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34 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday May 28, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com RCGA aims to make Canadian Open a week-long festival By Herb Garbutt the first and fourth fairways after each of the first three rounds and will include performances by Blue Golf-a-palooza? Rodeo, 54/40 and Tom Cochrane. While its unlikely you'll see any The SCORE golf awards will greenside crowd surfing at Glen become part of the week's festiviAbbey in July, the Royal Canadian ties, kicking things off on Monday, Golf Association unveiled its plan July 21 in Toronto. It will be folto make the RBC Canadian Open a lowed by the Pro-Am draw party week-long festival that is a mustthe following night. attend event for PGA players and The RCGA also announced players more enjoyable for spectators. who have committed to play in this "We see the RBC Canadian year's tournament. Joining Canadians Mike Weir and Stephen Ames will be Jim Furyk. The seventh-ranked player in the world will be looking for a third consecutive victory in Canada. Other familiar names include Retief Goosen, Fred Couples, Mark Calcavecchia and Chris DiMarco. The field will also include four of the top 11 players on the PGA money list, Ryuji Imada (fifth), Jeff Quinney (ninth), Boo Weekley (10th) and J.B. Holmes (11th). The RCGA is taking steps to entice players to play in the Canadian Open, with perks for players, their families and caddies. With the Rogers Cup tennis tournament and two Eagles conk 2 Photo by Bill Kugler certs in Toronto coinciding with the Canadian Open, A Proud Sponsor of Oakville Soccer Club there will be no shortage of www.oakvillesoccer.ca OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Open as a national, week-long celebration of golf, a seven to 10-day festival rather than the traditional four rounds of golf inside the ropes," said RBC's chief brand and communications officer, Jim Little, during a conference call Monday. "This first year will be a strong step in the right direction." Among the additions to the event will be the Pengrowth Concert Series. The nightly concert series will take place between PHOTO CONTEST WINNER OPEN TO RETURN: PGA veteran Mark Calcavecchia, seen here at the 2005 Canadian Open, will be back at Glen Abbey in July. He is among a group of players that includes Mike Weir, Stephen Ames, Retief Goosen, Chris DiMarco and Fred Couples to confirm their entry. tickets to offer them. of date to make this a great event," The RCGA said it will once he said. "If we take care of the event, again charter a plane to bring play- the rest will take care of itself." ers back from the British Open. Returning to the September The Canadian Open's move to the date it held until 2006 would elimweek following a major has been inate it from FedEx Cup play and viewed as its biggest hurdle in would also hurt the field. He said a attracting top players. date after the U.S. Open in early Scott Simmons, executive June and before the British Open director and CEO of the RCGA, in late July would be ideal. said the date is not ideal but the Glen Abbey will host the next two RCGA will work with it for now. Canadian Opens, with this year's "We're not waiting for a change event running from July 21-27. The Oakville Beaver Red Devils ready for OFSAA challenge Continued from page 32 Carrying a roster of 65 players, OT managed to get more than 40 of them into the game. That game experience will pay off now -- as the team heads into next week's Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) tournament in Ottawa -- and down the road. Philip and Ferron are among a group of 16 graduating players who have been with the team for four years. Playing in the OFSAA tournament two years ago when the Red Devils played in the OFSAA tournament. "Our team got a lot of experience playing against the best teams," Ferron said. There weren't many challenges for OT during the season. They were the only team in the league to score more points than they allowed. That was a byproduct of lopsided victories. After beating White Oaks 42-7 in the season opener, OT didn't allow another point until defeating Assumption 58-7 in the semifinals. In between they won four games by a combined score of 108-0. Though it might be hard to keep a team motivated in that situation, Bale-Pece said they continued to focus on developing their skills. "We gave them specific goals for each game," she said. "They would go out, execute those, and then we would give them some new ones. I think it shows how much they love playing. They really cherish being on the field." For their part, the players never took anything for granted. "We all know we have to come out and play hard," Ferron said. "We know we're not just going to win." That's a valuable lesson for a team that will face its stiffest competition of the season next week. Plans already underway for next year Continued from page 32 sweater with his name on the back. "You gave this town quite an exciting season of entertaining hockey," Burton said. "You have inspired younger players by your achievements." Corbeil said what the team's dream season is just now starting to set in -- a process that began the week after returning from Cornwall. "I woke up that day and didn't have to go for Monday practice. It was really weird. A lot of teams were finished at the start of February and here we are still playing in late May. You look back and see what we've accomplished, to win all this," he said, pointing at the five championship trophies lined up at the front of the room, "and represent the town on the national stage, it really is an accomplishment." While the players will now enjoy the off-sea- son, coach and director of hockey operations Carlo Coccimiglio won't have such a luxury. In the two weeks since returning from Cornwall, Coccimiglio has already held tryouts for next year, attended an elite prospects camp and continues to field calls from schools regarding Blades' players. While the Blades were expected to have a large group of players returning, this year's success has altered those plans. Ten players already have scholarships and at least two more are expected to finalize their plans for next year in the coming weeks. "Our purpose is to advance young players' educational needs and future careers," Coccimiglio said in his address. In that regard, the team's season was a success, even without all the hardware.