Gemini girls give it their best effort
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Undefeated in the TVRA East regular season, the Tillsonburg Glendale Gemini girls soccer team met the defending OFSAA AA champs, St. Thomas Parkside CI, undefeated in the South Division, in the SouthEast finals May 23 at the Tillsonburg Soccer Park.
The end result was a shutout for Parkside, and the Stampeders steered their way into WOSSAA May 25 where they defeated London South and St. Thomas Aquinas, earning another trip to OFSAA, which kicked off June 1st in North Bay.
"You gave everything you could," Glendale coach Lee Janzen said to the Gemini girls following a tough 2-0 loss. "You left it on the field and that's something you can be proud of. You can walk away from it knowing that you gave it your best effort. You kept it positive, you encouraged each other, you played as a team."
Janzen presented the team's last MVP 'potato' to Olivia Moore.
"It goes to the girl who I think played her best game today and has shown drastic improvement over the season," said Janzen. "And I think she's going to continue to grow in soccer, if she sticks with it, moving forward next year and in women's soccer."
"Awesome game, awesome season," said Glendale coach Scott Gooding."You played very hard throughout the season. Again, one of the most enjoyable seasons we've had, as Mr. Janzen said, right from the beginning through to the end. It was awesome to be involved with this team... some of you for four years, and... it is probably my last year coaching soccer. A lot of fun, and I'm glad that I've chosen to do this because it certainly has made tough times at school a lot easier."
Moore, following the team's season-long tradition, took a bite out of her MVP potato.
"It's the potato for player of the game," Moore explained.
"I'm not really sure why it's a potato, but I'm sure it means something."
"The potato?" said coach Janzen. "The real truth, I forgot an onion at home. Mr. Partlo had a potato on him, so... 'playoff potato' is just as good. Actually today if we won, it would have been a sweet potato."
Through the season an onion was presented to players of the game. And each time the MVP would bite into the onion.
"I still don't know why it was an onion," Moore admitted.
"It came from an NBA announcer, when they did something awesome..." said Janzen. "It was just something random to do. We had some fun with it, it was fun to watch. The girls got into biting it and made these nice faces. We have a collage of all the onion bites over the season. Something fun for the year."
"My mom got so mad at me, I left that potato in the fridge," said Glendale's Melissa Mann, who was player of the game in the SouthEast semifinal, a 1-0 win over Central Elgin.
"It's still in there," she laughed.
Like Moore, Mann also took a bite.
"Yep, took a nice bite out of it. It was fun."
Players-of-the-game is a tradition in many sports, ringette included, and Mann's teams have presented special hats over the years. But never potatoes. She said she actually preferred winning the potato, and will keep it.
"Probably until my mom throws it out. I just think it's funny. It makes you feel good, you know?"
A Grade 11 midfielder in her first year of high school soccer, Moore said the SouthEast final was probably their best game of the season.
"We had a few chances, but even when we didn't have them (chances), we still pushed. Other games that wasn't always the case. I think we were driven today.
"Our coaches told us the progress this team made was the best that Glendale's ever done. It's something to be proud of. No regrets, that's for sure."
"For the most part, especially I think the second half of the first half," said Gooding, "I thought we were right there. If we would have got a break or two. Them scoring early in the second half, that hurt us. I thought we were very competitive. If they (Parkside) go on to do big things, and I would be surprised if they don't win WOSSAA and do well at OFSAA..."
"It's tough to get out of your division," said Janzen, noting the Gemini girls soccer team has not yet won WOSSAA.
"It'll probably be South," said Janzen, predicting results at WOSSAA.
PCI ended up edging South 2-1 (shootout) in a WOSSAA semifinal, "but the Catholic team (Stratford St. Mike's) will be interesting."
St. Thomas Aquinas defeated St. Mike's 2-1 (shootout) in the other WOSSAA semifinal.
HUGE TEAM
The Gemini girls went into the 2017 season with a larger than usual squad.
"We made the decision going into the season to keep a lot of players," said Gooding. "Young players, and also have a very competitive team."
"We had 35 try out," noted Janzen.
They ended up with 20-plus girls, which in a tournament like the Gemini Cup allowed them to make complete 9-10 player substitutions.
"That was tough at times to juggle," Gooding admitted. "But the girls knew right from the beginning our plan, in terms of how the playing time would go. It would be our most competitive team in one tournament (they lost in the finals - PKs), everybody would play - especially the younger girls - in the second tournament, and a split at the Gemini Cup.
"This was a senior-deep team in terms of the starting lineup," Gooding summed up. "We really believed, with the girls we have, we had a good chance at WOSSAA if we got there. And who knows what happens after that... but that's the way things go, right?"