By Steven Smeall
CORNWALL, Ontario – The eighth-annual Bishop’s Cup hockey game between the St. Joseph’s Catholic Secondary School Panthers and the Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School Falcons will be taking place at 6 p.m. Wednesday night.
The non-contact game will take place at the civic complex, where it’s expected 100s of supporters will come out to cheer for their respective schools.
“It’s extremely important to Holy Trinity,” said Falcons coach Rob Butler. “It brings a lot of spirit to the school. It unites the school more as a community.
“We were fortunate to have two wins so far and I think that it shows the balance of the Cup so far. We’re a small school and sometimes it’s harder to compete against a larger school just by numbers.”
Butler said that Holy Trinity had a few boys who play AAA hockey but were unable to play in the Bishop’s Cup because their AAA coaches did not want them playing high school hockey.
St. Joseph’s will be looking to make it three straight victories at the Bishop’s Cup. The Panthers defeated the Falcons by a score of 7-4 last year.
“It’s very important. I would say this is more important than the SD&G final is,” said Panthers coach Keith Dickson.
“The students are more excited than anything. A lot of the kids have played when they were younger. There are three grade nine kids who have never played, but they know the atmosphere and are very excited.”
The two teams are made of students between the grades of nine to 12. The skill level of the students ranges from new comers to those who are regarded as some of the best in the area.
As the game will be a non-contact affair, Holy Trinity has also decided that they will be including a female, center Sophie Contant, on their roster. This is the first time a female will be playing in the Bishop’s Cup.
“We do have a girl playing this year, Sylvie Contant,” said Butler. “She asked if she could try out and she did. She’s not there for a token female player. She’s there because she deserves to be there. She’s probably one of our top four forwards.”
Contant was the captain of the Holy Trinity girl’s hockey team, who won the SD&G high school hockey league. The team lost in the Eastern Ontario Secondary School Atheletic Association championship tournament.
“I’m interested in seeing how she’ll do with the higher speed of the game but I’m sure she’ll hold her own,” said Butler.
Cost of admission is $2 a spectator or two canned goods. All proceeds from the event will be going to St. Vincent de Paul Society.