OFSAA 2010 Article
Moffat wins OFSAA gold By: Steve LeBlanc. The Canadian Champion (Milton): Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The heavy gasp that escaped Duncan Moffat Friday afternoon wasn’t one of exhaustion, but rather relief.
Both determined and favoured to win OFSAA, E.C. Drury’s 18-year-old wrestling standout admitted he’d been feeling the pressure of his lofty pursuit in recent weeks — especially when many around him implied it was a foregone conclusion.
“People kept saying, ‘Oh there’s no worries, you’ve got it this year,’” recalled the 61-kilogram graduating grappler, who’d claimed bronze and silver during his previous two trips to the high school provincial championships. “At times I needed to push that talk aside, talk to my coaches and just refocus. There was a lot of expectation there.”
So when Moffat brought his golden goal to fruition — with a low-scoring triumph over Ottawa’s Steven Delayne, who’d beaten him in last year’s semifinals — it was as much a sense of a burden being lifted as anything else.
“I’d told myself I wasn’t going to let it (gold) slip away again, so when I finally won it there was definitely a huge sigh of relief,” said the newly-crowned OFSAA champion, whose victory in Tillsonburg clinched an overall third-place finish for the Spartans, giving them an unprecedented 13th straight boys team medal at the provincials. “It feels amazing.”
Although the past 12 months had been met with a national juvenile title and double dose of gold at the Canada Summer Games, Moffat would not have been content to end his high school career without reaching the top of the OFSAA podium — especially since big brother Alan had done so twice.
“In a way this is more special to me than winning nationals. Even before I got to high school I’d heard about OFSAA and what it means to win there. If you’re a high school wrestler, this is what you work for.”
Eager to win the rubber match with Delayne — having beaten him earlier this season — Moffat controlled the lion’s share of the nail-biting clash.
He won the first round 2-1 and then sealed the deal with a 2-0 victory, after executing his trademark fireman’s leg shot.
“I didn’t give him any openings and when he got frustrated I was able to shoot in,” said Drury’s newest champ, who along with his brother are the school’s only two wrestlers to capture three medals at OFSAA.
Moffat won five straight matches in Tillsonburg, including a decisive victory over familiar foe Richard Balfour of London, whom he beat twice at last spring’s Canada Summer Games qualifier.
Where the 61-kg. golden boy was making his fourth straight trip to the provincials, OFSAA was a brand new experience for Drury’s other medalist.
Setting the bar awfully high for the years to come, Zack Brady became just the third Spartan to ever medal — securing silver in the 38-kg. ranks.
Without any elementary-level experience from the feeder Dynamo program, the 14-year-old has quickly developed plenty of aggressiveness and technical proficiency on the mat.
That was certainly evident late last week, as he won three straight matches by pin-fall or superiority — thanks largely to his well-executed double-leg takedown — before being toppled by 11th grader Josh Mehta of Mississauga in the finals.
“It feels really good to place in my first year,” said Brady, whose gold-medal defeat was just his fourth all season.
With gifted veteran Bobby Fillman suffering a season-ending injury, the Spartans’ bid to extend their team medal streak looked to be in jeopardy, despite having the biggest OFSAA qualifying groups in recent years.
But Drury’s veterans and youngsters both stepped up to fill the gap.
Graduates Jeff Sinclair (67.5 kg.) and Blair Norland (89) each came within a victory of reaching the top six — with four and three wins respectively — while Grade 10 wrestlers Arie Moldvan (47.5) and Reed Nicholson (44) offered a glimpse of their bright futures with three wins apiece.
Chris Varas-Hedman (95) delivered arguably the best tournament of his career, while rounding out this year’s OFSAA contingent were graduate Nigel Whitman (64), 10th graders Dan Stomphorst (57.5) and Aman Devgun (47.5) and freshman Buddy DeWilde (77).