Team
2001-02 Outlaws Bantam Girls Hockey
SPORT | Hockey
LEVEL | Bantam "AA”
YEAR OF INDUCTION | 2019
Front – Robyn Ruypers, Kristie Carneiro, Courtney DeHoey, Patricia Petrie, Tom Paraskevopoulos (head coach), Meghan Agosta, Stacey Kempson, Amy Allen, Middle – Marg DeHoey (trainer), Mallory Johnston, Andrea Russette, Whitney Weisshaar, Lana Paraskevopoulos, Meghan Park, Amanda Anderson, Amanda Dittmer, Ashley Drouillard, Wayne Cowell (assistant coach), Back – Bruce Clark (assistant coach), Jeff Allen (assistant coach), Curtis Johnston (assistant coach) absent –Tim Dittmer (manager)
Front Row: Jeff Allen, Kristie Carneiro, Lana Paraskavopoulos, Courtney DeHoey, Stacey Kempson, Amanda Dittmer, Wayne Cowell, Second Row: Tim Dittmer, Mallory Johnston, Amanda Anderson, Patricia Petrie, Meghan Park, Amy Allen, Bruce Clark. Absent from photo (Meghan Agosta, Ashley Drouillard, Andrea Russette, Robyn Ruypers, Whitney Weisshar) Staff absent: Marg DeHoey, (Curtis Johnston and Tom Paraskavopoulos- both passed on)
Front Row: Jeff Allen, Kristie Carneiro, Lana Paraskavopoulos, Courtney DeHoey, Stacey Kempson, Amanda Dittmer, Wayne Cowell, Second Row: Tim Dittmer, Mallory Johnston, Amanda Anderson, Patricia Petrie, Meghan Park, Amy Allen, Bruce Clark. Absent from photo (Meghan Agosta, Ashley Drouillard, Andrea Russette, Robyn Ruypers, Whitney Weisshar) Staff absent: Marg DeHoey, (Curtis Johnston and Tom Paraskavopoulos- both passed on)
The 2001-02 Chatham Outlaws Bantam AA girls hockey team was made up of 15 and 16 year old girls from Chatham, Essex County who came together for an incredibly successful season. During the year, they entered eleven tournaments and won eight of them including the Provincial bantam Girls AA Championship which was the highest level of competition in girls hockey at that time.
Prior to 1997-98, girls in Chatham who wanted to play hockey had 2 choices, play on a boys team locally or go to Windsor or Sarnia to play on a girls’ team. several Chatham girls did go out of town to play and were able to convince girls from these other centres to come to Chatam to play. This greatly benefitted the 2001-02 bantams as eight team members were from Essex or Lambton Counties.The Bantams played in the Southwestern Ontario Midget AA Girls League competing against girls who were one or two years older than they were. They won the league championship by beating Rochester, NY 5 – 0 in the semi-finals and London 2-0 in a shootout in the finals. The very prestigious Silver Stick Tournament for boys began in 1958 with the goal of “promoting citizenship and international goodwill through hockey”. It is still going strong.
Silver Stick Tournaments for girls began in 1997. Teams from Canada (mostly Ontario) and the United States (mostly northern states) were invited to take part. In February of 2002 the bantam Outlaws were a last minute replacement in the Midget AA Tournament in Sarnia when a team from Alaska cancelled. They went on to win all six games, winning the midget AA championship by beating a team from Minnesota 1 – 0 in overtime. Two weeks later in the Silver Stick Bantam AA Tournament in Aurora the bantams again were champions after a 3 – 2 win over London in the final game. It is believed that no other team, boys or girls, has won two Silver Stick Championships in the same year. In April the team entered and won the Ontario Bantam Girls AA Championship held in Brampton by beating Mississauga 1 – 0 in the semi-finals and then Ottawa 2 – 1 in the final game.
All players were fine athletes. Eight of them received U. S. hockey scholarships, three played for Canadian university teams, one received a U.S. soccer scholarship while another became an All-Canadian basketball player at Western University.