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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, June 20, 2013 | 22 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" She's coming back At age 26, Kara Lang decides she isn't done yet Twenty-nine months after cutting short her soccer career because of knee injuries, long-time Oakville resident Kara Lang has announced she is mounting a comeback with hopes of rejoining the national women's team by the end of the year. "It's very exciting," said Canadian teammate Melanie Booth. "Not only is she a great player, but she's an amazing leader. She's one of the most competitive people you will ever meet and she has this ability to push people to be better." The 26-year-old Lang has been working with a team of trainers in Montreal. She retired in January of 2011 after battling knee injuries for the last two years of her career. She first tore her anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in June of 2006 during a national team training camp. "It's one of those things that happens to every athlete who plays at a high level at some point," the 19-year-old Lang said at the time. "It's not a career-ending injury and it's one of those things that almost always works out so I'm sure I'll be fine." She tore her ACL again, though, while playing at UCLA in 2009, ending her college career. She returned to the national team but missed numerous games as the result of the lingering effects of the injury. Lang joined the Canadian national women's team as a 15-year-old and became the youngest player to ever score a goal in international play when she tallied against Wales in her second game. She went on to score 33 goals for Canada in 92 appearances, including two World Cups and the 2008 Olympics. In addition to the important contributions she made on the pitch, Lang was a popular member of the team off it as well. "She was a great player, but more than anything the players will miss her off the field. Camp will definitely be quieter and a little more empty without her," longtime teammate Diana Matheson said at Lang's 2011 retirement announcement, which was held at the Oakville Soccer Club. With Canada set to host the World Cup in 2015, national team coach John Herdman inquired whether Lang would be willing to attempt a comeback. Herdman began coaching the Canadian squad shortly after Lang retired. Lang was actually a member of the panel that interviewed him prior to his hiring. "Our goal is to win the World Cup," Booth said. "You need every little percentage advantage to do it and Kara will be a big part of that." Lang, a St. Thomas Aquinas high school alumnus, was named to the Oakville Sports Hall of Fame last February. -- Herb Garbutt Oakville Soccer Club product Kara Lang (in white, pictured heading a ball while playing for Canada in the 2008 Olympic Summer Games against China) is attempting a comeback after retiring from the sport in 2011 because of knee injuries. The 26-yearold Aquinas grad is currently working with a team of trainers in Montreal. | Ron Pietroniro -- Metroland Media Group file photo Oakville NHL players help raise $20,000 for heart arrhythmia research Local National Hockey League players John Tavares, Sam Gagner and Steve Mason were among the participants in Saturday's seventh annual Alex Corrance Memorial Ball Hockey Tournament in Oakville that raised $20,000 for research of inherited heart arrhythmias. Mason, a former Calder Trophy-winning goaltender now with the Philadelphia Flyers, and his BarDown Hockey teammates Andrew O'Brien, Jeff Sacerty, Chad March, Ben Sacerty and Jesse Kirshenbaum won the 32-team senior division, defeating the Flying V's in the championship game. In the 10-team junior division, the TM 98 squad of Colton Trumbla, Taylor Raddysh, Ryan McLeod, Jack Lafontaine, Mikey McLeod and Kyle Maksimovich took the title, downing the Q-Blades in the final. Tavares, the New York Islanders forward who was a finalist for the Hart Trophy this season as the NHL's most valuable player, and Gagner, who had 38 points for the Edmonton Oilers, played on a Magic Mitts senior team that also featured American Hockey League player Justin Vaive, NCAA hockey player Matt Lorito, elite rower Dan Aziz, Karson Johnson and Mickey MacDonald. The tournament was contested at Canlan Ice Sports and organized by Beyond The Next Level's Ted Ali and Dan Ninkovich as well as Canlan general manager Steve Wilson. The competition is named after Alex Corrance, a former Oakville resident who died suddenly while playing in a midget AAA hockey tournament in 2006. The autopsy revealed the cause of death was an undetected heart rhythm disorder called Arrythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy. Each year in Canada, hundreds of children and young adults die needlessly from one of several cardiac rhythm disorders that can predispose a person to a sudden cardiac arrest. As many as one in 500 Canadians under the age of 35 are affected by some Pictured clockwise from left, members of the Magic Mitts team that participated in Saturday's Alex form of cardiac rhythm disorder, and approximately Corrance Memorial Ball Hockey Tournament included Sam Gagner, Matt Lorito, Justin Vaive, John Tavares, Mickey MacDonald, Karson Johnson and Dan Aziz. | photo submitted see Tournament on p.23