Skip to content

Sisters strike bronze in national debut

A tradition of national excellence continues to grow for a DeWinton family.

A tradition of national excellence continues to grow for a DeWinton family.

Twin sisters Hannah and Emily Flammenspeck marked their competition debut by bringing home bronze hardware with Team Alberta Bantam at the Female Box Lacrosse Championships in Halifax last weekend.

“It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work,” Emily said. “I was really nervous because it was a national tournament and I’ve never been to one and I thought everyone was going to be so amazing and I was nervous and scared to compete against those kind of players.”

The nervous energy was quickly quelled as Alberta took it to the host province by a 13-2 score in the opener.

“After our first game it was a lot better,” Emily said. “That really boosted our confidence.”

As did their next two contests.

Following a narrow 4-2 defeat to powerhouse Ontario the Albertans pulled off a minor upset in outlasting Team B.C. 7-6 in an overtime thriller.

“I thought we were going to honestly get destroyed by them,” Emily said. “We were pretty even with (B.C.) the whole game. As the game went on it got very intense and then it went to overtime which was really stressful and nerve-wracking and we ended up winning.”

Team Alberta finished round-robin with a 3-3 record, just missing out on the gold medal game.

They made sure not to leave the Maritimes empty handed.

Alberta would take it to Nova Scotia in a 14-1 triumph to put a stamp on its bronze medal.

“We were all really sad that we didn’t make it to the gold medal game,” Emily said. “Our coaches said if we didn’t make it, let’s beat (up on) Nova Scotia and end with a win.”

The sisters are six-year members of the Okotoks Raiders.

“It was definitely a huge step up because the girls can all move the ball really fast, they can all run super fast,” Hannah said. “With the Raiders there is a lot of new girls and people who aren’t at that level.

“It was awesome, especially going as a first year because now we have a bunch of new friends we never would have met. Now we’ve improved so much since the start of the year.”

The Flammenspeck sisters have been to nationals before, but always as spectators.

Older brother Mattias was the tournament MVP of the Bantam boys national tournament last summer in Saskatchewan, leading his province to a silver medal showing.

He was a major source of inspiration for them this year.

“If Matt had never tried out for Team Alberta then we definitely wouldn’t have,” Hannah said. “We would have missed out on this experience and he’s just taught us so much.”

In Midget action, Team Alberta repeated the feat in a bronze medal showing in Halifax.

Okotoks Raiders Daely Keith and Alisha Waters represented the Foothills on the roster.

Keith, from High River, notched two goals and three points in the competition.

Team Alberta edged Nova Scotia 3-1 in the medal match.

The national box lacrosse run continues next week with the boys taking centre stage in Whitby, Ont. from Aug. 5-13.

Representing Alberta’s Midget Boys will be Okotoks’ Ethan Landymore and Mattias Flammenspeck while Jayce Dievert and Cole Morris will suit up for Team Alberta Peewee.


Remy Greer

About the Author: Remy Greer

Remy Greer is the assistant editor and sports reporter for westernwheel.ca and the Western Wheel newspaper. For story tips contact [email protected]
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks