For the first time in the last seven or eight years, the Centre Wellington District High School (CWDHS) boys hockey team won the Mahler Classic Tournament.
“This tournament is a pretty high level tournament,” said coach Murray Skerritt. “Lots of OFSAA teams go to this tournament.”
Not only did the team bring home the gold from the Dec. 2 to 3 tournament in St. Catharines, it went undefeated throughout every round.
Skerritt said that prior to this year the team had never made it out of the round robin.
The team is composed of students from Grade 9 to 12 but Skerritt said most of the players are Grade 12 students who have been on the team for a few years.
The team went 3-0 in its pool during the round robin play but it didn’t come by its wins easily. The team beat St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School from Mississauga 2-0, Lakeshore Catholic High School from Port Colborne 4-2, and St. Paul Secondary School from Mississauga 4-1.
Then, in the quarter-finals the team beat St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School from Hamilton 4-0.
In the semi-final the boys beat out Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Secondary School from Mississauga 4-3 in a shootout.
To top the tournament off, the CWDHS team won the championship game 2-1 over Orangeville District Secondary School in another shootout.
“As far as the team goes it was a great experience for the team because they gained a lot of confidence from it,” Skerrit said.
“A lot of these guys we’ve had for three years and we’ve been building and building.
“So it’s a nice accomplishment, we still want to go further, but it was nice to see these guys be successful.”
The team plays one or two games a week against other schools in the Upper Grand District School Board and there are two more tournaments before the end of the season in March.
“It’s a process, so we’re gonna continue to keep building,” Skerritt said.
