West Hill shoots for provincial championships next month
Peewee A team set for April tournament
Among some of the bigger on-ice performances for the Scarborough Hockey Association (SHA) this season, the high flying West Hill Golden Hawks Peewee A team landed a spot in the provincial championships, a tournament that determines the top team in Ontario every year.
The Peewee team of 12- and 13-year-olds turned aside Applewood Coyotes from Mississauga (5-2), Hillcrest Summit (2-0) and Vaughan Rangers (4-2) in the playdowns late last month enroute to the berth in the April 11 to 13 tournament set for Mississauga.
The Summit and the Rangers compete in the Greater Toronto Hockey League (representing East and West respectively) while Applewood toils in the Mississauga Hockey Association.
None of the games leading up to the approaching provincial tournament have come easy for the team and its head coach John McClyment, who doesn't foresee any breaks in the distant future.
"All of those games were tough games, things just really came together for us in the play-downs," said McClyment, a coach with the team for four years.
"Things just seem to really be going our way."
The back-to-back league champs who went undefeated (40-0-2) this season, the Golden Hawks will take on squads from the Alliance, Northern Ontario Hockey Association and Ontario Minor Hockey Association at the province-wide tournament.
With the SHA playoffs on the horizon, the coach doesn't want his team to get too far ahead of itself.
"There is still a fair bit of hockey left for us, so we're just going to focus on the stuff ahead of us right now.'
Although he has not seen much of his Ontario opponents, he's confident in his team, who he describes as "coachable and dedicated."
"It's a good dressing room, the kids all get along. They really focus on hockey," said the West Hill native. "We'll face some stiff competition at the provincials, but we're looking forward to it."
