Major Bantam AA Girls Team
  

Hornets Major Bantam AA Girls Win the Bronze Medal
in 2012 Arnprior Kick-Off Tournament!

On Saturday January 13, 2012 the 2012 Arnprior Kick-Off Tournament, kicked off! This was the first tournament of 2012 and the Hornets went for it full force. The Hornets entered the tournament with a 7 game winning streak. On the heels of a gold medal win at the Chris Paulin tournament in December, they knew they could not take this tournament for granted. All season, the games have been won or lost by just a couple of points so they were fully aware that on any given day, anyone could win the games. This tournament was no exception.

On Saturday, the Hornets met up against a very strong and tall Arnprior Valley Pride team and with an excellent second half, defeated them with a score of 32-26. Later in the afternoon, they met up with the Kanata team, easily taking that game with a score of 26-11.

Sunday morning was going to be the biggest challenge for the girls. They were up against the very tough Cornwall Lions. The last time the Hornets were up against the Lions it was only a 1 point game and this game would prove to be just as fierce. A very solid defence has always been the girls’ strength, but this day, Cornwall was just a bit stronger, defeating the Hornets with a respectable score of 26-35. This meant that the girls’ would be going for the bronze medal later in the day against the Gloucester Wolverines.

The Hornets came back in this game full force, showing their usual strong drive that everyone was used to seeing. Gloucester is a very strong team but they were no match for the Hornets this day. The Hornets played even stronger defense and an excellent offence and handily won the bronze medal with a score of 40-22. Special mention goes out to top scorers of the tournament, Andrea Vervoort, Brennah Agnew and Megan Chase and Rielly and Kennedy Thompson for their rebounding!

Congratulations Hornets!

Hornets Major Bantam AA Girls Take the Gold in the
18th Annual Chris Paulin Memorial Tournament

The Goulbourn Hornets Major Bantam AA Girls basketball team played in the 18th Annual Chris Paulin Tournament Dec. 2-4, 2011 being held at Sacred Heart High School in Stittsville, Ontario. This tournament was held for many age categories and was hosted throughout Kanata, Stittsville and Barrhaven and was run by the Kanata Youth Basketball Association. The Hornets’ strength is that they play very well together as a team, even though the majority of the players just met each other at the try-outs at the beginning of the season. They have gelled very quickly, and by the end of the season, they will definitely be a force to be reckoned with. Coach Ken Graham and Assistant Coach Graham Thompson, are very proud of how far the girls have already come in such a short time together.

For the first game of the tournament, the Hornets met up against the XElles, and defeated them 45-9. MVP of the game was awarded to #5 Megan Chase. Next they were matched up against the Belleville Spirits, who travelled 3 hours to compete in this tournament. The Hornets easily won this game with a score 38-12 with the MVP of the game being awarded to #10 Emily Donaldson.

To finish the round robin, they met up with an extremely strong Naismith team, who in regular season play had defeated the Hornets by just 1 point. In this round robin game against Naismith, the Hornets shut down their two strongest scorers with an amazing defense and handily won the game with a score of 36-20, which secured them a spot in the semi-finals against the Nepean Blue Devils. MVP of the game was awarded to #4 Andrea Vervoort.

In the semi-final game against Nepean, the Blue Devils put up a great fight, but Goulbourn displayed a very strong defensive game and defeated the Blue Devils with a score of 28-16. With this victory, the Hornets advanced to fight for gold!

The gold medal game was held on the Sunday afternoon against the very strong and very tall Gatineau Mystique. In their last regular season game against the Mystique, the Hornets lost a very well fought game again by 1 basket, so there was a lot on the line for this game. The girls knew that this was going to be a very tough physical game, and that they would only win if they went for it every single moment of the game and played their best defense possible. The Hornets were hungry and were able to savour a sweet 36-33 come from behind victory against the Mystique to clench the gold medal. Coach Ken Graham congratulated the team on their strong skills and effort and awarded the MVP of the tournament to #1 Talia Kotuba, with honourable mention going to #4 Andrea Vervoort.

Congratulations Hornets! This is just the beginning of a season with a whole lot of wonderful things yet to come!

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