After winning the May Tully Shield, players and managers from the Mount Douglas Rams field hockey team searched over the shield to see the last time the Rams had won it.
“We had to look back quite a few years,” said manager Cathy Boraston.
The Rams recently won the coveted May Tully crossover city championship against AA St. Michaels University School 3-0 on two goals by co-captain Claire Church and one from Cassie Rimek.
It’s the Rams’ second trophy of the year. They won the Friendship Cup tournament in Shawnigan to start the season, defeating Cowichan secondary in a shootout.
In school league play the Rams went undefeated. The only two goals the Rams have given up this year came in their two losses at the Bridgman Cup (won by Handsworth) where the Rams lost 1-0 to both Colingwood and Argyle and were relegated to the consolation bracket.
With the regular season over the Rams are practising while looking forward to the AAA Islands, hosted by Cowichan, Nov. 2 and 3 in Duncan.
This year’s Rams team has seven players who’ve played at the Team B.C. provincial level in the past few years. At the core are co-captains Church, Natalie Boraston and Stefanie Sajko. All are in Grade 12 and were the captain group in Grade 11, too.
“The talent we have is high level as evidenced by their [selection to Team B.C.],” said Boraston, who, like most of the Rams, plays in the senior women’s Vancouver Island Ladies Field Hockey Association. “There’s three more leaders at the Grade 11 level too.”
The captains have done a good job of showing leadership and recruiting other athletes from within school, resulting in a strong team effort, Boraston said.
The Rams are coached by former national team player Andrea Rushton, current Vikes player Lindsay Cole, former Vike and Lambrick Park alum Kyla Kirby, and teacher Lindsay Wright.
On The Turf:
St. Michaels University School grad Anna Mollenhauer is off to a strong start with the UVic Vikes. The former high school field hockey standout was named the Canada West Rookie of the Year, a Canada West All-Star and was named the Canada West second star (for all sports) of the week. Mollenhauer scored three goals in the Vikes final two games, 6-0 and 4-0 wins over Calgary, as the team finished the season on a high despite not qualifying for the national championship.
Another SMUS grad, Michael Baart of the UVic Vikes men’s soccer team, was also named Canada West second star of the week. Baart scored two goals on three shots in a 3-0 win over Fraser Valley on Friday and adding another in the team’s season ending 4-2 loss at the hands of Trinity Western on Saturday.
