‘Pure thrill’: Holy Trinity Tigers become OFSAA football champions

As many high school students prepare for exams, two groups at Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Bradford are celebrating double victories in overcoming another challenge.

Both the Tigers’ AA boys and girls soccer teams won the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships to take gold within about 20 minutes of each other on June 8.

Despite the fact that there is a distance of more than 500 kilometers between the boys of North Bay and the girls of St. Thomas, news spread quickly via text message and each team was able to celebrate not only their own victory, but the other’s as well.

The girls won first, defeating Hamilton’s St. Mary’s 3-1, at which point team captain and 11th grader Sabrina Lascano said she “fell to the ground” in excitement.

“I was overwhelmed with emotions and hugged everyone,” she said. “It was very exciting to win.”

It’s an atmosphere of “pure excitement” that the team maintained from the initial bus ride to the end of the tour, according to Lascano.

Despite having a young 10th grade team with some 9th graders, Lascano said he knew their strategy of staying adaptable and just playing hard paid off when the gold medal game rolled around. near the end with a score of 2-1. , and then one of the Tigers scored a free kick in the final minute to make it 3-1.

With a host of parents and siblings supporting them in their hometown, coach Denny De Oliveira said he was so happy to be with the girls and see them win that he couldn’t put it into words, but sent them immediately texted boys coach Michael Nitti to let him know. .

This led to the “longest 20 minutes of my life” for Nitti, as he was unable to tell the boys until after they finished their last game, which was then tied 1-1 against Catholic Secondary School Toronto’s Monsignor Percy Johnson and it went into overtime. .

He called it “a huge relief” when they won 3-1.

“I really wanted the boys and girls to be able to celebrate together because the boys have worked so hard all season that it was their turn to win,” he said. “I am very proud of the team. They worked very hard.”

That led to a message back to De Oliveira with the good news, giving the girls a second reason to celebrate while the boys enjoyed a celebration of their own.

Boys captains Alessandro Mignardi and Brandon Verburg (both 12th grade) called the win “the best feeling in the world.”

“You can’t explain that feeling you get when you know you’ve won. I almost had tears in my eyes,” Verburg said.

This was even better as they beat a rival team in the quarter-finals this year who beat them in the semi-finals last year.

“It’s a beautiful moment of full-circle redemption,” Nitti said.

After the boys’ original coach left for a family emergency early in the final day, Nitti took on the added responsibility of guiding them to gold, but said he had no doubt they would win.

Mignardi and Verburg credited the team’s chemistry with helping them overcome the competition.

Not only do many of the team play together in leagues outside of school, but Mignardi said some of them have been playing Timbits soccer together since they were just eight years old.

“I feel like that’s the advantage we had on the other teams. We played together longer … and we just worked better together,” he said.

The teams received a hero’s welcome on their return to Bradford on Saturday night, where their buses pulled into Henderson Field so the teams could come out and celebrate under the lights with the Union Football Club during their half-time show. and even more congratulations poured in. the following Wednesday as part of a pep rally at the school.

De Oliveira called the double win “huge” not just for the school but for Bradford as a football community.

“It’s great to win once, to win twice is unheard of, and then to win twice in one year, the odds are always against you,” he said.

This adds to the list of wins for the school, as the girls previously won in 2022 and the boys in 2015, adding to the school’s total of 12 different medals since 2004.

For now, the student-athletes are turning their attention to the books — a balance they admit can be difficult to maintain — but all have plans to continue playing football in one form or another.

When asked what advice they have for others considering playing competitive soccer, all three were encouraging.

Verburg said it was “the most enjoyable part of my entire time in high school,” while Mignardi said it was “100 percent worth it,” for those who love the game, which offers the opportunity to make “friends of throughout life”.

“Try your best and work hard because you can be the most talented player, but if you don’t work hard, you’re as good as someone who doesn’t play at all,” Lascano said.