RDHS girl’s teams have banner year

The Ridgetown District Elementary School Royals’ girls’ sports teams have enjoyed a banner year.

The Grade 7-8s have already won Lambton-Kent Elementary School Athletic Association South Conference volleyball, basketball and soccer team championships and produced an overall LKESAA cross country champion.

Gracie VanderGriendt breezed to victory in the South Conference cross country meet against athletes from Harwich Raleigh, W.J. Baird, Merlin, Tilbury and Wheatley schools in the Grade 8 girls’ division.

VanderGriendt then went on to win the overall LKESAA by a 50-second winning margin against competitors from all divisions in Chatham-Kent and all of Sarnia Lambton. Her LKESAA victory made school history as the first RDES student ever to win a full-board division championship.

Five other Royals had top-five finishes at the South Kent Conference meet as Lia Hillman was second and Logan Wrightman third in the 12-year-old girls; Aric West and Rio Jorge were second and third, respectively, in 12-year-old boys; and Travis Clark was fifth in 13-year-old boys.

The Royals then captured the South Conference girl’s volleyball championship without losing a single match all season.

The girls captured the title in a thrilling final against the Merlin Colts with a 15-11 victory in the tie-breaker fifth set.

RDHS girls beat Tilbury 25-20 in the championship to cap off a perfect season.

The basketball Royals also posted an undefeated regular season and playoffs with a 25-20 triumph over the Tilbury Falcons in the championship game.

The Royals’ senior girl’s soccer team also had a thrilling finish as they defeated the Harwich Raleigh Wildcats 3-2 in overtime in the title game of the day-long tournament.

Trailing 2-1, Theresa Nguyen scored the tying goal in the waning minutes to force overtime.

Bianca Brown scored the go-ahead goal in the five-minute extra session as the Royals’ defence smothered the Wildcats the rest of the way to claim their third team title of the season.

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The three-team champions gave the Royals a sweep of the team sports in 10 years.

“We had a very cohesive group of girls who really worked hard. They were very dedicated and eager to learn,” said RDHS teacher and coach Darren Ebert. “A lot of these girls play hockey and other community team sports, and we are benefiting from this talented group of girls together here at RDES.”

Ebert said with Grade 7 students making up the nucleus of these championship teams the Royals can expect another banner year in 2023-24.

Michael Bennett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Ridgetown Independent News