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The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, June 8,1994 9 "I'd Like to Thank the Academy, My Producer, My Loyal Fans.. . ! A great deal of ridicule and good-natured kidding has been shared in the office, at my expense, following the announcement of an OHA award that we have been selected selected for. I say we, because there are many more people than just myself who justifiably deserve credit for the media media award. But those accolades can wait. I'm pleased, and also a little embarrassed embarrassed by the whole thing. That probably sums up my feelings best after learning I was selected for the award. To those who have called into the office, stopped me to offer congratulations, or even submitted letters, I thank you all. And, just for the record, I would like to alert everyone that the letter to the editor on today's sports pages from Terry Kelly, is not from any relative of mine. Of course, Terry is better known in these parts as Superfan. And those of us who follow the Toronto Maple Leafs closely will realize he is the same Terry Kelly who sits on the Board of Directors for the team. While I'm setting the record straight, it is probably best if an explanation explanation is given regarding the award. In last week's announcement in Bits and Pieces, the caption read something to the effect that all of Ontario has been put on notice that I am the best sports reporter in the province. Although, admittedly, it does have a nice ring to it, it is a little misleading. You see, junior hockey teams from across Ontario submit the work of the media who cover their games to the office of the Ontario Hockey Association. From there, the newspaper clippings are reviewed reviewed by a panel, and they select a couple of media outlets for an award in recognition of their contribution contribution to the team. This year, yours truly and a radio station from Stratford will be honoured honoured at a banquet on Saturday, June 18, in Burlington. The whole thing was initiated by Jim Sarazin, a very fine sports reporter reporter from Napanee, who won the award last year for his coverage of the Napanee Raiders Jr. C hockey team. After exchanging newspapers with us during last year's Ontario quarter-final, he became aware of the space that we provide for the Eagles each week. It was at his suggestion that the Bowmanville Eagles nominated me for this year's award. Of course, now that winning the award has become official, the teasing teasing hasn't subsided. Editorial staff are on the verge of placing tape on the floor around my desk, emulating the walls that were someday to be built for the office of Les Nessman of the hit comedy show WKRP in Cincinnati. From this day on, the ÔHA media media award has been affectionately dubbed the 'Silver Sow,' by staff. Yes, the. same Silver Sow award depicting depicting a pig on a wooden base that Nessman won for his outstanding coverage of hog reports. Really, I have nobody to blame but myself for the abuse that has been thrown my way. After some of the gags and trouble I've tried to stir up here in the last five years, it is all warranted. So skeptical was I upon receiving receiving the news that I had won, I questioned questioned whether or not staff had concocted concocted the whole story. After writing this column, for my sake, I hope they haven't Even the publisher's son, er, I mean, Associate Publisher, Rick James, got into the act of giving me a hard time. It was he who delved into my past in last week's announcement announcement making mention of the fact that I once sold juice for a living. This from a guy, who despite being married and raising a lovely daughter, still has his nutritious, well-balanced lunch sent to work with him by his mom. Every time I see him carrying the box - did I mention that a jar of milk is included? -- it prompts me to begin whistling the theme song from the old Andy Griffith show. If you call him Opey next time you see him, he will fully understand understand the meaning behind it I speak from experience. I was the only kid in second year college whose mother sent him to school with a lunch. And how embarrassing it was if the milk money thàt made its way to the bottom of the bag jingled as I put it into my locker prior to the start of classes each morning. Rick .was right about how far along I have come since starting here at The Statesman as a sports reporter away back in November of 1989. ' The night before my first day on the job here, I took a crash course from my wife on how to work our camera. Up to that point, I didn't even know how to load a roll of film. Then, on the first day, my editor, Peter Parrott, put some photos of the interior of a house on my desk, and asked me to do cutlines for each one. When he left the area, I leaned over to reporter Andrea Adair, and quietly asked her what a cutline was. Why Peter just didn't ask me to put a couple of sentences together to describe the photo, I'll never know. Things have come a long way for me since that first day. One thing that has never changed is the high regard that I have always held for the Bowmanville Eagles. I spent a number of years watching their games while growing up, and the last five viewing games from the press box. Unfortunately, I never watched a game from the bench, as both of my attempts at making the team failed. To them, and in particular manager manager Mike Laing, I pass along my thanks for their part in nominating me for the award. Awards by Brad Kelly I promise not to make this/ sound like some Oscar award winning winning speech that goes on thanking, people forever. ! But, this award isn't an individ-S- ual one. There are a number of peb- V pie who deserve credit for the way ? the sports pages are presented. , r My editor, Peter Parrott, allows* me the freedom to give thé exten-y sive coverage to the Eagles that we,, feel they deserve. Once the information and phq-^ tos have been finalized, Don Bish-iî op and Rick Patterson are responsible responsible for laying them out on pages to') make the overall presentation an atoi tractive package. rn So this award does go much') deeper than just my efforts. ^ To all, I thank you. If this does sound like the type'; of speech I was hoping to avoid!' 1 then it's time to cut to a cornmer^. cial. '■ iijt Note from "Opey": I hope y où' enjoyed your brief stay here.-And., it's so close to payday, too! ■ On Friday, June 3, the Legion ma 7 jor peewee Orioles played a very offensive offensive game against Orono, defeating them by a score of 124. Paul Schofield started the pitching with three strikeouts in the first inning. inning. George Scharrenweber continued continued the pitching for the next three innings, innings, allowing only three runs. Russel Gaal pitched in the fifth with three strikeouts and no runs. Hitting was the name of the game, with singles by Darren Kok, Paul Schofield, Aaron McSwain, George. Scharrenweber, Jamie McCarthy, Russ Gaal, Steve DeGraaf, Joe Campa and Pete DeVries. Judd Woods, Joe Campa and Aaron Aaron McSwain hit a double each, with Greg Elliot making a sacrifice hit to advance the runners. Good field efforts saw Peter DeVries DeVries and Jamie McCarthy pick off the lead runner at second, with Jason McCulloch and Steye Dao making sure Orono didn't get any more runs in the last three innings. The Orioles then went on to play Pickering on Saturday, June 4, in a one-day tournament. Russ Gaal, Aaron Aaron McSwain, and Jamie McCarthy pitched a good game. However, due to several fielding errors in the seventh, and only two hits the entire game, the Orioles were eliminated after one game. . , On Sunday, Clarington once again faced Ajax. Jamie McCarthy and George Scharrenweber were the pitchers. They kept Ajax down to one run until the fifth inning. Steve DeGraaf and Steve Dao picked off the runner between first and second with a fly ball to Darren Kok and then a throw to Steve Dao at first, counting for a double play. Despite singles by Steve Dao, Greg Elliott and George Scharrenwe- bcr, as well as having runners in scoring scoring position several times, the Orioles lost the game with a 5-0 score. College Ball Player Thankful Despite Limited Playing Time ■l *6*3, Keith Varley (centre), has qualified to compete at the Special Olympics National Championships that will be held in Nova Scotia in July. Keith will be representing the Ontario team in four swimming swimming events. He is shown above with members of his Newcastle Splashers team, Kristen Worboy (left) and Brandy Vachon. Kristen won a bronze medal at the provincial championships in Hamilton, while Brandy won a gold medal at the same meet. Athlete to Swim For Ontario at Special Olympics Championships by Brad Kelly Count Keith Varley as one of 52 athletes who will be representing Ontario at the Special Olympic National National Championships. Varley received notification recently recently that he will wear the Ontario colours during the competition that brings the best Special Olympic athletes athletes from across the country together. together. Varley, along with his 51 teammates, teammates, will travel to Nova Scotia for the Nationals in mid-July. The 18-year-old Bowmanville resident will focus his efforts on the pool, where he will be competing in the 100m freestyle, 25m breaststroke, breaststroke, 25m freestyle, and 50m freestyle. freestyle. Varley was selected for the provincial provincial team after posting exceptionally exceptionally fast times at the Ontario championships championships held in Hamilton. "I knew that if he swam well, he would have a good shot at making the (Ontario) team," said Carol Gonder, who is the coach of the Newcastle Splashers team that Varley Varley has trained with at the Fitness Centre for the past four years. "The competition was stiff in Hamilton, but Keith put his mind to it and came through." There were 208 athletes at the meet in Hamilton. From that number, number, 52 were selected to represent Ontario at the National Championships Championships in Nova Scotia. Sanvi"* for 1994-95 Season BOWMANVILLE MINOR HOCKEY ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATIVE TEAMS MINOR NOVICE thru JUVENILE For Applications Call: Paul Jackman 623-9538 DEADLINE: June 15th, 1994 SELECTION: June 27th, 1994 MAIL TO: B.M.H.A. P.O. Box 191 Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 © by Brad Kelly In retrospect, Mark Tranter wouldn't change a thing after completing completing the first year of a two-year baseball scholarship at Howard Junior Junior College in Texas. "With what I learned, it was definitely definitely worthwhile," said the 19- year-old Orono resident of his experience. experience. As a freshman, Tranter was fully aware that playing time may be scarce on one of the top junior college college teams in the nation. After completing completing the exhibition fall schedule a perfect 20-0, and ranked as high as fourth in the counfry, his playing time was indeed limited. He was designated as a late inning-reliever, inning-reliever, and appeared in only, four games. His limited role was due, in part, to the starting staff, who completed a remarkably high 22 games. The politics that often surround a Canadian kid trying to compete with the hometown American players on a baseball field had little to do with his inactivity, he said. "I don't think that had anything to do with it Some of the guys didn't even get an opportunity to play at all. "If the coaches saw that you wanted help, they were more than obliged to give it. Overall, I'm happy happy with the role I played as a freshman." freshman." Howard Junior College, located in Big Spring Texas, just five hours west of Dallas, solidified their baseball baseball program as one of the best in the entire United States. "With what I learned, it was definitely worthwhile." Competing in the Western Texas New Mexico Junior College League, they posted a 57-12 record, and were one of two teams from the league to be ranked in the top ten of the nation during the course of the year. Their 12 losses were only one more than they suffered in 1991 during during a campaign that culminated in a National Championship. "The coach was really pleased with our year because we had so many freshmen," said Tranter. "We expect to be ranked really high next year." Howard were one of two teams from the conference to secure a spot at the state finals. But, after posting two wins in their opening games, they subsequently lost two in a row and were eliminated from the double-knockout double-knockout format tournament The baseball program did maintain maintain the high rate of success that the school has in varsity sports. Both the men's and women's basketball teams were also ranked in the top ten nationally during the course of the year. It's quite an accomplishment for the school, which has a student body of 2,000, widi all of die athletes residing residing on campus. When he wasn't spending time on the diamond improving his fastball fastball to 84 mph, Tranter was in the classroom gaining honour roll status in kinesiology. The discipline and on-field attitude attitude that is stressed by the couching staff is also expected to be carried over into the classroom. Though pleased with both his academic academic performance and signs of improvement on the field, everything everything wasn't perfect for Tranter. If it were, he wouldn't be contemplating transferring from the school in search of a better opportunity. "I would have to split the pitching pitching this year, and that's not what I'm looking for," he said. "I want to got to a place where I can have a spot in the starting rotation." To meet his needs, Tranter has been in contact with a number of universities, including Texas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Kansas and California to name a few. All offer what he is seeking, which is a season season that affords players the opportunity opportunity to play eight months of the year. At this juncture, he is leaning towards towards enrolling at Whalen Baptist University, a Division I school in Texas. If things don't work out the way he would like, then returning to Howard Howard Junior College for his final year wouldn't disappoint him at all. "If I have to go back, I wouldn't regret a thing," he said. In the meantime, he is playing for the Ajax juniors this summer, where he has a 2-0 record and an' ERA of zero. In 12 innings, he has.; 15 strikeouts. - , n . Those are the kind of numbers; that would impress scouts at a number number of respected universities. Mark Tranter k Searching for Father's Day or Graduation Gift Ideas?? Drop into the New Sports Shop. We've got plenty. 0WMANVILLE SPORTS SH0 623-0322 58 King St. W., Bowmanville OPEN EVENINGS Î2 Present this ad for an additional 7% Savings by Ted Denny Cowan Pontiac-Buick THE COMPUTER IS MAKING NEW CAR ORDERING QUICK AND EASY Remember the days of utter confusion and frustration when ordering a new car? The salesman would take out a very large binder called a "Vehicle "Vehicle Ordering Guide" and would proceed to decipher the information information for you. This could be a real challenge. For instance, in some cases, if you requested a certain option and didn't read all the information associated with that feature, you could easily miss the fact that in order to get that option it was necessary to order certain other items ic: A V6 Engine might also require you to order an automatic transmission and specific specific wheels on some models. The other challenge was to have easy to understand access to all the options and features that a particular model had to offer without a lot of research. Now, some of the more progressive progressive dealerships have given their sales staff computers with complete vehicle ordering guides loaded on the hard disc. With this new computer sys-{ tern, any new model the dealer-' ship sells can be called up on the , screen fully displaying all the! features and available options. If an option is selected, any optiçns that must accompany it arc automatically highlighted and added on. I've had the opportunity to use one of these computers, and find them quick and efficient. Both the Sales Rep. and the Customer can view the display on the screen and pick out the desired options, then print it out. The system has proven proven to be particularly effective when ordering trucks. Customer acceptance of this system has been tremendous, particularly for O.M. employees. For more information I can be reached at Cowan Pontiac-Buick 905-623-3396. @