The École Mallaig Stingers handball teams both had a successful weekend on the courts in St. Paul at the 2013 Alberta Schools Athletic Association provincial championships this weekend.
The boys’ team managed a rousing silver medal finish, falling to the formidable squad from Old Scona in the gold medal game, while the girls’ team managed a consolation finals victory after a bumpy group stage.
The boys Stingers started their group stage off against the Old Scona Olympians, a team that Mallaig goaltender Michael Guilbault pointed to as the squad to beat before the tournament began, and while the Stingers dropped the opening match 24-16, they bounced back with two big wins over Bearspaw Christian, 26-17, and Mayerthorpe, 28-12, to earn their place in the semifinals.
The championship stage saw the Stingers go up against the Master’s College Eagles for the semifinals in what was undeniably the game of the tournament.
The game saw a very closely matched battle between the Stingers and Eagles. Trailing by four heading into the final 10 minutes of the match, the Stingers rallied back to tie the game thanks to some fluid ball movement and a clutch performance between the posts from Guilbault.
“Michael’s goaltending this weekend has been outstanding,” MacGillivray said. “That was an amazing semis for us.”
With seconds ticking off the clock in the final minute of play, Guilbault made a game-saving stop with his leg to keep the game tied. The Stingers grabbed the ensuing rebound and threw the ball up court to Jeff Hatch, who made no mistake, leaping into the air and firing the game winning goal into the back of the net to lift the Stingers to the finals.
“I made one of those saves and I knew right away that it was clutch. I’m so proud of the guys to get that game-winning goal in the last minute and just to hold on. I’m speechless, I’m just so proud of the guys. I wouldn’t change these team mates for anyone,” Guilbault said.
While the Stingers fell in the rematch with Old Scona for gold, 34-20, the team battled until the final buzzer, and every player left the court with their head held high.
“I’m proud of the guys, we fought hard and everybody battled through sweat and grit,” Guilbault said. “We tried hard and in the end it didn’t happen, but I’m just as happy with silver as I would be with gold.”
Ryan Jodoin, a Mallaig player who holds a spot on the Team Alberta roster alongside Guilbault and Mattheiu Vallée, compared the level of play in the finals against Old Scona to European handball.
“With these guys it’s just like playing in Europe . . . Old Scona is a very good team with lots of experience,” he said, adding that we was very happy to step off the court with a silver medal around his neck. “It feels very good. I’m glad we made it this far. We played hard.”
Vallée, captain of the boys team, made a point of thanking his coach, MacGillivray, for all the effort it took to coach both teams in the fast-paced provincial tournament.
“He’s what’s behind it all,” Vallée said. “He’s been back and forth between teams, and he’s pretty much what got us here.”
The Mallaig Stingers girls team opened up the tournament group stage on a difficult note, dropping the first three games and falling to a difficult spot in the consolation ranking.
The girls lost their opening match to Clear Water Academy 27-13, and MacGillivray pointed out that it took them a bit of time to really find their bearings in the provincial tournament since the group only picked up the sport in the middle of February.
“They went from really not knowing much about this game, to understanding more about the movement of the game,” MacGillivray said.
“When I talked to the girls after we were done, I talked about, with the exception of the first half of the first game, we played pretty incredible ball throughout. We lost really close ones, and that was inexperience.”
The girls lost their following two matches by two goals apiece, falling 15-13 to Bentley and 16-14 to Mayerthorpe, pushing them out of medal contention and relegating them to the consolation round without a single victory, but the Stingers regrouped and came back to the court determined to give the home crowd a show.
“I think as each game went on we learned a lot more. Basically after every game we talked about what we learned and how we were going to apply it in the next game. I think that really helped,” said Baylee Jeffery. “It was tough to begin as a newer team, but I think we ended up doing really well considering that we just started.”
After picking up a victory over Our Lady of the Snows in the consolation semi-finals, the girls met up with Mayerthorpe yet again, and it was the Stingers who reigned supreme in the rematch, 20-18, to finish fifth overall at the tournament as the consolation round champions.
“I’m pretty impressed with my team as a whole, we came together. It’s a learning experience and just coming together as a team and being able to win that shows great integrity and love for the game,” said goaltender Danielle Smyl, who made a number of key saves in the consolation final to lead her team to victory over Mayerthorpe.
“I tried to stop everything I could. It’s a competitive game and it’s our first year so I wanted to try to show the best I could.”
MacGillivray said that he was very pleased with the girls’ ability to compete at the tournament, and that their ability to develop over the past few months has amazed him.
“I told them about a month ago, ‘if I could have taken video of that very first practice to where you’ve come . . . you girls would be amazed,’” he said.
“I’m very happy with what the girls have done. They came out here and competed against some pretty experienced teams.”
MacGillivray was not the only one to notice the talents of the female Mallaig handball players, as a scout from Team Alberta invited Jeffery, Haley Ozga, Seleena Hebert, Sarah Desmond and Dayna Mulkay to a provincial team tryout later this month.
“He told a group of us that he chose that he was interested in having us join the handball team and said that he wants us to come try out . . . It’s really the coolest thing ever. I’m amazed, I didn’t think I was actually that good, but apparently I am,” Jeffery said of being invited to try out of Team Alberta, adding that handball has really grown on her over the past few months. “It’s a mixture of everything but it’s completely different at the exact same time. It’s definitely pulled me in and I feel like it’s going to be one of my new favorite sports.”
For many of the Mallaig players, it was their first chance to play a provincial level game of any sport in front of a home crowd, and while MacGillivray said he was very happy to see the stands at St. Paul Regional and Glen Avon packed to the brim, he wasn’t all that surprised.
“They are the typical Mallaig crowd. Our spectators, it doesn’t matter whether it’s provincial hockey or provincial volleyball,” he said.
“Our parents and their families and their grandparents, they always have come out. It’s awesome for our players, it’s awesome for me to know that it’s important for them to see these kids play, to see Mallaig kids play.”
