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Wednesday. May 2. 2001 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Hawks open season with weekend split The Oakville Hawks m idget field lacrosse team opened the season in St. Catharines on Sunday with two very different results in their pair o f opening matches. In their first game against Brampton, the Hawks came out flying with a decisive 18-1 victory. Leading the way for Oakville were Trevor Colm (5 goals, 1 assist), Josh Smyth (4 goals) and Paul Dawson (3 goals, 1 assist). Other scorers included Pat Farrer (2 goals, 1 assist), Greg Whetstone (1 goal, 1 assist), Kyle Dorosh, David Cosmo, and Kyle Fountain (lgoal each). Lending a helping hand were Josh Ledderhof and Jeff Blaylock each with one assist, and great ball control dis played by Collin Minne, Charlie Long and M ichael McLaughlin. Goalkeeper Thomas M etcalf had an easy time defending the goal with great work from the three longsticks, Nick Ledderhof, Andrew MacMillan and Doug Hobson. The Hawks came up against much stiffer competition when they faced a skilled Six Nations team in their second match. The Six Nations team out ran the Hawks in a 12-3 victory. Scorers for the Hawks were Cosmo, Colm and Smyth. The Hawks head off to Kitchener next weekend to contin ue their work towards the provincial championships in late May. Ruchika hoping tojoin junior team at worlds (C o n tin u e d from B a c k P a g e S po rts) Let's play ball The high school baseball season kicked off on Monday, includ ing this game between Oakville high schools Loyola and White Oaks at Glen Abbey. Loyola (white jerseys) won 123. In the top photo. White Oaks short stop Chris Dow applies the tag in a cloud of dust. In the bot tom two photos, pitchers Chris Hayes (the win ning pitcher) and Josh Poirier show fine form. 11 and which will attend the junior worlds in Malaysia in early July. Ruchika. as a 14 year old, attended the last junior worlds in Belgium two years ago. So although bronze was actually a step down for Ruchika, who won a national silver medal at last year's U19 national championships, she's not about to beat herself up over this one. "I didn't finish as well as I would have liked but given the circumstances it wasn't too bad, I think." Ruchika has taken the Canadian squash world by storm. It's been a great ride so far, and Ruchika doesn't quite know where it will end. They do have a very informal world ranking system for junior players, and she comes in about seventh. "It's pretty decent," she concedes. "But that too, like most of the athletes know it's not the most accurate rank ings." The problem, she said, is that the Canadian girls simply don't have the funding to test themselves often on the international front so the results are skewed. Girls from other countries may play five or six international tourna ments "whereas we play one or two. Since they play so many more, they have more chance of losing. So if we do really well, we really get rewarded and if we don't, we get really blasted." Canadian men's squash boasts one of the top players in the world in Jonathan Powers. There is no equivalent on the women's side in Canada, although we have several very good middle ranked international players. Could Ruchika be the next one? If so, it won't particularly be by design -- at least not at this point. "I don't know about the whole number one in the world thing, because I'm not looking to make squash a career. I never was. But it's kind of just been a bonus that I've had such success with it." First things first, though, with national silver and bronze medals already on her mantle, she would like to close out her junior career over the next two years with gold medal performances. The last two U-19 national championships, she noted, have been won by outgoing juniors (including Jacqui Inwood last weekend in Montreal) and it's a trend she would like to continue. "And then definitely going to any university. As I work my way through four years for under grad, definitely, be one of the top university players in the U.S. It's more com petitive down there." She has interest in Ivy League schools, and the interest is mutual. Slated to complete her O A C's at Q.E. Park in June of next year, Kumar has already visited Princeton. Others like Harvard. Dartmouth, Penn and Cornell have also contacted her. "So I know there's interest expressed from their side." While playing NCAA squash, she hopes to be able to come back and play for Canada's national championship as a senior. "I know a lot of girls who were junior champions who went away to university. They come back every year to play the senior nationals and they actually do quite well. That's probably the way I'm going to do it, if I can squeeze it in, if the university lets me go." You can bet that one main challenger to Ruchika's final year of junior,' two years down the road, will be her sister Neha. While not wanting to get too far ahead of herself, even at a reporter's urging, Ruchika conceded that it would be a dream ending to her national junior career to go out with an all-Kumar final. "That would be great. I'd love to see it. Actually, it wouldn't even bother me if she won that just because it's nice to sort of pass it on to your sister rather than to some other person you don't know of. I mean at least I know how she trains and how hard working she is." For Ruchika, it would be a win-win situation. Understand, though, that she would summon all of her resources to secure the literal win -- as would Neha. To be national champions, after all, you have to have more than a little competitive fire. Which brings us to the present status of the sibling rivalry on the squash courts (after all, we reporters are sup. posed to stir up the muck!). "Oh boy," said Ruchika, laughing. "We've had this argument a lot of times. "I still think no matter how many nationals she wins (which is three, and counting), she can't beat me yet. "And I don't think -- this is our standing bet we have going on -- she'll beat me throughout juniors. "But she thinks she can. "So I don't tell her, but I wouldn't mind if she did. It's not a big deal. She's a great player. But I'm not going to let her win. She's going to have to fight it out big time to beat me here. "I'm not going to let her get her hopes up any time soon. Even when we practice I won't let up. If I can I'll slaughter her. No big thing." You want big? How about winning a battle for your life. Photos by Ron Kuzyk Corbett' s toumey opens tomorrow T h e 1 4 th a n n u a l C o r b e t t 's h ig h sc h o o l b a se b a ll to u r n a m e n t w ill run M ay 3 and 5 in B urlington. TWo high schools from O akville w ill be represented in the annual 16team , pre-season to u m ey -- Q .E . P ark E agles and S t T hom as A quinas R aiders. O th e r H alton schools include M .M . R obinson and N elson from B urlington and B ishop R eding from M ilton. T he rest o f the team s are Father L eo A ustin (W hitby), Parkside (D undas), St. M ichael's (Toronto), B ram pton C entennial. Father Bressani (W oodbridge), M ichael P ow er (Toronto), T urner Fenton (B ram pton), Saltfleet, G eneral A m herst (W indsor), K ing C ity and St. A nne's (W indsor). T h e gam es w ill be played a t Ireland and M illc ro ft parks in B urlington. Prelim inary round g am es are on the T hursday (M ay 3) and the cham pionship and consolation sem i finals and finals are on S aturday (M ay 5). In T h u rsd ay 's o pening action, A quinas opens up at 8:30 a.m . against B ram pton C entennial at Ireland C . If A quinas w ins, they play again at Ireland C at 1 p.m . If they lose they go into the consolation round, also at 1 p.m ., at M illcroft B. Q .E . Park opens up at 10:45 a.m . against St. M ichael's at Ireland D. If Q.E. Park w ins, they play at Ireland C a t 3:15 p.m. If they lose they g o into the consola tion round, also at 3:15 p.m . at M illcroft B. CO-ED ADULT HOCKEY SCHOOLS with George McDonald * lO W e e k P r o g r a m s o n ly S i 4 9 . 0 0 ! * Co-Ed Beginner to Intermediate May 6th - July 8th Sunday Nights 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. Co-Ed Intermediate & Intermediate to Advanced Hockey Advanced in Focus · May 6th - July 8th Sunday Nights 9:00 10:00 p.m. · May 4th - July 8th Friday Mornings 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. SUMMER NON-CONTACT ADULT || 0 CKEy LEAGUE HALTON MEN S HOCKEY LEAGUE · Non-contact · Trophies · Prime time games · Balanced teams · 28th season of · Excellent operation officiating · Sweaters/socks provided · Individual entries Applications a t River O aks Arena G len Abbey A rena o r Appleby College Arena 10 WEEKS! 10 WEEKS! 10 WEEKS! CANLAN CALL TO REGISTER 905 845-6989 SPGSITS For information or to receive* an application. "Home of the Bell ( 905 ) 849-9712 t [LAFARGE C A N A D A IN C . isiiHPmmiicccmETt for the homeowner's outdoor needs C o n crete pi Canadian Open Qualifier" "Supercrete" for all of your homeowner needs. Patios, Driveways, Walkways, etc. OPEN SATURDAY SEASONALLY. ORDERS MUST BE PLACED BY 5 PM THURSDAY Collect your Mr Miles hen BU R L IN G T O N : (905)637-5607 M IL T O N : (905) 876-4728 G E O R G ET O W N : (905)873-0254 B E R T IN S T A B L E S 3 indoor riding arenas. Classes available for children, teenagers and adults all year round. ADULT CLINICS Morning, Afternoon & Evening sessions with or without course play, Newcomer to Intermediate · Weekday Lessons 4/S 107 or 530/Lesson · Friday Hoof-Pick Club 6pm-8:30pm $35 (Children 5-10 yrs.) · Saturday at Farm 10am-3pm $40 (Children 5-12 yrs.) · Summer Day Camps $ 195/Week or $5Q/Day · Summer Overnight Camps $401.25/Week 3445 Dundas W. IHwy. «5) Oakville (11/2 mi. W. of Hwy. #25) w e b s lt e w w w .b e rtin s ta b le s .c o m C anada' s Largest E nglish R iding School PRIVATE COACHING WITH DAVID BANKS A ll ability levels - N ew com er to A dvanced Video sw ing analysis available 905-827-4678 e -m a il: b e rtin @ w e b tv .n e t O a k v u l e S u m m e r M in o r H o c k e y L e a g u e May - August Schedule Including " vacation week" to assist with holiday planning. O O O O O Non-contact 14-game schedule No weekends or Fridays Prime time evening games Games on brand new Olympic size River Oaks surface O Balancing of teams O Divisions for boys & girls ages 5-15 O Trophies & awards O Certified officials O Coaching & sponsorship 5 positions available | O No fundraising JUNIOR CLINICS AND CAMPS Spring w eekend clinics and sum m er w eek long cam ps Applications available at River Oaks, Glen Abbey & Appleby College Arenas F o r i n f o r m a t io n o r t o r e c e iv e a n a p p l ic a t io n 1137 No. 1 Sideroad, Burlington 1137 No 1 Sideroad ( 905 ) 510-1447 905 336-3660 - l hi.s is no t affiliated w ith the M O H A