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I 6 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, May 11,1994 Thanks, Mike, for The Compliments Dear Editor On behalf of the players, the team management and the executive executive of the Bowmanville Eagles Junior C hockey club, I would like to express our sincere appreciation appreciation for the outstanding coverage coverage that the Canadian Statesman, and in particular Brad Kelly, have provided to us in our very successful 1993-94 season. In my three years with the Eagles, Eagles, I have watched Brad put a tremendous amount of time and effort into the weekly articles about our club. His interviews with new personnel are informative informative and entertaining. The 1992-93 season saw Brad develop the "Eagles, Gameday" program insert, which includes team rosters, up to date statistics, a weekly player profile, etc. These inserts have become collectors' collectors' items. This year, Brad took the time to. obtain league statistics from every Junior C league in Ontario and prepared ratings for the province. province. In appreciation and recognition recognition for all of his fine work, the Bowmanville Eagles have nominated nominated Brad for the Ontario Hockey Hockey Association's Media Award for 1993-94. Oiir nomination was seconded by last year's winner from the Napanee Beaver who said, "Brad is the best sports writer he has seen in all his years in the newspaper business." Best of luck, Brad. We look forward to many more years of working with you. Best regards, Michael D. Laing Manager, Bowmanville Eagles In the living room of her family farm at the age of seven, Debbie Wilkes can distinctly recall performing performing her Olympic figure skating routine. Chairs and couches were strategically strategically placed about the room, allowing allowing her the opportunity to impress impress the imaginary judges who examined her every move. It was at that particular moment in her life that she decided to become become a figure skating champion. Sometime later, she fulfilled that dream on a number of different levels levels of competition, both nationally and internationally. "Don't let anybody limit you," she warned at attentive audience of grade four through six students at Lord Elgin Public School. "Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do something. "If you want to be good at something, the only person who can get you there is you." Wilkes was in town representing the highly-acclaimed FAME (Female (Female Athletes Motivating Excellence) Excellence) program, which has ah impressive impressive stable of speakers who have enjoyed successful athletic careers. careers. The speakers stress the importance importance of goal-setting, and living an active lifestyle. Wilkes' love affair with figure skating began at an early age, and she channelled that affection into a silver medal in the pairs competition competition at the 1964 Olympic Winter Games held in Innsbruck, Austria. She still remains active in the sport as a television broadcaster with the CTV network. Her most recent assignment had her paired with Brian Orser, providing the commentary for the figure skating competition at the Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. To this day, some 30 years later, her voice still fills with emotion when talking of her own Olympic medallion. "I re-live it every time a Canadian Canadian steps on the medal podium," she said. "To see that Canadian flag go up and sing O'Canada -- it's an incredible and wonderful experience." experience." Raised in a small town of a mere 600 people, recreation facilities for kids were understandably limited. There was no gymnasium, no pool, and virtually nothing to do. The only facility that was being utilized in town, was a "dumpy old arena" that housed the town's skating skating club. The arena was so small that Wilkes can recall having to be careful careful when doing lifts. "Otherwise, my skates would hit the top of the ceiling." With double runner training skates attached to her boots, her first year of skating at the tender age of five lasted about three feet. She stood motionless, tears streaming streaming down her face, refusing to go any further. Not discouraged by her first experience, experience, she signed up the following following year with much better results. "I've been on the ice every day of my life since," said the Scarborough Scarborough resident. By.the time of her sixteenth birthday, she was Canadian and North American champion, and had finished fourth at the 1962 World Championships in Czechoslovakia. It was at that point in her life when Wilkes made a proposal to her mother that she felt would en hance her skating career, and vault her into an Olympic champion. Her idea involved putting school aside, and concentrating on skating full-time. Not only did her mother object to the idea, she imposed a restriction restriction that if her daughter's marks dropped a measly 1%, her skating career would come to an abmpt end. Wilkes took her mother's threat very seriously. "If there is one decision in my whole life that stands out as being more important than all the others, the one to stay in school would be it," she stressed. "If you go away from here today today with only one idea, make it to stay in school. Stay as long as you possibly can." When looking back over her illustrious illustrious career, she doesn't place the silver medal performance at the 1964 Olympics as her best performance. performance. Rather, the bronze medal that she won with partner Guy Rev- ell at the World Championships that same year sticks in her memory memory as the finest performance of her career. That competition also marked the last one she would skate in during during her amateur career. Today, the 47-year-old stays active active in the sport as a coach, and producer of Innovations On Ice. She has also been able to parlay her Masters of Communication degree degree in T.V. and Radio from Michigan Michigan State University into a broadcasting broadcasting career. When she opened the floor to field questions from the students, inquiries about her thoughts on the Olympics, and the. controversy that evolved between U.S. skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan were foremost in everybody's everybody's mind. Wilkes shared her opinions on a number of different elements that exist in the sport: Tonya Harding - "She is a tough cookie who has done very well for herself." Nancy Kerrigan - "She was a perfect lady, right up to the last moment." moment." Lillehammer, Norway - "It's a wonderful country and very cold." 1994 Olympics -- "They were a Figure Skating g% by Brad Kelly *§91 fabulous experience." Elvis Stojko - "He is the greatest greatest skater today." Kurt Browning - "My heart broke for him. He is the best skater I have ever seen in my life." Josee Chouinard - "I felt so sorry for her." Judging - "Generally speaking,' the right person wins. I do believe the system works. ' ' | I Former Olympic figure skating silver medalist, Debbie Wilkes, spoke to students at Lord Elgin Public School last Friday morning about the importance importance of goal-setting in their lives. Most recently, Debbie was a commentator commentator for the 1994 Olympic Winter Games. She is shown above accepting accepting a gift from Claire Christodoulou following the presentation. Falcons Prepared for Second Season. Belle River Wins Jr. C Ontario Title The Bowmanville Langley Utilities Utilities Falcons will embark on their second season of senior EOBA league play this weekend. The Falcons, in their second year of operation after a long sabbatical, will open the 1994 regular season with three games in as many days. On Friday night, they kick off the schedule with a game in Little Britain Britain at 7:30 p.m. The following night, they travel to Scarborough for a 7:00 p.m. start. On Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m., Bowmanville hosts Port Hope at Soper Creek Park in the home opener for the local club. Bowmanville, who finished with a 5-19 record and in twelfth spot a year ago, will be looking to improve on that mark. Under a new format devised by league officials, Bowmanville has been grouped in the Eastern Division Division with Belleville, Peterborough, Port Hope and Kendal. They will face each of those teams four times. To round out the 28-game sched ule, they will play a home-and-; home series against teams in the Western Division, which include Orillia, Markham, Scarborough, Ajax, Whitby, and Little Britain. Bowmanville will play the majority majority of their home games on Sunday Sunday afternoons, with three Saturday ; afternoon and five Wednesday night games sprinkled in. In last year's playoffs, Bowmanville Bowmanville faced Belleville in the opening round. After winning the first game of the best-of-three series, they lost two straight and were eliminated. There will be no game seven magic for the Rockton Real McCoys in the Ontario Jr. C finals. The Belle River Canadiens, the number one ranked Jr. C team in Ontario throughout the year, demonstrated demonstrated why they were singled out as the team to beat After winning the opening two games of the best-of-seven final by scores of 8-3 and 7-5, Belle River collected the provincial title with a pair of wins this past weekend to sweep Rockton in four straight games. On Friday night, in front of a hometown crowd, Belle River took a 3-0 lead in the series with a 5-2 win. They closed out the series on Sunday afternoon in convincing fashion with a 9-3 victory. "We seemed to run out of fuel, and then we got frustrated. We played like we were worn out," said Rockton's manager, Ross Gumming, Gumming, during a telephone interview on Monday night. Undisciplined play hampered Rockton's chances of getting back into the series during the 9-3 loss in game four on Sunday. Belle River scored six times on the power play. The series marked the first time during the playoffs that Rockton didn't play a seven-game series. In their previous five playoff encounters, encounters, Rockton eliminated Dundas, Chippawa, Glanbrook, Orangeville and Bowmanville in the seventh and deciding game. , Remarkably, each of those victo ries came while playing away from their home ice. The seventh game victory against Bowmanville came/ in sudden-death overtime. ' "We certainly had a wonderful- run," agreed Gumming. "We are 1 very proud of all our players." Rockton, who finished fifth overall overall in the Niagara District East League, played a total of 42 games in the regular season, posting a 17- 20-5 mark. During their playoff run, they played 39 games, finishing with a record of 20-19. 328 RITSON RD. 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