Friday, September 26, 2008

CIS Corner; GGs star finding role with U20 team

Notes on our teams of interest in The 613 ... apparently there is a big football game going on in K-Town on Saturday, but there's so much more...

Gee-Gees: It would be remiss not to link to the one Ottawa media outlet which has caught up with Gee-Gees defender Amanda Robinson, who's out in Vancouver with the U20 women's team.

There's so many good elements to this story. Ms. Robinson, U20/Vancouver Whitecaps coach Bob Birarda and Steve Johnson from the Gee-Gees were very engaging (and patient with the soccer neophyte).

Birarda seemed very high on Robinson's personal qualities and ability to help "create a culture which is positive," which Canada will need when it heads down to Chile for the U20 Women's World Cup in November. They just won a 4 Nations tourney down there, while they won their CONCACAF qualitying tournament in the summer.

Time is tight today, but there will be some effort to post the quotes from all three. A huge glove tap goes to Richard Scott and Anne Pellerud from Soccer Canada, plus uOttawa SID Dan Carle, for helping arrange the interviews.

Ravens: Carleton hung in with a national power, Lakehead, for two periods on Friday -- and that was all they got to play.

There was a major storm system moving through northwestern Ontario, meaning a bank of lights were knocked out in the arena. It was 2-2 after two, and Alex Archibald had stopped 28-of-30 for the Ravens when the game had to be called. Lakehead was coming on and it's a game in September, but still, taking an early two-goal lead in one of the toughest places to play in the OUA should turn a few heads.

Mike Testa and Francis Walker scored for Carleton.

They will play, in effect, four periods of hockey on Saturday.

(How long until this blog refers to Alex Archibald as Adam Archibald, the former McMaster quarterback who was from Kingston?)

Golden Gaels: Sporting Madness has word of a bit of a bombshell.

Teddi Firmi, who's been a starting point guard on the women's basketball team over the past few seasons, has left to play for the rugby team. It's Bucholtz's story, so check back with him later. (Tyler, at this point, would ask if anyone would want to bet money that Carleton's going to finish ahead of Queen's in women's basketball, even though it's unknown how much he's seen either team play.)


Queen's hockey might have picked up a defenceman for next season. Stephane Chabot, as you probably heard, was cut by the Frontenacs and signed on with the Kingston Voyageurs. He is enrolled at Queen's. That's not indicative of anything other than that if he wants to play in the CIS eventually, at least he'll have got to know the campus and the city.

Small world: Felicidade Pereira, who got the goal in the women's soccer Gaels' 1-0 win over Carleton the other night, is from Simcoe, one of my old stamping grounds. (No word if she's related to Rick Pereira, a long-time pillar of the Simcoe Thunder's back four and Norfolk County's soccer community.

Yes, stamping ground. Look it up.

5 comments:

Andrew Bucholtz said...

Great article. That's awesome that you were able to speak with Birarda: he's one of the most influential people in Canadian women's soccer, as he's the head coach of the very successful Whitecaps women's squad, an assistant with the full national team and the head coach of the U-20 team. If he's high on Robinson, that speaks volumes about her skills. Nice to see a CIS player do so well to boot, as many of the Canadian women's current stars have taken the NCAA route.

Tyler King said...

The Whig says Chabot is heading to the Vees.

sager said...

Tyler,

I read the Whig each and every morning. That's why I put, "as you probably heard, was cut by the Frontenacs and signed on with the Kingston Voyageurs." I never said he would play for Queen's this year. It's merely something to have on the radar screen for next season. It's quite common for an overager to take some classes at a school, then join its hockey team the following season because he "knows some of the guys" and has learned the lay of the land.

For the sake of all the bullet-counters, God love 'em, I added the word "eventually." Eventually, there will be a day when that won't be necessary.

Tyler King said...

Actually, I totally missed that you'd said he'd signed on with the Vees. I thought you'd just put the Fronts cut and the Queen's enrolment together. My bad entirely. Mea culpa. Etc. etc.

Tyler King said...

"Tyler, at this point, would ask if anyone would want to bet money that Carleton's going to finish ahead of Queen's in women's basketball, even though it's unknown how much he's seen either team play."

The hell?