AS I SEE ·1T!
W ITH

HARRY PEPPER
In the most spontaneous exhibition of enthusiasm it has
been my pleasure to witness,
a group of youthful soccer players honored their coach with
a demonstration of 1o ya 1 t y
which I never expect to see
surpassed.
It all happened at last Friday
evening' s first annual Minor
Soccer banquet and the presentation of awards held at the
1.0.0 .F. Hall .
There was a fine turkey supper supplied by generous donations from parents of the young
players, The Super-Yalu and
Jack Drake' s dairy:. It was
prepared by the ladies of the
Rebekahs, and the Soccer Association 's secretary, Greta
Cox, aided by Mrs . Martin, the
mother of D.avid, Allan and Terry who play soccer , one in each
division .
After everyone had finished
the fine repast the chairman
introduced the head table and
called on the RCAA President ,
Jack Cox to say a few words to
the boys. Mr. Cox replied with
the fewest words I've heard
him say in a longtime. Following this, Bob Eyre , who was
invited to represent the School
Board, gave the boys a talk.
Mr. Eyre pointed out the
connection between the benefit
of good honest athletic competition and success in the academic field and wished the boys
lots or success in both.
The next speaker was John
Hogan, who came along as President or the West Kootenay
Soccer Association .

1

!

\

\Ji.~
team , David Martin, said that
the team would like to have the
designation or the trophy changed to the " Most Valuable Person '' and as such wished the
award to go to Coach Hughes .
This announcement was greeted
by a prolonged round of applause . Coach Hughes accepted
and I think the gesture made
him the happiest guy in town .
The most valuable and
sportsmanlike award over the
three divisions , a new award ,
had three nominees , full-back
Brad Haynes of the Juvenile
Wanderers, full - back Tim Evans of the Bantam Celtic and
full-back Erni e Roberts of the
Peewees ; and the wee fella
turned out to be the winner .
Anyone who could have seen
the look on young Ernie' s face
when I handed him the t rophy
would have been well r ewa,rded
for all the work.
I would not think of closing
this column without a sincere
vote of thanks to our secretary,
Greta , for all her wor k and the
Rebekah Ladies for a fin e reception.

Mr. Hogan confined his remarks to a description of the
aims and expectations for the
future of his organization and
answered several questions
fired at him by the boys .
He kidded the boys a little,
saying that this was his first
trip to Rossland , and that he
had felt that he came as a
friend instead of his usual position as the opposition.
Following
Mr.
Hogan ' s
speech, J ack Fisher, Peewee
coach , was invited to name the
trophy winners in his division .
He named Pat Lavigne as the
winner of the Most Improved
Player Trophy, but he had some
difficulty in deciding on his
most valuable player . Finally
he compromised by naming a
defenceman , Ernie · Roberts,
and a forward , Robbie Martin,
All three of his picks have
played extremely well for him
this year but Jack emphasized
that despite the fact that few
could win trophies he appreciated all the boys and their
efforts.
For the Bantams it was my
job to pick the winners and my
choices were two kids who have
made the move from Peewee to
Bantam and made themselves
into good players by their own
efforts.
I picked Tommy Haley as the
Most Valuable Player and Chris
Gresley-Jones as the Most Improved and wished I could have
named quite a few more .
Then came the moment which
capped the whole evening.
Coach John Hughes named the
players who had played in the
cup winning effort and 16 medallions were presented, as that
was all the league had ordered ,
but the Association promised
the rest of the boys they would
not be left out. John then named
his most improved player, a
popular choice among his team •
mates . He was red - headed full back Paddy Flanagan, to whom
John said, "When you started ,
Paddy , you had two left feet ,
but now you have a good right
and left. "
He then stated that his team
had asked to be allowed to vote
for their most valuable team
member. When the ballots were
tallied , the spokesman for the