_!3 ~ Trail Times -· Friday, September 17, 198.,2_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _....

wll

,...
Harry

Before starting out on my
subject for this week's
-column I want it clearly
uilderstood that it bas
always been my belief that
anyone who works for and
-with kids must have a lot of
things going for them in
more ways than one.
·" People who get up in the
early hours of a winter
·morning to face snow and ice
'and travel to an arena to
help train our youngsters are
'owed a lot of thanks by the
l!ltizens of our country for
Ws valuable and selfless
-work with the hockey
llducation of our youngsters.
The reason I'm making
this point is that I have to say
•:.6mething about our minor

.•.

hockey system which could
reflect on some of the people
in charge of it.
The last time I did this, the
ink had hardly got dry on the
paper before I got a call
from a gentleman in Trail
telling me that I bad made
them look like a "bunch of
ogres," whose axiom in life
was the one which is used
only too frequently in our
society these days, "To hell
with you, Jack, I'm OK."
Now we have that behind
us I can go on with what I
wanted to say in this column.
Behind it all is a fact of life
which could be changed with
a little spirit of give and
take. As I stated last week
this year's Rossland Warrior

hockey team will be without
a doubt the youngest ever to
wear the red and white. We
in Rossland now have a very
successful minor hockey
association, but it has only
become successful in the last
few years as more people
with the required know-how
have come forward to act as
coaches, managers and
trainers for the young-uns.
But it is a fact of life that
you can only draw so many
youngsters from a
population of 4,500 people.
Add to this that in Rossland
we have a very strong
competitor for our
youngsters' attention.
Besides playing hockey, we
have up here excellent
facilities for skiing. One can
hardly expect it to go unnoticed.
So, we have an excellent
organization working on
behalf of kid hockey, but it is
young. In a few years it may
produce the necessary
youngsters, well trained and
old enough to break into the
Warrior line-up, however,
this year's team has about
seven or eight youngsters
that are still of Bantam and
first-year Midget age, according to word I get from
Warrior coach Lloyd
McLellan.
The way Lloyd tells it,
there are several kids
available in the juvenile age
group in Trail who are
willing to come to Rossland
to try out for our team but
according to what I hear
from people in the know, the

present system turns
thumbs down on the idea.
Jim Markle, KIJHL
president, says that they
have tried for two years now
to get something done about
this situation but have had
no success thus far.
With the economic
situation the way it is at
present, the idea of bringing
kids in from out of town to
try out for the team is not
very promising. The only
solution would appear to be
possible access to the multiplayer pool of talent that
Trail has.

With the advent last
season of the team in Beaver
Valley, every centre around
the area now has a member
team in the KIJHL and last
year the teams were pretty
well matched. But Rossland
is losing a numbler of
players this year and the
incoming youngsters are
really not of the age to be
tried in the kind of hockey
which is played in this
league.
To assure a competitive
league, some moves could be
made to free some of the kids
who would be willing to play
Junior "B" to allow them to
try out for the Rossland
team. Trail is, of course, the
obvious answer with its
lar~e minor hockey
registration. Some could
surely be given- the right to
play elsewhere.
I can well remember some
years back when a Trail
juvenile team swept all
before it to a provincial final.

If memory serves me
correctly, there were
several Rossland kids on
that team, names like McFarland and Cox stand out in
my memory as some of the
players who helped Trail
win. Then again we have had
some dandies on Warrior
teams from down in Trail.
Names like McCarthy, Jones
and Godfrey will always be
remembered by Rossland
fans.

The interchange has gone
on and on with no apparent
harm to either organization.
Now that we in Rossland
need some help to tide us
over until our talent has a
chance to age, a helping
hand from our friends in
Trail could really help.
This week's retirees' day
at the upper course unfortunately clashed with a
retirees' and ladies' day at
the Birchbank course. I
noticed some 20 names on
the draw that are regulars at
our weekly outings at the
upper course, consequently,
our numbers were down.
There were just 13 members'
on the course which was
quite damp as we teed off a
little after 9 a.m.
Russ Broughton won low
net and Joe Rosse had the
least putts. Russ had a net :r,
while Joe only used bis
putter on 14 occasions. Rich
Watkinson and I handled the
rather simple proceedings.
Next week's festivities will
start a little later.