Neil McNeil intramural hockey team celebrates inaugural Vandersteen Cup championship

By JESSICA SHACKLETON

The inaugural season of Neil McNeil Catholic High School’s intramural hockey league came to an exciting close on the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 22, at East York Memorial Arena.

The two finalists, the Maroon and Gold teams, battled to win the first-ever Vandersteen Cup in the championship game. In the end, it was a 3-1 victory for Maroon.

Neil McNeil is known for its hockey excellence and won the provincial championship (OFSAA) in 2019.

The Victoria Park Avenue school has seven hockey teams; senior and junior contact, non-contact ‘A’ and ‘B’, and three intramural teams. There are 20 students on each intramural team which are currently colour-coded. The boys school has a population of around 800, and hundreds of the students are hockey players.

Peter Ranson is a business teacher and is one of the coaches of the competitive Neil McNeil senior teams along with Justin Mihevc. Ranson and Mihevc wanted to find a way for everyone interested in playing hockey at the school to get a chance to do so.

“Coming out of COVID and realizing the importance of helping out kids and getting them engaged and involved in extracurriculars, versus Fortnite in the basement, we realized that this would be a great way to engage and give opportunity for kids to feel part of our school community,” said Ranson.

The intramural league is for Grade 9 and 10 students to play in, and is coached by Grade 12 students. Since hockey is so popular, there simply isn’t space for everyone on the competitive teams. The intramural league gives all the boys who want to do so a chance to play with their classmates and connect.

Members of the Neil McNeil Catholic High School’s Gold and Maroon teams compete in intramural hockey action on Feb. 22 at East York Memorial Arena. Photo by Jessica Shackleton.

The league already has student coaches and referees and the goal is to expand the program so that students can manage the entire intramural league and everyone can work together, said Ranson. Even if the participants don’t play hockey, there can still be an intersection with other disciplines.

“There’s futures to grow. You can engage other kids who might not play sports,” said Ranson. “To help kids develop themselves not just inside the classroom but outside the classroom through sports and things related to sports.”

Student coaches are players on Neil McNeil’s competitive teams and take care of everything behind the bench during the intramural games. Though they could earn volunteer hours for their time, Mihevc said that none of the student coaches asked for it and they simply enjoyed what they were doing.

“It’s part of our brotherhood slash leadership program where the senior boys help to mentor and create that sense of community within our school,” said Ranson. “The idea is that the kids playing now will also one day be coaching and involved in it.”

The Maroon team were the first ever winners of the Vandersteen Cup which is named after retired teacher Frank Vandersteen. He stopped teaching in 2009, which is before some of these students were born, and yet he is instantly recognized whenever he is at Neil McNeil.

“He is the teacher that any former graduate always asks about, every student who sees him smiles when they see his face,” said Ranson. “He’s very supportive of sports…he’s a local legend.”

A fitting person to have a trophy named after him, Vandersteen is known for his magic words of motivation and wants players to feel self-assured and keep the fun of playing.

Vandersteen was at East York Memorial Arena for the championship game.

For sports advice, he said: “Play as well as you can with the skills you have.”

Sports are meant to be fun and teach things that cannot be learned anywhere else, said Vandersteen on Thursday.

“Somebody needs to lose but somebody also needs to win,” Vandersteen said.

He said another important piece of advice and another goal of taking part in sports for kids is “teaching them to be gracious losers.”

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest parts of the school community that was missing was sports. Going to school and learning is important, said Ranson, but being involved in the community is too.

Grade 9 student J.T. was on the Maroon team, and he said the intramural league gave him a chance to play and feel more involved at school. “Very fun, it’s amazing… a great thing to have,” he said.

Members of the Maroon team skate around the ice with the Vandersteen Cup on Thursday, Feb. 22, afternoon at East York Memorial Arena. Photo by Jessica Shackleton.