The Fanshawe Falcons national medal dreams went up in smoke despite a determined effort and strong team play.

The Falcons participated in the 2010 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association tournament after earning silver at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association and entered the championships as the eighth place seed at the five-day tournament at Calgary's SAIT Polytechnic.

The Falcons started the tourney against the number one ranked team in the country, the UNBC Timberwolves and nearly pulled off a monumental upset. The Falcons led by as many as 17 points in the second half before UNBC caught fire and were able to overtake the Falcons for what would seem a spirit crushing 76-71 loss.

Despite the loss, the Falcons were able to dust themselves off, regroup and refocus their energies and worked their way into the bronze medal game and a date with Ontario Rival Humber College. The quirks of tournament scheduling however seemed to conspire against the Falcons making their improbable run for a medal even more difficult.

Four hours before the bronze medal game against Humber, the Falcons outlasted the Chaplain College Cavaliers of St-Lambert, Quebec in a 91-88 double overtime win to earn a shot at the bronze medal.

It was the Humber Hawks, who were seeded second at this tournament who walked away with their first CCAA medal since 2003. The Hawks defeated the Falcons 72-66.

“What the hell. They won it, no issues, no excuses,” said Fanshawe head coach Glenn Johnston, shortly after the loss. “But a lot of my guys deserved the Iron Man award. They were playing hurt. And they sure as hell don't owe me anything. They gave me everything they had.”

Getting only a brief rest between games “definitely had an effect” on the team, said Falcons co-captain Bryan Kamerman. Regardless “at the end of the day…you do what you need to do…and we left the tournament with no regrets. The tournament overall went pretty well. We didn't have too many expectations going in, we did however want to come home with a medal.”

Kamerman will not be graduating and not returning next season, yet had some encouraging words for future players.

“Make sure you're always at practice, and rely on your teammates a lot and make sure they're all there. It's really a team effort,” he said.

Notes: Fanshawe's Will Bradbury was named a first team tournament all-star, while Pat Wright was named a second team all-star.

In 1981 Fanshawe earned their last CCAA medal when the Falcons won their second of two straight national championships.