Joey Payeur
In Jamie Davis’ mind, there was never a doubt.
“They always seem to find a way to do it,” said the head coach of the newly-crowned OFSAA ‘A/AA’ boys’ hockey champion Muskies after they captured the program’s fourth provincial title with a 5-3 win over the Silverthorn Spartans (Toronto) in the gold-medal game last Thursday afternoon in Ottawa.
Davis made his remarks on the floor of the ’52 Canadians Arena on Saturday after the team had been honoured in a special homecoming celebration with the stands filled with their family and friends hollering their excitement.
“You look at our players on paper and there’s not a lot of skill,” he remarked.
“You would think, ‘They can’t be very good? Why are they winning?’
“But we never cruised this season and it always seemed to be a grind,” Davis added.
“There was adversity every day and something else would come along to keep us going.”
Muskie forward Chase McGuire said Davis was a main part of that “something else.”
“It means so much to win it for him,” noted McGuire, referring to Davis and his partner, Alyssa Vanderaa, having lost their infant daughter, Addilyn, just days after her birth last October.
“I’ve grown so close to Jamie and he’s taught me not only hockey, but life lessons,” added McGuire.
“He was always wanting us to push it to the next level.”
Brothers Sam and Connor Tibbs looked around at the happy faces surrounding them and were thankful as they closed out their final year of high school hockey.
“It’s something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives,” Connor beamed.
“It’s a great response from the community and so great to see this support,” echoed Sam.
Forward Jake Clendenning is one of three sons on this team whose dads played on the first Muskie OFSAA gold-medalists back in 1986.
“I didn’t even know about that until a little while ago,” admitted Clendenning, whose father, Scott, passed away a year ago.
“The greatest lesson I learned from him is just work hard all the time.”
The group of family and friends outside the Memorial Sports Centre awaiting the arrival of the team bus from its long journey hardly were able to contain their pride and excitement.
“I’m still numb,” said Kevin Stewart, father of Muskie
defenceman Byron Stewart and the Twitter play-by-play correspondent for the team during games.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet.
“When the season started, I never thought they’d win it all,” he admitted.
Neila Booth now is both the proud mother (Jamie Booth in 2001) and grandmother (Matt Booth this year) of two goalies who helped their team reach the pinnacle of Ontario high school hockey greatness.
“First, my son and now my grandson . . . I had to be here,” enthused Booth.
Mickey Christiansen, wife of the longest-serving Muskie and now four-time OFSAA champion in assistant coach Ken Christiansen, said the whole scene was terrific.
“I’m so happy for the coaches and the boys,” she remarked.
“Ken’s always thought about the kids first and wanted them to do well.”
The last word went to Davis, who already has an eye on next season as his team will have an automatic OFSAA berth as the host team.
“The guys we’ll have back understand now what it takes to win,” he noted.
“Things have to go your way but you never know what can happen.
“I don’t think it will be tough to keep them motivated throughout the year,” Davis predicted.
“It shouldn’t be if you really want to compete for another gold medal.”
