The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, September 20, 2013 | 26 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com OT motivated by sour end to last season Ben Fanelli named Denied a trip to OFSAA despite winning Halton field hockey title, Red Devils return hungry to prove they are among province's best By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Sports "Connected to your Community" captain of OHL's Kitchener Rangers By Josh Brown Metroland Media Group Eleven months later, it still stings. "It's a touchy subject," says Ellie Cookson. "It was a bad ending to a good year," adds her fellow captain Rebecca Plouffe. The Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils senior girls field hockey was having a dream season. They were a perfect 11-0 in league play, having outscored their opponents 59-1, heading into the Halton final. They were the clear cut favourite to win the Halton championship and although they faced their toughest test of the season, the Red Devils topped Nelson 3-2 for their third straight title. But despite Halton having two entries in the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) tournament -- thanks to OT's bronze medal in 2011 -- the Red Devils would not even get the opportunity to play at the provincial high school championships. In past years, with two entries available, OT would simply would have had to have beaten the Hamilton Catholic finalist to earn entry into the OFSAA tournament. That would have been all but a given considering Halton schools had beaten Hamilton Catholic schools by a combined score of 16-0 over the previous three Golden Horseshoe championship games. However, last year's playoff format gave five teams an opportunity to earn one of the two spots. OT received a bye in the first round but ended up drawing longtime rivals, Notre Dame in the second round with an OFSAA spot on the line. Oakville Trafalgar had beaten the Fighting Irish 3-0 a week earlier in the Halton semis, but after scoring at least three goals in every game, OT was held scoreless. The game went to penalty flicks and Notre Dame won. Making matters worse, Nelson, the team OT beat in the Halton final, earned the other OFSAA berth and went on to claim bronze. OT coach Jim Groen says the team is not dwelling on its OFSAA snub. But if there's one thing Groen hasn't had to worry about this season, it's motivational speeches. His players may not be dwelling on it, but they certainly have not forgotten how last season ended. "We came back and we've made it our goal," Cookson said after OT's 4-0 win over Loyola, "not just to go to OFSAA, but to win it." The Red Devils lost five players from last Oakville Trafalgar's Emily Taft (left) and a Loyola opponent battle for the ball in Wednesday's senior girls field hockey game. OT won 4-0 to improve its record to 2-0 on the season. The defending Halton champions have set high goals this season after being denied a trip to the provincial high school championships last year. | photo by Herb Garbutt -- Oakville Beaver year's team but also got a strong infusion of ice hockey players, too. Emily Taft has a talent from the junior team. Though they wicked slap shot. She can score from alweren't on the team last year, the incom- most anywhere." ing juniors are motivated as So far, the early returns well. They went undefeatare good. Cookson and ed in the regular season in Plouffe said one of the Red 2012, only to lose to Notre Devils' greatest strengths is Dame in the semifinals. team chemistry. Among those first-year "There's a good connecseniors is Maddy Dunn, tion between the players," who helped Ontario's unPlouffe said. "Everyone is der-16 team claim the gold very determined." medal at nationals. Oakville Trafalgar has "We knew we had some outscored its opponents good juniors coming up to 13-0 in its first two league fill the holes," Groen said. games and it won the pre"Now they just have to season tournament at St. learn the system." John's Kilmarnock, which Ellie Cookson "We have a lot of club Oakville Trafalgar co-captain draws many of the provlevel players," said Plouffe, ince's top teams. The Red who teamed with Cookson Devils won all six of their to win a silver medal at nationals with On- tournament games and defeated Goderich tario's under-18 team. "We have a lot of 4-1 in the final. We've made it our goal, not just to go to OFSAA, but to win it. KITCHENER -- There was no flashy news conference at Sun Life Financial in Waterloo. No throng of Kitchener Rangers supporters. No podium for the team's new captain to address his peers like in years past. Instead, the Rangers quietly slipped Ben Fanelli the captaincy for the upcoming season Wednesday at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. And it was fitting for the fifth-year defenceman. Quiet, confident and always quick to credit others. That's Fanelli's game. "If you look to the captains of the Memorial Cup and OHL championship teams ... to be amongst those names is nothing but humbling," said the 20-yearold. "It's pretty surreal, to be honest." For head coach Troy Smith, there really wasn't another option. "Everybody knows Ben's story and it's about perseverance and character," said the skipper. "That's what you look for in a captain." Yes, Fanelli's story. It's hard not to revisit it when discussing the overage Ben Fanelli blueliner because, simply put, not many thought he'd ever be in a position to accept the `C'. It was back in 2009, seven games into his rookie season, when his life changed forever. The Oakville native was run into the end boards by Erie's Mike Liambas on a dirty hit and suffered a serious head injury on the play. Fanelli missed the rest of the season and the following year but worked tirelessly to recover, and managed to not only return to the Rangers, but become an effective player. In fact, he's missed just five games in the past two years. Along the way, he's seen some incredible captains, all of whom left an impression. There was Dan Kelly's unrivaled maturity and leadership during his rookie season. "It felt like he was 30 years old," said Fanelli. Gabriel Landeskog was next. "He knew when to pick his moments and when to say something to the team." Pint-sized Michael Catenacci followed. "He really knew how to fire the guys up." And finally, good friend Ryan Murphy. "He had the ability to keep the room calm when it needed to be." see Wearing on p. 27