WITH

AS I SEE IT

HARRY PEPPER
On Sunday afternoon I had a
busy day, so much so that president Jim Markle of the Rossland Minor Hockey Association
had to drive me home between
two exhibition games at the
Arena, so that I might fortify
myself with food and thus stay
in the game .
You ' re right, this is leading
up to something; I want to pay
tribute to the young men who
are doing so much for the Rossland Minor Hockey this season.
President Jim brought up the
subject after the Midget Reps,
coached l?Y former Warrior
great, Steve Chorney , had dropped another exhibition to the
strong Trail contingent who are
masterminded by none other
than Trail 's favourite son, Addie Tambellini. And Addie deserves the accolade.
In these days of power hockey
the big boys of the N.H.L. and
environs are seeking youngsters almost out of the cradle
in order to be sure they don 't
miss out on any bets . This , to
my mind, is the reason that so
many youngsters of Midget age
are finding their way into Junior hockey .
Both Steve and his counterpart as coach of Bantam Reps ,
Joe Rosse, know hockey and
both know that one cannot build
with lack of material. Our town
just has not got the reservoir
of talent to draw from which,
happily , Trail, Nelson, Grand
Forks and Castlegar have . Each
of these centres have in the
neighborhood of 500 to a thousand boys on their minor league
rosters and this means an awful
lot when you are building a
young hockey team.
In both games on Sunday the
Rossland kids showed that they
were willing to give it all they
had, but in both cases they were
out-gunned .
As president Jim remarked,
How do you do this ? What is
the answer? To these questions
I would say , carry on in exactly the same way you are doing.
WhiJe we cannot expect to win
all the way down the line , the
Rossland Minor Hockey Asso ciation is filling a role that has
to be filled if our youngsters /
are to be given the chance to
play our national sport.
To the many young men like
Steve and Joe, who are donating
time they probably could use
in other pursuits, I can only
c~v tt>:inks fellas [

WITH

HARRY PEPPER

You know, this Minor Hockey
is enjoying one of its best
years in Ross land this year , and
it is all because the young men
of our town have seen fit to get
in there and help. The turnout
for coaching, refereeing, etc .,
has been fantastic .
In these days of power hockey
it may seem trite to mention
the word sportsmanship, but
it will always be there , and
since there has to always be a
winner and a loser , our youngsters will have had the benefit
of knowing what it is to lose
like a man as well as taking the
plaudits accorded a winner .

On the night of January 28th
1972 the Rossland Minor Hockey
Association will hold its own
version of Minor Hockey Night
for this year .
This is the night which is
celebrated Canada-wide and
which the local minor puck
moguls have decided to do as
their own thing this season.
Each of the div~sions represented in the Association will
get a chance to show their
wares for admiring parents and
friends . Games will start at
5:30 p.m. and the Bantam Reps
will lead off with an hour-long
game against a Trail opponent.
This will be followed by four
20-minute games . The Bantam
" B" team against the Peewee
Reps will start these shortened
games off, followed by the Pee
Wee House
League teams,
Leafs vs Wings; then will come
the Pup House teams , Canucks
and Canadian~ to do battle,
after which will be the future
Junior Warriors (1980 version)
as the Mighty Mites do their
thing .
Following ice cleaning will be
the treat of the evening as the
local Midgets , backed by some
of the currentJunior Warriors,
will do battle with one of the
most famous teams in Rossland's recent hockey history ,
none other than the 1957 - 58
-Senior W.I.H .L. champs the
Senior Warriors .
Many of my readers will
remember the members of this
team and most of them will
be on hand for the festivities
which will probably consist of
3 periods of straight 20 minutes each against kids whose
young legs will be an average
of 20 years younger .
Coach Mike Buckna and
trainer " Chow " Sdao will lead
the following members of that
championship team onto the ice
that night and it will bring back
a lot of memories for a lot of
us .
Reno Zanier and Don Holmes
will be in uniform to look after
the goal-tending chores and
when one remembers thatReno
still tends goal in the Trail
Commercial League that part
of the job will be well looked
after. As his backup, big Don
Holmes is still in pretty good
shape.

Dave Stewart, Bill Gallamore and champ team members
George Ferguson and big Don
Fletcher will tend to the defence
chores . Don should be in fine
shape , what with his firemans
job and the amount of skiing
he does .
The forward lines were all,
with one exception, members
of the championship team.
One of these lines will see
Harold Jones, Ray Demore and
Norm Lenardon performing,
;ith Demore and Jones it used
to be " Pinoke " McIntyre , but
he is under the weather and is
not likely to play.
Alex Birukow, Leo Lucchini
and Gil DesRosiers will form
another line and if my memory
serves me correctly these
three played on one line with
the championship team .
The other line will consist of
Steve Chorney, currently Rossland Midget coach, a long-time
Rossland favourite , Bud Andrews , and Gerry Penner will
fill out this line. Penner is the
only non-member of the cham pions .
Other members who will be
missing from the squad will
be Frankie Turik,
" Yogi"
Kraiger and " The Moose ", Vic
Lofvendahl.
The tickets for this night will
be sold door-to-door by young
members of the Minor Hockey
League and will be available at
the Arena and possibly other
outlets will be opened up for
the sale.
This does not concern hockey, but I would be very remiss
if I neglected to wish my old
friend , Alex McLeod and his
new wife, Marge, all the luck
and happiness that can fall to
anyone in their category . Getting married is a big move in
anyone ' s life and I'd like to say
this, "Keep your feet and your
powder dry, Alex ".