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Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2008 17 All-star volleyball New challenge awaits Dawson in Beantown T MICHAEL IVANIN / OAKVILLE BEAVER COMING THROUGH: St. Thomas Aquinas' Matt Blaha (6) sends the ball through the double block of Acton's Victor Thompson (left) and Abbey Park's Peter Howse during last week's Halton high school boys' volleyball all-star game in Burlington. Blaha was joined on the PolizianiRichardson West Division team by Aquinas teammate Anthony Starcevic, T.A. Blakelock's Keenan Randall, Holy Trinity's James Meschino and Oakville Trafalgar's Ryan VanderVliet and Kevin Jepson. Howse's Oakville companions on the Volpe-Richardson East squad were KCC's Ben Stewart, Loyola's Rich Cenedese and White Oaks' Sam Paikowsky. The East team prevailed 3-2 in the showcase, which returned this year after a decade-long absence. Local teams struggle at volleyball finals By Adam Johnston SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER MILTON -- It might have been expected that since Oakville sent five schools to represent the town in the Halton elementary school Tier 1 volleyball championships, at least one school would have advanced past the preliminary round. However, that was not the case for River Oaks, Sunningdale, E.J. James, Eastview and Heritage Glen when they took the court Thursday evening at E.C. Drury High School. Instead, it was another dominating performance by North Division schools -- especially those from Georgetown, where the volleyball programs are particularly strong -- that accounted for three out of the four finalists in the boys' and girls' championship tournaments. The Oakville girls' teams included Eastview (the Central Division champions who were undefeated in the regular season) as well as River Oaks and Sunningdale, the East Division champions and runners-up, respectively. The girls' final saw powerhouse Stewarttown (Georgetown) face Burlington's J.T. Tuck. Tuck was severely undersized in a sport where height is critical to success. Although Tuck managed to make the match interesting, leading during the second game by eight points, it was no match for Stewarttown's 6-foot-tall hitter, Allyssah Fitterer. On the boys' side of the tournament, Sunningdale and Heritage Glen had the strongest finishes of all the Oakville teams. Sunningdale was positioned to advance to the championship round, needing to win only one set in its final preliminary match against Milton's C.H. Norton. However, Sunningdale dropped two straight sets, 25-20 and 25-22, leaving it in a three-way tie with Norton and Heritage Glen for the last semifinal spot. Heritage Glen defeated Sunningdale in the first game of the round-robin-style tiebreaker. Norton then defeated Heritage Glen in the second game, setting up a third and decisive game between Norton and Sunningdale, which Norton won without difficulty, 15-6. The boys' final staged a battle between two Georgetown teams, Centennial and Silvercreek. Centennial, which was considered the favourite from the onset of the tournament, indeed won the championship match in straight games, 25-13 and 25-13. Oakville teams from Eastview and E.J. James also competed in the boys' bracket, finishing with records of 1-2 and 0-3, respectively. hree-plus years ago, Dan Dawson glumly slouched behind a table in the Air Canada Centre media room, head down, looking up only to answer questions about his Arizona Sting's loss to the Toronto Rock in the National Lacrosse League championship game. The pain of defeat, even in his first-ever NLL final, was obvious. The high-scoring forward desperately wanted to win a championship, so much so that he had played the title game with a separated shoulder that would later require surgery to repair. Now a seven-year veteran, Dawson still has yet to earn an NLL ring. He's come agonizingly close the past two years, losing the 2007 final by two goals and last year's title contest by one. And there's a very real possibility that Dawson won't get that close again, at least for a while. The 26-year-old is now the centerpiece of the expansion Boston Blazers, who selected him first overall in a league dispersal draft this past summer, and a .500 season is an optimistic goal for next year. One might expect the Oakville native to be frustrated, to feel like his dream is moving farther and farther away. But, while he stresses the fire for a championship still burns within, Dawson is focused on another important objective these days. "Lacrosse is greater than anything in my life," said Dawson, who recently finalized his first contract with the Blazers. "When it's all said and done, it's not about the rings and it's not about the money you made. I want to be known as someone "When it's all who was a great ambassador said and done, to the sport of lacrosse. it's not about the "That's the most important. If I can do my job on the rings and it's not about the money field and, more importantly, off the field, I would be happy you make. I want with that. I want to grow this to be known as game to the point where kids someone who was a great in the future are getting scholarships and getting a bit ambassador to the sport of more money, to grow this lacrosse" sport nationwide." That's the challenge for Dan Dawson Dawson this upcoming season, particularly in a city that has grown accustomed to championship-calibre teams. The New England Patriots are arguably an NFL dynasty, the Boston Red Sox have won two of the past five World Series, and the Boston Celtics were crowned NBA champions in the spring. Surprisingly, even the Boston Bruins have been dominant so far this NHL season. "It's a sports town," Dawson said of his new home. "All these guys do is talk sports, go to the bars and watch the games. When we do our promotions, people ask questions and are excited when we're starting up. We just want the season to get underway so we can See Dawson page 18