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Youth Sports

Junior Lightning Pee-Wees hot on the ice

By EMERY SKOLFIELD
Published January 21, 2007

The opponents' stares were evident, even through the shields of their hockey helmets. Their skeptical gawks seemed to say: "What is a team from Florida doing playing in a tournament like this?"

As it turns out, the Clearwater-based Tampa Bay Junior Lightning Pee-Wee team was there, in Pelham, Ontario, site of the eighth annual Silver Stick North America Championships, to play some hockey. Some serious hockey.

The Junior Lightning 11- to 12-year-olds played as if they were the ones who grew up skating on frozen lakes and backyard rinks. Beating four teams from hockey-rich Canada and two others from the United States, the Junior Lightning finished atop the 16-team Pee-Wee field at the prestigious Jan. 11-14 tournament.

The Junior Lightning beat the Oakville (Ontario) Rangers, a prominent club from suburban Toronto, 3-2 in the title game.

"This tournament is basically the equivalent of making it to Williamsport (Pa.) in Little League (baseball)," said assistant coach Jay Hebert, in his fifth season coaching many of the same players. "Other teams they were, No. 1, surprised that we were even in the tournament and, No. 2, at how we played.

"We went up there, and the kids basically just out-skated them. Our level of team play and the way we moved the puck was really impressive."

A total of 64 teams and nearly 1,000 players competed.

The Junior Lightning players are Dylan Taylor, Matthew Peckham, Blake Peavey, Sean O'Brien, Zack Mitchell, Eddie Kawczak, Andrew Hebert, Toby Hase, Logan Day, J.B. Cline, Zack Capco, Hannah Bramm and Dominic Calandra.

The Junior Lightning play out of Sunblades Ice Arena in Clearwater.

SOCCER: St. Petersburg's Zack MacMath, 15, spent the past six months living and playing with the U.S. under-17 national team, traveling abroad for tournaments in Japan, England, Uruguay and Argentina. The U.S. national team residency program brings 40 players from around the country to live, train and go to school at IMG Academies in Bradenton. Selected by coach John Hackworth, the U-17 national team is preparing to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup this summer in South Korea.

MacMath, a goalkeeper on the national team, led his club squad, the Clearwater Chargers, to the 2006 Florida Youth Soccer Association State Cup as a defender. MacMath was 6-3-1 in 10 international starts with the U.S. U-17 team, including a 2-0 shutout of Mexico and pair of 2-all ties vs. Brazil.

GYMNASTICS: LaFleur's of Largo opened its optional season with large-team division victories at Levels 7, 8 and 9 at Tampa Lightning City Invitational on Jan. 5-7.

Level 7 all-around winners for LaFleur's were Nikki Wiseman, who won on the beam and floor, and Rebecca Wunderlich (vault, beam). In Level 8, Kaitlyn Green won the bars, beam and floor to capture an all-around title, while Taylor King won on the bars and floor for her aggregate age group victory. Kaley LaFleur and Taylor Sides won all-around titles at Level 9, and in Prep-Optional competition, Kaylyn Nelson captured an all-around victory.

- Victory Gymnastics (Oldsmar) finished second in the Level 9 team competition at the Lightning City Invite behind the efforts of multiple-event winner Sarah Zoldos (vault, beam).

- Clearwater's Apollo Gymnastics opened its season out of state at the Twin City Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Jan. 6-7.

Cecilia Freeman (bars) and Michelle Isaacs (vault) won age-group event titles at the Prep-Optional level for Apollo.

If you have youth sports news that you would like to see included in this column, please contact Times correspondent Emery Skolfield at (727) 481-2027 or via e-mail at sptimesyouth@yahoo.com.

[Last modified January 21, 2007, 07:41:56]