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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Tuesday December 23, 2008 - 29 Angels to host national bantam championship Five-day softball tournament in July will bring Canada's best players to Oakville By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The country's best bantam girls' softball teams will be coming to Oakville this summer and the hosts will be gracious in every way but one. The host Oakville Angels may have a guaranteed spot in the tournament, which runs July 29-Aug. 2, but they won't be just another team filling out the schedule. The Angels have qualified for the national tournament in each of the last two years and last season came home with the silver medal after being edged 2-1 by Brampton in the championship game. This will be the second time Oakville has hosted a national championship, having staged the peewee tournament in 2004. The Oakville Girls Softball Association (OGSA) applied for the bantam championships in September and received word last week that they had been awarded the tournament for 2009. "It's pretty exciting," said OGSA president Tim Harche. "We have a little experience in doing this before and being able to showcase softball here again is a tremendous opportunity." Host committee chair Ron Caughlin said the peewee tournament was very successful and likely played a large role in Oakville securing this year's tournament. He said the template for hosting put together by Softball Canada was very similar to the plan the OGSA came up with for the 2004 event. In addition to hosting the national championship, Caughlin said the bigger goal is to promote the sport. Oakville boasts a strong, growing program with 22 house league teams in six divisions as well as seven rep teams. This year the program is expanding to include select teams in at least three divisions, and more if they can find coaches for the teams. Caughlin said the organization experienced a growth in numbers the last time Oakville hosted nationals and hopes to see that happen again next summer. "It's a good way to help promote the game. Last time, the tryouts were unbelievable after (hosting) the nationals," he said. "The goal is to promote the sport, especially at the younger age groups to help build a foundation (for the future)." "That's really the main thing," Harche added. "We think this is one of the best sports and if we can get kids to come out and try it, they'll find it's a great summer sport. They can play recreationally and if they want to play more competitively there's the select and rep programs." The national tournament will feature at least 12 teams, with as many as three or four from Ontario. British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec usually send at least two teams as well. The tournament will also feature many of the players who will represent Canada at the International Softball Federation Bantam World Championships in August. Harche said the cooperation of the town, its council and staff were also important factors in securing the tournament. Trafalgar Park was renovated in 2004 to bring it up to international standards. In addition to allowing Oakville host national tournaments, it also allowed the OGSA to host exhibition games with the Australian and Venezuelan Olympic teams last summer. "It really allows us to show what the town can provide in terms of facilities," Harche said. Oakville mayor Rob Burton will serve as the honourary chairman for the bantam tournament. The Angels will also host a banquet for the teams where Andy Higgins, a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and founding member of the Coaching Association of Canada, will speak. The OGSA will conduct a volunteer drive in the spring as it looks to recruit the 50-60 volunteers it will need to run the tournament. Schedule favours Blades in race for division lead Continued from page 28 LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER PITCHING IN: Megan Maher gets an autograph from Canadian Olympic soccer player Kara Lang at the Hyde Park Gate Canadian Tire Sunday afternoon. The Oakville native was signing autographs to help raise awareness for the Toys for Tots program. Anyone donating a toy received a ballot to win Lang's Olympic soccer jersey. Oakville native honoured by Softball B.C. Oakville native Bev Dewitt was presented with the Community Coach Award by Softball B.C. Dewitt, who has been coaching in Sicamous, B.C. since 1995, developed a Learn to Play program for kids between the ages of four and six that uses different stations and activities to teach kids the fundamentals of the game. The Softball B.C. website said Dewitt "works with any child who wants to learn how to play and/or pitch softball, resulting in 20% of the total number of children enrolled in elementary school in Sicamous playing softball. Girls volleyball program offers instruction, house league play The Volley Girls instructional program for girls ages 9-12 will begin in January at the Tansley Woods Community Centre. The program is each Sunday for 10 weeks. The first 45 minutes is spent on skill development while the three-on-three games will be played in the second 45 minutes. Girls age nine and 10 will play from 12:30-2 p.m. and girls age 11-12 will play from 2-3:30 p.m. There is also a Volley Girls house league for players ages 13-16. Games are played once a week with a half hour of instruction. Games are played Saturdays at Trinity Christian School. Students in Grades 7 and 8 play from 10 a.m.-noon or noon-2 p.m. Grades 9-11 play from 2-4 p.m. The 10-week program begins in January. For more information, visit www.haltonvolleyball.com or call 905-333-0019. its way through a crowd midway through the third that proved to be the winner and Aaron Pierce tipped in another shot from the point a few minutes later to put the game away. Georgetown had opened the scoring four minutes into the game but Ryan Murphy tied the game late in the first with a power-play goal. Murphy was coming off a five-point game in the win over Pickering and his goal in Georgetown extended his point streak 12 games, a stretch in which he's totaled 11 goals and 22 points. The Stratford native came to the Blades after playing Jr. B in his hometown and earned himself a spot on the top line with Jeremy Welsh and Luke Moodie. "They had chemistry from the first day," Coccimiglio said. "Ryan's highly skilled and very intense. He competes every shift." The trio has accounted for 78 goals -- 40 per cent of the Blades' total -- with all three having at least 25. In the victory over Pickering they combined for five goals and 13 points. While the NHL's Ottawa Senators have constantly debated the merits of playing their top three players on one line, Coccimiglio has resisted breaking up the trio so far despite the losses of scorers such as Julian Cimadamore, who is now in the OHL. "We've been testing, moving guys around, but that's the one line that's been in tact," the Blades' coach said. "We need a balance of scoring because we can't go down the stretch with one line." Though Murphy wasn't here for last year's championship run, it hasn't taken him long to size up who will be the biggest ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE MacKinnon Division standings G W L OSL P Georgetown 34 29 4 1 59 Oakville 35 29 6 0 58 Burlington 37 24 9 4 52 Vaughan 34 21 12 1 43 Buffalo 31 17 11 3 37 Brampton 38 15 16 7 37 Milton 35 14 18 3 31 Bramalea 32 9 20 3 21 Mississauga 35 9 24 2 20 Streetsville 34 7 25 2 16 obstacle for the Blades in repeating. "Every time you play Georgetown, you have to bring you're A game," he said. "Everyone did tonight. We had a good game we just didn't finish off enough of our chances." If the Blades are to overtake the Raiders, the one thing in their favour is the schedule. Just three of Oakville's final 13 games are against teams with winning records. (Georgetown has six of 14 against teams above the .500 mark). The most critical of those three for the Blades will be a Jan. 30 meeting with the Raiders, who have won all three meetings between the teams this year. And with another playoff meeting likely between the teams that have squared off in the conference final three times in the past five years, home ice for the playoffs would be a nice advantage to have. "It's every team's goal to finish first and that's what we're looking to do," Murphy said. Notes: The Blades don't play again until Jan. 3 when they host Bramalea at the Joshua's Creek Arenas.... Welsh had three goals and two assists against Pickering and Murphy scored once and set up four. Moodie and Chris Rocca each had a goal and two assists. Dustin Alcock, Matt Ribiero and Alex Abramov, with his first goal as a Blade, had the other goals. Ian O'Brien made 25 saves for the win.