Another strong class into Burlington sports hall
Shelley Simonton Barnett, the head coach of two-time world champion Nexxice synchronized skating team, will be one of four inductees into the Burlington Sports Hall of Fame on May 30 at the Burlington Golf Club. Going in as a builder, Simonton Barnett heads a program that has won eight medals at the world championships and 13 national championships, including last month in Oshawa.
Simonton Barnett’s fellow inductees are Brady Heslip, the Nelson High School grad who led Baylor University into the March Madness Elite Eight, played on Canada’s national team for 10 years, and played seven pro basketball seasons; Dr. Marnix Heersink, who excelled in five sports at Burlington Central School and was an all-Canadian basketball player at Western University; and Kate Psota, the Aldershot School grad who was the first female honoured by Baseball Ontario as one of its players of the year, is a seven-time IBAF World Cup medallist and four-time World Cup all-star.
Cougar closes in on 50
Heading into Tuesday night’s game with Aurora, Burlington Cougars captain Jack Richard, from Stoney Creek, had 46 goals with six games remaining in the regular season. If he reaches 50, according to Ontario Junior Hockey League statistics, Richard would be just the second Cougar to have a 50-goal junior-A season. Greg Carey set the league record with 72 goals in 2009-10 playing on a line with Josh Jooris, son of Richard’s current coach Mark Jooris, who was also the coach that season. The younger Jooris set a club junior-A points record that year. Marty Prowse had 50 goals for the 1981-82 Cougars when they were in junior-B.
Battle of the brothers
Hamilton midfielder Aboubacar Sissoko will see a familiar face when FC Laval visits Forge FC in the opening round of the Canadian men’s soccer championship on Tuesday, April 18. Sissoko’s brother, Adama Sissoko, plays for Laval, which won the right to represent the semi-pro Première Ligue de Soccer du Quebec by finishing first during the QPSL regular season. Adama Sissoko led Laval with 14 goals last season and scored their only goal in the league cup final, which Laval lost to perennial power Blainville. That was just the second loss of the year for Laval.
Forge defeated another QPSL side, CS Mont-Royal Outremont, 2-0 in the opening round of last year’s Canadian championship.
Six straight for Rock
The Buffalo Bandits had their bye on the weekend, and the Rochester Knighthawks and the Rock both won, so there’s a three-way tie atop the NLL East at 7-2. The Rock edged the winless Swarm 11-10 in Georgia Friday night.
It’s really heartening to hear from the Hamilton Bulldogs that despite moving to Brantford for three (or more) seasons, their charitable foundation will continue to fund the Breakfast Bulldogs program
Tom Schreiber had a hat-trick and with 27 goals, sits just one off the NLL lead. He has also fired 34 more shots on goal than anyone else in the league. Josh Dawick, son of Rock owner/GM Jamie Dawick, had his first two NLL goals, while Dan Craig also had a pair. The Swarm, coached by Hamilton’s Ed Comeau, are still winless and come into the FirstOntario Centre Saturday (7 p.m.) to face the Rock, who have won six in a row.
Women in football
All the in-person spots are sold out for the first Women’s Football conference at Tim Hortons Field on Saturday and Sunday, but anyone interested in virtual attendance can stream it at millions.co/women-sfootball-conference-toronto.
Founded by McMaster receivers coach Taylor MacIntyre, the conference will have 28 speakers and more than 70 attendees (including several from Alberta and Saskatchewan) wanting to extend their playing careers or get into professional roles in football coaching, scouting, operations, administration and officiating. The aim of the conference is to provide “education, guidance, inspiration and networking opportunities for women and other gender minorities in football.”
Bulldogs will continue to feed kids
It’s really heartening to hear from the Hamilton Bulldogs that despite moving to Brantford for three (or more) seasons, their charitable foundation will continue to fund the Breakfast Bulldogs program, which provides breakfasts for 21 schools in Hamilton.
The important nutrition program is run through the Hamilton Bulldogs Foundation, which also helps the Ticats in charity fundraising, and will continue to do its charitable work in the city, even after the team moves its base to Brantford, where new dressing rooms and offices will be built at the Civic Centre.
Notes Canada’s first golf writer Robert S. Weir, who was among the first journalists in North America to cover the game in the early 1900s, will be inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open. He grew up in Montreal but was born in Hamilton … Canadian country star Tim Hicks will perform at halftime of the Rock’s Country Music Night game against Rochester on March 4 at FirstOntario Centre … Centre Sahil Panwar and linemate Nick Lardis, the two players who came to the Bulldogs for Avery Hayes and offensive defenceman Gavin White in the lead up to the Jan. 10 OHL trade deadline, have a combined 53 points since arriving in Hamilton from Peterborough, while Hayes and White have totalled 29 for the Petes … When Toronto Metropolitan University ended the McMaster women’s basketball team’s 10game win streak with a 78-63 victory Saturday, former St. Mary Catholic Secondary School players Jayme Foreman and Kaillie Hall had a dozen points and eight points, respectively, for TMU. Mac star Sarah Gates, who leads the country in points per game, put up 28 points and snared 11 rebounds … Mohawk’s Stefan Anisko of Cayuga ranks sixth in Ontario Colleges Athletics Association scoring at 21.1 points per game, while teammate Daniel Graham from St. Jean de Brébeuf Catholic Secondary School is seventh at 19.9 for the Mountaineers’ men’s basketball team which leads the West Conference at 14-2 … Hamilton’s Tate Falconer who plays for Mavericks Water Polo Club, has been named to Canada’s youth national team at the PanAm Aquatics Under-17 Championships in Brazil in early April ... Smithville’s Tom Culp has golfed for 40 years but nailed his first hole in one last week at Colonial Charters in Myrtle Beach, S.C.