S P O R T S
COACH PLEASED WITH NATS’ FIRST SEASON
ALEXIA MARSILLO alexia.marsillo@eap.on.ca
year.” Mathieu Blanchette was the team’s leading scorer, with 51 points – 27 goals and 24 assists – in the regular season. Trevor Coykendall takes second place with 35 points in the regular season – 16 goals and 19 assists. Sauvé is expected to stay on next year as head coach and general manager of the organization. He looks forward to being able to focus more on the coaching aspect of his job next year, as this first year was a learning process. “I think next year will be a really good year to put the emphasis on the coaching part for myself and getting better at communicating with our guys and going over plays,” said Sauvé. “The experience we got from making playoffs will go a long way for the returning players.” The Rockland Nats will in fact be seeing most players return next season. According to Sauvé, there will be anywhere from 10-14 players from this season returning next year. There are six graduating players and at least one goaltender, but possibly both, who will be moving on to play for another team. Goaltender Sean Storr is going to play for Hamilton College in New York next season. The 19-year-old finished the season with a 4.14 goals against average. Second leading scorer Trevor Coykendall is committed to Adrian College in Michigan and a few other players are still in talks with various schools. Official announcements about where these players will end up next year can be expected in the next month or so.
The season is over for the Rockland Nationals Junior A team, but the journey has just begun. The Nats finished their regular season fourth in their division with 62 points. The team was eliminated in the first round of playoffs in a 4-1 series against the first-place Carleton Place Canadians. As this was the first season the Nats Junior A organization was in Rockland, head coach and general manager, Daniel Sauvé, was pleased with the results. “I think it was a huge success,” he said. “Right from the quality of the players we had, the owners and how much time they put in to build the team. I think we put in a lot of good building blocks moving forward with the organization.” According to him, making the playoffs was their objective for this season. “We played against the top team in Canada, which was really, really good experience for our players and it will be something that will help them become even better in the years to come,” said Sauvé. Despite an injury prone season, Sauvé was satisfied with the depth of the team up front. The Nats had four solid lines of scoring potential. “That was really something we improved on from last year [when the team was in Gloucester],” he said. “Our scoring went up 20 or 30 goals compared to last A local mother and son have qualified for National Darts competitions in the coming months. Rhonda Maidment and son Ryan, from Rockland, will be competing in National Darts tournaments in Drummondville, Que- bec. They both qualified for Nationals by succeeding in their respective provincial tournaments. Ryan, who has just recently turned 18 years old, plays darts competitively in a youth league. He won the Senior Male Singles event at the Darts Ontario Provincial Cham- pionships that were held in St. Catharines, Ontario, from March 9 to 11. This win qualified him to participate in the National Darts Federation of Canada Youth Nationals, which will be held in Drum- mondville, from May 16 to 21. If Ryan is also successful at Nationals, he could qualify for the British Darts Organization World Masters Youth Championships, which will be held in England in October. “The World Masters is the highest honor you can get,” explained mother Rhonda Maidment. Maidment, who has been playing darts herself for over 20 years, has already qualified for the World Masters. She will be heading to the U.K. in October to compete. Maidment qualified by winning a Ladies Singles Event in P.E.I in September. But before setting off for the U.K., she will be competing in Drummondville, at the Adult Nationals, in June. She qualified after she won second place in the Darts Ontario Ladies Singles Championships in St. Catharines. ALEXIA MARSILLO alexia.marsillo@eap.on.ca
La saison est terminée pour les Nationals de Rockland Junior A, mais le voyage ne fait que commencer. Les Nats ont terminé leur saison régulière en quatrième place de leur division avec 62 points. L’équipe a été éliminée au premier tour des séries éliminatoires dans une série de 4-1 contre l’équipe de première place, les Canadians de Carleton Place. Comme c’était la première saison de l’organisation Nats Junior A à Rockland, l’entraîneur-chef et directeur général, Daniel Sauvé, était satisfait des résultats. —archives
MOTHER AND SON FROM ROCKLAND HEAD TO NATIONAL DARTS COMPETITION
Rhonda, qui joue aux fléchettes depuis plus de 20 ans, s’est déjà qualifiée pour les championnats du monde et se rendra en Angleterre en octobre pour concourir. Ici, elle accepte le prix de 2e place dans le tournoi provinciaux, la fin de semaine de pâques.
Rhonda et Ryan Maidment, une mère et son fils, de Rockland, participeront tous les deux à des tournois nationaux de fléchettes à Drummondville, au Québec. Ils se sont qualifiés pour les championnats nationaux en réussissant leurs tournois provinciaux respectifs. Ryan, 18 ans, joue aux fléchettes dans une ligue pour jeunes. Il a remporté l’épreuve masculine senior en simple aux championnats provinciaux de fléchettes de l’Ontario, qui ont eu lieu à St. Catharines, du 9 au 11 mars. —photos fournies
“I’m so excited that mother and son are doing this in the same year; you really don’t hear that often,” added Rhonda Maidment. “It’s not my first time making Nationals, but it is my son’s first time. So I’m more excited for him than for me.” Rhonda Maidment is also one of the
coaches for the youth league in Ottawa, which recruits children from 8 to 18 years old in Ottawa and its surrounding areas. Along with a friend, she started this league about three years ago. “The youth usually don’t have access because darts is primarily considered a bar
game,” she admitted. “They don’t realize it but it helps them with their social skills, their math skills, because they have to be able to add and subtract the points. It helps them build relationships. Darts has so many great perks, so I promote it.”
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