Coach Brian Frontaine credits everyone for the hard work over past 10 years

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by dwayne tingley
times & transcript staff

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MIRAMICHI - This year's edition of the Riverview High Royals made history Saturday afternoon and their victory remembered for a long time.

However, head coach Brian Frontain believes the glory should be shared.

Royals defeated the Harbour View Vikings of Saint John 2-1 at the James M. Hill High School field here to capture their first ever New Brunswick high school field hockey championship.

"This belongs to everyone on this team and everyone on the teams that came before us," said Frontain, who has been coaching the Royals for 10 years,

"This banner belongs to the 35 girls on this year's team, but there are more than 150 girls who came before them to bring us to this point," he said.

"There were years when, frankly, we didn't have a very good team, but those girls kept coming back and kept working to make the team better and the school administration kept bringing us all back.

"The hard work of this year's team is a credit to the work of the girls on the teams of the past. If they didn't put the work into it, there might not have been a field hockey program at Riverview High School."

Royals, who won the Northeastern Conference, opened the provincial final four championship tournament with a 3-0 win over the Kennebecasis Valley Crusaders.

Nicole Babineau led the offence with two goals. Jenna Jones added a single and Allie LeBlanc recorded the shutout.

Vikings, winners of the Southwestern Conference, edged the James M. Hill Tommies 1-0 in a game decided by penalty strokes. Neither team scored during regulation time, two overtime periods and the first round of five penalty strokes. Vikings then earned the win in sudden-death penalty strokes.

Royals then defeated the Vikings in the final. Babineau and Michelle Hart each scored for the Royals, who lost last year's championship game to the Tommies in overtime.

"It was a complete team win," Frontain said. "I had three coaches helping me out and they played a huge role in the team's development.

"The kids who did not play were also a big part of it because they practised against our starters all year and made them better. The starters came through and played to their potential. Last year, they learned how to win and this year they took to an even higher level.

"I was talking to the Saint Mary's coach and she told me how impressed was with with our passing game. We were able to move the ball quickly and effectively. That's a credit to all of the girls on the team. They worked hard and they knew what it would take to win a championship."