HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2007-01-18, Page 6Kayla Black has been playinghockey since the age of four, and it
looks like it’s really starting to pay
off.
Black of Blyth ended 2006 on an
extremely high point, spending
Dec. 27-30 in the nation’s capital
playing hockey at the highest level
she can.
Black plays goalie for the
Bluewater Hawks, a AA pee wee
team - the highest level of girls
hockey for her age - and while she
and the girls were in Ottawa, they
made quite an impression.
The tournament is called the Bell
Capital Cup and it brings teams
from all over the world to Ottawa
for a weekend of top notch hockey.
Over 500 teams were in attendance
from all over the globe. Games are
played in 21 different arenas over
the tournament, leading up to a very
special gold medal game.The Hawks, led by Black, came insecond overall, playing in the goldmedal game, but coming up justshort to a team from Detroit. Black and the girls held their
heads high. The gold medal game
was played at Scotiabank Place, the
home of the Ottawa Senators, an
experience worth the price of
admission itself.
Black actually got to play there
twice. She was awarded the MVP
award for the Hawks’ semi-final
game and was asked to play in the
tournament’s all-star game.
This is Black’s second year
playing for the Hawks and she
couldn’t be happier. The Capital
Cup is a tournament that the Hawks
didn’t enter two years ago, but
proved themselves to be more than
worthy of the competition in 2006.
Black started her hockey career
here in Blyth, starting out playing
boys hockey.
Eventually, she entered a three onthree tournament in Woodstockwith some boys from one of herteams and this was where shecaught people’s attention and a tryout was set up for the Hawks.
Although this tournament was a
very high point for the Hawks, they
still are in the midst of the task athand, their regular season.The Hawks have fewer than fivegames until they reach the playoffsin the North Metro AA girls hockeyleague.
The Hawks are currently tied for
first place.
PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2007.
Wingham is taking another stab at
winning the Hockeyville contest
again in 2007. However, this time
they’re not doing it alone.
As many people know, last year
Wingham entered the Hockeyville
contest for a chance to win the title
of Hockeyville, Canada for 2006.
They came up short, but having
decided to enter again in 2007,
Wingham has some wingers to help
on the rush.
This year, North Huron will be
entering the Hockeyville contest as a
team comprised of Wingham, Blyth
and Belgrave.
Director of recreation and
facilities Pat Newson has high hopes
for the contest this year and thinks
the newly-formed North Huron
Hockeyville contender can make it
happen in 2007.
“This year we’re entering as
Wingham, Blyth and Belgrave.
We’re entering as a North Huron
team. I’m not quite sure what we’re
calling that team yet,” Newson said.
The application process came up
right in time for Hockey Days and it
was clear after the event’s success
that North Huron would be a real
contender. Coupled with a shorter
application process, Newson thinks
this might be North Huron’s year.
“I think it’s going to be a lot easier
to keep people’s momentum going.
Last time [the application process]
went on for six months and we had
17 special events and four bus trips
and it was huge to undertake,”
Newson said.
“This year, I think they heard from
the communities that were
participating that it was a lot to
expect of these people entering the
contest. So they’ve shortened it and
they’ve made it so that it’s a little
more realistic for communities to
step up.”
The first step is to make a three
minute application video, something
Newson says North Huron is already
ahead of the curve on.
“As we were coming up into
Hockey Days, we thought this
would be a great opportunity, so we
had people out videotaping the
weekend. We taped many of the
events, so we’re going to use a lot of
that footage in our video,” Newson
said.
The video is due to the CBC on
Jan. 22, so Newson says that will be
the top priority for the moment.
“It was a student from F.E. Madill
Secondary School who volunteered
to do the taping for us, so he is
gathering what he taped and all
kinds of facts and things to put in
this video,” Newson said.
“We will be working through the
next few days to put the finishing
touches on that and getting it in the
mail.”
From the Jan. 22 deadline until
early March, a panel will judge the
communities and compile a list of
10 communities who will be the
finalists. However, from Feb. 5 to
Feb. 23, voting will be opened on
cbc.ca.
At the end of February, the
winners of five merit prizes will be
announced, these are given out in the
categories of fun, family, fitness,
food and fairness.
On March 4, CBC will profile the
top 10 communities on air and the
winner is announced on March 17
after online voting between March
10 and March 16.
The prizes will be given out over
Nicely done
Kayla Black’s Bluewater Hawks took silver at Ottawa
tournament. Black was also selected to play in net for the
all-star game and was named MVP. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Local gets silver at Ottawa tourneyShawnLoughlinSShhaawwnn’’ss SSeennssee
Soccer is a passion of mine. I know
it is not that big a deal up here, from
what I’ve seen anyway, with hockey
being the top sport anywhere you go
in Canada.
While doing some research for an
upcoming interview with Rita
MacNeil, who will be singing in
Blyth on March 7, I found something
that interested me.
MacNeil’s new album, Songs my
Mother Loved, is an album
comprised entirely of cover songs
that apparently her mother loved. One
of these songs is You’ll Never Walk
Alone from Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s Carousel.
This song originally was featured
in the 1945 musical and was soon
covered by Frank Sinatra, Patti
LaBelle and Elvis Presley. However,
it was when the song was played by
Gerry and The Pacemakers in
England that it got interesting.
The song reached number one on
the UK charts in 1963 and was
adopted as the anthem for the
Liverpool Football Club. Fans would
sing the song before matches, or
when the club was doing well or
when it wasn’t and the players needed
a pick-me-up.
Liverpool eventually went to the
trouble to have the name of the song
incorporated into its crest, which now
has the words You’ll Never Walk
Alone scrolling across the bottom.
It got a bit tricky when other clubs
started to sing it and claim that they
sang it first. The most notable of
which being Celtic FC in Glasgow.
There are also clubs in Austria, The
Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Japan
and Italy where fans sing the song to
their beloved club.
However, Liverpool seems to have
much more proof that they were
indeed the first.
Why don’t we sing to our teams
here?
As you can see when watching
English soccer or the World Cup, a
crowd singing a song to their team in
unison can be a very moving event
and can be very inspirational.
You have to wonder why this has
never been something that North
American fans do.
I mean, there are certainly chants.
Who can forget the annoying
tomahawk chop when the Toronto
Blue Jays left the confines of the
SkyDome to play in Atlanta in the
1992 World Series? There is also the
epic competition between Leafs and
Canadiens fans between who can yell
Go Leafs Go or Go Habs Go the
loudest. But nobody here seems to
have the guts to belt out a tune.
Do we just not care enough about
our sports? I don’t think that’s true,
because coming from Toronto, I have
never seen so many people who bleed
blue and white as when you make
your way down Yonge Street the
night of a Leafs playoff game.
So when will North Americans
dust off their pipes and go to it in the
stands?
It’s possible that it might happen
soon. With English superstar David
Beckham signing to the L.A. Galaxy
of the Major League Soccer
organization, soccer fever might
come to our side of the water for the
first time in a long while.
I do think that it’s time that
hardcore Leafs fans sing their praises
to their boys in blue and white,
literally. If Canadians love their
hockey so much, I think they should
come up with a song and sing it
proud. I think we’ve had enough
song-free years.
Never walk alone
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Shawn LoughlinThe Citizen
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Continued on page 7