16-Trail Times-Friday, March 7, 1980

... ALK
I don't know if you realize it
or not, but something struck
. me the other day about
something which appears in
The Times, once a week and
something which I personally
look forward to reading. They
are the weekly reports from
the
various
recreation
departments in our area.
The Castlegar and Rossland
editions mostly appear on the
same day and Trail's and
Beaver Valley's could show
up on any day, but the thing
which struck me about them
is the wealth of information
contained in them. They are
mostly concerned with what
is being offered by their
various bodies in the form of
recreation of any and all
types. Of course, those
originating in the arenas
where most of the recreation
commissions
are
headquartered get a lot of
play because those are the
things that furnish the
cornm.i$sions with the returns
from the original investment
of recreation dollars.
One thing I like about them
is that they are written in a
folksy manner which I thb1k
tends to bring the writers and
their readers closer together
right off the bat. People who
read them are definitely not
looking for anything sensational, rather they want to
know what is being offered by
the commissions to all and
sundry. to justify their
existence; without these
weekly reports everyone
would be pretty much in the
·dark as to what goes on in the
battle for survival, as the

recreation ~ommissions can
easily turn out to be a
whipping boy for their bosses,
the various boards or councils
which dictate just how much
operating leeway the
recreation people are going to
get.
Talking about information
gleaned from these reports, I
noticed that this past week,
Babs Bourchier, who does an
excellent job for the Rossland
body, is directing our
thoughts to the formation of a new executive body for our
minor soccer program.
When minor soccer started
in Rossland some years back,
I was quite close to it for
some time, but as I watched
its progress I became convinced that it was in capable
hands and I, like a number of
others, took the attitude that
seems quite prevalent in
society today - if someone
else is willing to take up the
challenge, let them have it.
I don't know the exact
makeup of the present RMSA
executive, but I would venture a guess that quite a
number of them are long-time
members and understandably
feel the tedium of their long
tenure in office.
There are a number of
people in town with enough
soccer background to do a job
to see that the good work
which has been done to forward this popular sport in our
area has not been in vain.
When the proposed meeting
date is announced, as it has
been promised it will be, it
would be nice to see a good-

with
Harry
Pepper
\

sized meeting with lots of having a rebirth in our town,
available people to fill a slate is lacrosse. Last year a move
prepared to do their bit for a was made to lure some help
pretty good cause. I'll be for our Redmen from coastal
there and I have the time to points where there has been a
use now, so I hope you'll join surfeit of good lacrosse
me.
.
players for some years.
When we first started Minor Playing as they do in one of
Soccer in Rossland we had a the top lacrosse leagues in its
nucleus of players who had category in the country, the
come from the school management feels our local
program and these boys boys would gain a great deal
formed a juvenile team which from the experience of the
pretty well dominated their people from the coast. We
division for some time. Some shall see what happens when
of those boys are now playing the Redmen swing into action
on the senior Labatts team, this swnrner.
but we are beginning to see
As was expected the
our kids in the other current Castlegar-Trail series
categories beginning to more in the KIJHL playoffs · is
than hold their own now. It is beginning to look as though it
a sign that the groundwork is going to develop into a real
done by those on the coaching dog-fight before it is over, two
lines has been well con- well-matched teams who
ducted; we can all say thank could go right down to the
you to these people for a job wire before it is decided.
The first two games were
well done.
It 'will be interesting to see comparatively - comfortable
what is going to happen to the wins for the respective teams
senior team in the coming on home ice, but the third was
season. The loss of their a different story. Tied up in
playing coach was a real the late going it remained for
blow. Who they will get to fill former Warrior star cenhis shoes remains a moot treman, Mike Oliver, to break
point. Yes, it will be real the tie and give Trail the 2-1
interesting to watch what advantage in the series.
transpires in the -coming
season; the all-round comOn last thought: Seems
petition is getting stronger as strange to be that the B.C.
the years go by with the Senior Hockey League are
constant supply of aspiring into the last stages of their
players coming out of the playoffs while the WIHL are
minor program around the only now baeginning theirs.
country. The momentum for
With the two leagues
soccer is strong and getting meeting in the Savage Cup
stronger - let's hope it is showdoWJ), someone is going
maintained.
to have to wait quite a while. I
wonder if this is calculated or
Another sport, which is now just happenstance!