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24 Oakville Beaver Weekend Sunday, June 13, 1999 REf^M RC a6oatta*e 338-9000 Sports An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON 845-3824 (Extension 255} Fax:337-5567 Photo by Ron Kuzyk Tennis instructor Bobby Armitage with some enthusiastic students at the Wallace Park spring clinics. In his youth, Armitage won the Oakville Junior Tennis Championships five straight years. Now he's lending a helping hand to host Bronte Tennis Club which has taken over the popular grass roots junior tennis event Sign-up deadline is this Tuesday! Junior tourney has rich history T he French Open is history. Andre Agassi and Steffi G raf are ecstatic. Next up is the Oakville Junior Tennis Cham pionships. The annual tourna­ ment was held at The Oakville Club for some forty years before it found a home in Bronte last summer. "It was like W imbledon for kids," according to former Davis Cupper, Dave Brown, who played the event in 1957 at age 10 and then three more years. H e's got the tro­ phies to prove it. Peg Palmer ran the cham pi­ onships in the fifties. Her husband Zouch Palm er would become President o f the Ontario Tennis Association during that era. Oakville was the third fixture on the Ontario Junior Tennis circuit, said Brown. "It made you want to play tennis all summer long." Brown had learned to play at his m other's knee back in the days when racquets were made of wood and tennis balls were white. His mom, Hall of Fam er Louise Brown, now 76, is a legend in Canadian tennis. She has won the Canadian Championships in virtually every age category, and still plays three hours a day at Credit Valley Tennis Club in M ississauga. Dave Brown parlayed his tennis skills into an education at Indiana University, where he went as far as the NCAA finals one year. He went to law school but compared to ten­ nis, law seemed pretty dry. For 13 years from 1982 until 1995 Brown was the tennis pro at The Oakville Club and with his m om 's help ran ' t h e 'O a k v i l le F5t i f r fc i r t7h 'a m p io ifs h f|fc ' -- In his day, the draw grew from 40 kids between 10 and 18 (all playing levels) to 170. It ran over a full week, early in July, often spilling onto courts at Appleby College, Lawson Park, Wallace and Bronte. "Junior development was a prior­ ity to me. I felt it was important to the history of the club as well as the future of tennis," Brown recalled recently. He is delighted that Bronte has decided to carry on the tradition and even more so as one of his star pupils, Bobby Armitage, now 31, is part of the organizing team. Armitage started playing tennis about the age of ten when he was recognized as one of 16 prospective talents by Pierre Lamarsh, the then- professional at Ontario Racquet Club. The local youngsters got free lessons with the pros that winter, enough to hook Bobby for life. Armitage won the Oakville Junior Championships for five con­ secutive years from age 13 to 17. (Yes, he still has the trophies!) He was 14 when he won in the U-18 age class. A tennis scholarship took him to the University of Alabama. He traveled to Germany and played in several Grand Prix events, as well as satellite tournaments in the U.S.A. As a tournament player he was ranked #1 in Ontario in 1993, before he settled down to teach ten­ nis at Wallace Park. "Dave did such a great job with the Junior Championships when he was coaching and I was playing," Armitage said. "That's why I'm so (See 'Oakville' page 25) ' t**«%«f***'**"tr'*r̂ '» A good start to the season The Wiberg Oakville Cobras U-13 girls rep soccer team continued their pre-season preparation in fine style with their second tournament win. Playing against older opposition in the Amherst Invitational Memorial Tournament, the Cobras were in fine form, scoring 15 unanswered goals in three round robin games and a semifinal game. Scoring for the Cobras against the American teams (two from New York State and one each from Michigan and Massachusetts) were Karen Zmirak (9), Erika Taugher (3), Laura Bandy (2) and Stephanie Muldoon. The semifinal win set up a final against highly touted Greece Cobras, the New York State champs. The Cobras had lost narrowly to Greece at last year's tournament, and were keen to settle a few scores. In a closely contested game with chances at both ends, it was tied 0-0 at full time, and stayed that way through an exciting overtime period in which goal­ keeper Katie McKenna made a great penalty save to force a penalty shootout. The Cobras got the job done in the shootout with Adrienne Johnstone, Jessica Povilaitis, Zmirak and Bandy hitting the mark. The Wiberg Cobras' forwards had great service all weekend from midfielders Leslie Martin and Amanda Cicchini, and strong defensive support from Helen Halbert and Laura Lorenz. SEASON OPENER The Cobras played their elite division season league opener June 1 at Shell Park against a fast Burlington B squad. The Cobras had a slow start and paid for it by quickly falling behind 1-0. This was the spark they needed, however, and within 20 minutes the Oakville side was up 3-1, all goals courtesy of Karen Zmirak who benefited all night from great passes from Laura Bandy, Stephanie Muldoon and Amanda Cicchini. The Cobras kept up the pressure and saw numerous chances go just wide. Late in the game, Jessica Povilaitis made it 4-1 with a smart finish off a great cross from Leslie Martin. The Wiberg Cobras' are also sponsored by Nottinghill Place Chiropractic Clinic, Fourth Line Auto and Sullivan Entertainment. Season opening 5-3 win over Concord The Oakville Vortex U-12 boys rep soccer team had a great first outing, making it to the semifinals of the Mississauga tourney over the May 24th week­ end. Oakville opened with a 2-0 win against North Mississauga. Danny Aurora scored the first goal and Grant Salton the second one from a beautiful pass from Thomas Flynn. Oakville * came out strong against London Lasers in game two, fighting to a 1-1 draw. Grant Salton scored the lone Oakville goal. Despite strong goaltending by Tim Downey, the Vortex fell 3-0 in the third game to a very strong Dixie AA squad. Oakville again faced an AA squad in the semifinal, losing 5-0 to Mississauga. This year's roster for the Vortex team includes ... Tom Adamyk, Danny Aurora, Frank Butty, David Crowley, Timothy Downey, Thomas Flynn, Mitchell French, Jason Goulart, Dustin Janicki, Benoit Lapierre, Michael Rocca, Grant Salton, Craig Speers, Michael Turner, Harpall Ubhi and Andrew Buxton- Forman. SEASON OPENER The Oakville Vortex U-12 boys rep soccer team won their season opener at Shell Park with a decisive 5-3 victory over Concord. Forward Michael Rocca had a big night earning three of the goals, one of them on a penalty shot. Danny Aurora scored the other goals, assisted on one from David Crowley. The team is looking forward to upcoming tournaments in Burlington and Pittsford, New York. They're not whistling Dixie any more The Oakville Rockets U-12A rep soccer team lost 1-0 to Dixie June 9, after beating them 2-0 in the Grimsby Tournament. The Rockets shut out the com­ petition all the way to the semifi­ nals of the Grimsby tournament, over the June 5/6 weekend, until they met up with Oakville U- 12AA team and lost 3-1. The Rockets placed first in Division A, beating out Dixie A 2- 0 in the opener. Rebecca Readings and Giselle Panton- Brown scored while Tania Ganassini had an assist. Game two saw a tighter match against Woodstock with Oakville prevail­ ing 1-0 on a goal by Giselle Panton-Brown. The quarterfinal match saw Oakville shutout Saltfleet 2-0 on goals by Giselle Panton-Brown and Leanne Kwirant. Rebecca Readings notched an assist. In the semifinal match against Oakville AA, Tania Ganassini scored the Rockets' single goal in the 3-1 loss although Tanya Thomson was successful on a penalty kick that was unfortunate­ ly disqualified by the ref. Great goaltending by Laura Tacchi and Rachel Variance to preserve a tourney shutout until the semifinal game. The Oakville Rockets U-12 A girls rep soccer team defeated Flamborough 5-2. The Rockets opened up a 3-0 first half lead and then traded goals in the second half. Goals were scored by Rebecca Readings (2), Leanne Kwirant, Giselle Panton-Brown and Ali Warren. Assists went to Tanya Thomson (2) and Kwirant. In their season opener, Oakville were edged 3-2 by St. Catharines. Leanne Kwirant scored both goals, assisted by Amanda Douglas who played up to help the team. At the Guelph tournament over the Victoria Day Holiday weekend, the Rockets shut out the competition all the way to the final game where they finally allowed one goal, which proved to be the difference in a 1-0 cham­ pionship win for Kitchener. In the round robin, it was: • Oakville 2, Bolton 0: goals to Ali Warren (assisted by Missy Kulczycki and Leanne Kwirant) and Giselle Panton-Brown; • Oakville 1, Kitchener 0: Giselle Panton-Brown, assisted by Jody Garcia • Oakville 1, Guelph 0: Giselle Panton-Brown, assisted by Melanie O'Connor and Ali Warren • Oakville 3, Ajax 0: two penalty shot goals by Missy Kulczycki and Rebecca Readings. In the semifinal, Giselle Panton-Brown scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win Over Bolton. Swimm and Puiford each score a pair The Oakville Explosion U-13A girls rep soccer team posted a 6-0 win over Brams United in Premier League action at Shell Park on June 8. Goals were scored by Samantha Swimm (2), Lauren Puiford (2), Andrea Haddad and Jessica Turner. Jennifer Pitkin and Jessica Pudwell shared the shutout. Great games by Stephanie Allport and Alyssa Sczelecki. The team has nine sponsors and this week they salute Mr. D'Atoma of Vision Transportation. A sluggish start combined with an opening 'own' goal led to the Explosion losing 3-1 to Dixie in Mississauga on June 10. Oakville started turning the momentum around after Mississauga made it 2-0 and Jennifer Pitkin made it 2-1 on a powerful shot from 18 yards. Unfortunately, Mississauga scored against the grain of play to make it 3-1. Oakville did have a chance to pull within one but missed a penalty shot. Jessica Turner, Samantha Swimm and Lisa Telebar had standout games for the Explosion who pay tribute this week to Xerox, one of their many sponsors.