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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1996-08-21, Page 191 Triple "A" hockey begins tryouts for upcoming season By Chris Slralkos T -A Reporter SEAFORTH - Even though summer sports are still in full swing, the Huron -Perth Lakers Triple "A" Minor Hockey Association saw a Targe number of young hockey players attend their first try -outs in Seaforth on Saturday. With the executives and coaching staff in place, the organization is left with picking the most talented hockey players in Huron -Perth Counties to fill the Atom, Pee Wee and Bantam minor/major ranks as well as the one midget team. According to Charlie Akey, pres- ident of the Huron -Perth Lakers ex- ecutive committee, if Saturday was any indication, there will be no short- age of players to choose from when they start making cuts at their third try -outs this weekend. "The response has been fantastic. There are a lot of good hockey players out here," he said, adding many players called to say they would attend once soccer and baseball season ends. "We'll be in a better position to make decisions in two weeks." Since the Ontario Minor Hockey Association rec- ognized Huron -Perth as a Triple "A" zone last year, the executive body has received a lot of interest from communities with minor hockey systems with- in its parameters and now represents 3I Centres in- cluding Exeter, Stephen Township, Zurich, Hensall, Goderich, Clinton, St. Marys, Wingham, Listowel, Seaforth, Brussels, Elma, Wallace, Embro, Ta- vistock, Mitchell, Normanby, Drayton, Ripley, Teeswater, Blyth, Bayfield, Belgrave, Clifford, Bel - more, Minto, Howick, Milverton, Mildmay, Logan and Lucknow. Triple "A" is an advanced level of hockey con - «p th expose to sco make an aut the sisting of the most competitive and highly skilled minor hockey players in the province. The Huron - Perth Lakers will play in the East Division along with Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, London East, Hamilton and Brantford. Triple "A" is not directly associated with local centres and funds will come from the $600 per player registration fees and other fundraising events. Although concerns have been raised about smaller centres losing their top players, Akey said there will always be others to take their place and in turn develop into better hockey players be- cause they're getting more ice time. "1 don't think they will be hurt that badly. We're not trying to rob other centres of their talent. We want to give the kids a chance to step up into the next level. It all works out in the end." Akey said players who leave their home centres want to play in a more competitive league and will have the opportunity to improve to their fullest potential and progress in hockey ranks. According to the 1996 O.H.L. Junior "A" draft, 104 players were selected from the Triple "A" league. More than Tier 2 Junior "A", Junior "B", "C" , "D" or from high school. "Playing at this level exposes them to a lot of scouts and makes them an automatic prospect for the O.H.L. draft," said Akey. Despite being in its inaugural year, Akey is con- fident the Huron -Perth team will be competitive on every level and expects the Bantams will be the showcase team after having 60 players try out for that level on Saturday. The Huron -Perth Lakers will wear the colors of the Colorado Avalanche with a team logo similar to that of the New York Islanders and will use the Clinton Arena as home ice. Final cuts will be made by September 7. laying at is level s them a lot of uts and s them tomatic ect for O.H.L. draft," Rookie Apple Rockets. A photograph of the Rookie Pur- ple Rockdts published last issue omitted the names of some of the players. From back row left, coaches : Dave Holmes, Ross Bryson and Dave Jackson. Middle row, from left, Blake Reid, Adam Jackson, Kyle Bryson, Garrett Redegeld, Scott McGregor, Karly Bryson, Jelaine Jackson. Front row, from left, Ryan Jacobe, Jake Homuth, James Marsden, Aleisha Heywood, Stephen Holmes and Tyler Bryson. Missing is Craig Skochinski. The T A apologizes for the omission. Exeter lawn bowling August 13 Bob Patterson Jason Batten John Batten Mike Underhill Doris Hackney Marshall Dearing Doris Hamilton Thea Vandenboom Courtney Smith Frank Palen Gus Gregus August 15 Courtney Smith John Cooper Frank Palen Les Hills Marshall Dearing Jason Batten Ray Smith August 17 Isabel Rogerson Ray Smith Frank Palen June Hodgson Howard Johns John Cooper 2W30 2W28 2W28 2W27 2W25 2W25 2W25 2W24 2W24 2W22 2W22 2W27 2W24 2W23 2W22 2W21 2W19 2W 19 2W27 2W25 2W25 2W24 1W16 1W16 This Week in Sports... • Barracudas swim at final meet - page 20 • Lingard scores three goals - page 21 Fury demolish Morningstar EXETER - The Exeter Fury re- gained their winning form Sunday in Exeter with a convincing 4-1 vic- tory over Morningstar from Lon- don. Torn Westerveld started the scor- ing by converting a pass from Pete McAllister in front of the net. McAllister was able to find Wester - veld who had driven to the net and blasted it home for n lead. Morningstar tied tt well-placed free r, corner. The Fury responded quickly as Craig Hern fed McAllister a good lead pass that sent him into the clear. McAllister proceeded to drill a shot that was too hard for the keeper to handle and gave the home team a 2-1 lead at half time. Exeter had the better chances in the second half as the Morningstar defense allowed the Fury a lot of space to work the ball around. Brett Rideout was the beneficiary of some slack defensive play as Boun- my Chansamone spotted him alone with an empty net to shoot at for a 3-1 lead. Khampane Chansamone made it 4-1 with a left-footed shot to the far corner of the net from outside the box. Bounmy Chansamone ap- peared to be increasing the lead as he broke past the last defender and got by the goalie but shot the hall wide of the post. The Fury play in London Satur- day against the Latinos who are currently in second place in the last division. Balancing act. Mark Lynn heads the ball up -field for the Exeter Fury during a home game on Sunday. The fl.rry' stunned Morningstar from London with a convinc- ing 4-1 win. Your Views Letters to the editor Purple Rockets say thanks Dear Editor: The Purple Rockers of the Exeter Minor Baseball Rookie Ball League concluded a successful season of baseball on the weekend playing four exciting games in the season's wind up playoff tournament. Congratulations to the Purple Rockets who were awarded medals for their "B" finalist position, los- ing a close game to the Yellow Team, who, despite playing shorthanded, earned a well-deserved win. Special thanks to all members of the Rockets for their hard work and dedication throughout the sea- son. Your enthusiasm for the game made it a joy to coach. The following players and coaches are to be commended for a great season! Kyle (clear the track) Bryson, Aleisha (goose) Heywood, Stephen (the vacuum) Holmes, Jake (ter- ror on the base path) Homuth, Adam (homerun) Jackson, Ryan (the crusher) Jacobe, James (the roadrunner) Marsden, Scott (rocket arm) McGregor, Garrett (catch behind the back) Redegcld, Blake (four for four against the Green) Reid, Craig (1 can play anywhere) Skochinski. Dave (coach) Holmes, Mike (coach) Skochinski, Special playoff coaching crew - Dave and Julie Jackson, Deb Homuth, Cheryl Redegeld. Thanks also to all the parents for their support and commitment throughout the season. Ross Bryson, coach, The Purple Rockets. Local athletes win silver at Summer Games Five field hockey players and two lawn bowlers represented their region at the Ontario Summer Games LONDON - Seven local athletes returned from the Ontario Summer Games in London recently after winning silver medals in their re- spective sports. Shawna Rowe, Preslee Maver, Toni De Jong, Jaclyn Baynham and Cara Gardner from Exeter, from Hensall won silver in wom- en's field hockey, while Andrea Weigand and Laura Pearson also from Exeter won silver in girls pairs lawn bowling. The five field hockey players rep- resented the South Western Ontario Field Hockey Sliver Medalists: Cara Gardner, Preslee Maver, Toni De Jong, Jaclyn Baynham and Shawna Rowe. team which consisted of players from Exeter, Hensall, Lucan, Park- hill and Midway. The team was coached by Sharon Amos and Ber- nice Willemse from Parkhill. They lost their first game 2-1 af- ter a close end-to-end match with the Western team, but went on to sweep their next four games defeating the Cen- tral West team 2-0, Cen- tral East, 3-0, the East team 1-0 and Pe- terborough 2-0. Gardner scored six goals in four games and Rowe scored the winning goal in their match against East Ontario. Winning four out of five games in the round-robin point format earned them a berth in the finals against the Western team that de- feated them in the first round. Evenly matched, the score re- mained nil after regulation time and the game was decided on flicks (penalty strokes). The outcome was, not favorable for the five Geier girls who had to settle for a anvil medal, but according to Maver the gold medal could have went their way just as easily. "Flicks don't decide anything. It has more to do with luck than how well we played," she said, adding she would have preferred the game went into overtime, Maver, who was named team captain, said their team got off to a slow start but started to work well together as the games went on. "1 wasn't even ex- pecting to win bronze but once we got into the finals we were ready to take that gold," she said. "Af- ter the first game we really gelled and played as a team." All five girls have played togeth- er for South Huron District High School and Maver believes that helped them on the field. She said the calibre of skill at the games was equal to that at an O.F.S.A.A. -t iampionship and the five of them are eager to bring the 5tperience they gained at the Ontario Games to the SHDHS field hockey try -outs Andre a Weigand in September. Lawn Bowlers Andrea Weigand and Laura Pear- son of the Exeter Lawn Bowling Club won two silver medals at the Ontario Summer Games, one in girls pairs and the other in Zone play (a team point system). The duo played round robin games with three other teams to qualify for the medal games on Sun- day. Representing Exeter zone "A", they defeated Niagara Falls/Hamilton zone "B" 16-10, Coburg/ Port Hope Zone "D" 17- 13 and Dunnville zone "C" 19-14 on Friday. The next day they tied zone "B" 10-10, beat zone "C" 16-13 but lost to zone "D" 16-10, however their record of four wins one loss and a tie enabled them to advance to the gold medal match against zone "D" where they }lost 15-11. Weigand said she was surprised to win silver. "We were expecting to win gold," she said admitting she was a little disappointed about the second place finish. According to statistics that was a reasonable expectation. Weigand and Pearson have been bowling to- gether for eight years and have won four provincial titles in girls triples, a silver in pairs last year and a gold in pairs during the 1994 Summer Games held in Ot- tawa. "We bowled but they (the Laura Pearson well gold medal team from Co- burg) were better that day," said Weigand. The lawn howling duo will continue to bowl together and plan on com- peting again next year. The Ontario Summer Games were developed in 1970 by the pro- vincial government to increase awareness and participation in sport and fitness for Ontario's youth. The Games were designed ta.. help launch the athletic careers of many young athletes into the national and international sporting arenas.