Collingwood's two junior field hockey teams travelled to Shawnigan Lake School last weekend to participate in the ISA Junior Championships. It was a great weekend of field hockey and camaraderie as the two teams played four games each and thoroughly enjoyed their time together.
The Blue team, which is made up exclusively of Grade 8/9 students battled hard in all their games. While they were well beaten by Crofton House, they played tremendously well against SMUS and Shawnigan before narrowly dropping both those games 1-0. In their final game, they played to a 0-0 tie with Shawnigan B.
The Gold team entered the tournament with high hopes of repeating as ISA Champions. After three resounding wins over York House, Brentwood and Shawnigan B, the team met Crofton House in the final.
Collingwood and Crofton are huge field hockey rivals and this game was no different than all the games ever before it. It was a tense affair that saw a very physical Crofton side try to 'bully' the young Cavs. A defensive breakdown led to the only goal of the game as Crofton pounced on their opportunity. The loss was all the more disappointing as a certain Collingwood goal was stopped on the goal-line by a Crofton foot, yet no penalty stroke was awarded.
In the end, Coaches Shirkoff and Allan were disappointed by the close loss but very proud of their team. There are certainly lots of great players who will be pushing for spots on the senior team next year.
2017 ISA Silver Medalists