Griffins tame Coyotes for ultimate championship
The sport of ultimate continues to grow at the high school level with hopes of soon gaining official Kawartha, COSSA and OFSAA sanctioning.
Sixteen high schools from the Kawartha and Lakeshore areas participated in the fourth annual Electric City Disc Circus (ECDC) high school ultimate tournament at Eastgate Memorial Park on Wednesday.
The Thomas A. Stewart Griffins won the tournament, defeating the Clarington Coyotes 9-4 in the championship game.
The Kenner Rams got past the Adam Scott Lions 4-3, on a last second score, in the B Division final.
Ultimate was introduced into Peterborough high schools four years ago. All six city high schools now field a team and three of them have two teams which compete in a local league. It is one of the few co-ed high school sports available and rules require a minimum of three girls on the field at all times.
The sport has not yet received sanctioning from the Kawartha District Athletic Association, COSSA or OFSAA, although 12 of the 16 regional associations now have ultimate leagues.
Jon Grimwood, who coaches TASSS with professional ultimate player Steve Armitage, helped organize the tournament. He said the hope is to get OFSAA recognition for 2019. “It’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing,” Grimwood said.
“Kawartha District won’t sanction a sport that isn’t an OFSAA sanctioned sport but in order for OFSAA to sanction a sport you have to have demonstrated you have a league and a program and some sort of a qualifying system in place.”
Ultimate coaches across the province have organized leagues and tournaments including an unofficial Ontario high school championship, to be played this year in Bowmanville, to illustrate to OFSAA it is organized enough to qualify.
“We run it as a club program,” Grimwood said, “but we get support from our schools and administrators.”
The biggest tournament in Ontario is a 32-team event held on the beach in Cobourg. The provincial championship is restricted to 24 teams who bid for entry based on league and tournament results.
The Griffins hope this win will help them qualify for the provincials.
“This is a big stepping stone for our team,” said Brett Jenkins. “We’ve been runners-up in a lot of tournaments and this is the first one we’ve come out on top.”
Grimwood is confident it’s just a matter of time before ultimate is sanctioned.
“A lot of these kids recognize OFSAA as a brand and something to aspire to when they start talking about provincial championships,” he said. “It’s getting there. We’ve done all the paperwork. We’ve done all the legwork. It’s now at an OFSAA executive level.”