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D6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, April 25, 2001 An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail:nnelson@haltonsearch.com Photos by Barrie Erskine G olf is a blast for Iroquois Ridge OAC student Jessica Shepley, p ic tured, here, tuning up her gam e M onday at Trafalgar G olf Club Shepley becomes a Volunteer By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Jessica Shepley is anxiously awaiting the per m anent arrival o f som e decent spring w eather per haps a little m ore im patiently than the rest o f us average duffers. The Iroquois Ridge student, in her O A C year, is em barking on w hat prom ises to be an exciting sum m er o f golf. One o f C anada's top junior golfers, she fin ished second last year in each o f the O ntario am a teur, the Ontario junior and the Canadian junior championships. T hat's a pretty consistent string o f finishes at some pretty prestigious tournam ents and she con cedes that she does consider the string to be one of the highlights o f her career, so far. On the other hand, she also concedes that the disappointm ent hasn't all w ashed away. A fter all, she added, "I did go there to win." Fortunately, though, she w ill get another chance. This summer, she added, "my two biggest goals are to win the O ntario ju n io r and the Canadian junior." There will be plenty o f excitem ent on tap before that, however, as she has been invited to tw o m ajor international ju n io r tournam ents. A t the end o f M ay she will com pete in an A m erican Junior G olfers A ssociation (AJGA) tournam ent at Thunderbird in Arizona. "There will be players from all over the world com peting in it." The following month, she has been selected, along with seven other ladies, to head over to Scotland "for training matches and then to try to qualify for the British Amateur." This year, her golf season will also be greatly extended, thanks to her accepting a full scholar ship to the University o f Tennessee in Knoxville. M uch recruited, Shepley boiled it down to three schools. "All o f them were very good schools, very good teams, very good coaches." In the end, though, she "ju st had a good feel ing" about Tennessee and its coaching staff. It probably didn't hurt that one o f the highlights o f her young career happened in Tennessee when, two years ago, she won an AJGA ju n io r tourney in N ashville which really put her on the golfing map. She's obviously hoping for some more magic in Tennessee when she joins the the `Volunteers' in m id August. H er goals are to be conference and NCA A freshm an o f the year "and to help m y team win the NCAA's." So it's no w onder the Trafalgar G olf Club m em ber is itching a little more than the rest o f us to get off the driving range, w here she has been p ounding balls since January (after taking October, N ovem ber and D ecem ber off), and onto the links. All she has m anaged so far this spring is one round o f golf last Saturday although she did spend a w eek in California in M arch w here she got in four rounds. So w hat areas o f her gam e will she be working on as she prepares for a busy sum m er and fall of golf? "Well, all parts, but definitely my putting, get ting my putting average lower. A nd really all areas o f m y short gam e." Photo by Barrie Erskine Sean-M ichael Stephen Red Devil rugby player suited up for Canada at Worlds By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR The Halton high school rugby season kicks o ff this w eek and no one had a better tune-up than SeanM ichael Stephen o f the Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils. Stephen m ade the Canadian national ju n io r team and spent the first half o f April with the team in Santiago, Chile, where they posted three wins in four games. The gam e they lost, unfortunate ly, w as in the B-pool semifinal, 1613 to Russia. The set-up was such that the semifinal gam e was actually more im portant than the cham pionship gam e with the semifinal winners (See 'Stephen1 , inside, page D4) Photos by Barrie Erskine St. Thom as A quinas (w hite jerseys) shut out Loyola 2-0 in senior girls high school soccer action on M onday. A quinas, with a 2-0 early season record, is gunning for an O FSA A berth. Aquinas Raiders gunning for an OFSAA berth in girls soccer This area is a hotbed o f girls soccer but that isn't stopping St. Thom as Aquinas from "gunning for OFSA A," said assistant coach M ike Giam michele (head coach is M ichelle Spears). The Raiders are buoyed by a win over traditional powerhouse and defending OFSA A cham pion St. M ary's o f Hamilton, although it was only exhibition. In league play, the Raiders extended their record to 2-0 on the young season with a 2-0 win over Loyola on Monday. Goal scorers were Jenna Sporta and Leanne DaRosa. To get to OFSAA, noted Giammichele, you first have to get out o f Halton, w hich includes powerhouse Nelson, another perennial O FSA A threat, and Notre Dame. And, then, chances are, the Halton cham p will have to get by St. M ary's at G -HAC, which is one step below the OFSA A provincial championships. DUNOAS & 400 Dundas St. E. N TRAFALGAR ROAD 0AKT0W N IHOPPING PLAZfl 550 Kerr Strdc* 8 4 9 -8 4 7 3 SERVICE HOURS: Moa *EK. TanvSprn. Sun. 9,-mv 8 4 4 -0 2 0 2 STORE HOURS: Mon. -Fn. 8:30anv9pm . Look for dur flyer in Friday!s Oakville Beaver Ij ' V p ·< *