Three Chatham-Kent Hockey Players Shine for Canada

Meghan Agosta - Photo by VanCityAllie

Watching any Canadian sports channel or news network this past weekend, Chatham-Kent residents were likely to hear familiar names regardless of the International game involving Team Canada they watched or read about. In fact, Chatham-Kent was represented on three different Team Canada rosters.

Seth Griffith of Wallaceburg, suited up for the World Under-18 Championships team, Chatham’s Derek Whitson played for gold as a member of the Canadian World Sledge Hockey Challenge team, and former Chatham Outlaws and Chatham-Kent Cyclones player Meghan Agosta went for gold with the Women’s World Championship team.

Not only was there a Chatham-Kent connection on each team, but all three team’s were playing for medals with Whitson winning Gold, Agosta taking home silver, and Griffith narrowly missing a medal finishing 4th after a heart breaking 6-4 loss to Russia in the Bronze Medal game.

In the World Sledge Hockey Challenge, Whitson scored 9-points in a three game span leading up to the gold medal game. Then, in the gold medal game, Whitson scored the winning goal in an 8-0 rout over Norway. In the four games leading up to the gold medal game for Agosta, she notched 5 assists. Agosta and her Canadian teammates lost the gold medal game in overtime to the USA 3-2. Meanwhile, Griffith was held scoreless but was an offensive threat for Canada, while playing in a checking line role.

Strangely enough, these three players weren’t the only Chatham-Kent natives playing in the World Championships, with Jamie Schaafsma of Blenheim, representing the Netherlands at the Division 1 World Championships. Schaafsma who has played overseas for the past several seasons has dual citizenship in the Netherlands and Canada.

The international representation for Team Canada this past weekend is a sign that the development model in Chatham-Kent is working as more players begin to graduate to the junior, professional, and international hockey ranks.