The Patriotes are champions in Montreal! 

Manuel Cardenas

manuel@qctonline.com

The Patriotes de Québec women’s Gaelic football team won the Montreal May Tournament on May 17 at the Montreal Irish Rugby Football Club. In addition to claiming the title without a single loss, the Patriotes became the first Quebec City team in history to win this tournament.

The national competition, which also welcomed a team from the U.S., opened with a 10-4 victory by the Patriotes over one of the two Montreal teams. After a comfortable win against Peterborough, the Quebecers went on to defeat Ottawa 18-10.

The Patriotes advanced to the final with a 19-16 win over Toronto, and faced the Ottawa team one last time in the final, capping off the day with a 14-8 triumph.

“There was widespread jubilation. I wish somebody had filmed the moment we won the final; it was amazing. The opposing teams and coaches were impressed. As I mentioned, Quebec has never won this tournament before. We see familiar faces at this event every year, so they’ve seen us evolve, but I think our success this year took many by surprise,” said the team’s coach, Jody Zink.

He said the achievement didn’t come without challenges, particularly due to the seasonal calendar.

“It was the first big tournament of the year, so our senior teams hadn’t played as a unit since last fall. Our women’s team has fewer players, which makes it especially difficult to practise with full squads. All of this means we don’t really know how good we are until we play the first game of the tournament and that can be a shock sometimes,” he told the QCT. 

He said strong and quick team cohesion was the key to success.

“This team really played as a unit, with everyone making an important contribution. We do have many extraordinarily talented women in our club, some of whom have represented Canada and Quebec internationally, but the reason we won every game was that all 14 players, starters and subs, played their part to perfection. We also had a heroic performance from our goalkeeper, Claudie Leroux-Levasseur, who quietly dealt with a leg injury throughout the day yet still managed to concede very few goals in our five matches,” said Zink.

Only the Beginning

With this victory, the Patriotes have set the bar high for their young season, which will continue on June 28 at the friendly coed Montreal Pride Tournament. The team’s next major competition, the Eastern Canadian Championships, will begin Aug. 30 in Montreal. 

Zink invited anyone interested or curious about the sport to give it a try by joining the Patriotes. 

“We are always recruiting! Gaelic games are community games, and new people are always welcome to get involved. Our club has been growing steadily for several years now, and it’s been gratifying to see our community expand and to see our hard work rewarded with tournament success. People can contact the club through our Facebook or Instagram pages,” he concluded.