Nighthawks win clubs 1st provincial title with no subs

By Dan Plouffe

The Nepean Nighthawks just couldn’t get enough indoor field hockey. Short-staffed due to work commitments back in town, the club’s 18-and-under boys never once left the floor during their run to the final at the Ontario indoor field hockey championships March 22-23 at RIM Park in Waterloo, but that still didn’t meet their appetite for the game.

Playing their fourth match in two days – an intense championship final against the Brampton/Mississauga-based Canadian Field Hockey & Cultural Club – Nepean got even more action as the 2-2 contest progressed to a shootout, and then extra shooters, to break the tie.

Despite the extra workload, the Nighthawks players weren’t gassed by the end of it.

“It sure didn’t look like it,” signals coach Sandeep Chopra, highlighting the instrumental impact of training at the Carleton University gym throughout winter. “The fact that four of these guys play for Team Canada – they worked very, very hard all winter to stay in shape. They really want to make that team (for this summer’s Youth Olympics in China).”

The four players with youth national team experience – Liam Manning, Braedon Muldoon, Rohan Chopra and Connor Baird – all had strong performances, while Asem Quadiri also scored his share of goals, and then for the do-or-die attempt in the shootout “cool as cucumber, he walked right in there and drained it” to force an extra round of shooters, his coach recounts. Manning stopped the next shooter, and then, taking his cue from Quadiri, Muldoon replicated the same low, quick shot as his teammate to give Nepean the victory and the club’s first-ever provincial championship.

“They just would not be denied,” underlines Chopra, whose team had lost to CFHCC in round robin play. “They really put on a show there.”

There wasn’t a massive celebration following the victory. Perhaps the energy store had finally run dry, but their coach believes it was more a case of the players’ business-like approach and their commitment to high performance in the sport, with an understanding that they’re chasing greater prizes ahead.

“It wasn’t really jubilation,” Chopra details. “They’d worked really hard to get there, and it was kind of a quiet satisfaction.”

Also earning a bronze medal at the competition were the Nighthawks U16 boys, who were amongst 300-400 spectators packed into the stands to watch the U18 final.

Seeing their seniors’ victory helped inspire confidence in the path they’re on in their careers, highlights Chopra, who emphasizes exposing players of all abilities to high-pressure situations when they’re younger so that they can perform when they’re older.

“Coming up, (the U18 boys team) never, ever, ever won a tournament,” he indicates. “The difference between our teams and other teams is that we play everybody all the time. We never play to try to win a tournament; we always play to develop the players.”

That approach has proved to attract many players to the club – the vast majority of whom carry ice hockey or ringette backgrounds, Chopra adds, noting a provincial crown at the top youth level provides further reinforcement of their developmental philosophy.

“Afterwards, I started to add things up and I was like, ‘Man, we’ve waited a long time for this,” says Chopra, who’s now waiting impatiently for the snow to melt so they can begin their outdoor season.  “This is an Ontario championship and it’s a pretty big deal. We were extremely happy to win.”