By Josh Wegman
Seeded just 10th out of 16 teams, the Louis-Riel Rebelles surprised a lot of people at the March 18-21 OFSAA ‘A/AA’ Girls’ Hockey Championships in Sudbury by walking away with the title, but their coach wasn’t one of them.
“They didn’t take the regular season too seriously. Our mindset was let’s go out, play hard, have a good time and whatever happens, happens,” recounts Mark Dregas. “But the one thing they wanted to win all year was OFSAA.”
Throughout the season, Dregas and his players had many discussions about the team’s expectations not meeting their level of their performance, but it wasn’t until they received their schedule, and the low ranking, that their mindset switched, the former University of Gee-Gees men’s coach details.
“It was a bit shocking to them, but they bought into it right away and were serious about winning,” adds Dregas, whose team placed second, third, and missed the playoff round in previous tournaments featuring provincial challengers.
The Rebelles breezed through pool play with three wins by a combined score of 15-5 and then went on to defeat three higher-ranked opponents in the playoff round, including the tournament final against St. Michael CSS where Stephanie Wilson broke a 2-2 tie with her third-period tournament-winning goal.
“We wouldn’t have lost a game all year if everyone had the same mindset as they had at OFSAA,” Dregas explains, calling his team’s three-loss regular season “underachieving.”
Nevertheless, the coach of 22 years came around to the nonchalant attitude that his team possessed.
“This was the best experience I’ve ever had coaching,” the hard-nosed coach admits.
Repeating will be a challenge with new rule
Fourth-place finishers at last year’s OFSAA, this year’s Rebelles boasted virtually the same lineup as the previous season.
That will surely change in the future however, and part of the reason will be a new OFSAA rule that bans students hailing from outside a school’s regular boundaries to attend a specialized sports program from competing for their school in their declared sport concentration.
Since the rule is being grandfathered in, Dregas projects that it won’t drastically affect his team next year, but will surely have a bigger impact looking beyond 2015.
“Getting so many girls is tough enough for a high school hockey team,” indicates Dregas, whose school was in danger of closing due to low enrollment prior to the sports-études’ program creation in 2005. “I’m sure it will affect some teams more than others, but it’s the individual kid I feel bad for the most.”