BDK Stars take Quinte Classic AAA Championship

Starting from the bottom L-R Jordan Torres, Graeme Gemmill, Francesco Vilardi. Simon Shmitke, Brennan Smith, Conner O'neil, Zack Masterson. Braden Berrill, David Cox, Konner Burtenshaw, Jake Macdonald. Jermey Martin ,Casey Torres, Paul Torres, Kevin Smith.

Last weekend, July 11 to 13, the BDK Stars went up against the best of the best in hockey at the Quinte Classic AAA Championship and won! The team was put together by coach Kevin Smith. The Pee Wee players were ages 11 & 12; five were from South Frontenac, five were from the Greater Kingston area and one was from the Deseronto area - 11 exceptional hockey players, who all contributed to the final outcome on Sunday afternoon. Two exceptional coaches, Casey Torres, who coaches the Provincial Junior A  Kingston Voyagers, and his father Paul Torres, were on the bench with Kevin.

On the final championship day at the AAA level, the team was up against the Quinte 96ers, the only team that beat them in the tournament prior to the finals. They came out strong but were down 3 goals by the end of the first period. Then the team pulled together and Brennan Smith took a beautiful tape to tape pass from Francesco Vilardi to put them on the board for the first goal. 

With only a 6 mins left in the second period  Captain Francesco Vilardi  put 2 more in the net to make it 3-3. What made this game so exciting though was the end to end rushes for both teams, and the defensive skill of the 4 defencemen, Simon Shmitke, Jeremy Martin, Conner O'Neil and Konner Burtenshaw.

At the 2:34 min mark of the 3 period, the captain fed a pass out front again to Brennan Smith to give them the go ahead 4-3, but less then a minute later Quinte tied it up. So Francesco Vilardi being one of Kingston’s up and coming superstars, pulled it out of the hat and slid the puck over to Zack Masterson at 5.4 seconds left in the game, to give them the win and the AAA Quinte Classic Championship!!

The best thing that could have come out of this was that fact that the team had 2 players from North Frontenac who were underagers, Jordan Torres and David Cox, who gave 150% at all times. Way to go guys!!

In addition to winning the AAA Championship, the BDK Stars had 2 players selected for the All Star Team. Centerman, Francesco Vilardi and Goalie, Graeme Gemmill.

Goalie Graeme Gemmill also represented the BDK Stars by being awarded a Goalie stick as winner of the skills competition. Graeme was competeing against 10 other goalies to win.

It was a pleasure to coach these fine up and coming athletes who showed pride, skill and determination to compete with some of the most skilled players in the area.