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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, June 19, 2015 | 28 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Lee Parkhill, pictured sailing near the coast of Brazil, will compete in the standard laser class at next month's Pan American Games in Toronto. The 26-year-old Oakville native first started sailing in the Oakville Yacht Squadron, which Parkhill credits for pushing him to stay in the sport during his teenage years. | photo submitted Oakville Yacht Squadron product targeting medal at Pan Am Games by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor One of the biggest moments in Lee Parkhill's sailing career initially appeared to be rejection. "One summer, I applied to be a sailing instructor (at Oakville Yacht Squadron) because that's what all my friends were doing, people who were graduating and weren't going to continue sailing. The sailing school director at the time came to my parents with my application and said, `I'm throwing this in the garbage. We're never going to hire him as an instructor,'" recalls the 26-year-old Parkhill, an Oakville native who started sailing at age eight and began racing competitively when he was 13. "My parents wondered why, and the director said, `He's way too good at sailing. We need to see how far he can get.'" So Parkhill continued in the sport, joining Toronto's Royal Canadian Yacht Club's prestigious race team at the age of 16 and making the national team a few years later. Next month, he'll represent Canada in standard laser at the Pan American Games, where sailing competition is slated for July 12-19 in Toronto. Though Parkhill is a veteran of international competition (he'll be part of a 160-fleet field in the laser world championships July 2-8 in Kingston, Ont.), he says the Pan Am Games promises to be a special experience. "In terms of the preparation you have to put into it and the planning and how to deal with everything, it's just as big as the Olympics," says Parkhill, a hopeful for next year's Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. "I've never done a massive Games before, where I've had to execute and be in top form for that particular week and have all the media around. It's almost like a practice for the Olympics -- but at the same time, this could be the biggest thing I ever do." It will also be a rare opportunity to sail in front of family and friends. With Royal Canadian Yacht Club as the host venue for the sailing competition (there will be three different courses surrounding Toronto Islands), Parkhill's par- ents, Allan and Laurie, will be borrowing motorboats from the OYS so fans of their son can get an up-close glimpse of the action. "Since I started travelling the world and racing, even my parents haven't been able to follow me around," says Parkhill. "Some of my best friends have never seen me race before. They hear me talk about it and see the results, but have never seen it happen... Maybe it will be a little more pressure on me, but it will also be a lot more excitement." The Pan Am field will be much smaller, featuring just 16 boats. Parkhill has targeted a podium finish, noting that racing in the familiar Toronto waters gives him an edge over competitors when it comes to predicting wind and current patterns. "The last regatta I raced was very windy. (Those conditions) had been one of my weaknesses, and I sailed really well in terms of personal results," Parkhill says. "I feel like things are coming together and I'm sailing really well all-around." HT student wins FIBA silver Holy Trinity high school student Ignas Brazdeikis won a silver medal with the Canadian U16/U17 basketball team at the FIBA Americas Championship this week in Argentina. Brazdeikis averaged 9.2 points per game as Canada went 4-1 at the tournament, its lone loss coming 7760 to the United States in the championship game. Brazdeikis scored seven points and collected seven rebounds in 13 minutes for Canada, which led 19-3 after the first quarter and 51-49 through three frames. Canada downed Venezuela 84-55, Mexico 101-64 and Argentina 76-62 during group play, and beat the Dominican Republic 95-49 in the semifinal. Brazdeikis scored 16 points versus Venezuela and added 13 Ignas Brazdeikis.|Oakville Beaver file photo against Argentina. Blakelock girls run into Nelson buzzsaw in slo-pitch final by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff The rebuild started three years ago with a core of eight players. Each year, the T.A. Blakelock Tigers progressed a little further. The quarter-finals, the semifinals. This year, the Tigers were 8-0 heading into the Halton high school slo-pitch final, only to become the victim of, ironically, momentum. The Tigers were handed their first loss of the season, blanked 16-0 by the Nelson Lords in Wednesday's final in Milton. Nelson had not even secured its spot in the final until a couple of hours earlier, edging the defending champion Georgetown Rebels 5-4 in the completion of a suspended semifinal from Friday. Still on a high from beating the also previously undefeated Rebels in an extra inning, Nelson kept rolling in the final, scoring twice in the opening inning, adding a solo homer in the second and putting the game away with a seven-run fourth inning. "They came on with momentum," said Blakelock coach Jackie Thompson. "It's unfortunate how the season ended and how the end of the season played out, but we came a see Tigers on p.29