Girls’ PeeWee BB team claims provincial title
Other Woolwich Wild squads also competitive in OWHA playoff series over the weekend
THE WOOLWICH WILD GIRLS were out in force at the OWHA provincials last weekend, with several teams making it as far as the quarter-finals, and one emerging as the provincial champions. It was the Woolwich PeeWee BBs who brought home the gold this year, after a final game against Waterloo Ravens, who took silver.
Also representing the Woolwich Wild colours were the Novice B, Atom BB and Bantam BB teams, who all made it to the quarter-finals before falling to the competition. Of those four teams, the PeeWee BB, Atom BB and Bantam BB Wilds were also the gold medalists at the Lower Lakes Female Hockey League championships.
“My girls came through and had a banner year,” said Jamie Hislop, head coach of the PeeWee BB team. “Just a fantastic year, basically winning the provincials, which is kind of like the pinnacle of all the tournaments, and previous to that was the Lower Lakes which really, for the most part, are equally hard to win. But they won both of them.”
Becoming the best PeeWee BB team in the province is no easy feat, and the excitement was palpable, said Hislop.
“I’m telling you, we are on Cloud Nine right now as a group. It’s just incredible what these girls have achieved this year.”
Of the 24 PeeWee teams to compete at the BB level, it was quite remarkable that, in the end, it all came down to a final match between Waterloo and Woolwich.
“We just couldn’t believe it.” said Hislop. “Here we are, down in Toronto for the provincials. We could have been playing Sault Ste. Marie, we could have been playing some of these other teams – and we end up playing Waterloo.”
Ultimately, in the contest between the Wilds and Ra- vens, it was the Wilds that pulled of the victory with an extremely close 1-0 win.
“We scored with five minutes to go in the game. Five minutes to go! It was a nail-biter,” added Hislop.
The other three Wild teams at the provincials, meanwhile, all had plenty to celebrate as well. The Novice B, Atom BB and Bantam BB teams all emerged as quarter finalists at the provincials in their respective divisions, which, as the Novice B head coach Pat McCoubrey pointed out, was an incredible achievement in and of itself.
“To make it to the top eight of 50 teams in Ontario, that’s a great accomplishment,” said McCoubrey. It was a close call for the Novice B’s which, in their final match against the Clarington Flames in the quarter-finals, fell by a slim 3-2 loss.
“It was a very close game, and ultimately everyone was very pleased with the outcome. [It was] a great way to finish the year, and there was no disappointments at that point,” said McCoubrey.
So spirits were high all around as the hockey teams wrapped up after a stellar year. For the Atom BB head coach Chris McMillan, who is stepping away from coaching after seven years, it was a fitting end to his time with the team.
“They’re a special group of kids,” says McMillan of his team. “And I know you hear that about every group, and I know that every group of teams is special in its own right, in its
creation. But this is a group of kids that did not have any cliques. .. They were friends all of them. I think which speaks to a smalltown community that we’re all in.”
McMillan has been coaching his daughter’s team for years, and while he’s looking forward to spending some more time with her one-on-one, saying goodbye to the team is an especially bittersweet moment for him.
“You think of it in the wake of the Humboldt tragedy and stuff like that how affected we all are by... and how bound we are all by hockey,” he said.
Many of the girls McMillan has seen grow up right in front of him; his wife, who has also been with the Woolwich Wild for years, sums it up perfectly.
“There’s line my wife’s had,” said McMillan. “That, ‘the only way I could love them any more is if they were my own kids.’”
The Woolwich Wild had one last hoorah at the Tuesday evening banquet, complete with a fire truck ride, before disbanding for the year.
“I’m looking forward to being a dad on the window with a coffee, instead of drawing up lines, trying to figure out what we’re going to play, who’s going to play where. ‘Did so-and-so show up on time? Did Sally forget her jersey? Oh, no, good she brought it,’” said McMillan.
“I have been blessed to be able to coach them and the memories are fantastic.”