Page A10 The Castlegar Sun Wednesday, November 22, 1995 Castlegar player hooks hockey scholarship JEFF GABERT Sun Staff Chilliwack for money. Currently, Horcoff is second in At the end of last year’s RMJHL season, Castle. gar native Shawn Horcoff made the best decision of his life. And soon he'll be getting paid for it. Horcoff asked to be traded from the then-RMJHL Trail Smoke Eaters to the BCJHL's Chilliwack Chiefs and now all he's doing is running an extreme- league scoring with 49 points in 22 games and he expects to score 120- 130 points before the season is out. The league's leading scorer is Hor- coff's linemate Tyler Quiring. Horcoff says his success has a lot to do with his linemates of Quiring and young Russian star Ilia Borisy~ ly close second in the BCJHL scoring race and look- — chev. ing forward to a promising NCAA career at Michigan State University. Not bad for a 17 y started his Junior ‘A’ career in Trail at the ripe old age of 15. In two years with Trail, Horcoff tallied 154 points in just 96 games before being traded this year to “We're really clicking right now,” said Horcoff. “All three of us are id hockey p who “We've got a good mix. Quiring is one of those guys who you give the puck to and it goes in the net while Borisychev has the big shot.” = Hoops Shawn Horcoff All Horcoff has to do as centre is get them the goods. Which isn't at alll hard since he’s got his goods after Signing a letter of intent to Michi- gan State Nov. 8. But the most amazing thing about Horcoff is his age. Born in 1978, he is at least two years younger than any other player in the top 20 in BCJHL scoring, not to mention his age compared to the national Junior ‘A’ player rankings where he sits in 12th place. Yet, he hasn't missed a beat. “It's not like it's my first year, so I've adapted to it,” said Horcoff. “I don’t get treated as a young player because I’m a veteran now.” last time being two years ago. That game drew an attendance of just over 200 fans to the SHSS gym. Thank you for your business, Castlegar! Used bikes for next to nothing! Bike Parts & ies Off If you ride a bike, save big now! The doors close Nov. 25th! PHOTO BY DAVE HEATH 2181 Columbia Ave CASTLEGAR + 365-5699 TION GUARANTEED election + wality = rice Wo'vo WO FU Continued from AQ manship as well as their ability to PUBLIC NOTICE ATTENTION: BUSINESSES AND RADIO LISTENERS IN CASTLI LSON, THE BOUNDARY AREA AND ALL SHIPS AT SEA. EFFECTIVE 1500 HOURS ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1995, THE SUNSHINE RADIO NETWORK WILL GO QUIETLY INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT. BE LISTENING TO, THE 24TH TO Tis TAKING ITS PLACE, IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. DIETER STACHOW, celebratin 5th Birthday by givin Marilyn Strong Publisher Marge Lalonde Circulation/Accounts ye: Nicole Beetstra Advertising play above-average basketball. A new team is chosen every year with candidates from all over the United States, They travel all over the world playing any opposing team fur- nished by the sponsors. This will be the third time they've come to Castlegar with the Hickey hopes to pack the gym this time around because fans get to enjoy some great basketball and they'll also be helping the SHSS basketball which gets all extra funds from the event. “We'd like to see 350 fans,” said Hickey. “The people get to see some showmanship and it’s Coach without A nice government funded organization called the B.C. Sport Services Branch publishes a mag- azine named B.C. Coach four times a year. Sports Minister Colin Gabelmann puts in his pep talk at the beginning and the rest is filled with sensational stories of coaches and the good they bring to the world. This magazine goes out to everyone involved with sport in the province, including the media, who usually read it and then deposit it in the nearest recycle bin. But a funny thing happened on the way to the blue box. The Fall, 1995 issue actually held a neat little tidbit of information. They actually took some time to recog- nize a coach from the Kootenays. THE GAB ON SPORTS JEFF GABERT And when it was revealed the famous coach was from Castle- gar, that once pitiful magazine ~ began to take on Sports Illustrat- ed status. This well-known local coach is one of 15 B.C. for the And the secret of his success isn't really a secret “It's hard work and total commitment to the game,” said Horcoff. “You've got to prepare your- self mentally and work hard. And if you play with guys you're comfortable with, it works.” Overall, the season is still young and there's a lot of hockey yet to be played. Horcoff says he wouldn't mind winning the scoring title, but he'd rather see the team win the Centennial Cup. “I'd hope to win the title,” said Horcoff. “But if it doesn't happen that’s no problem. I wouldn't be dis- appointed if I didn’t.” Your next chance to see Horcoff in action won't be until Jan. 4 when the Chiefs find their way to Trail to take on the Smokies. a nice kickoff to the season for the boys.” According to Hickey, the SHSS senior boys team is look- ing forward to possibly one of their best seasons ever. “We're expecting one of our more successful years,” said Hickey. “It's the first year we've had to make cuts. There's depth at every position.” a team late that knowledge over to coaching. Indeed he was a good Selkirk volleyball coach and he is deserving of the nomination and the award. Too bad there’s no more Selkirk volleyball program for him to coach. Due to budgetary restraints and wholesale restructuring at the college, the powers-that-be decided all athletic programs would undergo a “retrenching” this year. What that means isn’t entirely clear, mainly because it's a big word smart guys at colleges use to confuse slow-witted sports reporters. Personally, I think it sounds like they're just digging them- selves a bigger hole. Well if that’s the case, the gov- emment is supplying the shovel. After all, they would have enough money to run the pro- gram if the government didn’t cut their grant to the colleges. So here they are in one publi- cation saying Perra is one of the best coaches in Canada and then in another boring government publication named The Budget, they take away the job he’s good at. It may make you smile, but. 3M Coaching Canada Awards. This year 59 coaches from across Canada were nominated for the prestigious awards which recog- nize the top male and female coaches in both team and individ- ual sports. If you're a coach, it just doesn’t get any better than that. And considering most of the B.C. nominees are from the coast or other large centres, it's even more unbelievable someone from Castlegar would get a chance to win it. But as usual with these kinds of happy tales spun by the gov- ernment, there always has to be an ironic twist. Whether it’s bingo or hit-and-run ferries, something always has to be taint- ‘ed like tuna. The Castlegar coach dancing the irony twist in this case is Mike Perra. The nomination for top male coach in the team sport category reads: “Perra, head coach of the men's volleyball team at Selkirk College, has developed a highly P progr widely admired for its attention to athletes’ needs both on and off As it reads, that statement is correct. As head coach, Perra was one of the best volleyball coaches the BC College Athletic Associa- tion has ever seen. He under- stands the game as a player and Sports Reporter has the ability to positively trans- Bring or Mall your entry to: The Castlegar Sun, 465 Col Must be 19 or over to enter to win. Employees of The Castlegar Sun not eligibie to enter. For aa | bia Ave., C: gar VIN 1G8 ENTRIES: Thurs., Nov. 30 + 4:00 pm WINNERS TO BE CHOSEN DEC. 1, 1995 g d it’s giving Perra a headache. To make matters: worse, it’s unlikely Perra gives a flying hoot whether he wins the 3M award or not. He'd rather be coaching vol- leyball than winning awards. That's what coaching is all about. You can almost hear the accep- tance speech now. “Thanks for the award guys, but wouldn't it be great if you nice folks at 3M just handed me a cheque so I could put my team back on the court and start teaching players skills the way I used to. Oh yeah, thanks also for the banquet.” T've met Mike before and I’m sure he wouldn’t say it quite that way. But he'd be thinking it. Perra is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet in the sports world and he works tirelessly making his players and himself better at volleyball and, indirect- ly, life. On the court, he has spiked the odd ball and even been blocked once in a blue moon, but he's never played the game he's faced with now. He's one of the top 59 coaches in Canada with no team to coach. He has spent a lot of time and effort “developing a highly suc- cessful competitive program” only to see it pushed to the back bummer. But he’s made the Fall,1995 issue of B.C. Coach magazine. Now all he has to do is make the 1996-97 Selkirk College budget. Castlegar Golf Club Annual General Meeting Sunday, Dec. 10, 2-4 p.m. FIRESIDE BANQUET ROOM Wednesday, November 22, 1995 PROFILE PAGE B1 BATTLING Story by: Mark Heard Icohol is not picky when it comes to choosing its victims. Young or old, tall or short, happy or sad - it’s a drug that has ruined the lives of all kinds of people! It has preyed on politicians and celebrities, as it has preyed on regu- lar, everyday people. The only thing that stays the same with alcohol abuse is the results that it has on its victims. Tracy (not her real name), is a 21-year-old Castle- # = © gar woman who has experienced the disease of ) alcoholism first-hand. “I started drinking when I was 12,” she says, cradling her five-month old son on her lap. The baby boy burps and smiles contentedly as his mom talks about the hell that her life was - being driven to the bottle before she even reached her teens. “I was sexually abused when I was a child,” she says matter-of-factly. “It was something that I just couldn’t deal with, so I chose to escape from reality.” Her sexual abuse is something that she can face now. When she was younger all she could do was find a way to forget about it. Alcohol gave her that opportunity. Tracy didn’t turn into an immediate alcoholic. She started out by just drinking on weekends, but her habits increased as she progressed through high-school. By the time she reached grade 12 she was skipping classes to get drunk. 4 “I was in Alcoholics Anonymous a month after I graduated,” she admits. “I just wanted to do some- thing right for a change, but it still didn’t work out. Ionly stayed in it for a month my first time.” t Her short-lived stint with A.A. ended as she moved from Castlegar to Vancouver. There, things went from bad to worse for Tracy. “I started drinking when I was.mad, happy, or » sad,” she recalls. “I always needed a reason to get ) drunk. I would wake up in the morning and need a “ drink. It got to the point that I would get anxiety attacks if I didn’t have a six-pack in the fridge.” } And like the majority of alcoholics; Tracy wouldn't be satisfied after just one drink. “I'd have a beer, but it wouldn’t make me happy so I’d have a bunch more,” she says. “No matter how many drinks I had it wouldn’t make me feel any better.” If Tracy ever went for an extended period of time without her alcohol fix she would experience with- drawal symptoms and start hallucinating. By this time, the painful memories of abuse had 4 been pushed so far down by the booze that she hardly even remembered them. Tracy has been sober for over a year now. She had her last drink on Oct. 12, and is a much happi- er person now. Her baby boy has helped her sur- vive her prob- lem, as has the boy’s father. They will be wed Alcohol And Drugs: A Strategy for Parents + | by Gay MacDonald h School Based Prevention Worker need our help in developing attitudes and behaviours about alcohol and other drug use. There is lot that we as parents can do. A 1995 University of British Columbia Health Rowse of how young or old our children are, they bia Survey showed that of the students who perceived their parents J +) to be strongly against use of alcohol or other drugs only 22% of them reported high risk use, as opposed to 68 % reporting high risk use when parents were perceived to be somewhat gainst use. This shows us that parents can and do strongly influence their children’s decisions about alcohol and other Hrug use. Making a decision about alcohol and other drug use is one of e most difficult choices that our children will have to make, et we often leave it too late or provide them with a lot of use- ess information and little in the way of skill development. Think bout all the things that we do with our children regarding stranger danger.” We talk about it, use newsworthy examples D reinforce our message and continually get them to practice ow they would deal with difficult situations. Yet, with making i EA RR RS ee eee within a year. “1 actually live now, instead of exist,” she says. “I like to walk my baby around downtown in his stroller. When I was drinking I wouldn’t have even been able to walk anywhere.” Tracy attributes the successful face-off with her demons to Alcoholics Anonymous. She returned to Castlegar and started attending A.A. once again. ,, “They’re just all so supportive,” she «, says. “They’re always there for you. You -feeHike you-ean call on thenrat any time to talk and they’d give you the shirt off of their backs. They’ve helped me deal with the problem of living.” Tracy can concentrate solely on the problem of living now that she is sober. She has also faced the demons from her childhood that have haunted her for most of her life. “I had pushed everything so far down when I was drinking, so that when I sobered up it all came back to me. I can deal with it now.” Tracy is one of the lucky ones. She has escaped her trials with her health and a new family. For many others, alcoholism has ruined everything. It is a drug that helps you leave reality behind if you so desire. It is your friend when you have no other. Most of all though, it gives people something that they desperately want. “Alcohol gave me courage,” says Tracy. % of girls smoking 10 | 11 | 12 46% a al bas wad bs GRADE | GRADE 38%. 45% 55% 44% decisions about-alcohol and other drugs and helping kids develop the % of boys smoking 36% | 53% | 30% | 33% | 40% skills necessary to act on the decision, we either leave it too late or provide them with information that is incorrect, out of % of girls drinking 38% 53% 57% 73% -68% date, or totally irrelevant. Sometimes we even convey attitudes like “all kids drink, “ % of boys drinking 38% | 61% | 57% | 78% | 80% or “a little sip won't hurt them,” or “it's only alcohol (or cigarettes, )at least they are not doing drugs!” Not many of our children will % of girls using marijuanna 11% 20% 30% 28% 25% have to deal with a stranger, but unfortunately, every one % Of boys using marijuanna of our children will have to make a choice about drugs. 14% | 29% | 23% | 37% | 40% FACTS: - the average age of first use is 11 years for tobacco and 12 years for alcohol; - when asked about "use in the last month” a 1995 provincial survey indicated: *See chart - in Adolescent Health Survey New Step (a series of youth semi- ee asa nars held around the province), youth identified alcohol and other drug use as their second health priority after emotional health; - the earlier a child starts using, the greater the risk of that child developing a substance abuse problem; - the number of young girls starting to smoke is increasing More on Page B3 Reis Se