Oakville Beaver Weekend, Sunday, December 18, 1994 â€" 22 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER ORTS AND RECREATION k p It was a blast from the past at Loyola high school on Thursday as a team of former varsity players suitâ€" ed up in the gym one more time to take on this year‘s senior squad in an exhibition game. "A lot of the members were from our backâ€"toâ€" back Halton championship teams from 1988/89," said one of the coaches, Brian Arsenault. Most of them had gone on to play college and university ball in Canada and the United States, including a couple on scholarships. While all but a couple of alumni had graduated from post secondary studies, they proved they were still a force to contend with on the court as they overcame a small half time deficit to eke out a conâ€" Left photo: a battle of the centres with the alumni‘s Davor Milardovic who went from Loyola to a scholarship with division one Siena in New York State battles Loyola‘s present day centre Nick Rupcich. Right photo:the alumni‘s Darnell Vrban, who is presently on a baseball scholarâ€" ship at a junior college in Florida, guards Loyola‘s Reggie Silvestre. (Photos by Peter McCusker) Loyola grads give basketball seminar 260 Speers Road vincing 101â€"78 win. "It was nice to see them," said coach Reno Nalisa. "It was good for our kids. It was a chance to see what students have done with their basketball and education." There was a reception in the library after the game and then the coaches and alumni went to shoot some pool and share some memories. The alumni team included (in brackets is where they played or are playing basketball): Andre Baptiste (Laurier and Guelph), Mario Vendetti (Laurier), Davor Milardovic (scholarship at division one Siena, New York), Ron Santiago (scholarship at (See ‘Loyola‘ page 23) It wasn‘t easy, but John Base, the 1983 Canadian junior champion who has made five trips to the Ontario Tankards, will get another shot this year. x He managed to advance out of the Oakville Curling Club on Wednesday, grabbing the fourth and final spot with a hard fought 8â€"6 win over Doug Gardiner. "It was real close, but we managed to win in the end. It wasn‘t a walk in ©1994 McDonald‘$ Restaurants of Canada Limited the park. They‘re a good team." Club skips Ed Desormo, Ian Paul and Doug Wiley had already locked up three of the four spots in the club‘s triple knockâ€"out competition. Base and Gardiner were vying for the final spot, each having lost two games. Base said he was up 5â€"1. Then Gardiner "scored two to make it 5â€"3, and then stole two to make it 5â€"5, and stole one to make it 6â€"5." Tankard vet finally makes it out of the club playdowns "We scored two in the ninth to make it 7â€"6 and stole one in the tenth to make it 8â€"6." In their quest for a spot in the Ontario Tankards, the four Oakville teams will advance to the zone playâ€" downs in Welland on January 6. Base had mixed success in a couple of recent high profile east coast tournaâ€" ments. At the $40,000 McCain SuperSpiel, at which he was making his fifth i pe d e un h s e i o y a video when you purchase any Extra Value Meal, large sandwich or bmkfast sand (, .h-as.cMOlIOlmmemmN* j‘i} ms1 wuh , ae wl in appearance, he bowed out in the secâ€" ond round. Although he made it to the semiâ€"finals of the event one year, he said it‘s generally not been kind to him. Then it was on to Newfoundland where he made it to the semiâ€"finals of a Brierâ€"laden tournament. He lost to the Newfoundland Brier entry. The other semiâ€"final was between the Northern Ontario and Manitoba Brier reps, so he was certainly in very good company.