Photo Courtesy / Neil Hogan

Their sport may be hockey, but the Scarborough Campus Hockey Players Association sure looked comfortable crowded around a dusty old UTSC Dodge Ball Spirit Cup.

On Jan. 26, the Scarborough Campus Hockey Players Association (SCHPA) made it two championship titles in a row as they put away the South Asian Alliance (SAA) in two straight games in the best-of-three final series.  With their numbers declining, SCHPA captain Greg Danko made a game-winning catch to hoist the cup before going to a third game.

“Honestly, I was telling myself just to get out of the way — it was coming right at me,” said Danko, his captaincy presented with a taped on “C” above his chest. “My instincts just took over. It took me a second to realize what happened.”

The SAA were appearing in their third straight finals, but have been defeated by SCHPA in the past two outings.

SCHPA would then go on to defeat an eclectic team of professors in four games of a best-of-five to be declared undisputed champions.

“The team battled hard and played with a lot of heart and battled through the adversity to eventually come out on top and walk away with the hardware,” said Evan Varey, SCHPA player.

After winning two games against the profs in seemingly easy fashion, fatigue finally set in for SCHPA, who were into their fourth series of the day.  With some help from the patrons who jumped into the game, the professors would take one game before being beat for the third and final time by SCHPA, who were nearly out of gas.

By then, it was impossible for any skeptics in attendance to deny SCHPA’s dominance over the Spirit Cup for the past two years.

“We have a good group here, there’s a lot of talent in our locker room,” Danko said. “We just have fun with it, but we also know what the expectations are.”

SCHPA’s biggest challenge proved to be in the semi-final round against Students for World Literacy (SWOL), where they were defeated for the first time in the tournament, in the first game of the series.  The game proved to be a reality check for the puck heads, however, who would bear down to win two bouts in a row and squeeze into the finals.

The Spirit Cup was hosted by The Best Damn Sports Club Period and the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union.