing slight damage, it was a long tough season for both the club’s board of directors and the greens staff, as they did their best to work on the problem and provide the members and paying guests the best playing conditions as was possible.

With the season now behind them, and the course officially closed to all play as of this past Monday, October 29, the board members laid out the plans for next spring’s work on the troubled one, two and three greens.

According to treasurer Sean Boulerice, greens two and three are to be sodded in the spring, while the first green which has been showing signs of recovery since it was seeded in September, will continue to be worked on.

Greens chair Shawn Hummel, along with Boulerice and club president Jason Broad, have solicited much appreciated help from several area greens professionals and it is following their advice that the club will proceed next spring.

“We started off pretty tough,” said Hummel in his report. “There was a lot of maintenance required on the equipment and we were looking at a lot of water damage on the fairways. We decided to go ahead and fix the fairway drainage problems (where required).”

Questioned as to how long the second and third greens, could be expected to be out of play after sodding next spring, Boulerice said they were hoping that it would be six weeks max, after the sodding. 

Boulerice said the sodding can be done as soon as the ground reaches a temperature of 50 degrees and that will be dependent on the weather. “So we are hoping to get an early spring and to get at it in April,” he said.

With declining membership, which is being felt throughout the golf industry, and the fear of losing more members due to the problems with the greens, at the advice of the executive, the Morrisburg Golf Club members voted a fairly hefty drop in membership fees for the 2013 season.

“We feel that by lowering our prices, we would be very price competitive,” said Boulerice explaining the board has looked at other clubs’ pricing and what they have been doing to attract members and green fee players. 

The drop sees the fee for single member golfers drop from last year’s $540 to $450 (before applicable taxes and a club levy that is being collected to help pay for the beautiful deck added to the clubhouse two years ago).

All membership categories were adjusted to correspond to the base rate change and come spring reduced green fees will be put into effect.

The club will also have membership gift certificates available immediately for people to purchase as Christmas gifts.

The meeting ended with the annual election of officers for the 2013 season which saw the majority of board members returned.

The main changes in the board are in the club captain positions as Monique Patenaude takes over for Lori-Anne Davies who finished out two terms, and Andy Patenaude replaces Bob Mann who handled the men’s duties in 2012.

Jason Broad was returned as president, Mick Mabo as 1st vice-president and Barry Henderson as second vice-president. Sean Boulerice remained as treasurer, Candace Jamieson as secretary and Shawn Hummel as greens chair. A seniors rep had yet to be found to replace Lawrence Larocque who has stepped down.

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Week two of the Men’s Roller Hockey League is completed and taking the early lead is the New Blue entry.

The New Blue collected their second consecutive victory Thursday night, 12-5 over the Red Rockets, while White Lightning picked up win number one, in a 12-7 encounter with the Morewood Monkeys.

Justin Elliott was the man to stop in the New Blue’s 12-7 win over the Red Rockets, but the Rockets failed to do so.

Elliott struck for six of the New Blue goals and added a pair of assists against Rockets’ goaltender Chris Sloan.

Tommy Keyes backed Elliott with a pair and singles were scored by Jamie McIntosh, Randy Markell, Connor Hodgson and Colton Robinson.

Answering for the Rockets were Chris Phifer and Dean Moore with two goals apiece and Chad McMillan  with a single.

Will McIntire was in net for the New Blue win.

Brandon Buma led the Lightning to their 12-7 win against the Monkeys with six goals, including the last four of the game.

The game remained close, 4-3 for Lightning after one, and 6-4 after two, but in the third they turned it up a notch with Buma’s performance to coast to the win.

Dave Summers backed Buma with three goals and singles were scored by Billy Henderson, Steve Mattice and Kyle Sob-   ering.

Chris Embury answered three times for the Monkeys, while Cody Carruthers added a pair and Mike Thompson and Ryan Hay scored singles.

Barret Brundige was in the Lightning net for the win and Kyle Shane gave up the Monkeys loss.

The New Blue leads the league with four points, while Lightning and the Red Rockets are tied with two points each. The Monkeys are still looking for their first win.

[…]