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THE HERALD Wednesday November I Page 17 ONLY PER WEEK HONDA CIVIC GEORGETOWN St Hwy LOW COST Georgetown LEASING SALES SERVICE 8731 818 Sports and I Recreation IN Herald Sports ditor 1 DOWNTOWN FAX 1 1 SERVICE Evenings Saturdays Too vouncj a itd Downtown Georgetown 8772761 Relations strained with GMHA Sabre owner questions treatment of players By COLIN GIBSON Herald Sports Editor To know Mitch is to well to be honest he s a hard to know A large bear like gregarious fellow he also gives the impres sion that he is not a man to be toilr ed with or crossed He s also not afraid to speak his mind or take the consequences of his own actions These latter personality traits appear to be at the crux of his dispute with the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association Rightly or wrongly he feels the Sabres have been treated unfairly by the GMHA and he wants to stand up and be heard standing up for the team and for Acton declared La no uncertain terms It s about time we in Acton stood up for ourselves Acton will be my home for a long time and I m proud of the place A native of Kapuskasing in Nor Ontario grew up in the school of hard knocks where you fought for what you wanted and fought to keep what you earn ed Mitch THE GEORGETOWN PONTIAC BUICK RAIDERS goal area was not the safest place to be over the weekend The Raiders had two home games scheduled at Gordon Memorial Arena and when the Ice chips had settled even the rink rats were scurrying for cover The Raiders lost 93 to Peterborough Friday night then were drubbed 112 by Streelsville in the Saturday evening home en counter Heraldphotos Raider roster shuffled By COLIN GIBSON Herald Sports Editor Georgetown Pontiac Buick Raiders saw their 198990 Central Ontario Junior Hockey League Western Division record plummet to 1 10 following a pair of weekend losses at Gordon Arena and for certain players the losses represented farewell ap pearances The Raiders lost to Peter borough Friday evening and 2 to Streetsville Saturday night and a roster shakeup is occurring An open secret around the team has been dissatisfaction in the play and leadership shown by veterans Kevin Dance and Kelly Foster Neither player saw action Satur day night against Streetsvjlle An announcement from the Raiders on the two players status with the team is expected this week Mark French who played Junior hockey for Milton last year and had been in action this year with the Tier II Junior A team in Smith Falls signed with the Raiders Thursday and saw action in the weekend encounters In addition brothers Kevin and Brown have signed on with the Raiders Kevin Brown a right winger the property of the Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League The Raiders paid for his release Older brother Des who toiled for the Raiders last year has put his Ontario Hockey League hopes on hold for the present and rejoined Georgetown Ciglen a has rejoined the Raiders Raider coach Peter Sturgeon expects more new players to join the team this week and is on the verge of cementing an with North Bay Trappers of the On tario Hockey league Given the present disappointing Raider record there was little else the teams executive could do but to institute changes even if some were unpopular The 11 loss to Peterborough Friday night was an accurate reflection of how the team has per formed for the most part this year Raiders came out flat Peter borough jumped out to an early lead and it was turn out the lights time for the Georgetown Peterborough led after the first period after minutes of play and outscored the Raiders in the final period en route to the triumph Bill McDonald Brent and Kevin Burrows scored the Raider goals It was much the same story Saturday night against Streetsville as the Raiders were overwhelmed before they could get their game in gear The Derbys led after 20 minutes opened up a 72 40- minute lead then counted four more times in the final frame without a reply from the Raiders to sew up the 2 win Bill McDonald scored both Georgetown goals with Jim English assisting on both markers The Raiders have two road games this week and it might help the newcomers adjust and get to know their teammates Thursday night the Raiders travel to Brampton and Sunday afternoon the Georgetown crew visit The Raiders next home game is Nov at Gordon Alcott Memorial Arena with once again providing the opposition He is 37 years old married with three children and a successful realtor with A J Tail He also coaches the Acton Novice Rep team He took over ownership of the Sabres this winter and Was viewed as somewhat of a savior by many who felt the team was on the verge of folding One of his com mitments was to keep the team in Acton for at least five years He is no stranger to hockey wars either played minor hockey in played for the Tier II Junior A North Bay Trappers played Junior B hockey in Milton and remained to play Intermediate hockey in Milton for close to 10 years He claims he informed the Sabres executive when he took over the team that he would be a handson owner and he has lived up to the promise He attends practices games and follows the team on the road He also wants to be part of any ex ecutive decisions involving the team He wants a winner for Acton and thus came into conflict with the GMHA The Sabres finished sixth in league play last year and were eliminated the first round of playoffs From the momemt he took over the team Lajeunesse vowed things would improve Obviously new and better players were needed Lajeunesse intended to get these players Three midget aged players Dale McNiven Adam Hilts and Mike McElroy had expressed an interest in playing for Acton at training camp and Lajeunesse wanted them for the Sabres The GMHA worried about the prospect of being forced to fold the major midget team because of lack of players balked at first about releasing the players The players evenually were released and with Acton but the seeds of future problems had been sown The blow up between and the Sabres centred around net minder Chris registered with the GMHA Cambouris bounced between the Sunny Acres Farms Raiders Sabres and Orangeville Crushers camps in training A Sabre executive decision to go with Jim and Dean Bower Sabre goaltenders last year seemed to end Acton interest in Cambouris However when the Sabres lost I four games in a row including a 143 thumping by Orangeville La felt a change had to be made and instructed his general manager Robin to check out the availability of was informed that the GMHA was in the process of form a juvenile team that might need a and refused to release Cambourjs Negotiations for the player s release appeared to be at a stand still so Lajeunesse over the objec tions of team executive members inserted Cambouris in goal for a game against Caledon As Cambouris had not been released the GMHA filed tamper ing charges with the Ontario Minor Hockey Association and the On tano Hockey Association subse quently fined the Sabres 100 and suspended coach Ken Steen for one game Lajeunesse admits his actions were wrong but felt the issue had to be forced and his own in mutable way took the bull by the horns and now must face the conse quences His executive is in an uproar the Raiders are viewing the situation nervously from the sidelines and no doubt the players can t help but be aware of the off ice Raiders aware of hockey dispute COLIN GIBSON Herald Sports Editor Technically speaking the Georgetown Raiders are not directly involved in the current dispute between the Acton Tait Realty Sabres and the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association Reading between the lines however it is clear that the dispute is causing some concern in the Raider camp The Raiders primary affiliation agreement is with the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association as it is the main feeder system for the hometown Central Ontario Junior Hockey League club To damage this relationship would not only cost the Raiders in terms of player availability but would also damage the teams credibility in the community as part of the team s constitution declares that one of the purposes of the Junior B operation is to pro vide local players the opportunity to play hockey at that level The Raiders also have an affllia with the Junior C Acton Realty Sabres However as Raider president Dave Kentner pointed out the two affiliations are apart and separate Technically Kentner said we re not involved in the dispute Our primary affiliat on is with the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association This our first priority We would not allow a secondary affiliation with the Sabres to affect our first priority I can t condone the Sabres tions use of a not released GMHA player and it could have been done differently pointed out The af filiation with the Sabres came about mainly because of the friend ship of the two coaches Ken Steen with the Sabres and Peter Sturgeon with the Raiders so I can t see how our relationship with the Sabres will be directly af fected Raider general manager Bob Hooper noted Its none of our business Were not part of their the Sabres problem We have a good relationship with the GMHA but it s just like anything else you have to abide by the rules He Sabre owner Mitch didnt Raider coach Peter Sturgeon had little to say regarding the SabreGMHA dispute but did note We work with the GMHA for the betterment of player development and I have no problems in that area at all