Golden Eagles Field Hockey team gets their redemption this week - they are off to OFSAA!!

Jeff Green | Oct 23, 2024

The Sydenham High School Varsity Girls Field Hockey Team prevailed over Frontenac Secondary School on Wednesday afternoon in the KASSAA semifinal, 3-1. Not only did the win send the Golden Eagles to the KASSAA final next week against the 3 time defending championship team from Holy Cross, it also qualified SHS for the Ontario Federation of Secondary Schools Athletic Association (OFSAA) final,

One year ago, the SHS Golden Eagles were 11 seconds away from qualifying for the OFSAA finals in a semi-final, also against Frontenac. But Frontenac scored with 10 seconds to go in the game, forcing overtime, which Frontenac went on to win.

The two long serving team field hockey coaches, Pauline Farmer and Aymee Myers, said that it has been 15 years since SHS has qualified for OFSAA, and “it will be nice for the team to get that opportunity this year, especially after coming so close last year.”

This season, SHS won their first 8 regular season games, including a 2-0 win over Frontenac, before losing to Holy Cross in their final regular season game, 3-0.

On Monday (October 21) the KASSAA playoffs began. In the quarterfinals, all of the top seeds won their games. Number 1 Holy Cross beat Loyalist, the 8th place team in the regular season, 5-0. The number 2 Sydenham Golden Eagles beat number 7 Bayridge by a score of 5-0. Number 3 Frontenac overcame number 6  Napanee 3-0, and number 4 Kingston, squeaked by number 5 Regiopolis 3-2.

That set up the semifinals, on Wednesday afternoon . where the top seeded Holy Cross and number 2 SHS both won again. All KASSAA field hockey league and playoff games are played at CaraCo Field, which is an artificial turf multi-sport field.

Playing at the CaraCo field poses a challenge for the Golden Eagles team, who practice every day during the season, except for Fridays and game days, at Loughborough Public school, on relatively thick grass.

“It is difficult for the girls’ to adapt to the turf on, because it really is a different game altogether,” said Pauline Farmer, “but since we are a varsity team, many of the girls are on the team for four years, even if they don’t start or play that many minutes until their 3rd and 4th years.”.

The profile of girls’ field hockey is not on par with that of the outdoor boys’ sport that is played in the fall, football, a point that both Farmer and Myers are very much aware of.

“They are a great group of girls,” Myers said, “and that’s what keeps us involved.”

And now they are finally back at the provincial finals.