We Shoot, We Score!

By: Nilakshana & Sarah

        This year Banting and Best had its first ever competitive co-ed ball hockey team. The group was coached by Mr. Todd and Mr. Lee, two teachers who have also led the BHL (Best Hockey League) for several years. Our team consisted of 12 players, Nilakshana, Sarah, Keira, Kesiha, Frankie, Ting, Ronald, Hao, Jason, Alex, Terry, and Adam. We had practices two days a week, some as early as 7:40. The team worked extremely hard, with great dedication to what they were doing. We all had the same intent and objective, and that was to win this competition. We had great players, ranging from grades 6-8, but the age didn’t matter as we all worked together to achieve success.

        On February 1st, the school's ball hockey team went to Fleming Public School to have their tournament. We played against other talented and competitive schools which included Fleming, the host, Military Trail, Galloway, and Blantyre. The tournament started off with our team playing our first game against Fleming Public School. We had a slow start, but continued to play with persistence. Unfortunately, we lost the first game by a score of 0-3. Then we moved on to play Blantyre, a school that was extremely experienced and had been beating every team by a double-digit score, and we lost by a score of 2-12.  

        Afterwards, we were up against Military Trail. This team had many strong members. Although our team lost their first two games, we were determined to win the remaining games. Despite the fact that an injury occurred during the game, the team demonstrated perseverance and their intent on winning by gaining their first win by a score of 5-2. Right after, the team was up against Galloway. They had strong, intimidating members,, as some of them were quite tall. Although we gained our first win a few minutes earlier, we didn’t let our guard down and played our very best. We demonstrated this by winning by a score of 2-1.

        It was down to the last match of the day, which was against Fleming Public School. Our group had gone through an early loss that day against the same school and we were intimidated by them, afraid that we might lose again. Though the team felt nervous, we were determined to make it to the finals. We all played our very best and won this game by a score of 11-3. The team was delighted with the fact that we were all moving on to the finals.

        Only the best teams moved on and we were one of them! This was a great accomplishment, especially to our coaches, Mr. Todd and Mr. Lee. As the first competitive ball hockey team in our school, we made history! Since we were one of the top two teams, we qualified to move on to semi-finals, which would be held on a seperate day.

        On February 21st, our team went against the skillful players from Blantyre for the semi-finals. Our game started off well with a 2-0 lead that built momentum for the first half of the game. We fought diligently against the skilled shooters, but unfortunately lost after a great battle. We ended with a score 0f 4-11. Although we lost, we still earned a beautiful blue pennant for our school! We were the conference finalists! What a great and tough hockey season!