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D 2 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday March 6, 2002 Sundin to Kahnert, she shoots, she scooores! By Kathy Yanchus [ SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER r - * * ) ** ·* - J ulie Kahnert has scored a lot of goals this year for her Oakville atom BB rep team. r r c * J! /* b u t the two most memorable were, no doubt, set up by her favourite play er,* Mats Sundin, before a capacity crewd o f 19.000 at the Air Canada Centre. And. no, she w asn't dreaming. More precisely, it was her dream come true. Led by her trademark blazing speed, Julie, the 11-year-old captain of.her hockey team, skated her way right into the Toronto Maple Leafs annual skills competition which was held on Jan. 20. Julie was one o f only two girls and four boys (along with two goaltenders) at the atom age level from across Ontario to be selected to compeje in the Leafs always sold out skills competition. The six skaters and two goalies were then split up, with half joining the Leaf blue jerseys and the other half joining the white side. Julie's highlight was the break away competition. With Mats Sundin dishing out the passes, Julie went two-for-two, receiving memorable post-goal, celebratory high-fives from the Leaf captain. And pretty close, in terms of thrills, was the speed skate around the Air Canada Centre. With 19,000 fans in the seats, she skated like the wind, finishing under 18 seconds. That put her about only three sec onds behind Gary Valk. the fastest Leaf. And she's still got plenty o f years to close that gap even further! Skating with the Leafs before 19UXX) fans was a complete surprise S U M M E R N O N -C O N T A C T Ju lie K ahnert w orks out with the Leafs? You b e tte r be-Leaf it! T h a t's Julie, bottom left hand corner, ready to take a pass from M ats. for Julie. She had showed up at the Air Canada Centre to compete in a day long skills competition for atom level players which the Leafs, for the sec ond year, were holding in conjunction with their own skills competition. Julie was among 220 atom age players who had earned their way to the Air Canada Centre by doing well at regional competitions that were held back in the fall throughout Ontario by the Leafs. Also making the cut from Oakville were two o f Julie's teammates, goalie Sarah Arcaro and Morgan Sims. And there were also three players from the Oakville Rangers atom AA rep team -- Aaron Kachkowski, Sam Old and Joseph Trauzzi. The format for the day at the Air Canada Centre for the lucky 220 kids was a preliminary round and a cham pionship round, all sandwiched around the Leafs' skills contest. Julie got off to such a good start in the opening round that she was select ed as one of the two girls to the Leafs own skills contest. You can imagine the thrill when she found that not only would she get to skate on the same ice as the Leafs -- but that she would get to skate with the Leafs. After the Leafs competition. Julie had to come back down to earth and finish off her own skills competition. It was tough, both because o f the extra skating she had done with the Leafs and because she had been too ADULT ||0 C K E y LEAGUE HAITON MEN'S HOCKEY HAGUE · N on-contact · Prim e tim e games ·, 29 th season o f ·operation 1 Trophies 1 Balanced team s 1 Excellent officiating · Indivii ridual entries · Sweaters/socks provided > INFORMATION AND/OR REGISTRATION BY PHONE (905)849-9712 \A PP L IC A T IO N SA TG L E NA B B E YO RA P P L E B YCOUiGEA R E N A S excited to stop for lunch. But she managed to make it out of the opening round and into the cham pionship round with a handful of other girls. It had been a long, busy and excit ing day for her, having arrived at the Air Canada Centre before 6 a.m. and having had breakfast back in Oakville before 5 a.m. With no food since then, her batter ies started to drain just a little. So although speed is her forte, she had to call upon her shooting skill -- netting three of four shots to win the accuracy competition -- to lift her into the bronze medal. Events included front and back skating, figure eights and shooting accuracy. The only players in her division to beat her were a girl from Thunder Bay playing boys AAA hockey and a girl from W hitby playing AA girls hockey. "It felt really wonderful," said Julie. "It was a dream come true being on the ice with the Toronto Maple Leafs. "My favorite part was scoring the two goals." Winning or placing in the competi tion was Julie's original goal, but she was uncertain of the competition. "That was my goal but I didn't know what all the players were like." After an exhausting but intoxicatingly fun day, Julie found the energy to conduct TV. radio and newspaper interviews between smiles, and she continues to relay her story to incred ulous family and friends and team mates. Having a brother and sister who played hockey, Julie didn't want to get left behind and although she ini tially didn't want to get on the ice, she mustered up the courage and away she went. "Hockey is<really fun. It's good for kids." Not only does she want to play on Canada's national women's team in the Olympics someday, "it would be really cool if a Leaf showed up at one of my hockey practises." After such a long, exciting and memorable day. you might think Julie would head back home to Oakville and veg out. Not on your life. She earned two assists that night in her team 's 3-0 win over North York. Burlington hosts Ontario squash championship Burlington Racquet & Athletic Club is hosting the Halton Honda M en's and Women's 2002 Ontario Softball Squash Championship. Burlington Racquet and Athletic Club will be hosting top professional squash players from Ontario. Canada. U.S.A., Europe and Australia. Players will be vying for a portion of the $5,000 Halton Honda Softball Squash Championship prize purse. Doug Hamilton (tournament director) and the Burlington Racquet and Athletic Club invite spectators to watch some o f the greatest up and coming squash play ers in the most energetic, strategic and gruelling sport on the planet. Games begin Friday (March 8) and run through Sunday. March 10. Burlington Racquet and Athletic Club is located at 1233 Dillon Road, (north off Mainway between Walkers and Guelph Line). Tickets are free and available by calling (905) 335 3597. 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