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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2009-12-02, Page 14Page 14 The Huron Expositor • December 2, 2009 Coach Dave Garrick honoured for dedication to sports with Citizenship Award Dan Schwab Without a doubt, Dave Garrick's second home is the Seaforth arena. As the president of the Ringette Association, coach of his daughter's team, and assistant coach of his son's hockey team, Garrick spends about a dozen hours a week either behind the bench, on the ice or in the stands.. For his contributions to both ringette and minor hockey and for his dedication to helping kids have fun on the ice, Garrick will be hon- oured with a Seaforth Citizenship Award for Service to Sports on Dec. 5. Garrick was nominated for the Service to Sports Award by Julie Campbell, who's had the chance to see Garrick's dedication to arena sports' and also minor baseball, as the coach of her daughter's T- ball team. "Dave Garrick is a man with an enormous heart and a soul that is dedicated to kids ,and their sports," Campbell wrote in- the award nomi- nation form. "They will learn that it is not always about winning. `Never give up - you can do it' are words that you always hear from Dave." Garrick grew up in .Seaforth and began playing hockey at age eight. Aftermarrying and having three children, he went Seaforth Community Hospital Foundation Fundraising Campaign New X-RAY Unit from being a player to a coach. Since then, he's coached his 13 -year-old son Tom's team in a previous sea- son, but now is the head coach of his 12 -year-old daughter Hanna's tweens ringette team. He is also the assistant coach of his 10 -year-old son Charlie's atom hockey team. At the beginning of this year's ringette season, Garrick took over as president of the association. So far, he's been instrumental in al- lowing Seaforth to host a second National Ringette League game. He also came up with the idea to start a website for the association, and raised $3,500 by canvassing down- town merchants for new ringette jerseys. They're both efforts to boost ringette's registration numbers, which have been steady the past few years, but increased a little this year. With 82 players signed up this year, the association was able to add a fifth team to its league - the belle age group - for players 16 to 18 - years -old. Garrick and the association also applied for an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant worth $15,000 last month, for new goalie equip- ment, a shot clock and long pants to. add to the players' uniforms. As a coach, he's had plenty of high- lights with teams over the past few years. He's led the nov- ice team to a gold medal in the West- ern Region finals and last season, he coached the tweens team to the Huron - Perth Champion- ship, where they defeated Exeter in the gold medal game. But Garrick says probably the big- gest highlight for him is seeing a young player g4in confidence on the ice and make a big play for the team. ' "They come back to the bench with a great big smile on their face," Gar- rick says. "Not ev- erybody's going to be a superstar but as a coach, you've got to give kids a chance. That's my big thing, I try to be as fair asI can." Dave Garrick Huether brothers help lead Eagles to victory Dan Schwab 411111111.11.111111111. The St. Anne's Eagles boys' hockey team has started the 2009-'10 season with a re- cord of 2-0 and head coach Steve Geiger is confident that Seaforth's Ray Huether will once again lead the team in scoring. Huether, a Grade .10 player who .leo, the team in scoring during the regular. season last ;year with 14 points in eight games, now centres the Eagles' top line with his brother Matt Huether and' Ryan . Watson Dashwood. "ie's a skilled plays goal scorerand aker all in one, Geiger says. "1 expect average at least two points a game this Ray scored a goal and two assists in the Eagles' first game of the season against Stratford Northwestern. His brother Matt, a Grade 12 player and member of the Seaforth Stars' juvenile team, netted a goal and , an assist to help lead the Eagles to a 5-2 win. Seaforth's Brandon Van Dyk, a right- winger on the second line, added two as- sists. In the team's next outing on Nov. 24, they crushed rivals Central Huron Secondary School by a score of 7-0. The Huether brothers came out strong, with Matt scoring two goals and Ray earn- ing an assist. "That line is going to do some damage," Geiger says of the Eagles' first-string for- wards. Next, the Eagles will face Wingham's F.E. Madill Secondary School on Dec. 9. The Eagles tied the team 2-2 in regular season play last year and Geiger expects it'll be a close game. "They are consistently one of the top four teams in the league," he says. "That game will be a test for us." Geiger says the team lost six key players from last season after graduation in June, but adds that the core group of players are still on the team, including Bayfield's Steve Van Aaken, who'll lead the team as captain for the third year in a row. Eight rookies have joined the team this year, with the majority of them in Grade 11.