Maltese emigrant Michaela Tonna is one of those Maltese migrants who is doing well in sport, this time in Canada.
She is 14 years old and her favourite sport is ice-hockey which is not practised in Malta. In Canada, however, it is a major sport and attracts thousands in the arenas and on TV. She has now been practising this sport for the last five years and seems to be well on the way to reach good heights.
It is interesting to know that her parents are Alan and Mariella Tonna, former residents of St Julian’s, a few metres away from the Neptunes Pitch. They emigrated to Canada in November 2003, when Michael was six years old.
Michaela started participating in ice sport playing ringette (a game played on the same ice pad as hockey). There are many similarities between ringette and hockey, although the former is played with a rubber ring rather than a puck.
Ringette is generally a faster game than hockey, and most ringette players transition to hockey easily. Three players on Canada`s female Olympic gold medal hockey team actually developed their skating skills in ringette.
In Ontario, ringette is played at various levels: AA & A (both of which are Provincial competitions); and B & C which are regional levels.
Michaela started playing ringette for Whitby Wild in 2006, where she played for two seasons at U/12 C level (formerly known as Petit). In her second season with Whitby (2007) she was her team’s top scorer, with 32 goals and 37 assists.
In 2008 she moved to Oshawa Storm ringette, and played her first season in the Under 14 age group (formerly known as Tween). Her coach recognised her strong defensive skills and moved her to this position. In spite of this, and her being in the age group’s younger year, she still managed nine goals in the season. This was probably her most successful year so far, as her team won five gold medals and one silver at various tournaments. Among them were the Regional League Playoff final, and the Regional Championship tournament.
In 2009 Michaela was selected for Oshawa’s top Under 14 Provincial A team (the association does not field an AA team), and had the fortune of being coached by a former international Team Canada player. T
hat year her team only won one silver medal in the Napean tournament, but were only one win away from qualifying for the biggest event in ringette: the Provincial Championships. They got eliminated on the last day of competition.
As hockey is bigger than ringette, Michaela decided to switch sport this season and registered for Oshawa Lady Generals Bantam BB (Under 14).
Skill levels in hockey are a little bit different to ringette and run from AAA to AA to A to BB to B to C, all of which are at provincial level. Each association then has its own “house league”.
In spite of never having played hockey before, her skating skills were strong enough for her to be selected for the BB team. Her team classified fifth out of 10 teams in the league, but went on to win the division “playdowns” and qualify for the provincial championship weekend. The team did not progress beyond the group stage after playing two games below their normal standard.
In the playoffs (a different competition) they were eliminated 2-1 by Kingston in a best-of-three games semi-final. Oshawa won the first game 2-1, lost the second 2-1 and were 50 seconds away from winning the thid. After leading 1-0 for most of the game Kingston scored with 50 seconds to spare, sending the game into overtime, and scored again four minutes into the extra period to win the game and series.
In spite of this, Oshawa won gold at two big tournaments – their best being the Belleville tournament, where they beat Kingston in the final.
This year Michaela was invited to try out for the Ajax Junior (U16)AA Provincial Ringette team, but turned down the invitation to focus on developing her hockey skills.
Michaela wears the jersey number 8, the same number as her favourite hockey player Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.
Michaela loves sport and apart from playing ice hockey and ringette, she also plays tennis in summer.