By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The South Okanagan Minor Hockey Association (SOMHA) U18 Rep team is off to the provincial finals in Nelson from March 16-21 after winning the valley championships last weekend in Osoyoos.
Head Coach, Narcisse Baptiste said it was a great weekend of hockey with a very good crowd of a couple hundred spectators in Osoyoos.
“It was electric in there,” said Baptiste, adding the final against Winfield was a rollercoaster – “we went up a couple, they came back and tied it, they went up in the third period and we tied it and we got a late goal and won it 6-5,” he says.
The South Okanagan team had earlier played Winfield on Saturday afternoon, another electric atmosphere Baptiste says, and one that they lost 3-1.
This will be the third year in a row that the South Okanagan U18 team is off to the provincials, an experience Baptiste knows well having grown up playing through the South Okanagan ranks to U18.
In fact, he notes that the championship win on Sunday, March 3 was exactly ten years to the day that he played on the winning championship team that also went off to the provincials.
At this point he’s not exactly sure how many teams will be at the provincials, but roughly eight teams representing the different regions of BC will bring their respective games to Nelson.
“It will be exciting for them for sure,” he says of the South Okanagan U18 players. “I think all the teams we haven’t seen yet, so definitely it will be good to see some new competition and new challenges,” he says.
He notes that the team faced some tough competition and emphasized that they expect every single game at the provincials to be tough games. “We have two weeks here of practices and we will fine tune our skills – we’ve been a good team up until now but we can always improve and get better,” he adds.
Along with Baptiste are Assistant Coaches Colton Thomsen and Pat Crespo, as well as Team Manager Mark Antonello.
To help support the team’s five days at the provincial tournament the SOMHA U18 Rep will be doing a bottle drive this Saturday with more details to follow. Anyone wishing to donate to their fundraising efforts through bottles or other donations, contact [email protected].
