By Mitchell Fox
In the last few years, the Woodlands School has revived their hockey program, and although it is smaller and less developed than other schools in Peel, the resurgence of hockey at Woodlands appears to be a success.
Last year, with the leadership of grade 11’s and 12’s, and the remarkable passion of the grade 9’s and 10’s, the team managed to not only play in the ROPSSAA season (a feat in its own for many schools in Peel), but also won a game. Although last year’s 1-6-1 finish may be underwhelming to some, it was a remarkable accomplishment for the team to make every game difficult for their opponents, and of course, to beat Streetsville that one time last December.
This year, Coach Grandy and the wonderful volunteer Coach Bowman (father of former captain and Woodlands graduate Andy Bowman) looked to put together another great team. Although some returning players could not continue, The Woodlands was still able to field a ROPSSAA-capable team. Although ROPSSAA would be a difficult challenge for the team, they hoped to prove that as Allen Iverson once said, “When you work hard, good things happen.” So, despite the decrease in interest, eighteen passionate students still showed up to practices and games for a team which hoped to continue in its success.
This season, after two unfortunate losses in a pre-season tournament, and another in their initial ROPSSAA game against Iona, it would not take long for this year’s Woodlands team to match their win count from last year. On October 15th, Woodlands faced off against Erindale in an early-afternoon game at Erin Mills Twin Arenas, and they wanted to prove that they were a team to be wary of. Erindale took control in the first period, but a beautiful goal by Kevin Liu kept Woodlands close. The second period got off to a rocky start, but the team kept working hard. By the midway point of the game, Erindale started to wear down, and Woodlands was ready to pounce. The final two periods of play entailed incredible goals by Juliana Hendrikx, Harrison Yang, Riley Colwill-Rego and the four-goal scorer, Kevin Liu. However, this victory would not be possible without an outstanding goaltender: Eric Goldbach. Through hard work, determination, and great play as a team, Woodlands emerged victorious, beating Erindale 7-5.
Following this amazing game, the team played four more regular season games and one exhibition game against Mentor. The team played very well, and clearly improved as players got to know each other and got used to high school hockey, a very different game. Unfortunately, despite the great amount of effort that the team put in, and despite the incredible play of goalies Eric Goldbach and Brendan Fox, the team ended up losing those games. They were outmatched by big, strong teams that were made up almost exclusively of seniors. While a 1-6 ROPSSAA record is not the best, the team can be extremely proud of the way that they played and improved, and can be happy that most of the team will be able to play next year. It is hard to imagine how good this team could be in two years if the core stays the same, and if every player continues to improve not just individually, but as a part of the Woodlands hockey team.
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