Known as Canada's sports town, Abbotsford once again offered its share of storylines in 2011.

Everything from a hockey team that couldn't score, to provincial championships, to a date at the U.S. Open - let's not waste any more space talking about Part I of the Abbotsford-Mission Times Sports Year in Review.

- Grappling for provincial gold on home soil, the Rick Hansen Hurricanes wrestling team proved to be too good once again.

The Hurricanes won the B.C. championship with 67 points, nine ahead of Alberni District Secondary School.

And the Hurricanes' triumph was even more storybook thanks to the performance of now-graduated Jasmit Phulka, as he won his second provincial gold medal in as many years.

This time competing in the 78kilogram weight class, Phulka didn't concede a single point throughout the competition on route to gold.

"This competition was relatively easy for him," Hurricanes wrestling coach Sucha Mann said of Phulka.

- The W.J. Mouat Hawks senior girls basketball team laid claim to provincial gold in March thanks to an unnerving 69-64 win over the Claremont Spartans on March 12.

Kayli Sartori was named Player of the Game that night, but it was Jaslyen Singh who grabbed the headlines.

Singh, now a member of the UFV Cascades women's basketball team with Sartori, played the championship just about 24 hours after her nose was broken during the semifinal.

She wore a protective nose guard in warm-ups, but took it off when it was hampering her abilities on the court.

"It's a dream come true," said Singh.

"It feels great, I love my team, and I don't know. I just love it."

- Mission's Heritage Park senior girls rugby team won its first provincial championship in just its sixth year of competition thanks to a 3-0 win over Shawnigan Lake on May 28.

Lindsay Tosh kicked the only three points of the match.

History didn't come easy, however. Heritage Park needed an eight-minute long goal line stand in the final minutes of the game to keep Shawnigan Lake off the scoreboard. It became known at that school as The Stand.

"It was ferocious defence. It was amazing. I've actually never seen anything like that in high school sports; how determined and aggressive they were to keep Shawnigan from scoring. It was incredible," said Heritage Park

coach Sandy Chambers.

- The Abbotsford Heat struggled all season long to score goals in 2010/11 and, as a result, were eliminated from Calder Cup playoff contention with three games left in the regular season.

The Heat scored an AHL worst 186 goals, and that provided more questions than answers at season's end.

"If I could have pinpointed [a reason], I would've done it a lot earlier and tried to rectify it," said former head coach Jim Playfair on April 15.

"The biggest thing for me was that we didn't have enough finish."

Playfair resigned as Heat head coach on June 13 to take an associate coach's position with the Phoenix Coyotes, despite the fact the Calgary Flames picked up the option on his contract.

- An honourable mention goes to Abbotsford's Adam Hadwin, who tied for 39th at the 111th U.S. Open in June.

Needless to say, his showing at the Canadian Open just over a month later entitles him to room in Sports Year In Review Part II. See Tuesday's Times for that story and more.

- Cam Tucker is a freelance sports reporter currently working for the Vancouver Sun.