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The Oakville Beaver, Tuesday D ecem ber 23, 2003 - D 3 Silver Stick hopefuls spread X-mas cheer with donations The Oakville Rangers bantam AA rep team collected over 500 food items and toys for Christmas charities and the MOHA toy drive during last Thursday's team Skate-A-Thon at Canlan Ice Sports Arena. The boys raised team funds through a 100 lap timed skate, but made the most of soliciting pledges by also requesting food and toys for the needy. The bantam AA Oakville Rangers, currently in first place, are looking for a championship title and berth to a national tournament at Brampton's Silver Stick over Christmas. Richard Bell Memorial boasts teams from Sweden, Norway, U.S. Oakville will be hockey central starting this weekend as the huge Richard Bell Memorial international hockey tour nament gets underway. More than 100 teams are entered in four age divisions -- minor atom (9 yrs), minor peewee (11 yrs), minor bantam (13 yrs) and minor midget (15 yrs). Each division is represented by the three levels -- A, AA and AAA. And the Minor Oaks Hockey Association (MOHA), of course, is represented in all 12 categories as hosts. Arenas in use include River Oaks, Maple Grove, Oakville and Canlan Ice Sports arenas. At the minor midget level, there are two first place league leaders -- the Oakville Rangers AAA's (16-4-3), and the Oakville Rangers A's (16-2-2). The above noted minor midget AAA rep team is ranked in the top 10 in the province. They will face an interesting array of teams, chief among them the Markham Islanders (15-5-4) and in fourth place in the GTHL, but not rated in the top 10. Since this is the draft year for this level, the major junior scouts are making Oakville games a `must' on their calen dar. MOHA president Mike Zardo puts it this way: "the scouts tell me they like the boys on coach Bob Langley's team, and they like the way the team plays hockey, which is a lot of praise from a group that seldom says anything. They mostly just watch." The minor midgets play their opening games on Sunday (Dec. 28), 9:50 a.m. against an AAA midget team from California, the Ventura Mariners, and then at 5:20 p.m. against the GTHL's York Toros. Both games are at River Oaks. Moving down a few age levels, another team that is attracting considerable interest is the Oakville Ranger minor peewee AAA's (16-4-4), who also find themselves in first place in their loop, although a looming Halton team is threatening their standing, having played fewer games. The team, coached by Steve Wilson, has been bolstered this year by six new additions and play their opening game at River Oaks A, on Saturday (Dec. 27) at 11:15 a.m. against the Welland Tigers, with their second game of the day on tap at Ice Sports 2, at 6 p.m., against the Ann Arbor Wolverines. All told, the Richard Bell will need 193 games before the 12 champions are declared. With teams from Norway and Sweden, along with Ventura CA and Ann Arbor MI, it will truly have an international flavor. Admission is free to all, for all games. The complete schedule can be tracked on www.moha.on.ca. The Oakville Rangers bantam AA rep team collected food and toy contributions at their skate-a-thon at Ice Sports and pose for a pic ture before dropping off the donations. BACK ROW: assistant coach Bill Chandler, head coach Dalton Albrecht. MIDDLE ROW: Matt Bertrand, Mark White, Kris McCoubrey, Mike Young, Brett Chandler, Jake Truant, Alex Boot, Brandon Smith, Jordan Macintosh, Anthony Farrow and Mark Friesen. FRONT ROW: Anthony Albrecht and Brett West. ABSENT FROM PHOTO: Chris Hill, Ben Bennett, Brad Savelson, Dan Tremblay, manager Gino Truant and trainer Bob Savelson. Peter McCusker · Oakville Beaver Several Oakville links to Toronto Lynx, including coach Wilde By Jon Kuiperij OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF This girls high school hockey game marked the last game of the year before heading into the Holiday Break. Loyola prevailed over White Oaks Secondary School 3-1. See standings below. Halton High School standings, heading into Christmas Break SENIOR BOYS BASKETBALL GP W L T F GEORGETOWN 3 3 0 0 144 AQUINAS 3 3 0 0 178 LOYOLA 4 3 1 0 251 IROQUOIS RIDGE 4 1 3 0 180 T.A. BLAKELOCK 4 3 1 0 234 OAK. TRAFALGAR 4 2 2 0 201 WHITE OAKS 4 2 2 0 156 CHRIST THE KING 3 1 2 0 136 ACTON 3 0 3 0 69 HOLY TRINITY 4 4 0 0 184 KINGS CHRISTIAN 4 0 4 0 115 JUNIOR BOYS BASKETBALL L GP w T F HOLY TRINITY 4 4 0 0 169 AQUINAS 4 3 1 0 250 Q.E. PARK 4 3 1 0 259 GEORGETOWN 4 3 1 172 0 LOYOLA 4 3 1 0 173 KINGS CHRISTIAN 4 3 1 0 163 OAK. TRAFALGAR 4 2 2 0 179 WHITE OAKS 4 2 2 0 183 CHRIST THE KING 4 1 3 0 143 ACTON 4 4 0 0 109 T.A. BLAKELOCK 4 0 4 0 135 IROQUOIS RIDGE 4 0 4 0 129 SENIOR BOYS HOCKEY GP W L T F Q.E. PARK 9 1 6 2 51 T.A. BLAKELOCK 9 6 1 2 33 NOTRE DAME 8 1 6 1 48 LOYOLA 8 4 3 1 29 HOLY TRINITY 8 4 4 0 30 GEORGETOWN 9 1 3 5 20 WHITE OAKS 8 2 6 0 22 OAK. TRAFALGAR 1 1 8 6 19 IROQUOIS RIDGE 7 1 6 17 0 A 88 135 138 151 215 192 144 156 174 217 238 P 6 6 6 6 6 4 4 2 0 0 0 SENIOR GIRLS HOCKEY GP W L T F T.A. BLAKELOCK 4 4 0 0 16 HOLY TRINITY 5 3 1 1 13 GEORGETOWN 5 1 1 3 20 LOYOLA 4 1 3 0 18 OAK. TRAFALGAR 5 3 2 0 17 WHITE OAKS 5 2 3 0 9 Q.E. PARK 1 2 5 2 11 CHRIST THE KING 1 5 3 1 7 ACTON 1 4 5 0 2 IROQUOIS RIDGE 4 5 0 1 6 SENIOR GIRLS VOLLEYBALL GP W L T F 4 AQUINAS 4 0 N/A 0 OAK. TRAFALGAR 4 4 N/A 0 0 1 GEORGETOWN 4 3 0 N/A 1 T.A. BLAKELOCK 4 3 0 N/A LOYOLA 4 2 2 0 N/A HOLY TRINITY 4 2 2 0 N/A CHRIST THE KING 4 2 2 0 N/A IROQUOIS RIDGE 4 2 2 0 N/A WHITE OAKS 4 1 N/A 3 0 ACTON 4 1 3 0 N/A Q.E. PARK 4 4 0 0 N/A KINGS CHRISTIAN 4 0 4 0 N/A HALTON JUNIOR GP AQUINAS 4 GEORGETOWN 4 WHITE OAKS 4 OAK. TRAFALGAR 4 ACTON 4 LOYOLA 4 HOLY TRINITY 4 Q.E. PARK 4 T.A. BLAKELOCK 4 CHRIST THE KING 4 4 KINGS CHRISTIAN IROQUOIS RIDGE 4 A 4 6 6 8 13 9 11 15 20 27 P 8 7 7 6 6 4 4 3 2 1 A 136 148 188 172 144 133 155 156 191 243 168 216 P 8 6 6 6 6 6 4 4 2 0 0 0 A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A P 8 8 6 6 4 4 4 4 2 2 0 0 w A 20 21 12 25 29 28 42 44 48 p 14 14 13 9 8 7 4 3 2 GIRLS VOLLEYBALL L T F A 1 3 0 N/A N/A 1 3 0 N/A N/A 3 1 0 N/A N/A 1 N/A N/A 3 0 3 1 0 N/A N/A 2 2 0 N/A N/A 2 2 0 N/A N/A 1 3 0 N/A N/A 1 3 0 N/A N/A 1 3 0 N/A N/A 1 3 0 N/A N/A 4 0 0 N/A N/A P 6 6 6 6 6 4 4 2 2 2 2 0 There are now several Oakville links to the Toronto Lynx. For starters, the professional soccer club recently announced that Oakville resident Duncan Wilde will coach the team next season. The Lynx have also joined forces with the Premier Soccer Academy, which Wilde founded 15 years ago, to cre ate the locally-based Toronto Lynx Premier Soccer Academy. Finally, the club will hold its open trials in lanuary at the Oakville Sports Centre. Wilde, a native of England who immigrated to Canada in 1988, said the Oakville Sports Centre provides improved opportunities for coaches to evaluate talent. "It's a much better surface for professional players and is more conducive to a full field, which is where we need to see the players play," said Wilde, who expects to make a 50 per cent overhaul of last season's Lynx roster. "We are the highest level of professional soccer in Canada, so (the trials) are to give youth and up-and-coming players a chance to see if they've developed over the past year." Wilde, who served as head coach of the Hamilton Thunder last season, has already done a complete video analysis of the 2003 Lynx season and part of the 2002 cam paign. Along with assistant coach Billy Steele, Wilde hopes to turn around a Toronto squad that posted a 11-13-4 record last year and finished last in the A-league's Northeast Division. "For the Toronto Lynx to be at the bottom is just not good enough, with a city of this size and such a passionate soccer following," Wilde said. "We're intent on having some younger, up-and-coming players complemented by the good use of our five international spots. That's our objective at this point." Meanwhile, the club's involvement with the soccer acad emy means greater opportunity for local players. "We will enter four teams into the Super Youth League, governed by the United Soccer League, similar to the European academy system," Wilde said. "It will give play ers an opportunity to play for the Toronto Lynx from under15 onward, and that's never happened before." Anyone interested in playing in the Super Youth League is encouraged to get information on the academy program by visiting the Toronto Lynx web site at www.lynxsoccer.com or the academy's site at www.premiersocceracademy.com.