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10 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2009 Remembering a special year in local sports OAKVILLE BEAVER FILE PHOTOS LUCAS OLENIUK / TORONTO STAR A GOOD YEAR: Above, Adam van Koeverden pumps his fist after winning kayaking 500-metre silver at the Beijing Olympics. Top right, the Oakville Blades celebrate their Provincial Junior A Hockey League championship. Right (clockwise from left), Canadian Olympic women's soccer team member Kara Lang (in red); Oakville Aquatic Club swimmer Marni Oldershaw; St. Thomas Aquinas OFSAA champion sprinter Miana Griffiths; and National Lacrosse League star Dan Dawson. 2008 featured plenty of champions and other compelling storylines O ne of the pleasures of covering sports in Oakville is the seemingly endless number of compelling stories involving local athletes and teams. 2008, more so than any of the other five years I've chronicled sports for the Beaver, was a year to remember in that respect. First off, there was plenty of champions. The Oakville Blades won their first Provincial Junior A Hockey League title in team history and represented the town at the Royal Bank Cup national championship tournament in Cornwall. Five Minor Oaks Hockey Association rep teams -- novice A, minor atom AA, atom AA and AE, and peewee AAA --won Ontario Minor Hockey Association crowns, while the atom AA Hornets earned an Ontario Women's Hockey Association title. The bantam II Angels claimed the Eastern Canadian championship, becoming the first Oakville girls' softball team to win a national-level tournament. King's Christian Collegiate won the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) boys' A high school soccer title. The major mosquito A's successfully repeated as Ontario Baseball Association AAA champions. Oakville Aquatic Club swim- mers Marni Oldershaw, Tera Van Beilen, Erin Assman and Mika Spencer set the national 13-14 girls' 4x50-metre medley relay mark at the Eastern Canadian Championships. The Oakville Venom bantam girls 1 team routed Brantford in the finals at the Ontario Basketball Association Division 1 championship tournament, then went on to win gold at the Eastern Canadian championships. The Oakville Phantoms under-17 girls' soccer squad claimed its second Ontario Cup crown in three years, and the Oakville Crusaders under-14 Knights took home a provincial boys' rugby title. And those are just some of the local teams to win championships. Individually, Oakville athletes also stole the spotlight on the provincial, national and even international stages. Steve Mason, John Tavares and Stefan Legein all played key roles in helping Canada win gold at the World Junior Hockey Championship in the Czech Republic, with goaltender Mason earning tournament MVP honours. Dolphins Swim Club of Oakville member Sinead Russell broke the national See Van page 11