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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1985-05-29, Page 17Gkierich um SIGNAL TAR' 137 YEAR -^.22 CREATIcN GODERICH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, MAY 29,1985 Bill Trebish, of GDCI, was really up in the air over this effort during running long jump competition during the WOSSA track and field meet held in Goderich last Wednesday and Thursday. (photo by Patrick Raftis) 50 CENTS PER COPY Joe Melady leads track team with double -gold at WOSSA The GDCI Track & Field team competed well at tie WOSSA Track & Field Cham- pionship held in Goderich last Wednes- day and Thursday. In all, fourteen Goderich athletes qualified for the OFSAA Western Regional Track & Field Championship s this Friday and Saturday at Kitcheners Centennial Stadium. Joe Melady led the Vikings with two gold medals. Melady won the Senior Discus, with a toss of 45.14 meters and the Senior Shot with a put of 15.99 meters. The Viking female sprinters also showed their fine form. Joanne Campbell won the Junior 100 meters in a fine time of 12.3 seconds. Campbell also won the silver in the 200 meters (25.7 sec) and placed fourth in the 400 meters (61.7 sec). Kim Fritzley won tido silver medals in the Senior 200 meters and 400 meters. Fritzley's times were excellent as well, as she ran the 400m in 60.6 seconds and the 200m in 25.9 seconds. She finished fourth in the 100m (12.5 sec). Erin Robinson placed second in the midget 400m (62.8) to win the silver medal. Robinson added two bronze medal perfor- mances.in the 100 meters (12.8 sec) and the 200 meters (26.1 seconds). Debi O'Brien teamed with Campbell, Robinson and Fritzley to win the bronze medal in the Senior 4x100 relay in a fine, time of 51.4 seconds. Junior thrower Todd Jeffrey won the silver medal in the Discus with a toss of 39.75 meters: Ray Bedard won the bronze in the Junior 'Shot with a put of 13.09 meters. Scott Stokes placed fourth in the Junior javelin with a personal best throw of 49.03 meters. Maureen Stapleton placed fourth in the midget 3000 meters (11.18.7), Shawn Rahbek placed fifth in the Senior, 110 meter hurdles (15.9 sec) and Julie Meyers placed fifth in the senior discus (26.98 meters ). Rahbek teamed with John Thompson, Rick Geddes and Kevin Beattie to place fifth in the senior 4x100 relay (45.44 sec ). Local Minor Hockey Association needs more interested citizens Maybe it's just the balmy weather; but Goderich residents are not presently displaying much interest in hockey, if the turnout at Wednesday's Minor Hockey Association annual meeting is any indica- tion. Only 23 people showed up, out of well over 200 people who are active in' the association at some level. Due to the low attendance, election of of- ficers and directors for the 1985-86 season had to be postponed. The association is currently "trying to get together a norninat Ga"ommi-,.tee; sac -"Cath3z.1304- dy, an active member of the association and wife of president Charles Roddy. Mrs. Roddy said some of last year's ex- eeutive-may c'hoosetostand for-elect ion_ o another term; but the association wants to have a better representation of the com- munity out before anything is decided. There are -six ex-eeutive positions, plus directors, to be chosen for the corning season. The nomination committee is currently in the process of contacting individivals who may be interested in serving in some capacity. A date for another election has not yet been determined, but Mrs. Roddy says if more interest is not shown it will not be possible to run a minor hockey program next season. One of the things the next executive will have to deal with is the reorganization of age,categories recently anpounced by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association' (CAHA ). At the CAHA annual meeting in Vancouver Wednesday, the organization undertook a massive restructuring of minor hockey age groups. All categories were moved up one year; thereby extending by a year, the length of time a nlavPr may remain in the minor hockey system. The age grouping for Juvenile, the upper limit of minor hockey was formerly 17 and 18 -yea: s -old. Juvenile will now take in players aged 18 and 19. At the lower.end of the scale, Novice, former- ly grouped at seven and eight -year-olds, will now consist of eight and nine -year- olds. All divisions in between will be similarly affected. The CAHA also altered .a rule banning body checking in all categories under Ban- tam (formerly 13 and 14 now 14 and 15). Body c h ki rg will -be allowed -in hockey played by those 11 -years -old and up. Rules affecting mixed teams ( both male and female players) were not altered. Girls will still be unloved -to -ploy urriioys teams if no girls hockey is available in the area. The definition of "available" is at the discretion of local associations. Clinton Mustangs drop to Jr. CLINTON - The Clinton Mustangs have been "accepted and reclassified" into the Ontario Hockey Association ( OHA) Junior D league, dropping from the Junior C posi- tion they held for approximately 10 years. It has also been announced that Goderich's ap- plication for a Junior C franchise has been accepted. • The decision to switch categories follows a season that saw the Mustangs finish in fifth place in the six team league. It also follows two executive meetings, one of which failed to obtain enough volunteers to sit on the ex- ecutive, forcing a second meeting. During this meeting, an executive was elected and the decision to apply for a Junior D franchise was made. However, the club kept its Junior C eligibility open. "We received a letter yesterday ( May 22 ) stating that were have been accepted and reclassified in the Junior D league," ex- plained Mustang President Bryan Mar- riage. Clinton will be playing in the North Divi- sion of the leauge, replacing the Thedford team that has moved to the South Division. Other teams in the North Division include Lucan, Exeter, Seaforth, Mitchell and Tavistock. South Division teams are Bel- mont, Mount Bridges, Thamesford, Thed- ford and Bothwell. At the time the decision was made to app- ly for a Junior D position, Mr. Marriage cited several reasons why he felt it was best for the franchise and the town. By going Junior D, he felt more local players would Ringette executives attend Local ringette executives attended the Ontario Ringette Association's Annual Convention in Orillia on May 24, 25 and 26. The meeting was attended by six regions from across Ontario. The local ringette association was represented by Pat Wilkin- son, President, Val Vanderburgh, Vice - President and Coach, Laurie Glazier, Coach and Millie Loney, Coach. 1 have the opportunity to play as the team is allowed to pick up only two import players opposed to four in Junior C. A second reason was the fact that the teams which Clinton will face in Junior D are closer, therefore it is believed that travelling and mileage ex- penses could be cut, It is also hoped that the Mustangs can be more competitive in the Junior D league, therefore drawing larger crowds and in- creasing their gate receipts. At the time Clinton was holding its ex- ecutive"elections and deciding whether they should stay Junior C or go Junior D, Goderich was applying for a Junior C fran- chise. On May 17, organizers were informed that their application has been accepted. provincial convention Workshops on Finance, Budgets, Registration Fees, Building and Maintain • - ing an Association, and what O.R.A. can do for local associations, were attendted. During the months of September and Oc- tober there will be an office instruction clinic for any interested girls and their parents along with any other interested persons who would like to learn about the game of Ringette. Discussions will be held on rule - inter- pretations, play, proper equipment and what ringette can do for your child. An on -ice clinic will be held early in the season. For further information please contact the Recreation Office. Even medal -winning athletes have to keep their strength up during competition. Above GDCI's Joe Melady, looking more like a spectator than participant, enjoys a snack after winning one first of two WOSSA gold medals in Senior boys shot put competition, here last Thursday. Below, Melady demonstrates, his putting style. (photos by Patrick Raft's) lnteruptthe interuptions Nothing, it seems, ever goes smoothly in the world of big league sports. A season without some sort of controversy or in- terruption in any sport these days seems to be the exception rather than the norm. The new format for the Stanley Cup playoffs seems to indicate that interrup- tions are what the sports moguls want to see. Instead of the old system, of having only one travel day off between every set of back-to-back games, we now have a system where the players rest even between home games. Sometimes the rest periods last three or four days. In a seven - game series, where momentum has always been a vital factor, that is just too much time between games. The current playoff format could carry the hockey seaSori to Jane 4, if the Philadelphia -Edmonton final series goes seven games. I can remember how amaz- ed people were when the playoffs first egan carrying into on`th of-May-.- that f-May-that time the lengthening of the season was at least justified by a rapid expansion of the league. There is no reason for it now. In a Canada Clip year, sucll as This one, many of the league's premier players are playing with only a little more than a month off in the summer. It's hard to believe that these same players are giving their fans their moneys' worth come playoff time. Speaking of fans, they are the ones most inconvenienced by the yawning time spans between playoff games this year. The wait for the game ruins the whole flow of the series, thus making it harder for the fans to get into. If your team lost the Friday night en- counter you used to be able to say "just wait 'till tommorow night," to the smirk- ing creditor to whom you lost five bucks on the game. Now you have to try and figure out when the next game will be. Somehow, "Just wait until next Tues- day. Or is it Wednesday?" seems to have less impact. . Players must surely lose a lot of their en- thusiasm during the lengthy hiatus between contests. Some of your less cerebral athletes (Edmonton's Dave Semenko for example) probably forget which team even won the last game when they don't play for three or four days. For all hockey's problems with overlong seasons, they at least have never ex- perienced a players' strike, such as the one major league ball players are currently considering. BY PATRICK RAFTIS These strike threats are the most ir- ritating of all types of interruptions (and in 1981 a strike did interrupt a considerable portion of the baseball season). It's hard to sympathize with men who play a boys' game and average salaries of $350,000, per season. What can they possibly want? A dentalflan Maybe 'Free day Care at the ball park? To be fair to the players, baseball owners have not exactly taken a reasonable sta • in negotiations T5 ih-is - point. Sugges ins of freezing players' salaries at 19,4 levels were bound to be laughed off the ble by players and the owners had to k ow that. Such insensiti • . ntagonism is just the sort of thing which c. n ad to the ever - infuriating strike situation. While most players d finitely neither need nor deserve a raise s n their already excessive pay cheques, some do. So, an across the board freeze is unfair to the players on the low end of the baseball pay scale. And once again the fan will suffer most when playoff time comes around. An ab- breviated season will mean an altered playoff format, or at least some change in the method of determining playoff posi- tions. In baseball, the one major sport that currently has a sensible playoff structure, that would be a disaster. So if it comes down to a strike this year, the fans will always wonder who would have won, if the whole season had_ been played. However, looking at it from a silver - lining point of view. If a strike were called within the next few days, the Toronto Blue Jays would enter it sporting the best record in baseball. Then, no matter what happened after the strike was settled, (and something will yet happen to burst the Blue Jays' bubble) the disaster can always be blamed on the strike. Fans of the team would then be able to find comfort for year to come, in • repeating one simple phrase — "What if