Sydenham Junior girls just miss a chance at EOSSAA championships

Jeff Green | Nov 20, 2014

Sydenham’s junior girls AA basketball team had a great season this year but their luck ran out at the EOSSAA (Eastern Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association) tournament on November 12, which was hosted by Sydenham High School. The Arnprior Redmen defeated the Junior Golden Eagles in the first match, which their coach Janet Sanderson described as a very close and exciting game.

The Golden Eagles led by eight points early in the game but turnovers hurt them in the second half and Arnprior capitalized on their chances.

Sydenham hung in, though, and got back their focus near the end of the game, sinking a number of threes.

“It was the first game the team had lost at home in a long time,” Sanderson said, adding, “The girls played really hard and I am really proud of the effort that they made but we ended up losing by 3 in the end”.

You would never know that they had lost their first game by how hard the team played in their second game of the day against the Thousand Islands Pirates, even though they would not move on to the finals. In their last game of the season Sydenham beat the Pirates 41 to 27.

Ms. Sanderson, who coaches the juniors along with Mark Richards, said the team came a really long way this season.

“We started off the season slowly due to some injuries and sickness but we had a great positive stretch towards the end of the season. I'm really proud of the girls and what they were able to do this year. They were really dedicated and there was almost a kind of a family feeling within the team, which was great,” she said.

Photo 2018-