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OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, October 21, 2009 · 34 Happy days LET THE PLAYOFFS BEGIN: St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders players (from left) Monica Modestino, Alexa Howard, Lola Kadet and Laura Tavares are all smiles after scoring against the White Oaks Wildcats in a recent high school senior girls' field hockey contest. Aquinas finished the regular season with an 8-1 record, a game behind the undefeated Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils. The playoffs began last week and will conclude next Tuesday with the Halton championship game. LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER Fast start for Speedsters It's still October, but the Oakville Speed Skating Club season is in full stride. The Speedsters have already participated in five competitions, hosted their first-ever summer camp and implemented their new Introduction to Speed Skating Program for children age five to 14. The competitive season began with meets in London, Belleville and Saratoga, N.Y. Oakville sent 40 skaters to those meets, with Joshua Sullivan, Quinn MacHattie and Alex Giannotti finishing first in their respective divisions. Anaka Will-Dryden and Edouard Parent earned silver medals, while Joshua Whibbs won bronze. Two of the club's elite skaters, Ben Heidecker and Samuel Chin-Cheong, competed at the prestigious Oktoberfest Short Track Competition in Calgary. Going up against many of Canada's top skaters, both Heidecker and Chin-Cheong achieved personal bests. Oakville also sent 35 skaters to the first Ontario Cup meet of the season in Gloucester, the province's largest number of eligible skaters from one club. Nicholas Kothleitner and Will-Dryden won gold, Sean McAnuff and Heidecker claimed silver, and Tiago Santos and Blake Sullivan collected bronze at the meet. In other club news, Julia Kennific and Heidecker achieved personal milestones in the 500-metre distance. Kennific completed the distance in less than 60 seconds for the first time, while Heidecker eclipsed the 50-second plateau. SPORTSBRIEFS Oakville in the loss to Burlington. Julie Hall helped the Ice salvage its lone point of the weekend Saturday, tying the game with less than three minutes to go in regulation time. Ali Binnington stopped 28 of 29 shots in net for Oakville. Sunday in London, Andrea Zeismann and Megan O'Neill were the Ice's goal scorers. The Devilettes won the game with a shorthanded marker late in the third period. The Ice (2-5-2) will look to snap a fourgame winless streak Friday when it hosts the Waterloo Rangers, a 7:30 p.m. start at Joshua's Creek Arenas. Oakville will also be home to the Brampton Canadettes Saturday (4:30 p.m. start), then travel to Whitby Sunday for a clash with the Wolves. Beca, DeFazio leading Clarkson Former Oakville Blades sniper Matt Beca has enjoyed a torrid start to the NCAA men's hockey season with the Clarkson Knights. Through four games, Beca sat second in the nation in goal scoring with five markers. Three of those goals came last weekend in an overtime victory over Niagara. The Mississauga native followed that game up with a two-goal effort as Clarkson defeated RIT. Beca, an alternate captain with Clarkson, was named the ECAC Hockey Player of the Week for his efforts. Fellow Blades product Brandon DeFazio, an Oakville resident, picked up three assists in the two victories. DeFazio is also an alternate captain with the Knights. Both players were key contributors to the Blades a few seasons ago. Beca led the 2005-06 Blades in scoring with 86 points in 49 games, while DeFazio had 45 points in 46 games for Oakville in 2006-07. Minor atoms win second tourney The Oakville minor atom AE Rangers won their second tournament title of the season last weekend in Peterborough, capturing the Thanksgiving A/AE tchampionship. Oakville won all six of its games, including shutout victories in the semifinal and final. The Rangers whipped Whitby 8-0 in the semifinal and edged Mississauga 2-0 in the championship game, their second victory over Mississauga at the competition. Oakville's other first-round wins came 9 LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU against Innisfill, Welland and Peterborough. Members of the team are Jacob Long, Jaycie Um, James Johannesson, Lukas Radinovic, Daniel Stewart, Michael Desautels, Ryan Skjarum, Kain Harrietha, Paul Franko, Matthew Stone, Aidan Williams, Rogan Doyle, Isaac Philips, Rodrigo Anzola, Caleb Walker, Luka Zovko and Max Perry. Mike Stone, Brian Stewart and Sean Doyle coach the team. Rob Walker is the trainer. Tough weekend for Ice Despite allowing only seven goals in three games, the Oakville Ice was only able to earn one point last weekend in Provincial Women's Hockey League play. The Ice sandwiched 3-2 losses to the Burlington Barracudas and London Devilettes around a 1-1 draw with the Ottawa Lady Senators. Blueliners Danielle Scarlett and Hayleigh Cudmore scored Friday for BETTER! WHY WHEN THE GOVERNMENT IS PAYING OVER 50% OFF THE PRICE OF YOUR NEW FUNACE & A/C Up $ * Cash Back to WAIT? SCRATCH & WIN * AN 6480 D *Call for details. Financing Available LIMITED TIME Take advantage of our SCRATCH & SAVE. A chance to win a furnace & central air.* See store for details. NHL linesman a mentor for Campbell Continued from page 33 GOV. CASH BACK UP TO UP TO UP TO UP TO $3580 + $1000 + $550 + $1350 MANUFACTURERS CASH BACK HYDRO CASH BACK TAX CREDIT OVER 60,000 SATISFIED CUSTOMERS NO PAYMENT! NO INTEREST! FOR 6 MONTHS *OAC A+ Rating 9 Locations To Serve You Better! www.aireone.com 1-888-827-2665 905-849-4998 and keep up," he said. "You need to be in the same shape (as the players), or even better." You also need the temperament to deal with the constant criticisms and occasional obscenities being thrown out from the players, coaches and even spectators. "There are things you hear and it might get under your skin sometimes, but you learn how to ignore things," Campbell said. "If you react to a coach after he's yelled at you, it shows the coach he's getting under your skin. You can't slip down to their level. You have to show your authority to the players and coaches." Campbell said he will pursue refereeing if that provides his best chance to be a professional official, but he prefers being a linesman. His mentor is current NHL linesman and Guelph resident Scott Driscoll, who Campbell met a couple years ago and has stayed in touch with since. "Scott told me the main "You have to thing is you can't take a day show your off, but you can't let officiauthority to the ating be your primary focus. The lesson I learned players and most is education is first," coaches." said Campbell, a sports management student at Jeff Campbell Brock University. "With me, I'm lucky to be in a field that I like. My entire life, school and work job is involved in sports. "I wouldn't want it any other way."