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Westside S.S. hosts District 4 girls hockey tournament

January 28, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Four or the five teams entered in this year’s District 4 high school girl’s hockey season were at the Alder Street arena on Thursday, January 10, for the fourth of five tournaments that make up the girl’s regular season schedule.

The high school teams play three games on each tournament day with the results going on their regular season results heading toward the playoffs.

The teams have already played tournaments in Palmerston, Erin, and Arthur.

“Our team will play four tournaments – one per month,” explained Westside Thunder coach, Phil McCloskey. “Each tournament will have three games for each team. All those games are added up to make our regular season standings. After Shelburne’s tournament next month we’ll look at the standings.”

The teams get two points for a win and a single point for a tie game.

“The first place and fourth place teams and second and third place will meet for a semi-final then go on to the championship,” McCloskey said.

It has turned out to be a pretty tough season with a lot of talent on the ice. All the teams have played tie games with Westside recording three tie games so far.

“This year all the games have been very close. In past years there’s always been a couple of strong teams and a couple of weak teams. This year the games are very close. Our team is finally doing what we thought they could do – they’re scoring goals. Our defence is solid, the girls are scoring. There’s a mix of girls playing in bantam and midget rep in Orangeville and a couple of the girls are playing in higher up rep teams. There’s a whole range of players from house league to higher levels. I’ve been coaching this for eight or nine years. Girl’s hockey has evolved. We used to have some girls on each team that didn’t have hockey experience. They could skate, they might be figure skaters, but now all the girls are hockey players who play out of high school.”

The Westside team had a good day for the Thursday tournament. They won their first match 6-2 over Erin District High School.

The second game saw them blank Centre Dufferin from Shelburne 6-0.

In the final game they were edged out 3-1 by Wellington Heights Secondary School.

“School hockey is a lot of fun,” said Westside defensive player, Miranda Wheeler, after the tournament. “We worked hard today – it was a lot different. We put the puck in the net. I think we scored more goals today than we have all season. We won our first two games and lost the last one, so it bumped us up in the standings. There’s definitely some new grade nines coming in that are pretty good. We’re working really well together as a team. Our team is definitely developing and becoming stronger, so that’s really good to see.”

Since most of the players on the Westside team play on teams outside of school they keep their skills sharp with regular practice with their teams.

After this tournament the Westside team is in third place with a 3-3-3 record.

Norwell District Secondary School is leading the pack with 14 points and a 6-1-2 record.

They are followed by Wellington Heights Secondary School with a 5-2-2 record.

Erin District High School has seven points and a 2-7-3 record.

Centre Dufferin District High School has a 1-4-4 record.

The teams will meet up for the final tournament at the Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex in Shelburne on February 7.

The four top teams will play off in a semi-final round with the two teams remaining playing for the District championship.

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