A school record was set at St. John’s-Kilmarnock school in Breslau this week when the senior girls’ field hockey team won the Conference of Independent Schools (CISAA) championship and took the gold medal at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association (OFSAA) field hockey tournament on Nov. 7.
It’s the fourth consecutive OFSAA win for SJK, a history-making achievement as it marks the first time a school has won four straight OFSAA titles in a girl’s team sport.
During the OFSAA finals last Saturday afternoon, SJK fought hard and came through with a gold medal win of 3-0 over the Nelson Lords of Burlington.
During the game, Nelson played strongly in the first half and posed several serious scoring threats throughout the game, but it was SJK who came out on top.
By half-time, the match still remained scoreless, with both teams putting in strong efforts defensively. But five minutes into the second half, SJK’s Emma Whitehall got the girls on the scoreboard. Later, Whitehall was able to score again, closely followed by Jayne Clarke – their goals less than 60 seconds apart.
Prior to the final match-up, the Eagles had won six straight games before capturing the gold medal, including a 2-1 semi-final win over Mississauga’s Applewood Heights Axemen Saturday morning at Budd Park in Kitchener.
Leanne Dietrich, senior field hockey co-coach, attributed the success not to any one player’s skills, but to a strong team effort.
“This year’s team was a team in the truest sense of the word,” she said. “I thought going into the season that I had an idea of what it meant to be a team but this group of girls took it to an entirely different level than I have ever seen before – very selfless.”
That level of teamwork is something that Dietrich has come to expect from this group of girls, some of who have played together for four years or more.
“They worked together each and every game to bring out the best in each other and, in turn, in our team” Dietrich added. “It was amazing. It was so cool to be a part of it all.”
