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lsNown.owa rbvuk' I Single stage 5 69, Dual stage s99 Pi ck u p & D e l i v e r y A v a i l a b l e CURRENT POWER MACHINERY INC. 1661 L a k e s h o re R d . W Smithiiown Ro.xl in C U rln o n lS M is s is M u g < i `` ` , l Editor Norm Nelson Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: nnelson@haltonsearch.com SPORTS DOES Y O U R C AR WAX G IVE Y O U B E T T E R P R O TE C TIO N T H A N Y O U R C U T-R A TE CA R IN SU R A N C E? Do n "I m ill just anyone to insure your car. see me- m Wayne McGill 2345 Wvrcroft R d #21.Oakville 905-847-5671 ^Russian teen right at home in Oakville By Norm Nelson BEAVER S P O R TS EDITOR T here is at least one english word that Alex Shariyev has absolutely no problem with. And that's, `ball!' In fact, he used the word quite often on the court Monday night as he helped his St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders senior team to a 55-48 win over the host Oakville Trafalgar High School Red Devils in Halton high school basketball action. The win improved the Raiders record to 5-2 while the Red Devils dropped to 2-4. In only his second game with the Raiders. Shariyev managed to lead the Raiders in scoring with 17 points. The seven-foot-one. 187 pound teenager, who has come to Oakville from a small town in Russia, about 500 km south o f Moscow, had made his debut with the Raiders exactly a week earlier as the Halton high school season resumed after the Holiday break. He scored 15 points in the first half o f an eventual 60-35 win over E.C. Drury before suffering a minor injury that ended up sidelining him for the rest of the week. He ended up missing what would have been his home debut last Wednesday (which Aquinas won 50-49 over Iroquois Ridge) and also the M.M. Robinson tournament this past weekend. Monday's game against Oakville Trafalgar marked his first complete game with his new high school team. He has, understandably, caused quite a stir in the local Halton league with his tantalizing mixture of height, finesse and talent. And he certainly showed off his weapons on Monday. His efforts at both ends o f the court got the crowd buzzing with several blocks and jam s and he showed off the finesse side of his game with a couple o f three-point ers. O f course, he a/so showed consid erable rust and unfamiliarity with this teammates. He was not dominant. Actually, the entire team appeared not to know each other in the fourth quarter as they watched a 15-point lead (44-29) evaporate, at one point, into a 48-48 tie. Aquinas managed to emerge out of the fog just in time to score the remaining seven points -- five of them, in clutch fashion, from the foul line. Emerging from the dressing room after the game, the towering Shariyev appeared sheepish about the fourthquarter collapse. But he said, in still freshly learned english. that he just wants to help the Raiders "to win the Halton cham pi onship." His presence certainly spices up an already exciting and very competitive logjam in the Volpe Division. In the bigger scheme, however, none o f the Oakville-based Volpe Division schools have cracked the Toronto Star's top-10 list for the GTA. The only Halton school to do that is Nelson, at #10, over in the Burlington-based Richardson Division. W hether he can make an im m edi ate difference this year for Aquinas will depend on how well he can mesh in with his teammates and how fast he can get him self into game shape. Understandably, he's not a fountain o f quotes, given that he's still new in the country, still learning a new lan guage. and, well ... still a teenager. But his favourite player, he said, is Kevin Garnett. He is staying in Oakville with his Uncle, Branko Zmirak. who was at M onday's game, as was his cousin. Karen Zmirak. Ironically, or perhaps not, Karen is also a star basketball player for the Aquinas Lady Raiders, who is receiv ing much scholarship interest from the U.S. In Grade 11, she has now won three straight Halton championships with the senior team, and was even a key player in her grade nine year when the team nearly upset St. M ary's in the provincial championship game. Branko chuckles that the three of them -- with both Karen and Branko very much under six feet in height -- have raised eyebrows, o f late, while working out at the Oakville 'Y' gym. Shariyev is an 18-year-old, Grade 12 student, but Branko said a scholar ship is just not an issue at this point. First things first, he said his Russian nephew needs to concentrate on just acclimatizing him self to Oakville and learning the language. He already seems to have accom plished the first task. <-vr- h Ivan Shariyev played his first com plete game for St. Thom as A quinas on M onday. T O P LEFT: Shariyev gets good height while the Devils' Cody G ear (#11) looks on. T O P RIG H T: stretching between gam e action. M ID D LE RIGHT: talking to coach Mike Giam m ichele. BO TTO M RIG HT: the Raiders" Steve M eagher (#21) fights off the Devils' Brian G ram by (#10). Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver "I like it (Oakville)," he says. Next, said Branko, they need to ensure his foot -- which has already sidelined him -- is healthy. Then he needs to get in shape, keep bulking up and keep working on his skills. He's apparently already gained 15 pounds, eating Oakville food for a month. The reason he has come to Oakville, said Branko, is no different than why millions o f immigrants before him have ventured across the ocean: "very simple -- for a better life, he came over." He explained that Shariyev is his sister's son. Interestingly, he said, that his sister and brother-in-law back in Russia are not particularly tall. He ended up at Aquinas said Branko because it's their neighbour hood school, notwithstanding that it also offers an English as a Second Language program. " He can walk from my home. That's the only reason he's going to Aquinas. I am close to Aquinas. That's why he came to Aquinas." No one was more interested in the newest Oakville resident than the Oakville Trafalgar team. " He's a good player, a good out side shot," said Randy Anderson. Red Devils co-coach, along with Wayne Thornhill. Both are volunteer commu nity coaches. "I had a guy almost as tall as he was, in Calgary when I coached. "He has got a good outside shot. "He needs to put some weight on. But he will do well. "He has got nice, clean, smooth movements. "I wish him all the luck." Added Thornhill: "He's pretty decent. He has got good height, good shooting skills. Like everybody else, he needs to bulk up a little bit, but that's okay." While the Red Devils coaches were impressed with the new player, they were also impressed with their own team 's fourth quarter, which just fell short. "The second quarter we didn't have any legs, the third quarter they came out flat again. We went back to man-to-man and we brought it back 22 points -- brought it back to the tie." Point guard Alonzo Thornhill led their comeback with a game high 21 points, generated by some gooc^slashing to the basket. OTHS might have completed the comeback if any of their trey's had fallen in. O T H E R A CTIO N The competitive Volpe division became even more jam m ed up with Iroquois Ridge, which suffered the heartbreaking 50-49 loss to Aquinas last Wednesday, jum ping right back to beat previously undefeated Loyola 6153. In other senior action on Monday, it was Milton over Blakelock, Q.E. Park over King's Christian and E.C. Drury over W hite Oaks. Here's a quick snapshot o f the sen ior Volpe standings going into today's action: Milton (6-0), Loyola (5-1), Aquinas (5-2), Iroquois Ridge (5-2), E.C. Drury (4-3). Q.E. Park (3-3), Oakville Trafalgar (2-4), Blakelock (2-4), White Oaks (1-4), Bishop Reding (1-5) and King's Christian (06 ). Top six make post season. Here's today's senior schedule: Bishop Reding at Loyola: E.C. Drury at Milton; King's Christian at Iroquois Ridge; White Oaks at Q.E. Park: Aquinas at Blakelock. ^/McGrath and Oreskovich make Ontario team Two O akville natives have made the Ontario U-17 hockey team which will com pete next month in the Canada W inter Games in New Brunswick. They are Evan McGrath, who suits up for the Kitchener Rangers o f the Ontario Hockey League and Victor Oreskovich who suits up for the M ilton M erchants o f the Ontario provincial junior A league. A full 17 o f the 20 players hail from the Ontario Hockey League (including McGrath). Oreskovich is the lone provincial junior A player. There is also one from the United States Hockey League and one from the Superior International Junior Hockey League. The team will participate in the 2003 # 19 15 N am e McGrath, Evan Oreskovich, Victor Pos. C C Height 6.00 6.02 Canada W inter Games, February 23-March 1 in C am pbellton and Bathurst, New Brunswick. Team Ontario will compete in a division with Manitoba, Nova Scotia. Alberta and Prince Edward Island. The team will also participate in the World Hockey Challenge next D ecem ber in St. John's, Newfoundland. At one time, the two were former team mates in the Oakville minor hockey system. McGrath is the fourth top rookie scorer in the OHL this season with 34 points (12g. 22a) in 44 games. Oreskovich is the 11th top scorer in the provincial junior A west division with 63 points (22g. 41a) in 42 games. W eight 175 185 H om etow n Oakville, ON Oakville, ON > C lub Team Kitchener - OHL Milton - OPJHL Evan M cG rath at the unveling of the U-17 O n ta rio team m ate. V ictor Oreskovich also m ade the team.