The past week was a great one for many of the Lions’ varsity athletes who were selected to participate at higher levels of competition. In the coming months, eight Lions who developed their game at York will be moving on to bigger and better things.
The football team’s Colton Hunchak, Jacob Janke, and Skye King were named to the U19 National Team for the 2016 International Bowl. The men’s soccer team’s alumni Michael Cox and Mark-Anthony Kaye signed deals with teams from the United Soccer League.
The women’s rugby team’s Petra Woods and Tobi Owotomo were selected to potentially compete in Rugby Canada’s senior women’s team at the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup, and Lions’ swimmer Haseeb Tariq was selected to represent his native Pakistan at the 2016 South Asian Games.
Hunchak, Janke, and King were among the first 30 players to be drafted to the roster of Team Canada for the 2016 International Bowl, an annual competition between Canada and the United States that is coming up on January 31st in Texas. Hunchak is one of the most outstanding athletes on the Lions’ football squad and has been to the International Bowl twice before. In 2014 he made it even further and was part of the silver medal-winning team representing Canada at the International Federation of American Football U19 World Championship in Kuwait.
Joining Hunchak on the international stage will be King, who was previously his teammate at Notre Dame High School in Calgary and was recently recruited to play for the Lions. ”Notre Dame is putting out a lot of talent,” says King, “and I’m just excited to rejoin some [of the] guys from Notre Dame.” Hunchak and King will be joined by their Lions teammate Janke, as well as head coach Warren Craney, who will once again be leading Team Canada as head coach.
“I feel extremely honoured to be a part of this team with all these amazing athletes,” says King.
“I’ve seen the caliber of athlete that it takes to be a part of this team and I’m just honoured to be at that level where I can compete with the rest of these guys now.”
Meanwhile, two of the Lions’ soccer alumni will be making their way to the United States to join professional teams from the USL. Cox, a powerful striker who had an outstanding season with the Lions in the past few months, has signed a deal with Orlando City B, and Kaye has signed on to the Louisville City Football Club. Both Cox and Kaye had played at the professional level before, but developed a lot of their game in their time with the Lions.
Two players of the Lions’ women’s rugby team are not on their way to represent Canada internationally just yet, but they’ve made it to the preliminary list from which the senior women’s team will eventually be chosen. Woods and Owotomo are among 79 players who were selected from across Canada to potentially represent Canada at the 2017 and 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup competitions.
“It’s a dream come true,” says Owotomo. “It’s been my goal [to play for Canada] ever since I started rugby and saw that this is something that I could really be good at. So to be named at such a young age is already surpassing all my goals.”
Owotomo may be joined on the field at the international level by Woods, a teammate she has looked up to throughout her rookie season with the Lions.
“I’m super excited because Petra is a teammate of mine that has really helped me ever since I got here, just giving really good advice and being there for me, so she’s just been a great veteran to be under.”
Rounding up the list of Lions who made it big this past week is Tariq of the competitive swim team, who was recently selected to compete for Pakistan, his home country, at the 2016 South Asian Games.In December, Tariq won four gold medals at the Pakistan’s qualifiers for the South Asian Games, which is a multisport event where eight South Asian nations are represented.
“My selection is solely because of York,” says Tariq.
“Coming to York really made me tap into my undiscovered potential and forced me to become a better student of the sport and to excel in it. I got to train with a great team that motivated me day in and day out.”
Tariq holds the Lions record for the 50 metre backstroke, which he swam in 27.40 seconds at the 2015 Ontario University Athletics championships.
Tariq says it feels incredible to be able to represent both Pakistan and York internationally. “I’ve only dreamt of representing Pakistan at the South Asian Games,” he says, “as against any other international meet, just because of the importance it holds in South Asian countries and the chills it instills of potentially winning a medal for your country.” He also hopes to represent Pakistan at the Olympics, hopefully by 2020.
Hassam Munir, Sports and Health Editor
