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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGoderich Signal Star, 2017-01-25, Page 3030 Signal Star • Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Tribute to long-time Clinton hockey enthusiast When 74 -year-old Clinton resident Bill "Butch" Murney passed away several weeks ago, his love and passion for hockey died with hirn. He was a die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan as well as a good Clinton Radars fan. As soon as he learned to skate, one knew that some day he would love the game of hockey. He played his minor hockey years for the various Clinton teams starting with squirts, peewees, bantams and their midgets. I le was an excellent defender with a booming slap shot. In fact, people said that is was Butch who first intro- duced the slap shot around 1960. 'lhe saying goes that he and Bobby Bull developed the shot the same year. After completing his year of midget hockey, Butch moved on to the Junior "B" ranks where he played in Goderich for the Siftos when they were sponsored by the Detroit Red W'r'ings. During one game, Butch sustained a knee injury, thus slowing down his ability to continue playing hockey at a high speed. Each game he had to tape his wonky knee. In 1962-63, he played for the Hensall-Zurich Combines and helped them to an 0.11.A. Junior "D" final where they lost to Uxbridge. In spite of this loss, the next year the Combines were able to win the All -Ontario Junior "D" Championship by defeating Stouville in the finals. After his playing days of Junior were over, Butch played two years of Interme- diate "B" hockey with the Clinton Colts. Flyers tie Kincardine, lose to Mt. Forest over weekend Richard Madge The Goderich Flyers are nearing the end of their Pro- vincial Junior Hockey League regular schedule and are looking ahead to the playoffs, hoping for the best. Last weekend, the Flyers showed their best Saturday night in Kincardine. Within four seconds of upsetting the home - team Bulldogs, the Flyers had to settle for a 2-2 overtime tie after Jesse Gunn scored for the 'Dogs at 19:56 of the third period. The seven -minute over- time period was scoreless and both teams got one point in the standings. In their six meetings during the season, the Flyers and Bulldogs each have two wins, two losses, and two ties. Tyler McCracken and Jack Francis scored second period goals to account for the Flyers' scoring. Jordan Van Haelemeesch had the other Kincardine goal, scoring shorthanded, at 5:39 of the first period. Tyler Stacey, Ryan Stulp and Morgan Benniwies had assists for the Flyers. Flyers' coach David Err- ington observed that the Fly- ers finally had a full lineup on the bench following a string of injuries and suspensions that had been leaving them short of players. He paid particular tribute to the "three amigos line" of Riley Connors, Jack Francis and Drew McKee for how they used their speed to forecheck aggressively and keep the Bulldogs bottled up in their own end for long stretches of the game. Brenden Bean played well in the Flyers' net, turning aside 26 of the 28 shots he faced. Both teams had 24 min- utes in penalty time and both were 0-5 on powerplay opportunities. Jesse Gunn was chosen as the first star of the game and the Flyers' Jack Francis was the second star. Flyers' coach David Err- ington compares himself to Forrest Gump in that his coaching life is like opening a box of chocolates: You never know what you are going to get. Saturday, Jan. 21 in BACPA markets Bayfield Community Centre with success Bayfield Community Centre shows threefold increase in revenue from 2014 to 2016 The Bayfield Arena Commu- nity Partners Association (BACPA) formed in 2013 after catching wind that the munici- pality was thinking of closing the Bayfield Community Cen- tre. Bluewater Council agreed to let the BACPA market the facility to see if that would make a difference. Now, BACPA has put forward numbers compar- ing 2014 and 2016, and the stats reveal that the Community Centre is doing far better than it was two years ago. The group attributes their success to an ongoing analy- sis and dialogue with users resulting in new program- ming being developed and improvements to existing programming to meet the needs of the community. BACPA's success can be measured in several ways. One measure of this success is the threefold increase in reve- nue being generated in the facility in less than two years. Prior to the inception of the BACPA, the total revenue from the Bayfield Community Centre was $26,199 in 2016 the total revenue was $78,469. Another measure of success is the more than double the number of hours of usage from 712 to 1,807 in 2016. The success can also be seen in the positive feedback received from residents, visitors and tourists who have participated in BACPA events. Local government and organizations have recognized the value of the programming to the community in granting BACPA funds to build and develop new programming. All expenses related to the building continue to be the responsibility of the munici- pality, and BACPA has no control over this aspect. Revenue from ice rentals continues to be the most important Ice revenues in 2016 were $62,118 or 79.2 per cent of total revenue. Hall revenues were $10,756 or 13.7 per cent of total revenue and non -ice pad revenue was $5,595 or 7.1 per cent of total revenue. A breakdown of building usage in 2016 was a total of 1,807 hours. 650 hours or 36 per cent of use was from ice, 906 hours from the hall, which was 50 per cent and non -ice pad was 251 hours or 14 per cent of usage. When comparing 2014 to 2016 in other sports such as soccer, activities that use the Bayfield Community Centre are increasing in popularity. Bayfield Soccer Registrar, Karen Brandon reports that soccer has shown a 37 per cent decline in registration and fear it may drop another 20 per cent in 2017. In con- trast, Bayfield children enrolled in Minor Hockey in 2016 is up by 37 per cent compared to 2014 as reported by BCH Minor Hockey Registrar Laura Mulder. The Bayfield Skating Club is reporting a 85 per cent increase in 2016 accord- ing to Bayfield Skating Club Instructor, Jody Whetstone. The municipality of Blue - water has considered getting rid of the ice at the commu- nity centre while continuing other operations. BACPA Chair Ron Keys did acknowl- edge that the municipality would save a small amount of Kincardine, he got the mint smoothie. Sunday, Jan. 22 at home against the Mount Forest Patriots, he got an empty wrap- per He felt only four of his play- ers came ready to play. Too many passengers. Too many defensive breakdowns.. The result? Mount Forest 10, Goderich 2. The Patriots scored on their first shot on Branden Bean and led 2-0 three min- utes into the game. Goals by Tyler Stacey, on a powerplay, and Riley Connors, got the Flyers back on even terms with the Pats before the middle of the second period, but from there on it was all downhill, as the Patriots scored eight unanswered goals to bury the Flyers. money by doing so at around $30,000 in savings. However he argued this is a very small amount of money for some- thing that adds so much value to the community. NEW PROGRAMMING Recognizing the need for. kids participating in some non- competitive hockey, BACPA introduced Monday night kids pickup hockey last year. It has continued to gain popularity from players who are registered in BCH Minor Hockey, Huron Perth Lakers AAA & non -regis- tered players of varied ages. BACPA volunteers, Mike Goz- zard and Wayne Pollock often comment on how well the kids get along with different ages and abilities. It is very clear they Ore all there for the love of the game. This past weekend, BACPA held the third annual Tyke Hockey Tournament bring- ing approximately 400 play- ers and families to town gen- erating a noticeable economic boost to the town in a slow month of January. WHAT'S NEXT A different group, the Bay- field Facility Infinitive Team (BFIT), is a local organization 1 -ie often could not under- stand the changes made to hockey in recent years, though. He thought the equipment to be restricting and the rules to be less for- giving. Butch used to wear only shoulder pads, shin pads and elbow pads. Ile thought it would be better if players could move freely. Butch will always be remembered for his passion Blair Butchart scored four goals for the Patriots, Brendon Aitken and Jack Batour had two each, and Liam Francis and Derick Acheson had sin- gles in the Patriots romp. Branden Bean and Connor Irwin shared the goaltending nightmare for the Flyers, fac- ing a combined 32 shots, in a game that was anything but a playoff tuneup for their team. Some relief may be on the way, with number one net minder Nate Watson expected back for the playoffs. The Patriots scored on five of their six powerplay opportuni- ties. The Flyers were one for six. The Flyers have one more regular season game left. It is here Saturday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the MRC against the studying the possibility of a privately funded Community Centre in Bayfield for the sur- rounding community..BFIT representation is from many different business and volun- teer organizations in the community. BFIT has recently approached Bluewater Coun- cil for a three-year extension of the current facility's use to ena- ble them to finalize their plans. They have also asked BACPA to continue to market the facility and work with Bluewater staff during this time which BACPA has agreed to. BACPA's not-for-profit sta- tus enables the opportunity to work with the municipal- ity to search for grants such as Ontario Sport and Recrea- tion Communities Fund. BACPA encourages the community to contact coun- cil if individuals are inter- ested in having a community centre in Bayfield. As we previously stated, there would be slim savings by closing the ice portion of the building. The main way Blue - water could save any money would be to close the entire building, leaving the largest community in Bluewater for the game of hockey. Hockey was everything to Butch and came first before anything. He would drive from I lamilton to his hockey games and go to work the next day. To his dying days, he loved following the Radars. The Radars team will miss his contribution to the game and hockey itself will miss Butch's enthusiasm for the sport. first place Walkerton Hawks. The Hawks, as the team in first place, have the option in the playoffs of playing the seventh place Flyers or taking a bye in the first round, which would leave the Flyers playing the second place Mitchell Hawks. League rumour has Walk- erton alkerton taking the bye and that would be just fine by the Fly- ers. Both Hawks teams are strong hitt the Flyers have fared better against Mitchell, winning one of their six games and being close in some oth- ers. Against Walkerton, the Flyers are winless and have given up some big scores. Errington feels his team could give Mitchell a run for their money. Time will tell. without a Community Centre. "BACPA encourages you to speak up in favour of your Community Centre and to give the Bayfield Facility Ini- tiative Team the opportunity and the time to investigate a proper future for social and recreational needs in the Bayfield area," said Keys. "We also encourage you to take the time to come out and participate in the wide range of events being offered in 2017." The community can keep up to date on ice and hall rentals and future BACPA events on Family Day, March Break, 50+ Hockey Tourna- ments, Bayfield Beer & Food Festival, Slapshot Golf Tour- nament, etc. by following BACPA on Facebook (@ bayfield arena), Twitter (@ bacp2014), their website (www. bacp.ca) and Event- brite (bacp.ca/ beerandfood). Keys emphasized that looking at all thesestatistics are essential in making deci- sions about the future of the centre. "Let's look at the real numbers and base decision off facts," he said.