Editorial: Hamilton has two new players on the city’s sporting landscape
It's an exciting time to be a sports fan in Hamilton. Don't miss out.
Anyone watching the Toronto Raptors Sunday had to be on the edge of their seat the entire game. What a thrilling, were-you-there moment when Kawhi Leonard, with 0.4 seconds on the game clock, launched the ball — and everyone held their breath. Then to watch that ball ping-pong on the rim four times before finally settling down into the net, ending the game 92-90 in Toronto's favour and propelling the team to the NBA's Eastern Conference finals? You had to have been there.
Leonard's heroics came the same day as the inaugural game of the Hamilton Honey Badgers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League. The Badgers, who beat the Edmonton Stingers 106-83, are led by Chantal Vallée, who has led the University of Windsor's women's team to five consecutive national championships. She is the first woman to be both coach and be general manager of a men's professional basketball team, which is exciting enough on its own, but that she does so here in Hamilton should make local sports fans proud.
Then there's the new professional soccer team in town: the Forge Football Club of the Canadian Premier League, sporting a 2-1-1 record. The CPL is designed to develop homegrown talent: Of 20 players, 15 are Canadian, mostly from southern Ontario. The Forge's next home game is May 29 at Tim Hortons Field.
The Badgers, meanwhile, have a 20-game schedule that will take them to mid-August. Home games will be played at First Ontario Centre, also home to the Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League. Next home game for the Honey Badgers: the Saskatchewan Rattlers, Saturday at 5 p.m.
It's an exciting time to be a sports fan in Hamilton. Don't miss out.