Neil McNeil’s intramural hockey league awards second annual Vandersteen Cup after successful four-team season

By MATTHEW STEPHENS

Fans gathered at East York Memorial Arena on Thursday, March 6, to catch the championship game of Neil McNeil Catholic High School’s intramural hockey league – known as the Vandersteen Cup.

Excitement was in the air as the finalist Gold and Green teams hit the ice for a closely contested match. However, in the last minutes of the final period, the Green team pulled ahead and won the game 5-3.

Home to seven hockey teams, including senior and junior contact, non-contact ‘A’ and ‘B’, and three intramural teams, the Victoria Park Avenue school’s colour-coded intramural leagues have four teams consisting of 20 players each.

The Vandersteen intramural league played games every Thursday from the beginning of October until early March. Each team played a total of 10 games, all of which culminated in a final championship game for the Vandersteen Cup trophy, named after beloved Neil McNeil teacher and coach Frank Vandersteen who retired in 2009.

“It’s a great honour. For the guys it means a lot,” said Vandersteen at Thursday’s championship game when asked about the decision to name the league after him.

“I can’t believe it, you know, that just simple little things like teaching can lead to a much larger context in which people see you.”

With a substantial number of proficient hockey players at the school, the Vandersteen intramural league gives Grade 9 and 10 students at Neil McNeil opportunities to play on a school hockey team.

“We started the league last year, just because there were so many kids at our school that wanted to play hockey, and we didn’t have enough teams for them to play, so we wanted to make sure that they could engage and have something to do,” said Justin Mihevc, founder of the league and member of faculty at Neil McNeil.

The Vandersteen league also gives senior (Grade 12) students a chance to assume leadership roles and coach younger players at the school. Each team is assigned three student coaches selected based on both their skill and their ability to work well with younger students. 

“For the most part, it’s the students that coach, but it’s Grade 12s who also play on our senior hockey team,” said Mihevc. “We’ve handpicked 12 guys from the school that are good hockey players, but also who we think are going to be good with the younger kids.”

For Peter Ranson, business teacher and one of the pioneers behind hockey programs at Neil McNeil, establishing strong relationships among students is what makes intramural leagues such as Vandersteen so important.

“The most important thing and the reason why I got involved in coaching sports is to help to build relationships with kids. If you can build those relationships outside the classroom, it helps them to be successful within the classroom,” said Ranson.

For the student coaches, working with junior players helps to establish strong relationships among the younger students starting their tenure at high school.

“Honestly, it’s a really nice experience. We’ve gotten to see the kids become friends with each other,” said Ben Barton, one of the coaches for the Gold team.

“We know how difficult it is coming in. When you’re in Grade 9, you don’t really know too many people, you’re still trying to figure out your place at the school. We’ve seen a lot of the guys on our team become friends.”

For Gold coach George Pethakas, a senior student who says his glory days of playing hockey may be past him, coaching has helped to breathe life into his passion for the sport.

“Coaching is definitely a way to pass that passion through. We find it’s a great way to keep playing hockey and stay involved in the game,” said Pethakas.

Despite only being in its second year, Ranson hopes to see the Vandersteen league expand and see other school programs involved.

“We’re already up 33 per cent from last year. We had three teams, we’re up to four now. We want to build a website and get other courses involved and maybe having our media programs come out and film, which would also bring in more kids to feel a part of this project,” said Ranson.