It was a year of team championships and tremendous individual efforts

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

A midget AAA hockey team that surprised many people, a season of championships for area football clubs, and three local baseball teams that went out on the diamond and reached for the sky.

Those were just a few highlights of the past 12 months in the year that was in West Island sports.

After a solid regular season, the Quebec Midget AAA Hockey League Lac St. Louis Lions won three straight playoff series, losing four games to one against a more rested Séminaire St. François Blizzard side in the Jimmy Ferrari Cup final.

In football, no less than five local clubs captured provincial championships, including the atom Île Bizard Vikings, mosquito Westpark Steelers, peewee Alexander Park Roughriders, bantam AAA North Shore Lions and midget AAA North Shore Mustangs. Meanwhile, for the second time in four years, a Lac St. Louis peewee AA regional baseball team represented Quebec at a Baseball Canada national championship.

Head coach Robert Litvack’s troops captured silver after losing to Ontario in the final. They earned the right to be there by winning gold at the provincial tournament, held Aug. 2 to 5 in Mascouche. A few weeks later, Litvack’s peewee major Lac St. Louis Cardinals along with mosquito minor Lakeshore-Trois Lacs Yankees captured Montreal Metropolitan Baseball League playoff championships.

In soccer, the Lac St. Louis under-18 boys’ side put together a tremendous run at the Tide Cup national club soccer championships, losing to Alberta in the final. For its effort, the Lakers were named Team of the Year at last week’s 35th annual Sports-Quebec gala.

In rugby, the Ste. Anne’s men’s premier side won its first provincial championship since 1994, defeating a Cinderella Montreal Wanderers squad 18-6 in the final, while Ste. Anne’s defeated the Montreal Barbarians 17-6 to capture the women’s premier title.

In outdoor swimming, Dollard-based Elm Park Pool won the North Shore Aquatic Association Big Meet division A final for the eighth consecutive season while the Westmount Municipal Pool captured the Association of Lakeshore Pools section A final, ending Île Perrot Aquatic Club’s (CAVIP) two-year run as champs. Finally, in synchronized swimming, Beaconsfield’s Camille Bowness of the Dollard Synchronized Swimming Club captured three gold medals, including solo at the Canada Winter Games. Other local athletes to medal at the Games included Kirkland’s Catherine Powell, part of the synchronized swimming team, Kirkland’s Eric Gauthier in judo and Notre Dame de L’Île Perrot’s Cortney Keeble, part of the Quebec ringette team.