KC Fraser and Genevieve Beauchesne-Sévigny win bronze in the K2 500 metres in Racice, Czech Republic.
PHOTOS: Balint Vekassy

In the two-person, 500-metre race – an Olympic event – Fraser and partner Genevieve Beauchesne-Sévigny took second in Poland and third in the Czech Republic.

“Our goal in this race was just to relax, and not to go all-out off the start,” said Fraser. “We stuck to the plan every race and it worked out perfectly.”

Fraser hopes that their results – the best by a Canadian women's team in that event for at least a decade – will inspire others on the national team.

“I'm happy that the girls are coming up,” she said. “I hope it gives them the confidence to say, ‘Yeah – we can get there’.”

To Fraser's finishes, Sam Roworth and the four-person men's kayak team added a supreme one for the cameras.

In the 1,000-metre race in  Poland, their boat nosed past the Polish team's by three inches – a mere 24 thousandths of a second on the clock.

For Roworth and Fraser, Poland was their second World Cup race in as many weeks and their last event before Canada's final qualifier for the senior World Cup teams at the end of June.

Sam Roworth, third seat, competes in the K4 1,000 metres in Racice, Czech Republic.

“They are very dedicated paddlers,” says Balmy Beach coach Peter Martinek. “Hopefully they will make the next Olympic Games.”

Olympics or not, training athletes on Canada's national team and sending them to World Cup events shows the high-performance program at Balmy Beach rising to a level not seen since its members won Olympic titles in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s.

Martinek, who won a Canoe Kayak Canada award for club development in 2010, is a big part of that shift.

Born in Hungary, Martinek got an early start coaching, starting soon after he finished a physical education degree in Budapest. Over his 36-year career, Martinek has coached national teams in Hungary, Greece and Denmark.

As the only kayak club within Toronto city limits, Martinek says Balmy Beach has its challenges. The 20 paddlers in the club's high-performance group have to be early birds.

“If the water is calm we can go out and paddle, but that’s very rare and usually only in the early morning,” he said.

The club's most accessible stretch of protected water is the 500-metre length of Ashbridges Bay.

“If you’re doing a 15 or 20 km paddle and you’re turning every 500 metres, that’s when it gets a little tedious,” says Roworth. “But once you’re used to it, it’s fine.”

Even with that make-it-work attitude, Roworth and the nearly 200 members of the Balmy Beach Club are excited about a new Trillium Grant that will cover the cost of a new club truck and 36 new boats.

The truck will make it easier to get paddlers out to nearby Ontario Place, the Humber River and the Welland Canal to train, he said, while most of the new boats are smaller, stabler kayaks for kids and some much-needed canoes.

“It's really built up,” Roworth said of the Balmy Beach as a whole.

“Everybody I’m training with, except for maybe one or two people – I coached when they were kids.”

“You always look up to the people that coach you, and then you end up being training partners with them,” he added. “You’re pushing them and they’re pushing you – it’s a pretty cool dynamic that happens here.”

Sporting a red London 2012 Paralympics jacket and a haircut that looks just as fast as he does, Justine's first guide around the oval was Josh Cassidy, winner of 75 medals and a world record marathon time.

He and fellow Paralympian Rachael Burrows were two special guests at an April 28 Try-It Camp, part of a new program that aims to recruit more people like Justine into track and field para-sports.

Paralympian Josh Cassidy chats with Justine Wilmot while guiding her through her first laps in a racing chair at the Whitby Athletics Centre on April 28. Behind, able-bodied members of the Durham Dragons test their strength in para-athletic style shotput.

“I just took her here to try it out and see how it is,” said Justine's mother. “She loves it.”

Run by Athletics Ontario, the new program aims to grow para-athletic sports across Ontario by concentrating on two hubs: London and the GTA.

Back in the Beach, Craig Blackman is head coach of I Be Fast, a Beach track and field club that will join two other clubs – the Etobicoke Track & Field Club and the Durham Dragons – to build the GTA hub.

Before he started coaching, Blackman ran at several international games, including the 400-metre relay in the 1972 Munich Olympics. What he started as a small track club for his kids and those of his sprinter friend Charlie Francis quickly grew to include a full team of all ages and abilities.

“Everybody runs together,” he said, speaking at an another Try-It Camp held at Variety Village. “After the first 20 minutes, they're just one of the gang.”

Blackman says he enjoys coaching able-bodied and disabled athletes as one team not only because it makes for a bigger, friendlier group, but also because training in heats and seeded events pushes everyone to work a little harder.

Sprinter Cindy Blunt agrees. A 52-year-old sprinter who holds a 100-metre record in her ability class, Blunt is a long-time member of the Durham Dragons, where everyone else on her team is able-bodied.

“They learn and I learn,” she says. “My coach teams me up against them and I just chase them down. It improves my times.”

Blunt says she welcomes the idea of a GTA hub for para-athletes, and recommends that anyone interested comes out and gives it a try.

“You get to travel for one, and you get to make friends,” she said. “You get to try things you wouldn't normally get to do.”

For Blunt, that meant running the Olympic torch through Nathan Phillips Square in 2010. Thirty years into her running career, she is training up to qualify for a world competition in France this July.

Kayla Cornale, para-athletics coordinator for Athletics Ontario, says the Try-It camps are open to everyone, including parents and teachers interested in learning more about para-sports. Cornale also noted that equipment is no barrier.

“You don't need the Ferrari of racing to start,” she said, noting that both Cassidy and Burrows started training for races using their day chairs. Cornale also said a lot of first-timers will likely try a few sports before they find their favourite.

Whether new recruits play para-sports just for fun or go on to a competitive level is tough to guess – something that Burrows found out firsthand.

Even after competing in the Pan Am Games and a world championship, Burrows said she never expected to make the London Paralympics last year.

“When it happened, I was like, ‘Oh, okay—here we go!’”

The next Try It camp, which is free of charge, will be held on May 25 from 8 to 10 a.m. at Birchmount Stadium’s track. For more information on the Try It camps, email para.athleticsont@gmail.com.

Boaters haul a cradled yacht onto a winch-powered railway that will then it carry it to Ashbridges Bay.
PHOTOS: Andrew Hudson

“This is the way the ancient Egyptians used to do it," he said cheerfully. "Except we're not slaves, and they don't kill us after we launch.”

The ABYC is one of the last clubs on Lake Ontario to launch boats in such a traditional way.

Cradled in the wood frames where they are stored all winter, most of the more than 270 boats get hand-pulled by volunteers to a powered winch line that then hauls them to the lake.

Larger yachts get hoisted in by a hired crane, with crews working quickly to harness each boat and guide it safely through the air and over the docks to water.

“It's very much a community effort for us,” said club member Krista Slack, noting that about 350 people joined this year's launch.

“We all participate in some way.”

Another club member, Nancy Wilson, says she found her role on the traditional side of launch day.

For 13 years, Wilson has suited up in white Tyvek to oversee the “tallow” crew that melts drums full of slick, artificial beef tallow that they brush over the club's launching rails.

Nancy Wilson shovels a load of artificial tallow into a propane-fired drum for melting.

Each boat needs a fresh layer before it can slide off, so by day's end the whole tallow crew goes home smelling like French fries.

Still, Wilson's loyalty is unwavering.

“It's a great little club – lots of stuff going on all year long,” she said.

“You can get out of the city by car, or you can get out in a boat. It's like being out at a cottage in 15 minutes.”

A crane crew at the Ashbridges Bay Yacht Club harness the Sakara for launch.

Beaches' Ryan Lee takes a shot on goal during second period action against Peterborough. The Beaches Jr. A lacrosse team hosted a mini tournament on April 21 with Peterborough, St. Catherines and Barrie. The Beaches tied their first match against Peterborough 9-9 and defeated Barrie in their second match 11-7.
PHOTO: Phil Lameira

After a mini-tournament and a solid month of training, Codd says this year's Beaches squad is shaping up to be a fast, athletic team with a good crop of younger players.

“So far they’ve worked very hard and tried to soak up everything we’ve been throwing at them,” he said. “When you start with a good work ethic, good things happen to you.”

The Junior A team signed lot of new faces this year, including draft picks Tanner Thomson and Chris Wilman from the Mimico and London minor teams, goaltender Rance Vingeux from the Mississauga Tomahawks and three top scorers from the Junior B loop: Dereck Downs, Ryan Lee and Chad Levick.

The Beaches' top three scorers from last season – Jordan Robertson, Jackson Hulbert and Greg Davidson – are all returning this year and will lead the team as captain and assistant captains.

Davidson in particular had a “breakout year” in 2012, Codd said.

“I can't say enough about the good intangibles he brings to our team,” he said. “He doesn't say a whole lot, but he comes and works hard and excels at both ends of the floor.”

Off the floor, Codd says the Toronto Beaches are trying new ways to build up local lacrosse talent in the Beach this summer. Players will help coach minor league teams, and every player in the minor league got a free season ticket this year to see how the game is played at the next level.

With “huge” minor league systems, Orangeville, Whitby, Six Nations and Peterborough are the hotbeds for Ontario lacrosse right now, Codd says, and he would like to see the Beach join the pack.

After 13 years as a fierce defender in the National Lacrosse League, Codd spent his first pro season behind the bench last season as an assistant coach to the Calgary Roughnecks.

“It was a great way to take the sting out of not playing,” he said.

“At that level, you’re coaching the best players in the world, arguably. You notice a lot of the intangibles that they have – attention to detail, and the way they prepare both physically and mentally.

“Hopefully we can pass on some of those traits to the young guys.”

The Beaches play its first home game of the year on May 13 against last year's season champs, the  Six Nations Arrows. All Toronto Beaches home games kick off at 8 p.m. in the Ted Reeve Arena.

Malvern's Jake Wilkinson gets past St. Michael's Josh Managan in Jammer Classic action on Friday, April 5.
PHOTO: Phil Lameira

Today, says Mark Kuhlmann, the Jammer has become the spring kick-off for Ontario's minor field season, now joined by varsity teams from as far as Detroit.

Then and now, everyone who runs the pitches at the Cherry Beach tournament honours Mark’s son Jamieson Kuhlmann, a dedicated lacrosse player who died suddenly from a game injury in 2008.

Registration for the tournament is always full, says  Jamieson's mother Michelle Weber, and there is always a waiting list.

“The life that's on the field is just overwhelming,” she says. “You cannot not get a high coming down here.”

Jamieson would be 20 now, she said, and many of his friends have graduated from playing the tournament to helping off the field – refereeing games and grilling on the barbecue.

Starting the Jammer Classic was a way to give back, to embrace Jamieson and also to do something for his friends, she said. Jamieson’s death was probably the first time they had lost a close friend.

Since 2009, the tournament has also raised $71,000 for the Children's Wish Foundation, and has been a place to check in and see how greatly improved  are the lives of four children and two adults who all received organs donated by Jamieson.

“That all came about because of the type of person Jamieson was,” Weber said. “He really was a kind soul, a very loyal friend, very trustworthy.”

Ball carrier Max Ambursley, flanked by Ethan Peters to the left and Will Morgan to the right, seen here in action against the Oakville Crusaders, are three of the 28 players travelling with the Balmy Beach Junior Rugby Club Under 16 squad to Bermuda on March 30.
PHOTO: Michelle Quance

The Balmy Beach Rugby Club is set to go on tour with a junior team made up of Grade 9 and 10 students (under 16). The team, comprised of local talent including Malvern students, will be be travelling to sunny Bermuda over the Easter weekend to play local teams.

“We have a very solid group of players,” said Brian Spanton, one the coaches travelling with the team and a former Canadian national rugby player. “Many of them have played five or six years.”

There will also be emphasis on cultural learning with stops at historical sites and a tour of the island.

“It’s a growing event for the boys,” said Spanton. “We will be doing off-field tours … and we hope the boys grow from it.”

This is the first time the junior squad will be travelling abroad and Spanton is hoping to make it an annual event.

With many students across the city missing out on sports this year because of struggles between public school teachers and the government, it is a great opportunity for the boys to participate in a sport they love.

“Malvern has a rich tradition of rugby,” said Spanton.

The group will be holding a fundraiser for the trip on March 23. It will take place at the Balmy Beach Club from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. There will be a silent auction as well as a live auction.

The Toronto Beaches Junior A Lacrosse team has made some management shuffles in advance of the 2013 season. Tryouts for this year’s team begin in March. BEACH METRO NEWS FILE PHOTO: Phil Lameira

Management has been slightly shuffled and new players already drafted, setting the tone for the spring.

Ryan Cousins, who last year held the position of Assistant General Manager is now the President of the club.

“I’m really happy about it” said Cousins of the move. “[I will] be taking on a more of a role out in the community and connecting with the Beaches minor organization and the house league. We hope to grow in the community.”

Cousins has recently retired from the National Lacrosse League (NLL) after winning the championship last season with the Rochester Knighthawks.

Assistant Coach Scott Crombie has stepped into the Assistant GM position and brings with him a slew of expertise.

“He’s the perfect candidate for that position and he’s been around the organization for a number of years,” explained Cousins.

Orangeville native Brodie Merrill, who plays in the NLL with the Philadelphia Wings, will stay in the General Manager position.

The Head Coach position will once again be filled by Bruce Codd, who has also retired as a player from the Toronto Rock. Codd’s professional career has now taken him back to Calgary where he will act as Assistant Coach with the Roughnecks.

“We welcome him back again this year on our coaching staff” said Cousins. “It will help with the [players] starting to learn his system better and produce a better team by bringing everybody back.”

The team has recently acquired three new players in the draft: Tanner Thomson from Mimico, Chris Willman from London and Zack Bryant of Clarington.

Cousins is also looking forward to working with the minor leagues.

“We need to start working with the younger players to get them to the Junior A program,” explained Cousins. “There are so many opportunities now, be it university scholarships or playing professional.”

Tryout camps for Beaches Junior A Lacrosse will start at the end of March.

For more information on the team, visit torontobeachesjralacrosse.com.

View Photo Gallery below.

With an official-sized turf soccer field and the largest indoor track in Toronto, the new facility will be of benefit to students as well as local community members and organizations.

Monarch Park student Sean Pitre shows off some school pride. Students gathered at the brand new stadium at Monarch Park CI for its grand opening on Dec. 5. PHOTO: Phil Lameira / Beach Metro News

The project was the result of a partnership between Razor Management Inc. and the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Matthew Raizenne, CEO at Razor, first approached the school in 2011 with the idea of redeveloping Monarch’s field, which had been in rough shape for a while.

After many meetings and proposal revisals, Raizenne got the deal and the go-ahead. Construction commenced in early 2012 and crews worked hard through the summer to complete the stadium in the fall, minimizing the period of time that students would be without a field.

On Nov. 23 the track was lined and on Dec. 5 it officially opened to the community. The delay in the completion date was due to superstorm Sandy and logistics with one of the suppliers.

The stadium features a full-sized soccer field, which can be divided into five ‘mini fields’. The track is just short of 400 metres in length and has four lanes. A winter cover has been installed so the facility can be used all year.

A storm-water management tank was also built under the field, and it holds 790,000 L to offset the rainwater that used to soak into the field.

Principal Cynthia Abernethy is looking forward to seeing the school’s teams improving their play and winning some championships on the field.

“The previous field was looking kind of tired and old, and now this is so amazing. The benefits are fantastic,” said Abernethy “It’s been an amazing partnership with Razor Management.”

The students, who helped with the unfolding of the massive inflatable dome, are anxious to put the facility to the test.

“Everyone is really excited at the school about this new stadium. The new field is going to be really useful,” said Helena Kita, on Monarch’s Athletic Council Executive.

The project did hit some bumps along the way, one of which had to do with a sewer that runs under the field, some nine storeys below ground.

According to Ward 30 Councillor Paula Fletcher, the City needed to iron out legal issues with Razor Management in order for the development to proceed. Fletcher played an important role, according to Raizenne, in liaising with City staff and get the project moving.

The councillor is excited to have local citizens using the track.

“Once the community gets in here and the seniors come to walk the track – that’s amazing,” said Fletcher. “Think of the exercise benefits that will come from a seniors’ walking club.”

Raizenne praised the support of TDSB staff. He also thanked the organizations that bought into the idea of the field and that have committed to utilizing the facility as anchor tenants, such as the Cherry Beach Soccer Club, SoccerWorld, and Extreme Toronto Sports Club.

“It’s a great feeling to be finished. We’re excited to have the community come in and play soccer and run track,” said Raizenne.

PHOTO: Submitted

Malvern Collegiate Institute’s boys' doubles tennis squad defeated Woburn on Oct. 22 for the City Championship banner. It's been 25 years since Malvern has won this title. From left: Adrian Hutcheson, Andrew Bourne-Kaponeridis, Austin Schmied, Matt Miller, Abe Rogers, Josh Riendeau, Max Georgeff, Nico Curtis and Bowen Pausey.