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16 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday March 22, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com 16 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2008 One street, four champions Grainer Court road hockey games pay off By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER STREET SMARTS: Four players, (from left) Ryan Burns, Tyler Burns, Stuart Percy and (inset) Scott Smith, from Grainer Court, will play for Ontario Hockey Federation championships over the coming weeks. The group honed their skills playing road hockey games on the street, which has just 12 homes. There are only 12 houses and it's so short that only three of the seven letters in its name fit on the street on a map. But if you're looking for a highly competitive game of road hockey, Grainer Court is the place to be. The road hockey games on the tiny east Oakville court have spawned four players who have qualified for the upcoming Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) championship tournaments. "Not many kids get that opportunity, so to have four from one little court, it's pretty unique," said Steve Percy, whose son Stuart helped the Toronto Marlboros qualify for the bantam AAA championship. Joinng Stuart Percy at the OHFs will be Ryan and Tyler Burns with the Oakville Rangers' peewee AAA team and Scott Smith with the Oakville Rangers atom AAA team. Though there are four years difference in age -- Stuart, 14, is the oldest; twins Ryan and Tyler are 12 and Scott is 10 -- they have all played hockey together on Grainer Court, which is ideally suited for games. For starters, it's small. "You can throw a football from one end to the other," says Steve Percy. "And they do." In fact, it's about 200 feet long, the same size as a hockey rink. And because it is a court, there's little traffic to worry about. Smith is the newcomer to the court. Born in Hong Kong, he joined the Grainer Court games in 2005 when his family moved back to Canada. Though he began playing defence in house league, he switched to goalie and in two years worked his way up to the AAA ranks. His team will host the atom AAA championship April 11-13. "For a kid who didn't have access to hockey early on, he's really come a long way," Percy said. Perhaps his progress has been helped by the shooters he's faced on the street on a daily basis. Ryan Burns scored the game-winning goal that clinched the Ontario Minor Hockey Association for the Rangers. Ryan and Tyler attend Heritage Glen Public School and have played at the AAA level for two years. This was the second year in a row their team had reached the OMHA final and they also played in the Quebec International Peewee Tournament. The OHF AAA championship will be held in Thunder Bay March 31April 5. The Burns brothers moved to Grainer Court within a couple months of Stuart Percy. The Abbey Park High School student started playing house league in Oakville at the age of four. He also plays in the spring with players from across Ontario, New York and Michigan. He has won two straight league championships with the Marlboros. The bantam AAA championship will be held in Stratford Mar. 23-29. Novice Rangers undefeated heading into OMHA tournament By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF An early season tournament gave the coaching staff an indication of the team's potential. Still, Oakville novice AAA Rangers' coach Mark Moro never anticipated his team being undefeated heading into the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championships. After a third-place finish in the South Central AAA Hockey League (SCTA) standings last year, Moro believed the team was capable of cracking the top two. A trip to the finals at an early bird tournament in Peterborough did nothing to dispel that notion. "We knew the guys were progressing well and as long as they kept developing, we knew they would do well," Moro said. "At an individual skill level, they all improved and where you could see us being stronger than the competition was in our team play." The Rangers went on to finish undefeated, taking first in the SCTA with a 30-0-5 record. Nowhere was their team play more evident than in their own end where the Rangers allowed a league-low 50 goals, 22 less than any other team. "I've always believed in building a team from the goalie out," Moro said. "We have two amazing goalies (Christopher Elliot and Jack Grebenc) and we put a lot of our stronger players back on D. A lot of teams have their best players as forwards, but we took the kids we thought could play defence, and you have to give them a lot of credit because they definitely don't get a lot of glory, but they allow the team to be successful." In most games, it gave the Rangers a very good chance of winning. The netminders, along with the defensive corps of Marley Angus, Ian Blacker, NUMBER ONE: The Oakville novice AAA Rangers posted a 30-0-5 record to finish first in the South Central AAA Hockey League and followed it up by winning the qualifying tournament for the Ontario Minor Hockey Association championships. See Team page 17