Sure, January 7th is a little bit late for a year-end review to surface - but in fairness, I have been a little preoccupied in Ottawa these past seven to ten days or so.
That said, there is clearly plenty to celebrate from the year in Sudbury Sports that was 2024.
At the top of the list, undoubtedly, sits curler Tracy Fleury - or “world champion” Tracy Fleury, as she is now known, as her rink that includes Rachel Homan (skip), Emma Miskew (second) and Sarah Wilkes (lead) captured global bragging rights with a win in the final over Switzerland (Silvana Tirinzoni/Alina Patz) last April.
The Scotties title that Team Homan earned a few weeks earlier marked the first time that Fleury had earned gold at the Canadian Women’s Curling Championships after coming close on a few occasions.
Still, she was hardly the only local sports story of note in the past 12 months.
Sudbury connections to the 2024 Summer Olympics / Paralympics in Paris were strong as soccer sensation Cloe Lacasse not only cracked the roster for the first time ever at the age of 31, but also saw significant playing time.
The other end of the spectrum would see Syla Swords emerge as the youngest woman ever to don the Maple Leaf in Olympic action for Basketball Canada while para boccia competitor Lance Cryderman participated in his second Paralympic Games - though the two experiences were separated by no less than a 24 year stretch.
Rounding out the local Olympic quartet was Jill Gougeon-Irving, the oldest member of the Canadian Olympic delegation, named to the national equestrian team at the age of 61.
On a provincial level, highlights stretched from one end of the calendar to the other, with the Laurentian women’s curling team (Bella Croisier - Piper Croisier - Julia Deklein - Mya Smith - Britney Malette - third OUA gold medal since 2017) and the Cambrian Golden Shield men’s volleyball teams (back to back OCAA bronze medals in 2023 & 2024) setting the tone early.
Few stories could rival the viral interest that skyrocketed city wide as the St Charles College Cardinals and Lo-Ellen Park Knights contested a SDSSAA boys hockey final for the ages, with overtime games not only common place in the series, but overtime games that were forced due to a pair of game-tying goals in the final ten seconds of play.
By the time that March and April rolled around, the Horizon Aigles girls volleyball team were taking a step up from an OFSAA bronze medal performance in 2023, earning silver some twelve months later while the Marymount Academy curling quartet of Kameron Tellier, Kelton Tellier, Emily Riddle and Abby Hall matched that effort with a second place finish at provincials in Kingston.
The 2023-2024 Sudbury Wolves season ended with a disappointing playoff sweep at the hands of the North Bay Battalion in round two of post-season play, though sniper David Goyette became the third player in franchise history to capture the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy (OHL scoring leader), joining both Mike Foligno (1977-1978) and Michael Sgarbossa (2011-2012).
Local hockey fans still had some cheering to do, however, as the Greater Sudbury Cubs brought home their first NOJHL league banner since 2007-2008, taking down the Powassan Voodoos in a six game series and making their first appearance at the Centennial Cup since 1991.
Things were not about to slow down a whole lot as summer hits, particularly at the 2024 OFSAA Track & Field Championships in London as Lo-Ellen Park freshman Lucas Mallory manages an unprecedented feat of winning two medals in a span of ten minutes or so.
Mallory returned from a second place finish in the novice boys 4 X 100 metre relay (along with teammates Ty Dubreuil, Narayan Shakla and Janssen Fransen) to add a bronze medal to his collection, soaring 6.11 metres on his final jump to overtake the third place entry.
The extent to which everything came together on a magical weekend for 19 year old Sudbury golfer Johnny Svalina cannot be exaggerated as the graduate of LEP hoisted the hardware at the Idylwylde Invitational, besting Ryan Neil of North Bay in the final.
Laurentian Voyageurs’ triple jumper Marvin Zongo gains national prominence by topping the podium at the Canadian Track & Field Championships in Ottawa, his best two jumps (7.73 & 7.71 metres) easily outdistancing Canadian Olympic decathlete and second place finisher Damien Warner.
The Horizon Aigles’ boys volleyball team enabled the Val Caron school to bookend the OFSAA highlights from a Sudbury perspective for the calendar year that was as the lads matched their results from the 2022 provincials in Sudbury, earning bronze for a second time in three years.
Of course, added to the sporting mix were the newsworthy items that were not necessarily accomplishments, per se, as Scott Barney is named as the new head coach of the Sudbury Wolves, replacing Ken MacKenzie, while the Sudbury Spartans make the jump from the NFC (Northern Football Conference) they called home for more than a half century, falling in the inaugural final of the OP5FL (Ontario Power Five Football League), 22-9 to the Sarnia Imperials.
Sudbury athletes soon to be on the move included NCAA commits Kalia Pharand (women’s hockey - Clarkson Golden Knights) and Lea Lemieux (golf - Western Michigan Broncos) while folks in these parts are not likely to soon forget the Hockeyville 2024 experience as the Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins returned NHL hockey to the Sudbury Arena for the first time in several decades.
The above-noted is but a small glimpse, of course, of all that was witnessed in these parts in terms of athletic excellence over the course of the past year, with sincere apologies extended to the many who fell victim to word count restraints.
But as Auld Lang Syne rang out from households near and far in the nickel city, welcoming in the New Year last week, the simple truth is that 2025 will be hard-pressed to match the excitement of 2024 - but athletes are sure as heck going to try.
And yours truly will be there to cover it all.
