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SportsOakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 201036 Diana Matheson, Kara Lang and the Canadian womens soc- cer team are coming to town this weekend. The national team will hold a clinic Sunday at the Oakville Soccer Clubs Pine Grove Soccer Centre as part of its initiative to become more involved in grassroots soccer development in Canada. The clinic is open to all female mem- bers of the Oakville Soccer Club. All ages and levels are welcome. The clinic will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on the four outdoor fields at the Pine Glen facility. Clinics will include introduction of the players and an overview of the clinic, a group warmup, a group rotation through three stations, and a meet and greet with the players. OSC products Matheson and Lang are both Oakville Soccer Club (OSC) products who have been part of the national womens team for more than seven years. Matheson, 26, made her 100th appearance with Canada Wednesday in a friendly 3-0 loss to Germany. The mid- fielder, who made her senior debut in 2003 at the Algarve Cup, has scored six goals for Canada. Lang, 23, has been with the national team since 2002, mak- ing 89 appearances. The midfielder/forward has 33 goals during that time. The national team is in the Toronto area to prepare for its next friendly match. Canada will take on China PR on Thursday, Sept. 30 at BMO Field. National womens soccer team holding clinic Sunday in Oakville THE NEW CAPTAIN: Nick Rivait (in white) is one of 12 returnees to the Oakville Blades this season. The defenceman will captain the Blades this season as they attempt to repeat as Ontario Junior Hockey League champi- ons. Oakville will play its first-ever game at the new Sixteen Mile Sports Complex tomorrow (Saturday) against the Newmarket Hurricanes. MICHAEL IVANIN / OAKVILLE BEAVER Blades hope to take advantage of size By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Last season, Mark Jooris was behind the bench of the highest-scoring junior A hockey team in Ontario. The Burlington Cougars relied on a small but fast and highly-skilled group of players that racked up 313 goals. Jooris new team, the Oakville Blades, may not have scored at the same rate though, with 280 goals, they were hardly slouches when it came to finding the oppositions net but they did reach the goal every team strives for by making it to the Royal Bank Cup national tournament. But Jooris said he wont be forcing the Blades to play the same way the Cougars did. Were different, he said of the Blades. Were a physical team. These guys work hard and they finish their checks. You have to play to your strengths. (In Burlington), it was tic- tac-toe (passes). Here, were going to chip it in, go get it and grind to the net. That hardly means Jooris believes his team is lacking in skill. But by using its size to its advantage, he believes the team can wear down oppo- nents and buy itself even more room to operate. That wont be in short supply as the Blades move to the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex and its Olympic-size ice sur- face one of only three in the league. Diana Matheson Kara Lang See Depth page 37