North Bay Team of the year

The North Bay Stingers peewee rep baseball team and the St. Joseph-Scollard Hall archery team are co-winners of North Bay's 2006 James Kelly Memorial Award for team of the year.

The Stingers peewee baseball team captured a silver medal at the provincial championships.

It was a storybook ending for a small group of peewee players who four years previously were introduced to rep baseball. At the time, this team didn't have a sponsor, uniforms or equipment. They borrowed equipment from the North Bay Baseball Association and uniforms from the North Bay Legion before bowing out in two straight games at the 2003 provincials.

The next year, the team acquired a sponsor in Blanchfield Roofing, which enabled them to financially compete with southern teams. New uniforms, equipment and entry fees for tournaments allowed important opportunities. Results began to improve, but the Stingers once again bowed out in two straight at the provincials.

In 2005, the Stingers starting showing signs of competing with teams across the province. They won their first tournament in Orillia. At the provincials, they won three games and finished fourth in the province.

Everything came together in 2006 for the Stingers, even though it didn't start that way. The team lost a number of majors the year before and, with five returning players, were forced to look for new ones to field a team. They found five more players, but three had never played organized baseball.

The team began tournament play in June and immediately enjoyed success. In their first tourney in Brampton, they lost the championship game to Forest Glen from Mississauga.

They competed in three more tournaments, making it to another final, and at Trenton in August they struck gold. The highlight of the tournament came when North Bay defeated the Mississauga Majors 8-7 in the final. It broke the Majors' 39-game unbeaten streak and set a positive tone for the provincial championship two weeks later.
The team practised most of August in preparation of capturing the city's first peewee provincial championship. A random selection draw was not kind as the Stingers had to play Forest Glen in their first game.

Forest Glen had beaten the Stingers twice in two tournament finals. In this game, the Stingers led 7-5 in the bottom of the seventh, only to see their rivals score three runs and win 8-7. Forced to go to the bottom of the draw, the Stingers began their climb back to the top. They first beat Martingrove and waited more than 24 hours due to rain before beating Forest Glen, Trenton, Midland and the Mississauga Majors to reach the final against Ancaster, who hadn't yet lost and had played three fewer games.

Well-rested Ancaster won 6-0 and forced the Stingers to settle for silver, still an accomplishment for a team which had to overcome long odds.

The Stingers ended their season with an overall record of 25-4-1. They made it to two tournament finals, captured one tournament and brought home silver from the provincials.

Team members include Joe Poeta, Jeremy Poeta, Ryan Scott, Jake Tougas, Thomas Hamilton, Kristofer Faucon, Tyler Besner, Nick Scott, Chris Kangur, Matt Blanchfield and coaches Larry Tougas and Tim Scott.

The St. Joseph Scollard Hall Bears archery team captured their fourth consecutive title and fifth in six years at the 2006 OFSAA Invitational Tournament in Richmond Hill, Ont. in 2006.

Athletes must qualify with a benchmark score in one of three classes: compound, standard or olympic. Divisions are set by type of equipment used, not by age, as is practice in other OFSAA type events.

Because of the invitational status, students compete regularly against sponsored shooters.

Coach Yves Perrault enjoys the opportunity in bringing students for an OFSAA experience in what he calls a "non-traditional" high school sport.

"It allows the kids to compete both individually and as a team, and the scores our local students put up on a continual basis are some of the best in the entire province," he said.

Perrault is quick to point out the growth of the sport locally and credits much of the initial start up and continued coaching partnership with the North Bay Archers group who have been a part of the process for the past ten years.

"Their support has been great and very much appreciated," he said.

The 2006 SJ-SH archery team includes Kelsey Lamers, Tessa Shank, Krysta Spielmacher, Amber Blackwell, Dan Grant, Michael Falconi, Justin Wiegelius, Alex Jackson, Anthony Campigotto, Jordan Knight, Peter Hughes, Pat O'Donnell, Matt Boudreau, Matt Simon, Justyn Gascon, Christine Goulais and coaches Yves Perreault and Mike Kowal. Technical advisors from the North Bay Bowhunters Association are Barry Descheno and Ming Long.

Submitted to BayToday.ca