“Though April showers, may come your way; They bring the flowers, that bloom in May.”

Originally performed on Broadway by Al Jolson in 1921, the tune likely conjures up images of Bugs Bunny in a Loony Tunes Classic for those of us old enough to have grown up on a steady diet of these cartoons.

And for as much as there may be a real question in these parts about any flowers blooming in May, the month of April will bring some showers – already has – plus a boatload of provincial championships to follow for those who might be among the regular readership of this column.

This coming weekend features a couple of those all-Ontario playdowns that rank among the most grand in terms of total participation, with several other tournaments and such scheduled to take place before the end of the month.

A field of some 680 teams or so attending the OWHA (Ontario Women’s Hockey Association) Provincial Championships in the GTA includes a dozen Sudbury Lady Wolves entries, with most of those squads beginning play on Friday morning.

The flagship U18 AA crew kicked things off on Thursday night and by Friday evening, coach André Brunette and company found themselves planning for 2026-2027.

With only the pool champions in each of the eight brackets moving on, the Sudbury girls put themselves behind the eight ball early, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Ancaster Avalanche on Thursday night.

A 3-0 loss to the Straford Aces sealed their fate on Friday afternoon, rendering a 2-2 tie with the Durham West Lightning later that night nothing more than window dressing.

As anyone who has travelled this journey year after year well knows, the very nature of OWHA Provincials requires teams to enjoy a bit of good fortune if they hope to medal on Sunday.

The Lady Wolves organization is looking to capture at least some hardware for a sixth straight year, with the U15 BB Lady Wolves (gold) and the U11 BB Lady Wolves (bronze) turning the trick last year.

Gymnastics Ontario, by contrast, has followed the lead of the majority of the other provincial sport organizations, breaking down their year-end tournaments into more manageable bite-sized pieces. Quinte Sports & Wellness Centre in Belleville is welcoming both the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics grouping as well as the Women’s Artistic qualifiers from Level 6 up this weekend.

The Sudbury Laurels had five young women attending the various qualifiers this winter across the province with all five reaching the standard needed to battle it out with the best in their Level in Ontario. Gracie Currie (Level 7 – ages 11/12) leads a quintet that also features club veteran Avery Roy (Level 9 – age 13+), Klara Martic (Level 6 – age 12), Bria Recoskie (Level 6 – age 12) and Camilla Burns (Level 7 – age 15+).

While three of the five disciplines were represented in a straw poll of the favourite apparatus for this quintet, floor took the title, noted by three of the five GymZone representatives. “I like both the athletic and performance sides of floor because I am good at both,” said Currie, a grade 6 student at Walden Public School who has a very real chance of earning a berth at the Eastern Canadians – a feat that would require her to finish in the top six of a 64 athlete gathering.

“If I hit all of my handstands on bars, stick my beam routine, score higher than 9.5 / 9.6, I should have a chance,” she said. All of which makes for a very impressive first year at Level 7 status, certainly exceeding her pre-season visions of what 2025-2026 could hold in store for the youngster that coach Julie McEwen noted “really rises to the competition”.

“I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I did in my first competition,” said Currie. “My second wasn’t quite as good, but was still pretty high scores. I stayed consistent on most events.”Avery Roy also mentioned the floor as her favourite, though it shared top spot in her mind with bars, a true measure of the versatility of the 16 year-old grade 10 student at Confederation Secondary who has risen to a level (Level 9) that very few within the club ever achieve.

“Floor is more lower body strength, showing your power and your skills with being flowy and upbeat,” explained Roy. “Floor uses some upper body strength – but that is mostly what the bars are all about.”

Faced with the challenge of looking to finer and finer details in order to seek small areas of improvement, a by-product of being really good for a really long time, Avery Roy takes most pride this year in that ability to constantly better herself.

“I was happy with just getting better each competition, showing that my skills are getting cleaner,” she said. “My scores are showing that my hard work is paying off. It’s nice being more confident than I was at the beginning.”

An 11 year-old Level 6 gymnast, Klara Martic will waver a little when selecting her favourite.

Yesterday it was floor. Today, it’s bars. Truth is, she is pretty much adept right across the gymnastics spectrum – though on this day, it’s her love of aerials that takes precedence.

“With the bars, I feel like I’m flying, just because I am very high up,” she said, her focus this weekend largely on the handstand and the flyaway dismount. “I need to get more height on my flyaways – and getting high on my clear hips.”

Also in Level 6 and grade 6 (at Northeastern Public School), Bria Recoskie simply finds her floor routines the most fun, that combination of speed and power that she can funnel into the perfect tumbling line, generating plenty of thrust through her core and her legs.

It all comes together in a manner that was not necessarily envisioned at the start of the year.

“I did not have a lot of skills in September,” said Recoskie. “She has come a long way,” coach McEwen concurred. “Learning the skills is tough; putting them all together is even more tricky.”

Closing out the group of five, Camilla Burns is nothing if not unique. First, she was the only one to identify the beam as her favourite – a rarity in itself. But the reason that she selects the beam also sets her apart.

“I have a lot of unique skills on the beam; my front handspring and step out,” said the 14 year old Level 7 grade nine student at Confederation Secondary. “She does a lot of forward skills that set her apart,” noted McEwen. “And my skills are away better when I am confident. I go for it more.”

Also ready to go for it this weekend in Belleville is the LVX Gymnastics grouping of eight, a collection of talent that features Level 8 veteran Lea Berardi, Avery Hofford / Kiersten Anderson / Myah Tessarolo / Victoria Jeanveau (all in Level 7) and Tierra-Lee Castonguay / Andele Hefer / Gabriella Pawlowski / Camille Landry (all in Level 6).