The New Year for Island sport will begin with the high drama of Victoria Royals coach Dave Lowry and defenceman Joe Hicketts going for gold at the IIHF world junior championships currently taking place in the world’s two greatest hockey markets, Toronto and Montreal.
Here are 10-plus more events to look for in 2015 Island sport:
1. PAN AM GAMES: The Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans are out and Brazilians, Argentines and Mexicans in, although we still have to worry about those Jamaican sprinters.
Last year’s halfway milepost to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics was the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, in which Island athletes won eight medals for Canada. The one-year-to-Rio checkpoint is the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games from July 10 to 26; about 50 Island athletes are on the Canadian team.
2. RUGBY WORLD CUP: The Langford-based Canadian team, with numerous Island players on the roster, left its peculiar imprint on the 2011 IRB World Cup in New Zealand with the flowing Beardos and a credible run. Can the 2015 team do the same in England? First up for Canada in Pool D is Ireland on Sept. 19, followed by Italy on Sept. 26, France on Oct. 1 and Romania on Oct. 6. The road to Rio goes through Langford when Canada hosts an IRB women’s sevens Olympic qualifier on April 18 to 19 at Westhills Stadium.
3. FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Emily Zurrer of Crofton and her Canadian teammates will be under tremendous pressure to perform at home after winning a bronze medal at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. The 2015 women’s soccer World Cup begins June 6 and runs through to the final at B.C. Place Stadium on July 5.
4. BYE BYE McKINNON, HELLO CARSA: The ghosts of championships past will be hovering when the final University of Victoria Vikes basketball games are played in 40-year-old McKinnon Gym on Feb. 14. The subsequent opening this year of the impressive new CARSA building on the UVic campus will constitute the most significant addition to sporting infrastructure on the Island since Saanich Commonwealth Place, Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, the Q Centre, Westhills Stadium and the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence.
5. ROAD TO THE MEMORIAL CUP: The Victoria Royals won the first playoff series in franchise history last year. Although currently only hovering around .500, can they take it another step when coach Lowry and blueliner Hicketts return from the world junior championships?
We’ll find out when the 2015 Western Hockey League playoffs open March 27.
6. SHAMROCK SUMMIT: Are the Victoria Shamrocks building a Western Lacrosse Association dynasty? The quest for a third consecutive WLA title begins in May at the Q Centre.
7. HIGHLAND FLING: The most impressive Island sports marketing coup of 2014 was when the Victoria Highlanders soccer club nabbed Rangers from Glasgow to play a friendly at Centennial Stadium, then tapped into the pro club’s storied fan base to attract 5,735 to the game. Do the Highlanders have another big-name friendly in the offing for 2015? In the day-to-day stuff, the USL Premier Development League season begins in May.
8. DIAMOND DAYS: The Victoria HarbourCats led the West Coast League of baseball in attendance last season with a per-game average of 1,576 fans over 27 home dates at Royal Athletic Park. The club’s off-season ownership uncertainty appears to be resolved, meaning top U.S. collegiate NCAA players should be back playing ball in ’Cats blue at Royal Athletic Park beginning in early June.
9. CENTENARY KICK: How many sporting trophies have been in competition for a century? Not many. The 100th Jackson Cup, emblematic of Vancouver Island Soccer League supremacy and played in over the years by World Cup players and other Canadian internationals and pros, goes March 29 at Royal Athletic Park with appropriate celebrations planned to honour the rare milestone.
10: THE KALEIDOSCOPE: Here are the 2015 dates of some of the region’s top annual events:
• The two most democratic sporting occasions, the mass-participation 26th Times Colonist 10K is April 26 and equally popular 36th Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon is Oct. 11
• The blades of Sochi are back with the likes of Winter Olympic medallists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir headlining Stars on Ice on May 19 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
• Spokes of fury will again be churning through Crash Corner in the Bastion Square Grand Prix on June 7
• The 32nd Bayview Place Island Savings Open, featuring potential PGA players of the future teeing off in the PGA Tour Canada, takes place on June 4 to 7 at Uplands
• The 27th Victoria Track Classic adds to the busy early-summer agenda and goes June 10 featuring Pan Am Games and 2015 Beijing IAAF world championship hopefuls competing at Centennial Stadium
• The equally venerable Elk Lake Triathlon, now an official Ironman 70.3 race, is on June 14.
