TIIE HERALD Wednesday August Page 17 WEEK 1989 HONDA CIVIC GEORGETOWN St cost Georgetown SALES SERVICE 8731818 Sports and I Recreation DOWNTOWN FAX SERVICE Evenings Saturdays Too ill VOUnGS IDA- PHMMnMV ITO Downtown Georgetown 8772761 Minor hockey organization Ik ratifies new agreement By COLIN GIBSON Herald Sports Editor From out of chaos confusion and a certain amount of consternation on the part of innocent bystanders comes well compromise In a telephone interview from his home in London Ontario Minor Hockey Association Presi dent Jim Pollard confirmed that the OMHA executive had ratified the agreement to become part of the newlyformed Ontario Hockey Federation The OMHA executive meeting was held this past weekend in Toronto and an obviously relieved and pleased Pollard stated Im very happy for the players especially now we can get down to hockey Pollard further stated that he had received assurances from Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League President John Gardner that his organization would sign on the dotted line with the Ontario Hockey Association to follow suit As predicted and urged by this writer the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association with Presi dent Murray Costello at the forefront got the feuding hockey families together in Toronto last week and a deal was hammered out ensuring CAHA recognition and sanction for all concerned For those who might have been summering on the Polar Ice Cap some background materia is of fered Way back in January the On tario Hockey Association attemp ted to restructure the hockey venues it oversees as a branch of the CAHA The Ontario Minor Hockey Association and the Metropolitan Toronto Hockey Association balk ed at the restructuring so the OHA in a powerplay terminated the agreement it had with the organizations in June leaving the and the MTHL effectively blocked off from CAHA contact Without the link to the the two organizations would not have been able to participate in interna tional competition and would have been unable to take part in provin cial and national championships A number of meetings failed to resolve the dispute so the OMHA Sabres camp A very successful Rookie camp was staged Sunday in Guelph by Acton Tait Realty Junior Sabres according to team president Robin The team was granted the right to recruit players as homebrews from Wellington County in a recent Ontario Hockey Association deci sion and the Sabre banner was flown at the Victoria Road Arena in Guelph for that areas Junior prospects According to Inscoe skaters took part in the threehour evalua tion session and at least 35 Junior C hopefuls will be notified this week either by letter or telephone that they will be invited to the Sabres Main training camp which will get underway at Georgetowns Gordon Alcott Memorial Arena on Sept A HaltonPeel rookie camp is slated for Gordon Arena Aug and the MTHL combined forces to form the Central Canada Hockey Association and petitioned the CAHA for recognition as a branch apart from the The CAHA initially backedoff getting directly involved all the while hoping that the combatants would sheath their swords and hold peace talks instead of councils of war Roughly players coaches and referees would have been directly affected this year in terms of lack of recognition so something had to be done or else the whole infrastructure of hockey across Canada could have been affected Hence last weeks meeting in Toronto and the formation of the Ontario Hockey Federation The federation replaces the as the provincial voice of the and includes the OMHA OHA and the Northern On tario Hockey Association The federation has a threeyear mandate and it is expected that when this term runs out hockey in Ontario will have a different look CAHA President Costello is the federations chairman Each member organization will have two trustees associated with the OHF but still retain their own identity and be responsible for the handling of their own internal pro blems and finances Former OHA President Brent Ladds will act as the coordinator for the four groups and answer to and deal directly with Chairman So everything is back to normal Now if someone can find a puck or remembers what one looks like maybe we can finally get down to some real hockey a HOME HARD ORGETOWN GOLF TOl Raiders golf tournament Georgetown Raiders of the Central Ontario Junior B Hockey League staged a very successful Annual Golf Tour nament at Georgetown Golf and Country Sixtyfour golfers took to the links with Danny Harrison winning Low Gross honors with an and Harry capturing Low Net laurels with a Pictured above from left to right Low winner Harry Raider President Dave Kentner Raider Vice President Wayne Pries Air Canada sponsor representative and a member of the Raider Board of Directors Ray Pasma and Low Gross winner Harrison Rick West won a prize from Alberta Distillers for being closest to the hole on the Nth the Star Fuels prize for the longest drive on the fifth hole went to Brent Presswood Dave Karuse received a prize from Bill Smith Automotive for winning the putting contest and John was judged the Most Honest Golfer The Air Canada prize of a trip for the first on the sixth hole was unclaimed as was the Georgetown Weal Insurance prize of a car for the first holeinone on the eighth hole The Raiders threenight rookie camp opens Aug at the Gordon Memorial Arena with he main camp set to go Sept again at Gordon Memorial arena Herald photo Day of Champions The Georgetown Baseball Associations Day of Champions in Tyke and Squirt divi sions is all set to go on diamonds C and The Barn at the Fairgrounds this Saturday Ten games have been scheduled running from 9 am through 3 pm All championship games par ticipants will receive awards an MVP for each team will be chosen by the opposing coach and there will be team trophies for Gold medal champions GBA spokesman and Day of Champions organizer Bob Kit chen is inviting parents friends and sponsors to the daylong feast of rounders Magical minor hockey memories Kitchen also wished to express the GBAs appreciation to the parent volunteers and especially sponsors who are so important to the organizations program DAY OF CHAMPIONS Schedule of 9 Diamond Red Final Dia mond Blue Final Burn Diamond Gold Final am Diamond B Si Her Final Diamond Final Barn Dia mond Silver Final lpm- Diamond Gold Final Dia mond Squirt Cold Final Diamond B Semifinal Diamond Semifinal 1 MVP for each team be chosen by op posing coach Team for gold champions As I See It Colin Gibson Sports Editor The recently resolved involving the Ontario Minor Hockey Association the Ontario Hockey Association and in turn the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association might best be termed A tempest in a jockstrap I mean hat they decided upon one organization pipelining the was the OHA proposed way back in January All the intervening mon ths showed protests notwithstan ding is that once certain egos are hi and preening leathers brushed properly agree ment can be reached mi anything It really is uniorlunate hen youngsters regardless of the spoil are used as pawns by the in some unfathomable chess game where ven the win turn to be losers 1 barkened back to my minor hockey roots and magicaj memories flowed as the floodgates of a time slowly opened 1 was born in Paisley Scotland and arrived along with my parents luggage in Canada when Believe it or not Paisley once had proiessional hockey team called the Pirates However sport was as foreign to my family Scottish Hockey Star as ice in my fathers drinks of Scotch The town of Cochrane in Nor thern Ontario was where the Gib sons put down roots and where I went through the rites of initiation intolheCmadiansporl of hockey Cochrane is best known as the home of I he Polar Bear that tourist by rail to the thriv ing When familx arrived in Cochrane the official population was set at unders tand the town has grown somewhat over the years Perhaps the Polar Bear had cubs II the Pittsburgh Penguins can boast ol playing an arena called The Igloo Ihen he Cochrane arena thai timemight best be termed The Icicle was arena ind sometimes we used to go outside to warm up between periods There was a Dominion grocery store about three blocks from the arena and was not an uncommon sight on Saturday mornings to see a motley collection of minor hockey players battling lor seats on the radiator at the front of the store played up to midget allstar hockey in Cochrane and playoff names in the Spring sometimes resembled a cross between water polo and roller derby If it was a warm Spring pools of water would form in the corners and little mounds of Ice could be spotted here and there over the ice surface because the roof leaked To this day I can still see players in a semicircle in a corner trng to bat the puck out a pool water A catholic school about three blocks from my house had a regulation outdoor rink with boards and lights and 1 cant count the number of gloriously nights I spent whizzing over the frozen testing my talents against ghostly foes who laded in and out of icy breath- fogged view Lake Commando lies placidly in the centre of Cochrane and once the springfed lakes surface had frozen over the second week in September dust kidding me and my pals would scrape off an area of snow for hockey games that in retrospect seemed to go on hoursaday Once again however the perils of Spring had to be heeded Remember the joke about the guy who had a breakaway on the St Lawrence River well our out door season would usually come to an halt after one of us went through the ice and our parents decided enough was enough We would get Hockey Night in Canada midway through the se cond and I still cant pass an gas station without think ing of Murray and his im mortal words Always look to Im perial for the best The population of Cochrane was predominately French so obvious- I was a Toronto Maple Leaf fan A highlight of my youth was meeting the legendary Toronto- and later Sabre rearguard Tim Horton grew up Cochrane and still had relatives in town when I lived there He came to town to address the annual Father and Son hockey ban quet one year and a neighbour of ours Mel Owens was Hortons gran father I used to run- errands tor Mr Owens thought nothing of it when my mother told me I was wanted at the Owens house After being ushered into the house I waited by the door to see why I had been summoned Mr Owens and a monster came to the door The monster was in troduced to me as Tim You want to talk BIG Hey were talking Mack truck here I spent the next hour visiting with Horton and his family and listening in on NHL hockey tales that people would have paid to hear Yes minor hockey memories are precious and shouldnt be sullied by adults who presume to know whats best for the players whether the players like it or not As I see it anyway r-