Gators Ice Hockey, a Fantastic Success

At a time when the families and staff of Toronto’s largest School Board (TDSB) continue to struggle with the challenges of cancelled extra-curricular school activities, stemming from that Board’s difficult and on-going contract talks, we can’t help but reflect on how fortunate we are at St. Agnes, to have parents and staff so fantastically supportive of extra-curricular activities. There are many recent examples of these, our boys and girls basketball, teams, indoor soccer team, co-ed ice hockey team and our participation in the upcoming TCDSB Music Festival are just a few examples that come to mind.  Let’s remember to thank our school staff when we get a chance, for exposing our kids to all of their great developmental experiences.

As you’ll know from reading recent posts to our CSAC Blog, we’ve been following the volunteer efforts of school parents and staff and the success of our revitalized (after a 23 year absence) St. Agnes Gators co-ed ice hockey team.  Our Gators recently competed in the second and final TCDSB tournament of the year at York University. We tied for 1^st with two other teams but the tie-break guideline prevented us from moving on to the finals. We can all be extremely proud of the team’s results and how everyone involved proudly represented St. Agnes school spirit and sportsmanship throughout this year’s tournaments.

This hockey team was just another great St. Agnes experience for our students. Brendan Dwyer volunteered to write a letter on behalf of the team, relaying his great experience playing for the Gators:

For the first time in twenty three years St.Agnes had a hockey team. If it weren't for Mrs. Cooke we would not have been on the ice. My experience playing with friends or grades higher than us was fun, although it was hard to keep up with the good guys. So we had three practices and we did scrimmages to see how we should make up lines. When it came down to the tournament that was the best part. When we woke up at 6:00 in the morning I was excited to play. But we did not win a game on our first day, we tied and lost games. So then we waited up to the next tournament day. This was better, we won three times, tied once and lost two. One game we won 7-0! It was fun at the tournament.

 

A special thanks to Mr.Cooke, Mrs.Cooke, Mr.Shea, Mr.Ennis and my Dad for making the team and coaching. I can’t wait until next year because we will make it to the playoffs!

 

St. Agnes Gators 2013

 

Well said Brendan. Our students always do us proud!