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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1977-06-27, Page 4Page 4 Citizens News, April 27, 1977 NEWS ITEM: Trudeau visits Disneyland Letters to the editor "Joe Clark, I presurne?" Hawks` spirit unbelievable says coach Dear Editor: The Exeter Hawks have just completed a very successful season. After a few early season problems, things settled down and seemed to gel very quickly. We won the league with an exciting victory over Mitchell, After some tense moments and two losses we eliminated Mt. Brydges in four straight games after we sort of took stock of ourselves. The Mitchell series provided some exciting moments. but we eventually won the sixth game in overtime, On to Wellington and after losing the first game we won the next four to gain a berth in the finals against Stayner. Four straight in the finals and handing Stayner their first home losses of the season made the victory even more satisfying. We beat a good team but the Hawks were better. We are OHA Junior D Champions. All this would not have been accomplished without superb efforts from 18 of the finest young men I have ever worked with. After our problems were solved: in the early new year these young men gave me everything a coach could ask for —hard work, co- operation, dedication and a supreme effort. This all paid off in winning a championship—a first hockey championship for most of them. Those efforts on the ice will long be remembered by me as coach, You did everything I asked of you and then some. You provided me with a challenge which at first was most difficult but once we worked the problems out and started working together as a unit we became a fine cohesive team. The spirit and desire was un- believable—sure.we needled each other, but once on the ice, the effort was for a common goal. We had pride and never let up because we believed we could do it all. This great achievement could not have been possible without the efforts of many people off the ice. Manager Fred Mom- mersteeg deserves a great deal of credit for his hard work and giving me protection during the Mitchell series. What would we do without Bob Drummond to look after us, to pan out all the new sticks to everyone at each game and to cut the oranges—oh those good oranges. Thanks to Pat Denomme for helping. Thanks to Steve Grainger and Bob Mommersteeg for timing and score keeping. Thanks to Jerry Rader for his fine co-operation at games and practices. I wish to especially thank the EMHA executive for all their support and for showing con- fidence in selecting me as a coach. It has been an experience which will last a lifetime,. Special thanks to Wayne Pearce for paying the bills and BillBattenfor looking after transportation, meals and lodging This type of co- operation is what makes the operation run smoothly. Thanks to my wife and family for allowing me the time away from you to meet thechallengeof this experience. Thanks to the great fans who have supported us over the year— you were super. There is no other place in this country that has fans like we do. We appreciate your efforts. I think we provided you with some exciting hockeyandyou gave us the support that we needed to accomplish our goal. A special thanks to those who travelled to Wellington and Stayner with us. You never let us down and we hope we never let you down. Thanks to Phil Campbell for arranging the bus to Stayner. I probably have forgotten someone. If I have, I apologize, but thanks for your efforts too. This has been a great season. The working together of many people—and this is why it makes it so satisfying. We can be very proud of our Hawks and I think the people of Exeter and area can hold their heads high through the efforts of these 18 young men who displayed to me a dedication to a common goal both on and off the ice. I am proud of the way you won this championship. Thanks Hawks—you provided me with a challenge and an ex- perience which I will never forget. You have done something for me and I hope I was able to provide something for you both on and off the ice. Sincerely, Ron Bogart Coach Exeter Jr. Hawks Birthday To The Editor: During the year 1977, the town of Goderich on beautiful Lake Huron at the mouth of. the Maitland River, is celebrating its one hundred and fiftieth birth- day, As a great many special events are planned for the days from June 29th to July 10th, we would like to invite all former Goderichites to return home dur- ing those days. We have reached a good number of friends by letter but feel that there may be others who have not heard of our celebrations. We would, therefore, like to use this column of your newspaper to issue a very hearty "Welcome Home" to anyone in your community who once upon a time, lived in our town. Thank you for -assisting us in. this effort. Sincerely yours, Harry Worsell P.S. If anyone wishes more infor- mation, write to me at P.O. Box 1977, Goderich, Ontario. F';;WITH LOCAL NEWS Published Each Wednesday By J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. ..GNA Manager - Betty O'Brien Member: Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association News Editor - Cathy McKinley second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 Subscription Rates: $7.00 per year in advance in Canada $18.00 per year outside Canada Single copies 204 Hockey watching is rapidly becoming a frustrating af- fair. Sunday afternoon with Canada and Russia playing I was certain it would be a good game, but I was not prepared for the type of game it turned out to be. We were trounced, and deservedly so. The Russians outplayed, outlasted and outshot us and if one more com- mentator tries to make up one more excuse as to why we lost, Pll be tempted to shoot them. Canada didn't lose because they weren't used to wear- ing helmets, or they had problems with their hotel rooms or they didn't have time to get in shape and could only have 20 players dressed or even because as Al Eagleson put it, cut- ting the team from 31 players to 20 split the team morally. Hogwash. • It's time we stopped making excuses and admitted it. We lost because the best men available from Canada were not good enough hockey players to beat or even come close to the Russians. All the excuses don't hold water because our team knew long before this series started just what the rules and regulations were. We sent the best available and they are no where good enough and that is that. However, I wouldn't feel so badly about losing if we had done it gracefully.The least we could do is go down playing good clean hockey not the slashing stick fighting kind that was displayed on Sunday.It is very embarrassing to sit and watch representatives of your country embarrass and humiliate you by using such unnecessary tactics as hacking and slashing displayed by several members of the Canadian team. One player in particular, in my opinion, should be banned from ever playing hockey for or in Canada again. He managed nine minutes of penalties in the one game, in - eluding a major and the commentators informed us he has received almost as many in every other game played by Team Canada so far. As far as I can see, any player who deliberately swings his stick around the heads and shoulders of his opponent, who deliberately slashes and hacks to the extent that player has been, then he should be kicked off the team and banned from playing in Canada. There is just no excuse for such conduct and I sincerely hope the coach of Team Canada keeps him off the ice before he has Europe convinced we not only can't play good enough hockey to win, we don't • have the guts to lose like gentlemen. The only redeeming factor in the afternoon's 11 to 1 fiasco was the thought of the semi-final playoff game to be played at 8 p.m. At least the TV Guide said there would be a game that night and I suppose I should know better by now than to believe a TV Guide. It of course lied to me and had no intentions of showing the Philadelphia -Boston game even though it sounds like it was an exciting game. The only explanation I can think of is the people who made up the TV Guide figured Toronto' would push the Flyers to the seventh game which would have been played Sunday and so they put it in the Guide. I guess they were so depressed when Toronto lost they forgot to make the change and in,the process managed to disappoint a good number of hockey fans. • For 24 years I have been going through the time changes spring and fall, to and from, Daylight Saving Time, but this spring was undoubtedly the most confusing one I have ever seen. Usually you start hearing about the clock going forward one hour at least a week ahead of the time change, but this year it was the Thursday before the change that I noticed the ad in the Exeter paper. Well, I thought, that's funny, I wonder why no one has mentioned it on the radio. Well, when they did mention it on the radio they con- fused me even more. Friday one announcer said several times the change was to be on April 30, not the 24th. I switched to another station and this announcer was saying the time change was on the 24th but he was telling everyone not to forget to turn their clocks back one hour. Now, I knew it was forward, (remember, spring forward and fall back) so by this time I was really confused. It wasn't until Saturday night I finally heard those on the radio and television saying the clocks went forward one hour April 24, Now we're back to getting up in the dark and the way things have been going sometimes T thing I'm still i> ti??dprk, as tlhe.daly roll§ ori , elr� a �•.ae �s. .i 6 Ott `7Ln G:i �i Fj '�,1