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Saturday, January 4, 1992 m@

@ The new coach of the Castlegar Rebels is inherit-
ing a last place team, but Kevin Koorbatoff is confi-
dent it’s a team that is better than it has shown.

Ed Mills
SPORTS EDITOR

Despite how it may look on
the surface, the new coach of
the Castlegar Rebels doesn’t
‘expect his job will be all that
tough.

“Put it this way, if we work
together.as a unit, it’s going to
an easy job,” said Kevin Koor-
batoff, who moved from assis-

tant to head coach of the
Rebels last week when Kevin
Cheveldave resigned.
Koorbatoff inherits a team
that is currently riding a five-
game losing streak (not in-
cluding yesterday’s game
against the Nelson Maple
Leafs) and has been in last
place in the Kootenay Inter-
national’ Junior Hockey

League’s West Division all
season.

Koorbatoff said once the
players get used to the
change, they should adapt to
the way he wants, and be-
lieves, they can play. ?

“IT play an easy system of
hockey. As long as everybody
cooperates, we’re going to
have really good time at it.

“The first weekend will be

tough (but) this team is better

than it’s shown. We’re going to
do some damage in the second
half for sure,” he said.

Though some players said
they had no idea what was in
the works with Cheveldave,
Koorbatoff said he wasn’t tak-
en by surprise.

“There was going to be a
change in the coaching for
sure. I didn’t know what it
was going to be, (but) just look
at our record. There had to be
a change,” he said.

Rebels’ president Russ Ril-
cof said management ‘has no
qualms about. Koorbatoff’s
ability to do the job, even
though the team did interview
another person for the posi-

tion just after Cheveldave re-
signed.

What does worry Rilcof is
the affect the change will have
on the players.

“Well, it’s the continuity
that’s disrupted. Some players
take to it really well, some
players don’t. It adds stress
when it’s not needed,” said Ril-
cof, who is in his second year
as president.

“There was going.to
bea change in the
coaching for sure. I
didn’t know what it
was going to be, (but)
just look at our
record. There had to
be a change.”
Kevin Koorbatoff

At 24 years old, Koorbatoff
is two years younger than
Cheveldave, who was the
youngest coach in the KIJHL.

Koorbatoff said age wasn’t
a factor with Cheveldave’s

ability to do the job, and it
shouldn't be with him.

“Whoever’s on the team, if
they want to play hockey and
they want to win, what’s the
difference how old the coach
is?”

It’s Koorbatoff’s first head
coaching job in the KIJHL,
but he was the Rebels’ assis-
tant coach under Ed Cooper
last season.

Koorbatoff said the biggest
reason the Rebels haven’t
been winning is that it is a
young, inexperienced team.

“But I can’t really use that
excuse now. They’ve played
more than half the season int
Junior B, they have to have a.
good second half,” Koorbatoff
said.

Rilcof said only time will
tell if the club made the right
decision.

“Anytime you make a
coaching change, you’re not
sure how it’s going to go, espe-
cially when it’s in midseason,”
Rilcof said. “You will only be
able to look back in hindsight
as to whether it was good or
not, that’s the bottom line.”

‘~ phenomenal year in

0 Ul

@ It wasn’t the job he had as coach of the Rebels
that was the problem. It was the job he didn’t have
that forced Kevin Cheveldave to aes his dream

and return to Salmon Arm —

Ed Mills
SPORTS EDITOR

After just four months liv-
ing his dream, Kevin Chevel-
dave ended it on Boxing Day
when he resigned as coach of

’ the Castlegar Rebels.

Cheveldave said it wasn’t
the job he had that was the
problem, it: was the one he
didn’t have.

“I had to quit because of
work. I don’t have any here. I
haven’t had any since I’ve
been down here,” said the
Castlegar native Monday.

“When a guy’s got car pay-
ments and has got to put food
on the table, I really had no

choice.”

" Kevin Cheveldave

Cheveldave, 26, a onetime

Rebel who returned to Castle-
gar from Salmon Arm in
September to take the coach’s
job, said the management of
the Kootenay International
Junior Hockey League team
accepted his decision and the
reasons for it.

e Rebels lost five straight
games heading into the
Christmas break and sit last

_in the KIJHL’s West Division,
.15 points behind the nearest

team.

But Cheveldave said the
Rebels’ record and its perfor-
mance of late had nothing to
do with his decision.

“I know a lot of people will
look at it that way, but that
has nothing to do with it.
Maybe if we were winning and
not losing, somebody would
have given me a job, or maybe
I would have gotten a little
more help finding one.”

Rebels’ president Russ Ril-
cof said it was an unfortunate
situation, but management
did all it could to find pirate for
Cheveldave.

“It’s one of those resigna-
tions accepted with regret.
But when you don: t have any
income and you’re getting fur-

ther in debt, you have to do

something about it, and that’s
what he did.”

Rilcof said Rebels’ assistant
coach Kevin Koorbatoff will be
taking over as head coach in-
definitely.

“We had been talking to an-
other individual (about the
job) but he declined.”

Rebels’ general manager
Don Joice refuses to talk to
The News because of a column
written about him and the
team just prior to the start of
the season.

Rebels’ goaltender Vaughn
Welychko said there was no
indication Cheveldave was
contemplating quitting.

“That’s kind of shocking to
me right now,” said Welychko.

But Welychko said he has
mixed feelings about Chevel-
dave’s decision.

“He was a good coach and
all, but I don’t know, it could
be a good thing as a change for
the team.”

Cheveldave said he was
“very sad” it had to work out
this way.

“Coaching junior hockey is
something I wanted to do for
the past five years, ever since I
left junior hockey (as a player)
and started coaching minor
hockey.

“I’m not happy about it. I
wish things could have turned
out better. I just could no
longer go on this way,” Chevel-
dave said.

Cheveldave said he had no
regrets about anything he’d

“done while at the helm of the
: team.

“It’s a good hockey team, I

feel that I gave her my all. I
tried everything, I honestly
feel’I worked as hard as I
could.”

The worst thing about it, he
said, is leaving a bunch of
guys he considered friends.

“What I’m going to miss is
the players, because [had a
good relationship with every
one of them. It’s not going to
be easy leaving those guys.”

But to a certain extent,
Cheveldave agreed with Wely-
chko’s sentiments.

“Maybe whoever’s coming

in, a different personality or.

whatever, will be able to get
more out of these guys then I
was able to.

“¥-don’t- think there’s any-
body on the team that: went
out there and didn’t give a
damn. We just couldn't get
them to play 60 minutes of
hockey.”

Cheveldave said he would
return to Salmon Arm and
back to his old job in a sports
store owned by his father.

But by no means dees his
experience with the Rebels
mean his coaching career is
over, he said.

“T think my coaching ability
is held in a lot higher regard in

Salmon Arm than it is in ~

Castlegar. I’ve already been
approached by three teams
there,” he said.

Cheveldave said he will
probably accept a job as assis-
tant coach with either the
Salmon Arms Midgets, Ban-
tams or a senior club.

The Rebels played the Nel-
son Maple Leafs in Nelson Fri-
day and are in the Community
Complex tonight at 8 p.m. to
face the Grand Forks Border
Bruins.

~ @ Saturday, January 4, 1992

27 =

Three cheers, for another great year! —

So they give-me one
page and say “Millsie,
do a retrospective of
the year in local
sports.”

“Uh, sure,” I say,
“and right after that
Tll go and get that
long sought after date
with Morgan
Fairchild.”

. I mean, how can
you can capsulate
what’s been another

sports for Castlegar
on one, measly page?

What I was going to do was
pick my top 10 biggest local
sports stories of the year, but it
was too hard to decide once I
got past Steve Junker in the
No. 1 spot.

I was going to doa chrono-
logical list of all the winning
teams and athletes we've had
over the year, but then I
thought I’d probably miss
someone, and grief already
reigns supreme in my life so I
don’t need to go looking for it.

Then I thought I could go
bash Trail, Nelson and Cran-
brook because we’re so much
better than them at most
sports, even though they aré
better than us at superiority
posturing.

But Trail has already been
bashed by the Vancouver Sun;
the place that calls itself the
Queen City without smirking
is not really a fair target; and
the big strip mall three hours
away has its own troubles, so
my conscience got the best of.
me on that count...sort of.

Then I really got thinking
about that superiority postur-
ing and what I finally decided
was to get my best kissing-the-
trophy picture, — kindly pro-
vided by a trio of Castlegar
Recreational Hockey League
players who did the posing—
and then promptly give our
neighbors in the Kootenays a
good nose rubbing in our good
fortune.

Put simply — and the facts
are plain to see if anyone from
Trail, Nelson, Cranbrook, Cre-
ston or any other city in the
Kootenays cares to look —
Castlegar. is the best sports
town in the Kootenays.

It has been said that com-
parison is the lowest form of
flattery, but in the case of
sports in Castlegar, that state-
ment isn’t quite true.

Compare this city’s athletes
to any others in cities across
the Kootenays and it’s a flat-
tering picture indeed.

I’m a city boy, and I’ve

. worked at acouple of papers in _
bigger cities, so it was easy for-

me to compare first hand just
what kind of sports town
Castlegar was when I got here
a couple of years ago.

And I'll tell you what. On an

’ everyday basis, this little mill

town that takes more than its
fair share of shots from neigh-
bors to the east and south, nev-
er ceases to amaze me.

Even if I wanted to be the
bearer of bad news, as the
press is accused of all the time,
I couldn’t do it on the sports
desk in this city.

‘And what is even more

amazing to me.is that Castle- -

gar is no metropolis, no sports
Mecca with world-class facili-

’ ties or programs. In fact, when

I first rolled into the city I-
thought, oh sure, sports,
where?

Everywhere turned out to
be the answer to that question.
I mean people are basically
sports nuts in this town.

I’ve pushed several times
for the powers that be to put
more money and effort to-
wards recreation, because the
overwhelming demand is
there — especially for things
like lights for at least one ball
park, a decent track, or any
track for that matter, a winter
swim club and more funding
for school sports, to name a
few.

And yet despite these ap-

‘parent handicaps, as_com-

pared to a lot of other cities in
this area, Castlegar continues
to excel in most sports.

Okay sure, we have some’
dogs in our stable of thorough-
breds, and we aren’t going to
beat Trail in Little League
baseball for a while, but we’re
winning the horse race by
lengths.

Look at the athletes who
have come from‘/here, who are
currently here and those who
are highly likely to make their
names from here. Look with
envy those of you from out of
town. And look at the teams,
clubs, the local schools and our
minor hockey system.

We're international and na-
tional competitors, we're
provincial champions, we're
Games, Zone, Kootenay and
West Kootenay winners every
year.

We're winners and we do it
better than anybody else
around.

And besides all that we’re
not snobs — well, not all of us
anyway. We take pride in our
achievements but we win and

‘News file photo
Jeff Townsend (left) and Barry Grunerud whoop it up in the dressing at the Community Complex in
March as Hi Arrow won the Castlegar Recreational Hockey League championship over Sandman Inn.

lose with grace.

We are a city that is small
enough and community ori-
ented enough toknow by name _
and appreciate our native sons
and daughters who have made
us proud. I think that’s some-
thing to be proud of in itself.

's CASTLEGAR Bmazpa_

713-17th St., Castlegar
DL. 7956 -CALL NOW COLLECT 365-7241

MAZDA— IT JUST FEELS RIGHT!
standing athletic achievement -

in this community tells me = BEAT THE 1992
that I won't ever be bored. It oe PRICE INCREASE!
also tells me we won't lack for 4

Buy your Bulk

local heroes.
Swim Tickets Now

10 TICKETS
(10% discount)

Just the fact that it would
probably take four or. five
pages in this newspaper to re-
count a year’s worth of out-

Take a bow Castlegar.

Infant under 2

RENT ||Se@"""
THIS Famy ome)
SPACE
365-5210

G.S.T. NOT INCLUDED;
nicKets | GOOD TIL THE YEAR 2001!

CASTLEGAR & DISTRICT

——: =
TI
Cau ¢ >) RECREATION

DEPARTMENT