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Wednesday, February 9, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D1 I'.NEW! ^ u g a T ^ ig k t " " " l e e S >TIie1 , S p o r t ^ l e d m k y Town Centre I Dorval a q e w IiI.H A .r 9 B a n ju l 844-8703 Friday, Feb. 11th, 10pm M ETEORS An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail:nnelson@ haltonsearch.com J Two-time Olympic veteran hopes lor last stand in Sydney By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR pounds, or 48 kilos, if you prefer), has stepped in the ring for Canada in three pan-am games, three Commonwealth games and ... two Olympic Games. He'd like nothing better than to end his career by adding a third Olympics to his impressive ring The good news for Filane is that the Canadian resume before returning full-time to his day job, national champ doesn't automatically qualify for which is running a sportswear embroidery busi the Olympics. He just gets a much easier route. ness and a springwater company, all of which will While Tyson rests on the sidelines, Filane, for soon expand to a Kerr Street location in Oakville. the first time in years, will have to join the rest of His Olympic trifecta dream, however, did suffer his division in a box-off, that will be held in an unexpected roadblock, when after 10 years of Halifax on Feb. 21st. owning his weight class across Canada, he was The box-off winner, of which Filane definitely turfed out last month as national champ. has to be favoured, will then meet Tyson on It didn't help that he happened to be in the March 3rd in Sudbury in the all-important fight to same division where the big fight was taking place determine Canada's Olympic representative in that outside the ring -- with Sikh boxer Pardeep Nagra division. winning his right to box with his beard on. But not But as the newly crowned Canadian champ, after delaying the division championships a month Tyson only has to win once. To usurp the after all the other divisions had completed theirs. Canadian champ as Canada's Olympic contender, "I was against him at first because it was affect the box-off champ would have to beat `em twice ing me directly, but afterwards if he believes he (unless he manages to knock him out in the first has to fight for that, maybe that's something he match). believes in and just let him go with it ... Just to complete the story, Canada's Olympic "I sort of took a step back and said, well, it's a contender still doesn't get tickets for the long rule that maybe has to be changed and things flight to Sydney. He first has to finish in at least along those lines." the top four in a zone Olympic qualifier involving Ironically, in a preliminary bout, Filane -- still, North and South American countries. at that point, the 10-time Canadian champ -- met Filane concedes he was down on himself after up with the Sikh boxer, easily dispatching him, finally losing his Canadian title. But not for long, although not before winning some grudging mind you. Think of a boxer, after all, and you're respect. not likely to envision them crying over spilt milk. "All controversy aside, he came to prove a "It's a road I've never had to do before because point, and he came to fight, and he did fight. I've always been the champion so I've been able Technically, he's not a sound boxer or anything to miss a lot of the box-offs and the challenge along those lines. But he is a tough individual. matches and all that kind of stuff so it's new for H e's 29 years old, and you know he can take a me," he said. good shot. He came into that fight, it was sort of "It's a humbling experience but it's something the final chapter in his book, sort of idea, and he that's going to make me stronger, I think. survived. You could say he went four rounds with `T he first couple of days I was depressed and the 10-time Canadian champion. stuff but my coaches and all my managers and that "He came to fight. A lot of people were expect are saying, well, just shake it off." ing once he got his court injunction and he was And that's what he's done, conceding that his allowed to fight he probably wouldn't even have focus may have been distracted just a bit, as all of Ph o to by B arrie E rskine showed up. Domenic Filane is a 10-time Canadian champ and a two-time Olympian and he hopes to end his us aging baby boomers can relate to. "So for him showing up, he won right off the "When you're 30 years old, it's not like when career with a third Olympic Games in Sydney this fall. bat, right there." you were first starting out when you were 20. All And he went the distance. you did was box. Now, I'm getting married in the `Professional boxing is a little more money hungry "He did come to survive. So I mean it's a dif summer so I got that on my mind, I'm building a house, I got that and you're treated just like a race horse. That' s som e ferent fight when someone's not there to open up. He was just there on my mind, and we're running my business, and I've got that to survive. And he did that. And I take my hat off to him for that thing that I didn't ever want to have to worry about, you always on my mind. aspect of i t ... "Everything is piling up and, you know, boxing maybe sort of know, fighting for food, or 10 years down the road my "He did well. He proved to everybody he could be there." took a second seat, sort of thing. kid pulling my pant legs, saying Daddy when are you "But now if I want to go to the Olympics, I've got to put all that going to fight again, I want another bike. It's something stuff As far as the facial hair at the heart of the issue, Filane is still behind me and say, for the next two months, three months, this that never appealed to me.' keeping an open mind although there's no question he would prefer is what I've got to do. This is what I'm going to do. to fight a clean shaven opponent. `T h at's the goal. To go to my third Olympic games, and end the · Domenic Filane For one, he said the Sikh boxer's beard was tucked down over career off that way." during our coverage of the `96 Atlanta Olympics, also won his first A his chin, making what is a key target harder to find. He's already refocused and training hard. round match, but suffered his setback in the third and final champi "You're not really sure where the chin was. Is it down lower,,or His day starts with some "road work in the morning, like run onship match -- for what would have been his 11th national title -- higher or whatever, so you're just aiming at the head area." ning and sprints." to Nova Scotian Tyson Cave. His second concern was health-related in that it could add more Then it's off to the Atlas boxing club in Toronto where he is a "He (Cave) gave me a close fight for the Pan Am trials, so we hair into the mix, which can get into eyes and cuts, irritating them. long time member, for six evenings a week as well as three mid-day knew he was going to be a tough competitor and the whole bit. The bottom line, though ... sessions to "do some technical work with my coach, like on pads, "It seemed like everything was going great for us the first two `T h e only thing I've said before, I don't care if a guy's got three and stuff along those lines." rounds. We were doing everything we trained to do. We felt we had eyes, four arms and three legs I'm going to fight whoever they put "Back and forth (from Oakville to Toronto)," he concedes. the edge on him, but as the points kept coming back to the comer in front of me whether he's got a beard or not, so that's my stand on -- when we go back to the comer they tell us what the score is -- You'd think it would run him ragged. But that's not the case. He that." won't let it. Burning the midnight oil maybe the mantra for corpowe were down one and then we were down two. "So it seemed like whatever we were doing right, or whatever (See 'Filane' page D3) Filane, who was prominently featured in the Oakville Beaver D omenic Filane, 10-time Canadian boxing champion in the light flyweight class (106 we thought we were doing right, we weren't get ting any credit for it. "So then the last two rounds, you sort of panic a little bit -- I wouldn't say panic -- but you start picking it up a little bit. `There was some controversy in there as well. I threw a punch to the body and he reacted on it, sort of made it look like it was a low blow. I got two points off for that. It was kind of everything was not going my way that day." Series sweep is a good tune-up for prestigious Quebec peewee tourney The Oakville Rangers triple-A peewee rep team swept the Guelph Storm in three straight games in the opening round of their Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) playdowns. The victory coupled with their regular season first place finish earns the Rangers a bye for the second round of the playdowns which comes at a very timely period for the Rangers as they leave for a ten-day road trip to play in the Quebec International Peewee Tournament. The Rangers are delighted with the support from all of their sponsors, the OMHA and the Oakville Hockey MOM's as they prepare for their opening match against the Czech Republic on Monday (Feb. 14th.) Prior to that they'll warm up on Saturday (Feb. 12th) with an exhibition match against a team from British Columbia. Anecdotes, stories, and suggestions have been com ing in to the team from all sides as they ready themselves for this once in a lifetime experience. Coach Scott McKenzie has been skating the team extensively in their practices and working the defence on different checking methods as the Quebec tournament goes with a non-contact format. This should favour the speedy Oakville forwards and their puck carrying defencemen. Watch for updates on the team's website at ... oakvillepeeweeaaa.com Here's a recap of their opening round series. (Game 1: Oakville 9, Guelph 2) Despite Guelph opening the scoring 26 seconds into the game, the Rangers did not panic, and when Justin Donati responded for Oakville with the first goal, the Rangers swarmed the Guelph goal area for the balance of the game. Leading the attack were Daniel HanniganDaley with 3 goals and 3 assists. Captain Nick Dodge with 2 goals and 2 assists, and defenceman Daniel Ringwald with 1 goal and 5 assists. The balance of the points were picked up by Donati, Charlie Giffin and Nick Davis. (Game 2: Oakville 5, Guelph 0) This time, Oakville opened the scoring early and did n't look back as defenceman Ben Heersink started the Rangers off just 12 seconds into the game. Matt Pike went the distance for Oakville, earning the shut-out.The Oakville team showed great poise in this away match by not responding to the numerous stick and punch attacks from their opponents as the Guelph team struggled to keep up with the fast skating Oakville team. Other goals were scored by Daniel Hannigan-Daley (2g), Charlie Giffin and Justin Donati. Assists went to HanniganDaley, Giffin, Justin Donati, Mancuso, Tough, McKenzie, Davis and Tyler Donati. (Game 3: Oakville 5, Guelph 3) To the credit of the Guelph coaches and players, they went hard the entire game and forced Oakville goal keeper Chris Rowan to make several key saves in the final few minutes. Even though they were down two games and by three goals in the third period the visiting Storm did not let up, forcing the Rangers to go flat out throughout the game. Goals were scored by Nick Davis (2), Tyler Donati, Nick Dodge and Mario Mancuso. 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