WHAT SPORT IS ALL ABOUT

A small gesture recently at the University of Toronto aquatic center showed humanity as it can and should be.

On the previous weekend, the Under 14 Toronto Golden Jets water polo team was in Kitchener to compete in the Provincial Championships.  In short, the Golden Jets made it to the gold medal game against the host K-W Inferno, a rematch of last year's title game. The Inferno won 7-5.

But the story was Jets captain, Kosta Grbic.

Grbic, at only 13 years of age, had to become a player-coach in a critical round robin game that went to a penalty shoot out when the team's coach, Predrag Pejanovic was given a red card for going to the scorer's table during the game. That was heady stuff for anyone, let alone a youngster into his second full year in the sport.

But that wasn't really the story either.

You see, Grbic was playing in the game with a very leaky valve - as in heart valve. A condition that had been diagnosed a year earlier and deemed minor had deteriorated considerably. While the doctors had cleared Grbic to play the final tournament of his U14 career, they had another message for him.

The following week, Grbic was scheduled to be in hospital having heart surgery to repair the leaky valve. It will be a while before he can return to the sport he loves.

So, it was strange to see Grbic at pool side, brought there by his father. In fact, other than the chance to say hi to his teammates, Grbic looked a little confused as to why his father had brought him to
practice.

The answer came a few minutes later.

Suddenly, a dozen kids with a few parents appeared on deck and headed towards Grbic. They presented Grbic with a water polo ball they had autographed along with a card and other gifts. They exchanged hugs.

What made it all so special was that the well-wishers were none other than the Jets' chief rivals from Kitchener who had driven in for 8:00pm on a school night to show their support. And, it was all the kids' idea.

Maybe there is hope for the future...

U14 JETS WIN SILVER AT PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Golden Jets U14 team had an exciting weekend at the recent Ontario Provincial Championships
coming away with the SILVER MEDAL.  On Friday night, the team soundly defeated K-W Red
14-0.  On Saturday, the team won a thrilling penalty shootout decision over London Eclipse by 10-9.  The team did this despite having Head Coach Predrag Pejanovic ejected from the game for going to the scorer's table to argue a call.  Captain Kosta Grbic took over as a player-coach and did a great job keeping the team focussed.  With Pejanovic unable to coach the next game (an ejection to a coach carries an automatic additional one game suspension), Age Group Head Coach Zoran Petrovic drove to Kitchener and guided the Jets to a 10-3 win over Hamilton.  That set up a gold medal showdown the next day with the host K-W Black which was also undefeated in the round robin portion from the other bracket.  It was a hard fought game but, despite having Pejanovic back, eventually K-W won out 7-5.  This was an oustanding performance by the bantams who lost 5 of 6 starters to graduation from the previous year's silver medal winning team.

U14 TECH FOUNDATION TEAMS DO GREAT AT PROVINCIALS

The Toronto Golden Jets entered two teams in the introductory U14 Co-ed Tech Foundation category at the recent Provincial Championships.  The Gold team won all 4 of its games to finish in a first place tie with K-W Inferno which also won its 4 games (the teams did not meet during the competition).  On Saturday, the Gold team defeated Capital Wave (Ottawa) 11-3 and Ottawa Titans
4-2.  The next day the Jets Gold defeated Mavericks Black 7-3 and Mavericks Red 6-0.  The Jets Navy team defeated Mavericks Red 6-0 and Capital Wave 5-2 on Saturday and split a pair of games on Sunday losing 4-7 to K-W and defeating London 9-5 to finish in 3rd spot (no 2nd place was awarded due to the first place tie).  It was a great performance by the players who are new to the sport.

U16 BOYS CAPTURE BRONZE MEDAL AT PROVINCIALS

Coach Zoran Petrovic led his U16 Jets boys team to a bronze medal at the 2013 Ontario Provincial Championships.  The team began play the first day with a convincing 20-6 win over Capital Wave (Ottawa).  Stevan Brankovan was named the game's first star and Matija Babic was the second star.  The Jets then lost to Mavs 5-10 with Daniel Meci the 2nd star of the game.  The final game of the first day of competition saw the Golden Jets defeat Hamilton 12-6.  Luka Pejanovic was the games 1st star and Kosta Grbic was the 2nd star.  Of note, both players also play for the U14 team!  The second day got off to a rough start with a 4-15 loss against Ottawa Titans.  Marko Avdalovic was the 3rd star.  Then, it was the bronze medal game which the Golden Jets won by beating K-W Inferno 8-4 behind the 1st star selection of Stefan Mitic and 2nd star selection of  Brankovan.  Mitic made the tournament 1st All-Star team and Meci was named as goalie on the 2nd team.  The U16 Golden Jets will be going on to play in their first ever National Championships in Montreal in May.