June/July 2013 - Community Connections

Community Connections Page 25
June/July 2013
Deux-Montagnes Midget BB
Panthères First Ever to Bring
Home the Dodge Cup!
By Andrea Dorfman
It was what many would call a dream
season and possibly even a dream team.
This was the third time in four years
that the city’s highest ranked team won
Regionals to qualify for the Dodge Cup
under head coach Pat Giacomelli. This
is in itself a rare and great achievement
in regional hockey but they had yet to
bring home the Provincial Championship.
So with determination to bring the Cup
home to Deux-Montagnes once and for
all, the players, coaches and parents
headed north to Mont-Laurier, Quebec,
from April 11-14. And in highly dramatic
fashion, it all came down to the
wire. They needed a sudden death goal
in overtime in the finals to win it. And
they did it! They were the first team
from Deux-Montagnes ever to do so.
Their determination to be the best and
most disciplined team on the ice
awarded them a 4-on-3 power play
early in overtime. When the coach sent
out his two top goal scorers, Vincent
Bellerose and Samuel Pesant, it was
hard not to believe. Having rarely
played on the same line together, Vincent
looked at Sam and said, “We have
to do this now.” And as the storybook
ending goes, Sam made a perfect pass
to Vincent who buried it in the net and
it was game over!
In Canada at all levels from novice
up to juvenile, university to professional,
hockey is our biggest
sport, and we Canadians have some
of the best, if not the best, hockey
players in the world. But let me remind
you, my fellow Canadian
sports fans, that basketball is also in
the forefront and coming on very
strong,
This special group of talented young
men proved that true love of the sport
combined with teamwork and a competitive
spirit could achieve great
things. This year they moved up to AA
just for the regular season to challenge
themselves against the best teams in the
region. Expectations were not high, but
the coaches and management wanted
them to have a season where they could
push themselves to be their best. Especially
as for many this was their last
year playing for the organization where
they had started at age 5! They greatly
surpassed expectations - finishing 4 th
place overall and even more impressively,
being named “Most Disciplined
Team,” something the boys, coaches
and Deux-Montagnes Hockey Association
carry with much pride.
On behalf of all the parents and fans,
congratulations and thank you to the
following players and coaches for making
us extremely proud. You are truly
champions.
Basketball (aka “b-ball”) was invented
by a Canadian, James Naismith.
Also Canadian Steve Nash is
a two-time MVP of the NBA and
now stands fourth on the list of
most assists in NBA history.
The largest and most successful
sports tournament in all of North
America is American university basketball's
March Madness. This
year's tournament had 29 Canadians
participating on 19 teams, an incredible
accomplishment for our
Jordan Blunt, Vincent Bellerose, Yannick
Côté, Félix Cadieux. Félix Charron,
Charles Desmeules, Fréderic Dionne,
Liam Gallant, Gabriel Germain, Luca
Giampersa, Francis Guay, Charles-
Antoine Houle, Jeremy Labelle, Gabriel
Laliberté, Anthony Marandola, Samuel
Pesant, Yanick Proulx and Vincent
Thomas.
Head Coach: Patrick Gioacomelli, Assistant
Coach: Dominic Labelle, Assistant
Coach: Guy Labelle, Assistant
Coach: Gabriel Renaud, Assistant
Coach: Jonathan Surprenant, Manager:
Daniel Germain, Director BB: Pierre
Carré.
nation of just 35 million people in
which hockey is such a dominating
sport. Also this year the number
one high school player in the USA is
a 18-year-old Canadian, Andrew
Wiggins, from the Greater Toronto
area.
The development of elite basketball
players has risen above elite
hockey player development in the
past 5 to 10 years. That's my opinion.
What's yours? Thanks. bobbyfordham@sympatico.ca