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D4 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday July 3, 2002 Oakville Little League juniors. BACK ROW: Bruno Jurgaitis (assistant coach), Duke Dickson (assistant coach), Dave Downer (coach). SECOND ROW: Travis Smith, A.J. O'Brodovich, Roger Lambert, Scott DeGroot, Zack Dickson, Brendon Skeete, Mark Keil and Jason Tuske. FRONT ROW: Paul Jurgaitis, Kris Bonnel, Sergio Lujan, Daniel Hanley and Jordan DeCarlo. Oakville juniors win Hamilton tourney The Oakville Little League juniors went unde feated on their way to capturing the second annual Elite Sports Canada Day Classic at Mohawk Park in Hamilton. Oakville won the championship game 9-2 over Hamilton East Mountain Cobras, breaking open a close 4-2 edge with a five-run seventh inning. Jason Tuske then came in to close out the sev enth, three up, three down. It was a nifty pitching -by-committee win. Paul Jurgaitis started the game, giving up one run in the first inning, but then retiring the side in the second inning before stepping aside with arm trouble. Kris Bonnell put together a great four-inning stint, at one point retiring nine batters in a row, and allowing Hamilton's second run in the sixth inning. Oakville tied it 1-1 in the fourth with Jason Tuske's double complimenting Zack Dickson's sec ond double of the game. Oakville went up 3-1 in the fifth inning with Dickson smashing a two-run double, bringing in Sergio Lujan (hit by pitcher) and Travis Smith (sin gle). Oakville got their fourth run in the sixth inning with A.J. Obrodovich's squeeze bunt scoring a speedy Daniel Hanley from third base. And then the avalanche for Oakville in the top of the seventh. Oakville loaded the bases with Scott DeGroot singling and both Dickson and Tuske walking. Robert Lambert's double scored two, Marc Keil's single scored two and Kris Bonnell's single scored one. "We had to call up five boys from our Junior 13's for this tournament, and each of them con tributed significantly in their own way," said man ager Dave Downer. "As for the team itself, this was the first time they have played together in a game situation. The whole team played excellent. "We move on to Warren, Michigan this weekend for another get-together. We'll keep the momentum moving forward to the district playdowns later this month." Here's a recap of the other tournament games. Game four - OAKVILLE 7, Easter (Warren) Michigan 4 : the efforts of two of the Junior 13 callups did not go unnoticed. Scott DeGroot pitched three innings, with A.J. Obrodovich (winning pitcher) keeping the Michigan team scoreless in the final four innings, allowing Oakville a come-back win. Zack Dickson went four for four, with two doubles, two RBI's. Run scorers were Travis Smith (3), Scott DeGroot (2), Zack Dickson and Daniel Hanley. Game three - OAKVILLE 9, Cheektowaga 0: Roger Lambert's three-run homer was the hitting highlight, with Jason Tuske pitching a tough seven innings (9k's), to go along with three hits of his own. Travis Smith, Scott DeGroot, Zack Dickson had two hits each. Game two - OAKVILLE 9. Michigan Wildcats 3: Marc Keil and Kris Bonnell shared pitching duties. Travis Smith (three hits, three runs), Zack Dickson (2 hits, 1 run), Keil and Paul Jurgaitis (1 hit, 1 run) and runs by Sergio Lujan and Jason Tuske finished it off. Game one - OAKVILLE 3, Hamilton Cobras 0: a complete game, two-hit shutout for Paul Jurgaitis with seven strike outs. Travis Smith had two runs, Scott DeGroot the other, to close it out. Ty Featherstone · Oakville Beaver HEADS UP! Oakville Cyclones player Robert Raiskums (#15) keeps a close eye on Nepean City Storm 's Eevan Thompson (#7) in U-15 preliminary round action at the Oakville Parmalat Boy's International Soccer Tournament this past weekend. See future issue for results. Morningstar and Maltar to coach Not only is the Canadian m en's and w om en's team stacked w ith students from M orningstar Taekwon-Do, it is also coached by M ike M orningstar and his student. 4th degree black belt Dave Maltar. B oth w ere selected this past w eek to be the coaches for the team s for the senior w o rld 's to be held in Las Vegas in July, 2003. M orn in g star, a fo rm er w orld cham p io n and past coach of the C anadian w om en's team , has been selected to coach the men this tim e around. D ave M altar has an exten sive com petitive career. His string o f m edals include silver at the nationals and gold at the Pan A m ericans. As well, he was captain o f the Canadian team at the 1997 world cham pionships in Russia. The two bring w orld of ex p erien ce to this fairly young and in ex p erien ced team. Training will start in the fall and w ill involve quite a bit o f travel as m em bers on both teams are from O ntario, A lberta and B.C. Nicoletta hopes to suit up for Canada in the Capital Cup in Ottawa later this month Kyle N icoletta, who hopes to make the starting rotation for Niagara U niversity as a freshm an this Septem ber (as previously reco u n ted ' in the Beaver) has been one o f the m ost effective p itchers in the Canadian Elite Baseball Conference over the past three years. The St. Thom as A quinas grad, who fast tracked out after Grade 12, was selected to the C EB C Team Canada all-star team in both 2001 and 2002, and was instrum ental in help ing the Thunderbirds win five inter national tournam ent titles during the past two seasons. "Kyle is the go-to-guy in our start ing rotation and is greatly respected by all of his teammates and coaching staff," said T hunderbirds general m anager Mel Oswald. "It has been a privilege for me to work with a player o f his calibre and o f his character. We all wish Kyle the very best for his future." N iagara U niversity head coach M ike M cCrea admits he had a diffi cult tim e at first recruiting Nicoletta. "We knew there were a num ber of other D ivision 1 universities who were interested in signing Kyle, so when he finally agreed to sign with Niagara we were really pleased to land such a high profile college prospect." Nicoletta plans to major in either business or math w hile at Niagara and says he is really looking forward to the challenge of playing division 1 college baseball. Nicoletta has already been select ed to the starting roster for this year's CEBC elite all-star team. He is also a candidate to play on the international Capital Cup team w hich will participate in a world show case tournam ent to be held in O ttaw a in late July. Nicoletta, who is a veteran o f both O akville L ittle L eague and the O akville M inor Baseball Association, said he cam e to the C anadian "They really taught me T hunderbirds because he to be a better person as well felt they had the best play as a better player and the er developm ent program in the country. team cam araderie is unbe "The Thunderbirds have lievable." a great coaching staff N icoletta credits his par ents for contributing to the which includes form er pro fessional players as well as success he has enjoyed in his youth career. college coaches and they really care about all their "They were always there for me over the years when players," said Nicoletta. I was heavily involved in He said the Kvle Nicoletta T hunderbirds advocate a both hockey and baseball. "school-first, policy and m aintain a "My dad was the driving force that strict code of moral standards and kept me focused on my goals and objectives and when I decided to con discipline. centrate on baseball we would play catch together almost every night." "I would also like to thank the entire coaching staff of the Canadian Thunderbirds and in particular coach O sw ald and pitching coach Ernie Lewington. "They really helped me with my personal developm ent as well as in arranging my scholarship with N iagara." Im m ediately follow ing his stint w ith the CEBC C anadian all-star team, Kyle will report to Niagara U niversity for orientation in midAugust. Cain was in shock at reaching the A final (Continued from page D3) for more sports, please see page C7 I'M BACK! That's right! The D a rren G o dden G o lf A c ad em y (previously associated w ith The Swing Time Golf School) is back in Oakville fo r the summer. Darren's success has taken him to Toronto for the past 7 years and now for a short tim e is available for go lf instruction and coaching in Oakville. This is a great opportunity to finally improve your game w ith Darren's advanced method of instruction. "Good consistent g o lf can only be aclneved when the student has a complete understanding o f his/her oivn personal swing" To inquire about programs, prices & available times, please phone 416-676-6316 True. The Oakville born and raised athlete, who is in both the Canadian and Oakville sports halls of fame, will soon be coming up on the 20th anniversary of his gold and silver medals, in the canoe event, at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. And he's still a regular fixture on Sixteen Mile Creek, still paddling with the Burloak Canoe Club, but it's dragon boat racing that has him still remaining on top of the world, com petitively. And Saturday's easy win for Cain and the core of the last year's world championship team bodes well for their planned defence at next year's world championships in Shanghai. Not that they're looking too far ahead. First they, have to defend their national title over the Labour Day weekend. "I don't know whether w e'll face a challenge from out west or not," said Cain. If the Toronto area crew wins, explained Cain, then they'll again augment their world championship team with the best paddlers from the rest o f Canada. Larry got quite the charge from the Oakville moms and daughters and that's saying something, because, quite frankly, his battery is still full -- he's still as passionate as ever about paddling. "Truthfully the highlight o f the weekend for me w asn't the m en's race, although it felt really good," said Cain. "It was nice to be back in the boat. The last time I sat in a (dragon) boat was at the w orld's (in Philadelphia) last year. "But the highlight, for sure, was being able to help these women do something that they didn't think they could do. And just to see their reac tion, just to be part o f that. It was a great thing for me. "It's something I'll remember as much as they're going to remember. It was a fun thing to be part of." For information, dragon boat rac ing involves 20 paddlers along with a steerer and a drummer. And the Toronto international dragon boat festival is one o f the biggest in the world, behind perhaps only Hong Kong. In the open w om en's division, alone, there were 24 boats. To compete in Sunday's cham pi onship race, in the top six boats, was something that had never occurred to Cain, not when they had concluded their nine-week training preparation, certainly not after Saturday's disas trous first preliminary round race, and not even after the second one that ultimately qualified them. "I was in shock when I looked at the board and saw our time and real ized where that put us," said Cain. "And I was still convinced there would be some crews in the rem ain ing heats that would go faster, but there w eren't." He then thought it best to explain to these Oakville ladies just who they were up against. "I had to tell the girls, look you're going to go in and you're going to get rocked by two crews that had raced at the world championships and then a third crew that was 10 seconds faster than you guys in the heats. "Our job is to try to be as close to them as you can, try to hang with them as long as we can and try to beat fifth and sixth. "The fact they we were able to be so close to these crews for so long, and be less than two seconds from third, was beyond even what I would have been able to expect once I even knew we were in the final. "Really impressive." Cain pointed to a number of rea sons behind their stunning result. "First," explained Cain, "is in any crew boat, whether it's war canoe or dragon boat or whatever, and to a large degree teams, in general, I think that the team spirit, the camaraderie, the esprit de corps, the commitment to do it for each other is really impor tant. And they really have that. "These girls were totally unified and they really, truly enjoyed each other's company. And it was really a nice thing to be a part of, even outside the racing." Another important aspect was their relatively high fitness level. "They're all pretty fit. They're all active in sports. The mothers are run- . ning marathons and playing tennis. There's a couple that I see at the gym over at Family Fitness and then the daughters are all pretty active too whether they run or play soccer. "As we say in paddling, there was some good bodies to work with in the boat." Hand in hand with their fitness, they are also competitive. "They wanted to do well. It wasn't just something to do to get together, mothers and daughters, and paddle down the course and have fun. When they're on the starting line, they want to go fast. So they have that desire too." Even their single biggest negative -- inexperience -- may very well have been a positive, added Cain. He said he was talking to another former Olympian who didn't feel he was being effective as a coach with his team. "They had all paddled for a num ber of years and he said he was hav ing a hard time coaching them because they all had their own ideas that they brought with them from pre vious years. "So maybe having a blank slate with all first year paddlers isn't neces sarily a bad thing because they lis tened to everything I said. They were very, very coachable. "They made an effort to do every thing they were asked to do, without question and that made a difference I think. "They paddled very well for a crew that just learned how to paddle."