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Times Advocate, 1994-11-30, Page 18Page 18 Times -Advocate, November 30, 1994 Sidelines By Fred Groves El i.m i nate those restrictions Inadequate. That's the only word to de- scribe the facilities being used by elementary school sports teams. The gymnasiums are like min- iature shoe boxes and playing sports in them is near im- possible. Sure they can go through the motions, but what I saw at Hensall Public School on Thursday was shocking. Side-by-side two games were going on in a space where barely one should have been played. Most of the gyms are like this and for those who are trying to learn a sport, it certainly hinders their ability. Don't blame it on the schools though because they are not the ones who build the gyms and af- ter all, sports is an extra cur- riculum activity. Any spare money the Board of Education has is going to go to books, computers are even enlarging classrooms. ,There is however something that can be done about tourna- ments such as the volleyball ones held at Hensall and McCur- dy on Thursday. Instead of forcing two cramped games to go on at once because of time restrictions - eliminate those restrictions. Here is the solution - a one day tournament at the South Hu- ron District High School. They have two big gyms, one of those can be divided in half with a sliding door which would more than adequately accommodate an elementary school tourna- ment. You could have three games going on at once and the ad- vantage of this would be tre- mendous. No overcrowding, and high school coaches could get a look at some potential varsity players. If the tournament was held during the weekday, it would also give Grade 8 students a chance to familiarize themselves with the school and maybe meet a few of the teachers. Can somebody out there please tell me why this wouldn't work? Is it a problem for ele- mentary school teachers to bring the students to the high school? Is busing a problem? Please let me know. South Huron has got one of the best athletic programs I have ever come across. They don't have the bucks like the big schools have but every one of the athletes are dedicated to be- ing a Panther and the coaches go far above the call of duty. I'm sorry but I have to pull a bit of racism here for a second. Baltimore in the Grey Cup. Bal- timore? That's in the United States right...CFL stands for Ca- nadian Football League so they might as well change the name to International Football League. From the sidelines:...A couple of corrections from the sports pages last week, on page 21 Lucan Irish forward J.D. Adamthwaite was mis-identified as Daryl Boshan. Also on page 22, the goalie making the save in the iec tournament is Scott Bed- ard 6f Zurich, not Scott Bogart. Apology goes out to the Exeter junior ringette team for missing some of the names in the pho- to... 4 This Week in Spo ts... • Minor hockey roundup - page 19 • Junior 'D' hockey - page 20 Lucan Irish to celebrate 25 years By Fred Groves T -A staff LUCAN - Twenty-five years of hockey memories. From Jim Freeman and Andy Hardy to Dave Revington and Wayne Urbshott to Ken Needham and Greg DePrest and everyone else in between. Saturday night, the Lucan Irish Six will look back on 25 years of hockey history as the OHA Junior Development League team will en- joy a night of reminiscing. Freeman was the club's first man- ager, Revington played on the 1969 inagural team and would later be- come a coach and Needham guided the club to four divisional titles in five years. Past president Clare Stanley who served as the club's president for over 20 years, said many people are looking forward to the night's activ- ities which begin with a social time starting at 3 p.m. at the Lucan Community Centre. "I think you have to look back. There's a lot of guys who have gone through the organization. They've gone on and they're either coaching or in civic duties. I think they can all trace it back to spend- ing time with the executive," said Stanley. Although numbers aren't certain, Stanley said he and the rest of the current executive expect over 350 people to attend. "We tried to get in contact with as many as we could by letter." he said. Saturday, current president Gary Wilcox will introduce his coaching staff of Scott Bogart, Dave Dal- rymple and former Irish forward Mark Bannon. While the night will be fairly in- formal, there will be a chance for Revington to introduce his 1982 provincial champions and coach Ed Parkinson will introduce the most Since 1969 they've won two OHA championships current OHA champs, the 1987 team. In 1982, Revington and the Irish beat the Langton Thunderbirds, five years later with Parkinson at the helm, the Irish beat the Ta- vistock Braves. Impressive teams: The most re- cent championship team had some pretty impressive players on it. Among them were captain Bob Thirlwell, centre Wayne Urbshott who was the league -leading scorer with 55 goals and 102 points and Brad Muir who was selected the team's Most Valuable Player. In 1982, Revington took the Irish to Langton where he watched as Jeff Shipley scored the first two goals and then Steve Glenn notch the winner in a thrilling 3-2 win. Goalie Dan °Sceli kept the puck out of the net and when the final buzzer sounded, the championship trophy was presented to captain Paul Wraith. That 1982 team was somewhat of a cinderella story as they finished third during the regular season with a losin'g 17-21-2 record. When it all began: The Lucan Irish Six borrowed the name from the Intermediate team of the 50's of which Stanley was a goalie for. Freeman, who in later years would pass the manager's job on to his son Kcn, had Harry Langford as the honorary president back in 1969. In 1969, the Irish, coached by John Anderson, took on teams from Zurich, Mitchell, Belmont, Lamb- eth and Exeter as well as skated in exhibition games against the Lon- don Junior 'C' club. In one of their first exhibition games against the Crediton Tigers, Revington had two goals in an 8-5 loss while Jeff Craig, Dennis Burt and Jim Hearn also connected. Stanley is hoping the memories will be relived on Saturday and he noted a lot of hard work has new executive and it's an op - maybe even a few "lies" will be gone into the planning. ponunity for them to show their told. As for the 25th reunion itself, "It's a lot of work. It's a fairly stuff." Poverty shocking for Szabo and Ontario team Kirkton 's Matt Szabo was recently in Cuba for a series of exhibition games By Fred Groves T -A staff KIRKTON - It was an experience that young Matt Szabo will never forget. The 14 -year-old South Huron District High School Grade 9 student recently returned from Cuba where he represented Ontario in a series of exhibi- tion soccer games. While the trip may have been exciting and inter- esting, soccer wasn't the main focus of Szabo's trip. Adapting to the Cuban style of the game was one thing, but adapting to the poor culture was another. "It's very run down," explained Szabo of Cuba. "There's a lot of kids on the street. I don't know if they have homes or not." He said many of the houses he and his teammates saw, had no doors and many of them were mere "shells." In fact, when he was asked what he liked the least about the trip, Szabo was quick to say the amount of poverty. On the other hand, what he liked the best was the big waves from the ocean. The trip was part of a program called Canada - Cuba Sports and Cultural Festivals. When Szabo tried out for the provincial under -14 team last sum- mer, they asked him if he would be interested in go- ing to Cuba to play. Szabo had to come up with the money himself. He worked during the summer around the family farm but said his parents are going to repay him. In Cuba, the Ontario team were given tours of the capital city of Havana and visited the Canadian em- bassy. "We walked in a group wherever we went, the whole team," said Szabo. Invitation: Although he didn't make the Ontario team, he was given the invitation and, the full-back saw quite a bit of playing time against the Cubans. "I played in every game except for about five minutes near the end." While North Americans may think that soccer here is getting a little overly aggressive, it's nothing to what Szabo and the rest of the Ontario team are used to. "There's lots of kids on the street. I don't know if they have homes or not." - Matt Szabo "They really didn't know how to tackle. 1 hey'd do it from behind. Everyone was upset with them." He added that the referees seemed to favor thc - hosts which also made things a little tougher. On- tario played three games, losing twice and tieing the other. Another thing Szabo noticed different about the style of play was the speed. "It's a faster game, they never stop running." The weather was somewhat difficult to get used to as they would practice in temperatures that would reach well over 30 degrees. "It rained on the soccer field and the next day it was bone-dry." In Ontario, if a team from Cuba, even a youth team was to visit, it no doubt would draw quite a few spectators. However, that wasn't the case as Szabo and the Ontario team played in front of small crowds. "It started out little, there was 30 or 40 then there was a couple of hundred that wanted to see us." The local fans however may have not been there just to watch an international soccer match. Szabo hinted the Cuban fans may have be looking for handouts from the Canadians. The local reaction to NHL strike Since October 1, many have been going without their hockey fix By Fred Groves T -A staff EXETER - Since October 1, Na- tional Hockey League owners have locked out the players and the af- fect of the longest strike in the league's history has filtered down all the way to minor hockey. While Exeter has got a big con- nection to the NHL in veteran de- fensman David Shaw of the Boston Bruins, there are many others who are missing their favorite sport. Ilderton's Ken Needham has a very interesting birds -eye view of hockey as he is not only the coach of the London Junior 'B' Nationals but he is also the manager of the II- derton arena and owns a sports shop. "The problem with kids is they are being hurt by it," said Need- ham. We're getting more people at- tending hockey games." One example he used was the re- cent OHA Junior Development League game held at the Ildenon arena between the Lucan Irish and the Seaforth Centenaires. Usually, the annual game held in Ilderton to show appreciation to that community's minor hockey as- sociation draws a small crowd, this year it was larger and Needham said that may have a lot to do with the NHL strike. People want to see hockey - no matter what level. As far as the Nationals is con- cerned, Needham says, "I haven't discussed it with them. They miss watching the (NHL) games." One of the biggest sellers as far as a sports store goes is NHL jer- seys, Needham says 'Christmas is too far away to see whether or not there will be less sales. And what does he think of the strike in general, "both (owners and players) make too much money. They don't trust each other." Life goes on: Sports fans man- aged to -survive without seeing pro baseball's World Series and hope- fully during the winter months the owners and players will make some head way and they'll be back on the diamonds in the spring. Many fans, whether it be ball or hockey, don't get overly excited un- til near the end of the regular sea- son when the playoff 'who's playing who' situations heat up. "It's almost Christmas, there's no hockey and the world still goes on," said South Huron Recreation Cen- tre's recreation department Lynne Farquhar. "I probably miss the World Series more." She says that while people miss something at first when it's gone, once it sinks in it is gone, things get back to normal. Farquhar used as an example, the Exeter bowling al- ley. When it was gone there was a lot of talk. Now, people either go somewhere else to bowl or ,they have found something to replace it with. In the arena all day and quite a few nights, Farquhar listens to what hockey fans are saying. "A lot of people are fed up. At first there was more talk than there is now." She also said there is some ap- athy towards the NHL owners and players because average people really can't feel sorry for them be- cause of the large salaries the players make and the large pricc tags owners put on their tickets. Fix not need yet: One al- ternative to watch g hockey would be to head to a video store and rent such flicks as Slapshot, Young- blood, Mighty Ducks I and II. However, Karen Monck, owner of Oscar's Video says there hasn't been a great increase in video ren- tals but she did say thc hockey strike wasn't hurting business. "It's not something 1 can put a number on but the odd fellow docs come in and say there is nothing on TV so he rents a movie," said Monck. She is a member of the Exeter Minor Hockey Association and their Shamrock League repre- sentative. Monck says when she goes to the meetings, the NHL strike isn't mentioned. When asked if minor hockey games are attracting more fans, Monck said it may at the older divi- sions but not at the younger ones. If someone needs a hockey 'fix' they may came to a Hawks ora midget A► or juvenile game. "1 don't know if anyone keeps stats," she said of how many go to a minor hockey game. "I still think most of minor hockey fans are par- ents, relatives, friends." Whcn first interviewed about the strike, Shaw told the Time -- Advocate he wasn'; surprised the lockout was going o take place. Exeter's most famous hockey player added that it was kind of ex- pected. A month ago when asked if he would played somewhere else, Shaw said, "I'd hate to go and get hurt. A couple of guys may do it." A few of them including Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dpug Gilmour who looks like a moving billboard for his new team. There have been celebrity games, tournaments and even others who have wanted to play in other leagues. In Monday's Globe and ►tail, Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players' Association was quoted as saying, "we are just working on the big issues that re- main out there and more internal homework to see how we can move Me process along." The average fan, the Ken Need - hams, Lynn Farquhars and Karen Monks don't cart about the issues, they just want hockey back. But as clearly indicated by Far- iquhar, once it's gone, and gone for la while, we may not miss it that much.