Spartans News

You could feel the tension, the excitement. From the players, the coaches, the home crowd. Playing the top team in D4, the Richmond Raiders, who’d beaten us handily way back in our first game of the season, the score was tied 40-40. With only 30 seconds left. Your Spartans had made the statement they wanted to make, they’d played their tails off and shown their opponents – and themselves – how far they’d come since that butt-whupping a month ago.

Your Stanstead College Spartans travelled to St. Catherines, Ontario, this past weekend to take part in the CAIS National Senior Boys Basketball Tournament. Twenty-four teams from across Canada were all looking to compete against the best that Canadian independent schools have to offer. Here is how it went down.

The SC basketball team hit the court last Wednesday night for their league home opener against La Poudriere, delivering a confident and commanding performance. Fresh off a successful weekend tournament, the team displayed the fruits of their hard work, particularly in transition play and defensive discipline.

After a whirlwind start to season – 3 days of tryouts, 4 practices, then 5 days off for November Break – your Senior Boys Basketball Spartans kicked off their 2024-25 campaign barely five days ago, and a lot has already happened.

While we were definitely the underdog going into this all-important semifinal clash vs Alexander Galt, I felt we had a legitimate shot to pull off the upset. We just had to avoid bad luck, and have a few bounces go our way. Hey, if we could do it in 2022 (the legendary Friday Nite Lights victory over these same Pipers), we could do it again in 2024. Lightning CAN strike twice. Happens all the time with lightning rods, doesn’t it?

The Stanstead College Senior Boys Soccer Spartans capped off a very successful 2024 Eastern Townships Interscholastic Athletic Conference (ETIAC) season by defeating the Bishop’s College School Bears, 5-1, in the playoff championship game played last Friday at Stanstead College.

Stanstead College is hosting the Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS) Senior Girls Soccer Tournament this week, with 18 schools from across the country represented.

Last week something happened that is a first in my 32-year coaching career, something that is probably illegal in some countries: three full ETIAC games in a row. All at home. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. 80 minutes each. Back-to-back-to-back. Talk about your homestand.

The weather has not quite turned to real hockey weather here in Stanstead. The leaves are beginning to change colours and there is a distinct chill in the air at night, but days have been filled with some late September sun and warmth. Despite Mother Nature’s desire to hold onto summer, this past weekend was time for the Pat Burns Arena to open its doors to Varsity Boys Hockey action. With a 4-game week, the boys began by dropping their first CPSHA game to rival Bishops College by a score of 7-5 in a high energy, offensive game.

This past Tuesday, your Spartans travelled to Richmond for their third ETIAC game of the season. So far in league play, we had yet to score on our way to a desultory 0-2 start.

Early season can be tough. You’re not in great shape after the summer (best case sore legs, worst case injured), you don’t know your teammates very well (what’s her last name again?), and the coach keeps moving you around, trying you at different positions (can’t he make up his mind?).

This student-athlete from Jay, Vermont has been a consistent and steady presence throughout the entire senior girls rugby season, whether bringing up the defensive line with full speed tackles or leading off the offence with a decisive run. Any player, coach or fan who has watched our games notices Camryn. What is more impressive is what people don’t always see, namely the attention to improving footwork and skills in practice and boosting teammates when they need it. Camryn performed just as well this past weekend in Dover, New Hampshire, reacting to unexpected situations and focusing on moving the ball to set her teammates up for exciting tries. Congratulations, Camryn.

Chaz Grenier from Stanstead, Quebec showed true grit this past weekend at Rugbyfest in New Brunswick. In the finals, he was double-teamed and still managed to create offence. His strong play on defence resulted in numerous turnovers and momentum changes in the most critical moments of the championship game. Off the field, Chaz leads by rallying everyone to be invested and push towards the end goal of team victory.

The second student-athlete recognized this week, Shun Hatano, is known as the “Tokyo 10." He is an electric player with a large toolbox of skills. He can kick, see gaps in the defence and pass on a rope to his left and right. When it matters most, he elevates his game to another level. These two Grade 12 leaders were instrumental in securing the championship banner in the Bonnycastle "B" Division. 

Celebrating our departing Grade 12s from the Senior Girls Basketball Spartans:

In what may well turn out to be the final basketball action of the 2023-24 season, your Spartans travelled to Centennial Regional High School to take part in the annual MacLeod Provincial Tournament. The MacLeod is as storied a tournament as there is, with the inaugural event taking place way back in 1953. 71 years ago! In all that time, Stanstead College has emerged as champions four times (2017-2019, and again last year in 2023). It was a hard tournament to win. But as we’ve said before, worthwhile things are never easy.

Congratulations to our varsity boys and prep girls hockey teams, both of whom came from behind to earn their respective league championships this past Sunday.

The last RSEQ game of the year, against Le Salesien on their home floor, was one of those games I just don’t like that much, i.e. non-stop full court pressure with loose reffing. Which means our ballhandlers are constantly being ridden downcourt and there is body contact on every single play. Which means every time you have the ball you have two to four hands reaching in to grab it from you with no fear of a foul (in fact, Clara’s father spent most of the game yelling “Hands! Hands!” from the sideline). Which means the game is a haphazard track meet where everything is rushed and improvised and messy, the way basketball is probably played in prison. And the main problem with prison basketball is that you don’t learn very much in terms of technique or strategy. It’s a battle of athleticism. It’s roller derby.

This past weekend, your Stanstead College Spartans travelled to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu to participate in the first of our two most important events of the year, the 2024 Bailly Small Schools Provincial Tournament. As defending champions, and ranked #1 going into the tourney, we were looking to take care of business and bring the championship plaque back home.  

I can’t say for sure how all of their games have gone this season, but I’m pretty sure that La Ruche, undefeated and undisputed league leaders in RSEQ D3 this season, haven’t had many games as tough as their game against your Stanstead Spartans last Wednesday.

Athlete of the Week is co-awarded to two linemates from prep girls hockey. Laurie Aubin has been at the top of her game all season and did not disappoint this weekend at the JWHL Challenge Cup. She scored the overtime winner to advance the prep girls to its first championship game in program history. She finished the tournament with 5 goals and 5 assists in 6 games which was good for fourth overall in the tournament. Laurie’s overtime goal was assisted by Zoé Charland, who has been an equal force the entire season. Zoe scored 9 goals and added 3 assists for 12 points in 6 games this weekend and good for second overall in the tournament. Like Gretzky and Messier or Lemieux and Jagr, these two linemates lead on the scoresheet but also with their work ethic and never-quit attitudes. Congratulations, Laurie Aubin and Zoe Charland.

The halftime buzzer goes. The players trudge to the bench, heads down, shoulders slumped. Demoralized. I can’t exactly remember the score, but it was ugly. 36-11 or something like that. It felt like more. Laruche’s full-court press was debilitating, no let-up at all, never letting us get comfortable on offence, and their fast break was killing us. Even if we got a couple bodies back in transition, they would stay in fifth gear, attack downhill and finish anyway, contested or not. Even when we forced them to play in the half court, they dropped threes like it was nothing. They were fast, athletic, deep, they were shooting well, and they were on their home floor. Laruche was rolling. Stanstead was not going to win this game.

Saturday, December 2, 2023, the CAIS Tournament in Winnipeg. Not only was that the last basketball game your Spartans played before this past Thursday’s RSEQ trip to Le Boise in Victoriaville; that was also the last day the whole team even practiced together. Immediately upon their return from CAIS, our Grade 12s started preparing for exams, i.e. no athletics, just studying.