OHA Blueline 2012-2013

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DARREN BENT, INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALLER

The OHA's president for over three decades, Brent Ladds retired in June 2012, leaving a remarkable legacy.

Lois Kalchman, The Toronto Star.

Scott Farley has worked in hockey at the Ontario Hockey Federation and at Hockey Canada. The Georgetown native takes over the reins of the OHA at a watershed time in junior hockey in Ontario. John Kastner, OHA Blueline

Former Milton Junior player Darren Haydar is the heart and soul of the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League.

Jonathon Jackson, OHA Blueline

It was the fall of 1972. Paul Henderson was scoring for Team Canada against the Russians and the Port Perry Flamingos, named after a famous butter tart maker, were taking flight in Port Perry.

Darryl Knight, Uxbridge Scucog Standard

The greatest names and moments in hockey are enshrined at the Hockey Hall of Fame but there’s always been a special place reserved for the Ontario Hockey Association.

Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame

( The Junior C Goderich Sailors have been struggling on the ice the last few years but that didn't scare off native son and decorated U.S. college coach Bill Wilkinson from stepping up. Wilkinson, who coached at Western Michigan and is a former CCHA coach of the year, took the rudder of the Sailors this season. Dave Sykes, OHA Blueline

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Each year, the Ontario Hockey Association collects some of the great stories of the game from across our reach.

This magazine highlights the successes of our players, our coaches and even the people who toil quietly, but importantly, behind the scenes.

This year's magazine is different.

In addition to all the great stories, features and photographs, Blueline 2013 also pays homage to someone who led this organization for over three decades.

Brent Ladds retired in 2012 and his career is chronicled by former Toronto Star sportswriter Lois Kalchman who has covered OHA hockey throughout Brent's tenure.

This year's magazine also introduces the next leader of the OHA, Scott Farley, most recently of Hockey Canada, who is taking over the helm and leading the OHA into its next era.

I would also like to personally thank the sportswriters who contribute to this magazine.

These are the people who climb into the press boxes who try to

write with frozen pens and wait patiently in the hallway for players or coaches and then tell these great stories so well.

Each year, the OHA also extends a thank you to Jack Dominico who is able to garner the advertising support necessary so we can produce this fine magazine.

My sincerest thanks also to OHA director and Junior chairman John Kastner for taking on the enormous responsibilities these past 15 years as editor of the Blueline Magazine.

Finally I am confident that this year's Blueline will be like the other editions that have gone before and becomes a wonderful keepsake for our teams, our players and our fans.

LEO LOSTRACCO OHA Chairman

ON THE COVER: It was a great season for many OHA teams but only five could lay claim to Championships - the Stouffvile Spirit, the St. Catharines Falcons, the Grimsby Peach Kings, Thamesford Trojans, as well as Dundas Real McCoys. Ironically, a lot of the impromptu championship team photos have a striking similarity.

Brent Ladds retired as president of the Ontario Hockey Association on June 30, 2012 but not before he had been the pointman throughout some of the most turbulent times in the association’s 123-year history.

“There are only a handful of people who have Brent’s hockey knowledge,” says Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson. “He always wanted to reach out. He was never negative and had a good way of bringing things to the table.”

“I want to spend more time with family while our health is still good,” he said. “I always prided myself on being able to get out to games two or three nights a week besides being in the office and getting to meetings.

I was struggling trying to maintain that pace which is the proper pace needed for the position.

“Like anyone, I wish I could have done more” he continued. “I think with the Tomorrow’s Game project almost complete, it fulfills a satisfaction level for me personally. It leaves the OHA on a good track, but with a challenge to the current board to maintain its momentum.”

The amateur hockey scene of today is far different than in April, 1976 when Ladds was hired to assist Dave Branch, then the secretary manager of the association.

Back then, Hockey Canada was the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA). The OHA was the local governing branch outside of Thunder Bay and Ottawa District associations with jurisdiction over the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), minor, junior A, B C and D levels as well as senior and intermediate hockey.

The Ontario Women’s Hockey Association was operating outside

Nicholson called Brent’s introduction of Sam Ciccolini to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to revamp its insurance program a watershed moment in Canadian hockey. It created a stable insurance package and removed a hurdle that had the potential to hold back the game.

“Brent has earned respect from his peers through his hard work,” Ciccolini says. “He was innovative, conciliatory and understood hockey from cradle to grave. He has eyes of steel, unwavering integrity and a heart of gold.”

Ladds says after 36 years of service that it is the right time to retire.

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the system and there was no World Junior Championship and concussions were considered unimportant dings to the head.

The game was more violent and facemasks were not worn above the minor hockey levels.

There had been two Canada/Russia series and Canadians were ‘navel gazing’ comparing Russian and Canadian style hockey and several studies were commissioned to analyze the Canadian game.

As OHA president much of that mess fell into Ladds’ lap.

Today, the OWHA is in the fold.

They, the OHL, Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL), Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA), the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA) and OHA run their own organizations but are all under the umbrella of the Ontario Hockey Federation which was formed in 1989.

Junior players all wear visors and concussions are no longer just a ding but the subject of great caution and concern.

“When you look back at some of the highlights of my career, it has been the changing attitudes towards fair play and violence in the game, “ Ladds reflects. “It is a much better and safer game than it was. The violence we knew in the 1970s no longer exists.”

As a special aside, Ladds ranks his involvement with the development of the women’s game as extremely satisfying.

Judy Hazell recalls Brent Ladds at age 25 when he first walked into the OHA office .

“He was little with blond hair and pretty blue eyes,” she recollected.

“He had lots of twinkles. He was gentle, dedicated, affable and rarely growled at anyone. He was accurate, liked his ducks in a row which was good because he was scheduling games.”

When Branch left, Ladds was promoted.

“I asked if he would stay if we hired someone from outside the office?” recalls Larry Belisle then head of the OHA who considers Brent ‘a fabulous person’. “He said he wouldn’t stay because it would be a vote of non-confidence so I hired him.”

WHO IS BRENT LADDS? Ladds, born in Noranda, Quebec is the middle child with an older sister Caron and younger brother Jamie. He was a goaltender during his playing days and loved the game. He married Arlene Wilson in 1975 and has a daughter Dawn, grandson Owen and they have been his stars in the sky to adore and follow.

“We are best friends and golf together,” Arlene says but noted that it was fortunate he needed little sleep and therefore was able to keep the demanding hours needed to be at meetings and in rinks at night while rising in the wee hours of the morning to do his job well.

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and By-Laws calling the usual tedious exercise as “fun…”

THE OHL BECOMES INDEPENDENT During the 1980s the Ontario Hockey League was becoming stronger.

Joe Drago , now a Hockey Canada vice–president and a former president of the OHF knew of Ladds as a kid playing goal for Noranda/Rouyn and saw him as the ‘go-to’ man in the association.

“When something was needed at home, he was there,” she said and gave an example.”When my father passed away, he crimped Dawn’s hair.”

She laughed and elaborated on Hazell’s view of Brent’s demeanor saying his aunts called him “Sweetie Boy.” HOCKEY EXPERTISE Karen Phibbs, a past chair of the OHA and currently the chair of junior hockey for Hockey Canada, has great respect for Ladds and compares his knowledge of the game to that of Nicholson.

“He is amazing,” Phibbs says.

“People from all parts of hockey call him for his opinion, his historical knowledge and advice.

He brings forth ideas and pursues them like he did with concussions.”

“He loves the rinks,” said Larry Clark who has been with the

association for 52 years from referee to chair.

“Brent’s hockey knowledge and his conflict resolution are exceptional,” Clark says. “He blended that with his grass roots mentality. He can dine with kings and drink beer with anyone.”

Murray Costello became president of the CAHA in 1979 and welcomed working with Ladds. He remembered him as an altar boy for his brother Father Les Costello and considered him “a kindred spirit and friend.”

“He had that nice easy personality,” Costello said.

“He was clever enough in his job.

He got to know the locals in a rink and most considered him a friend.”

Costello chose Ladds to assist himself, CAHA chair Roland Mercier, CAHA executive director Hal Lewis and Don Freer of British Columbia to rewrite the CAHA Constitution

Drago was also the owner of major junior teams in Northern Ontario and remembers when the OHL became self governing.

“The main thrust was that the owners felt they had a lot of money in their teams and didn’t want to answer to a volunteer group,” Drago said. “They wanted their own constitution and to be selfsustained.”

Ladds spoke of the impact of the OHL pulling out of the his association.

“They were our flagship,” Ladds said. “There was both a profile and financial impact. They made great suggestions and had influence on how the association was run.”

“However, It was an evolutionchanging times for the OHL,” Ladds added. “It had outlived the environment where volunteers were deciding things. It had been evolving since the 1970s and in hindsight the owners knew what they were doing. Their independence made them strong.”

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THE ONTARIO HOCKEY FEDERATION It was under Murray Costello’s watch that Ladds dreamt of bringing Ontario in line with the rest of the country. All other branches represented one province but not Ontario where three branches existed.- the OHA, Ottawa District and Thunder Bay Hockey Associations.

“It was a tumultuous time,” Ladds remembers of the concept that was one of the main issues dogging the OHA during the 1980s leading to the creation of the OHF. “I believed Ontario should have operated as a single branch with minor, junior, senior and development councils. I still believe it should.”

Costello calls those years “a sad time” and suggests that Ontario had the potential to have been the undisputed leader and should have been but he said they were “fractured.”

“They were the biggest branch and leading force,” he said. “But some of those involved couldn’t give up their fiefdom.”

Clark says that OHA chair Colin MacKenzie gave notice to the minors that they would become part of the OHA. “Colin’s vision was brilliant,” Clark said. “But the practicality didn’t work.”

The situation imploded. When, the OHA did not offer the MTHL, OMHA and NOHA their contracts to sign again those in charge bolted.

Eventually Costello came to Toronto to settle the situation to no avail. The OHF was formed and the OHA was no longer the branch.

With the collapse of the OHA as the branch the Metro Junior A league became independent under the MTHL banner with Bill Markle as president. Markle stayed with OHA when the juniors realigned.

“It hasn’t been an easy ride during his tenure,” Markle says of Ladds last two decades. “He was a fresh influence and voice. He had 37 Junior franchises but little value.

He brought in people who took over and ran it. He connected himself with some of the best people as to at what he should do.”

“You can call him at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m. or 3 a.m. and he always had

time for you,” said Charlie Macoun who was head of the Provincial Junior A League for seven season.

“I argued with him on many things but always let it end. We could walk away and have a beer. He never held a grudge.”

“We respected each other... there were so many times I needed him and he always seemed to understand or have the right answer. He is first class. We will miss him.”

WOMEN’S HOCKEY Ladds believes that without Fran Rider, women’s hockey would not be where it is today both in North America and internationally.

In the late 1970s, Gail Cummings of Huntsville challenged the system

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because she wanted to play on a boys’ team. Subsequently the provincial government asked Ladds to help develop women’s hockey.

In 1983 there was a line in the CAHA rule book that said a person could play on a team so long as they were an amateur in good standing and played on a nonintegrated team as to gender. Ladds said that was dropped when he helped with the rewriting of the constitution and by-laws.

At that time, the OWHA had some big tournaments that clued them in as to the depth of women’s hockey across Canada and the USA. They dreamt of a national championship and fantasized playing in the Olympics. Rider insists Ladds was the visionary.

Women’s hockey lacked credibility at that time.

“He opened doors and would take up the fight when we needed it,” she said. “The thought of a World Championship had very little support except for Brent.”

“Ultimately we got an International Ice Hockey Federation to approve the World Tournament (not championship) but the financial end was difficult. During those tough months, he was the catalyst and the turning point of women’s hockey.”

“For us, he changed the course of our history,” she said. “His voice was so strong and if not for that we wouldn’t be in the Olympics. His connections helped tremendously.”

SAFETY ISSUES Ladds was shaken when Oakville Blades’ David Hawkins suffered a spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from under his arms downwards. Ladds took up the cause and became part of the Committee for the Prevention of Spinal Cord Injuries in Hockey under Toronto neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Tator.

It was Ladds who presented the findings of that committee at the 1985 CAHA annual meeting in Vancouver that started the ball rolling towards Hockey Canada adopting a no checking from behind rule.

“He made our impossible dream possible,” Rider said. “It was he who changed the course of history for us. We had to decide do we want to work with the OHA to belong to the CAHA and to have a National Championship as well.

(They did both).”

“He was incredible ... knowledgeable ... and embraced the differences,” she insists. “He supported us, listened and empowered.”

“He really recognized the importance of our growing in our own way,” she continued. “I’ve learned so much from him about the operations and how it worked in the administrative end of the game.” !

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More than a decade later concussions came to the fore. At the Canadian Hockey Association AGM, he boldly showed the ‘Monkey Tape’ demonstrating what happens to the brain when the head is hit.

He promoted the importance of recognizing concussions and the impact on players.

It had been brought to his attention

by Dr. Ken Bocking who was the physician for the St. Thomas juniors who was shocked at the number of concussions he was seeing during games and the after effects of these injuries.

He pursued it and the OHA brought innovative penalties into the game to eliminate some of the unneeded aggressiveness.

He heavily promoted the use of visors at an OHA AGM but met opposition. He would not be deterred.

“I felt is we saved one eye, it would be well worth it,” Ladds remembers.

“The owners argued it would change the game.”

They also mentioned it would interfere with the fans seeing the faces of the players and taking away from the excitement of the game.

Ladds persisted and eventually he won the day.

THE LEGACY Ladds says he hopes the program known as Tomorrow’s Game will be his legacy.

“While I say it fulfills a satisfaction level for me personally, I should

also say that there was a lot of volunteer help, and people within the Association who bought into it, who are helping to bring it to a successful conclusion,” he says of those who participated in the creation of the program elevating the OHA junior teams to another more organized level.

“I want a player to be able to go from one team to another and the only change will be the colour of his sweater,” Ladds says of the concept that will see 120 OHA junior teams using the Standard Operating Procedures that dictates how an organization runs its operation.

“We applied for an Ontario Trillium Grant and received $320,000 over three years. We are in our third year now.”

Ladds consulted with the best people he knew. Bob Farrow worked for years with the provincial government and helped them to get the grant while Vern Stenlund also helped to lay out the program and Bob Stellick undertook teaching them how to market the sport.

Over the next few years, Tomorrow’s Game will be tweaked in various manners but those interviewed all believe this program will be the Legacy that Ladds imagines.

FUN In spite of the countless hours in boardrooms, in rinks on the road and at home, he still had time for fun.

Kevin Boston of the OMHA reveals yet another side of Ladds. While he was a goaltender as a kid, Brent still plays hockey but as a forward on Team Amateur Hockey in the annual The Business of Hockey Tournament.

“We called him coach ‘Reg’ after the character played by Paul Newman in the movie Slapshot,” Boston says. “One year he didn’t come and we printed a picture of him and put in on the dressing room door. We touched it as we went out on the ice.”

John Kastner, an OHA director and currently the chair of junior hockey for the OHF, plays on a tournament hockey team with Ladds that goes to the Al Reid Tournament in Niagara Falls every year.

“It’s the highlight of the year for me and for a lot of the guys on the team and Brent has a lot to do with that.”

“He’s the organizer and makes the arrangements but that weekend is a blast and he’s in the centre of it.”

The Brent Ladds era may be over but he has definitely left an indelible mark on the hockey culture, both for men and women in Ontario and beyond.

Well done!

LOIS KALCHMAN of the Toronto Star is one of the leading authorities on OHA hockey and has covered OHA hockey for over three decades.

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For Scott Farley, it’s a hockey career that has come full circle.

He was named the Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Hockey Association recently, marking a return to the OHA. Farley played his minor hockey in Georgetown and his junior hockey in the OHA as a member of the Georgetown Gemini from 1984 to 1986. Following that he went to Laurentian University in Sudbury where he majored in sports administration.

He is one of those lucky people who love hockey and have been able to find work in the game. His first job was with the Hockey Development Centre for Ontario in 1992 and in 1994 became the first full-time employee of the Ontario Hockey Federation.

In 2001, he went to Hockey Canada to become the director of marketing services and events, was promoted to senior director and finished his tenure at Hockey Canada as vice-president of marketing services and events.

“I had a great 11 years at Hockey Canada,” said Farley. “But it was a time for a change and new challenges. I wasn’t sure what I was

going to do next or even if I was going to stay in hockey but then I learned about the opening at the OHA.”

him an immediate understanding of the challenges he will be facing as the CEO of Canada’s oldest hockey association.”

“As they say, timing is everything I guess,” added Farley. “I talked to a lot of people about the OHA job and the more I talked about it the more excited I became.”

And while the OHA faces some challenges, in many cases they are issues that Farley has seen elsewhere.

Farley takes over for president Brent Ladds who retired in 2012 after 36 years with the OHA. Farley sees Ladds as much more than just a predecessor.

“I have been fortunate to know Brent for over 20 years,” said Farley.

“We worked on several projects together and I consider him a mentor, but more importantly, a friend.”

“He had a tremendous impact on the game not only in Ontario, but also across the country as a very respected hockey mind. He was one of the first people I contacted when I accepted the position. I know he will be there to help me and the OHA and I look forward to being able to lean on him as I get acclaimated in the CEO role.”

Given his resume, Scott will be able to hit the ground running.

“We feel Scott Farley represents the total package,” said OHA chairman Leo Lostracco. “His experience at both Hockey Canada and the Ontario Hockey Federation gives

“One of the fortunate things is that during my time at Hockey Canada I was able to see how leagues and organizations across the country operate. The OHA has some challenges ahead but those problems are not a lot different than the challenges that other teams, leagues and associations are facing in other parts of the country,” said Farley.

JOHN KASTNER OHA Blueline Magazine

If it’s to be Darren Haydar’s career National Hockey League highlight, he’s OK with that.

The register shows he has only scored one goal in 23 games at the top level of the sport, but that goal was scored on future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur.

That was in October 2007. His most recent game in the NHL was in February 2010. And Haydar, who’s now 33 years old, knows his window of opportunity to play again in the NHL is fast closing, if it’s not already closed.

“I think I’m one of the more realistic players,” says the captain of the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves. “But I definitely haven’t 100 per cent given up. I think I’ll fade away if I do that.”

“I don’t want my career to end. But I don’t want to just go through the motions,” he adds. “I want to be competitive and have a chance to win.”

Winning is something the Milton native has made a habit of throughout his career. He won two Ontario Hockey Association playoff championships and an Ontario Hockey Federation title playing Junior A with his hometown Merchants (now known as the Icehawks). He’s

lifted the Calder Cup twice as an AHL playoff champ.

But those team victories and numerous personal accomplishments have done nothing to quench his thirst for continued success on the ice.

“Each and every day I’ve got to prove to someone that belong and that I’m one of the best players in this league,” he says.

Haydar played minor hockey in Milton and with the local AAA organization, the Halton Hurricanes, and counted himself a fan of

NHLers like Cam Neely, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman and Wayne Gretzky.

He played centre as a youth - he now patrols the right wing - and he saw himself in the mold of an Yzerman or a Gretzky, seeing the ice well and being able to set up goals as well as score them.

He dreamed of playing for his hometown junior club, the Milton Merchants, but the lineup was often dominated by import players, so making it was not a sure bet.

Still, older brothers Ryan and Jeff made the Merchants and soon it was also Darren’s turn.

assists and points, and was also named one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award as the top men’s college hockey player in the United States.

“I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything,” Haydar says of his four years at New Hampshire. He graduated with a degree in business and, in 2012, was inducted into the UNH Athletics Hall of Fame.

As luck would have it, he joined the club just as it was becoming one of the dominant teams in the Junior A circuit. In his first full season, the Merchants captured the playoff championship in a thrilling sevengame final series against Newmarket. Haydar led Milton during the regular season with 100 points in 51 games.

That was just a prelude of what was to come. The following year, Milton sailed to a repeat and also added the Ontario Hockey Federation Junior A crown, even-tually advancing to the Royal Bank Cup semifinals. Haydar, playing on a line with his brother Jeff and Steve French, captured the OHA scoring title with a record 71 goals and 140 points.

“I just remember having a complete team,” he says of the 1997-98

Merchants. “Looking back, it definitely was magical. Six or seven guys would fight, we had great goaltending and three or four lines could produce. I remember in the playoffs, the lineup (of fans) was around the corner, people trying to get in.”

Haydar left Milton for the University of New Hampshire. Despite his amazing stats, he was never drafted by an Ontario Hockey League team, possibly because of his size he’s five-foot-nine and weighs 170 pounds. He did have a free agent tryout with the Barrie Colts, but left early because “it just didn’t fit.”

It was for the best. He made an immediate impact with the UNH Wildcats, scoring 31 goals and 61 points in his freshman year. As a senior, he led both his team and the entire Hockey East conference in

No OHL team had really wanted to take a chance on Haydar, but the Nashville Predators did, choosing him in the 1999 NHL draft. He signed with Nashville after graduating and spent the next four seasons mainly with the Predators’ AHL farm team in Milwaukee.

Although he only ever dressed in two games with Nashville, he made his mark right away in the AHL, being named the league’s top rookie in 2003 and helping Milwaukee win the Calder Cup playoff championship in 2004.

In 2006 he signed with the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers. Again, he was mainly relegated to the AHL. In 200607, while playing for the Chicago Wolves, he set an AHL record by recording a point in 39 consecutive games. He won the scoring title with 41 goals and 122 points in 73 games, and was also named the league’s most valuable player in the AHL. In addition, he saw action in four NHL games with Atlanta.

In 2007-08, the Thrashers called Haydar up for 16 games. On October 13, 2007, while playing at home against the New Jersey Devils, he scored that first - and, to date, only NHL goal against Martin Brodeur.

Haydar has also had brief NHL contracts with Detroit and Colorado, but only played one NHL game with Colorado, in early 2010. He again spent most of his time with their AHL franchises. When his deal expired with Colorado later in 2010, he signed a free-agent contract with the Chicago Wolves.

“There’s a lot to like about this franchise,” he says. “They want to win.”

He had another, more personal reason for wanting to go back to Chicago rather than accept an offer to play overseas. His wife Sara is a Chicagoarea native, and they have received a great deal of support from the Wolves as Sara has battled throat cancer.

She has undergone 28 surgeries and procedures, along with radiation, but she is recovering and getting stronger.

He says the Wolves have “gone over and beyond our expectations” during Sara’s fight, and he’s proud to repay the Wolves by representing them as their captain, on and off the ice. He is teams is a strong sign of the respect he has earned throughout his career. heavily involved in the community, particularly in local schools.

And there’s more. He is among the “She’s doing really well. She’s come a AHL’s top 20 career scorers with more than 700 regular season points. He is long way,” Haydar says of his wife.

“She’s been extremely strong and an already the league’s all-time leading playoff scorer. And, in January 2010, inspiration for me, that’s for sure.”

The Hockey News selected Haydar as The fight has put things in perspective the AHL Player of the Decade. for him, he adds. “You don’t take He’s determined there is a lot more things for granted any more.” hockey in his future. But he knows Haydar had previously worn the C the end will come someday, and he during the 2007-08 season, when the plans to be ready when it does come.

Wolves won the Calder Cup. He was “My head is my biggest asset in also the captain during his brief tenure with Grand Rapids in 2008-09. hockey,” he says, referring to what helps him to not only play, but also to Although he has never really gotten plan his future. the NHL shot that many people feel he deserves, being asked to lead his

Haydar would like to transfer his leadership skills behind the bench.

He’s been involved with minor hockey programs, mainly in his hometown of Milton, though not as much as he would like as he continues to pursue his own career. But he has partnered with one of his old minor hockey coaches in a program called 20/20 Elite Hockey, designed to help guide young players.

“We try to bring awareness to kids about college options, prep school options,” Haydar says, adding the goal is not necessarily “to push kids away from major junior or to college,” just to let kids know of the choices available to them.

JONATHON JACKSON OHA Blueline Magazine

TD Canada Trust is proud to support the Ontario Hockey Association.

We’re working together with the Ontario Hockey Association to make a difference in our communities.

At its lumbering apex, the OJHL featured 37 teams of varying quality, from top-notch programs to “dad teams” as McCarron calls them – squads seemingly set up so a rich father’s kid and his friends had an elite-sounding place to play.

Just four seasons later, that table is down to 22 franchises with another, the Markham Waxers, suspended for the year due to undisclosed financial reasons.

The strategy to bring the number of members clubs down went like this: first, players would be required to pay the league in order to play.

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Three years ago Mike McCarron was seeking a team for his son to play on, but he wasn’t sure St. Michael’s Buzzers was the right choice – that’s a problem considering Mike was the team’s president.

And it wasn’t just the Buzzers McCarron was worried about but the entire Ontario Junior A Hockey League, a circuit with an illustrious yet schizophrenic history that had become bloated and archaic.

But through a daring pilot program that started in 2008, the

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OJHL has clawed its was back into the good graces of players, owners and scouts.

The twist? The league did it by contracting teams and making players pay to play.

“It got to the point where the business model wasn’t working and the hockey was deplorable,” McCarron says.

“It was getting embarrassing. We had to get the number of teams reduced and improve the quality of the owners.”

The fee is $800 to the league and $300 to the Ontario Hockey Association, the governing body that oversees the OJHL (the OHA would be losing dues paid by teams contracted, so it was only fair.)

That money, plus $1 million coming from the owners of the teams themselves would be put towards, among other expenditures, a “Dutch auction,” held after the conclusion of every season.

In a Dutch auction, franchises voluntarily submit a dollar amount they would be willing to accept in exchange for folding their teams.

In addition, other teams merged lowering the league total even more.

So far, the league has paid out nearly $2 million and it isn’t done yet.

Devin Shore, a freshman centre with the University of Maine, was the top OJHL player chosen in the 2012 NHL draft, going to Dallas with the last pick of the second round (61st overall.)

Last year he was a star for the Whitby Fury and he’s well aware of how far the OJHL has come recently.

“It’s nowhere near as watered down,” he says. “Especially come playoff time, it’s fast hockey. We had some four-year veterans on our team who noticed a significant improvement.”

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“I think this is a 16-team league,” McCarron says. “Any chance we have to get rid of a team fairly, we should take.”

Not only is the OJHL down to 22 teams this year but the product has drastically improved and that means more attention from scouts.

Before contraction, there was no parity to speak of and getting a good read on a potential draft pick was difficult because the scouts weren’t sure if they were just seeing a decent kid dominate an awful team on a certain night.

“The criticism from NHL circles was that you had a lot of strong teams and a lot of weak teams,” says Dan Marr, head of NHL Central Scouting. “You had to pick your competition instead of just going to a game. Now you don’t have to do that.”

This year’s top prospect from the league is centre Matt Buckles, who plays for McCarron’s Buzzers. A Cornell recruit who will join the NCAA’s Big Red next season, he’s in his second OJHL campaign.

to Whitby, the only thing that changes is his jersey,” said Savoy.

According to College Hockey Incorporated, the league is second amongst all Canadian Junior A circuits when it comes to players committed to Division I NCAA Schools with 26 right now.

The British Columbia League remains the runaway leader with 66, while the CCHL (10) and Alberta Junior League (8) follow.

As for McCarron’s son Patrick, he’ll head to Cornell next season with Buckles, another OJHL success story.

This article originally appeared in the November 12, 2012 edition of The Hockey News. The OHA would like to thank Ryan Kennedy and The Hockey News for granting permission to the OHA to reprint this article.

“Even compared to last year, the league is constantly improving,” he says. “You get challenged more and more every night.”

Marr likes what he sees in Buckles, who was 5-foot-8 during his Ontario Hockey League draft year (Sault Ste. Marie took him 75th overall), but he now stands 6'1" and weighs 204 pounds.

“Matt has the potential to be a power forward,” Marr says.

That sort of comment about the league and its players is music to the ears of Marty Savoy, commissioner of the OJHL. And thanks to contraction, players know that whichever franchise they play for is a solid organization.

“We’re trying to arrange it so if a kid gets traded from Georgetown

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For 80 years the Sutherland Cup has been the pinnacle of achievement for junior B hockey teams in Ontario.

There’s nothing better.

Soon though, that trophy could be a mere stepping stone to something even greater.

At Hockey Canada’s fall council meeting in Ottawa in October the junior council approved a motion to proceed with plans to create a national junior B championship for the spring of 2016. Hockey Canada has pledged $50,000 towards the championship.

John Kastner, chair of junior hockey for the Ontario Hockey Association and the Ontario Hockey Federation is part of the working group struck

by Hockey Canada to look into the championship. He said he got “a very positive response” when he made a presentation to Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League teams in the fall.

But the 26-team GOJHL is just one of at least 15 junior B leagues across Canada, with virtually every province represented.

“The first thing we have to determine is whether the interest is there, and if it is then the committee will move ahead and start to figure out how we’re going to do this,” said Kastner.

One of the chief tasks of the committee will be to assess the relative strengths of each league and CHL and NHL scouts may be enlisted to assist Hockey Canada in that, Kastner said.

They’ll also need to determine if all of the leagues operate under the same rules, such as the number of imports they allow each team to sign, and how any differences might be overcome.

The Stratford Cullitons’ director of hockey operations, Jason Lott, said there was a lot of interest and support from GOJHL teams in southwestern Ontario “if the obstacles can be overcome.”

The biggest stumbling block might be the disparity in the quality from one league to another.

"There are only two other junior B leagues that I have some knowledge of, and that's mostly hearsay," Lott said. "The OHL guys I know who cover the eastern Ontario junior B league say it's similar to junior C (in our area). And when I talk to the contacts I've made in B.C. at the Tier II level, they say our league is significantly better than the junior B hockey out there.

"I don't know what else there is across Canada and what the level is."

If the championship ever does become a reality, Kastner said it would "definitely" be a tournament

format, probably with four regional winners and a host playing a week-long round robin, similar to other Hockey Canada national events such as the RBC Cup Junior A championship.

However, in the initial stages it may take on a different concept. The most recent idea floated by Hockey Canada is that the Junior B “national championship� be an invitational tournament.

Basically, provinces that want to be part of it, and feel they are competitive, would be able to take a run at the title. That would eliminate the dilemma of national playdowns to determine regional champions.

Regardless of the format, Niagara Falls Canucks general manager Frank Pietrangelo said the national championship "would be interesting."

"The concept sounds great. Tier II loop does it, (and) it would be a great spectacle to get everyone together and showcase each league.

But it comes down to cost and when you will do it."

The junior B working group will continue to engage teams in advance of its report at the Hockey Canada annual general meeting in Prince Edward Island in May. STEVE RICE Stratford Beacon Herald

Ever since taking flight under the moniker of Flamingos 40 years ago, the Port Perry MoJacks have provided the Scugog community with top-calibre Junior C hockey.

The team was born in the fall of 1972 under the name Port Perry Flamingos in a nod to their corporate sponsor Flamingo Pastries, makers of the world famous Flamingo Butter Tart.

The early years of the team saw them competing against several larger centres including the Bowmanville Eagles, Cobourg Cougars, Port Hope Panthers, Stouffville Clippers and the Lindsay Muskies.

hometown,” recalled Wayne Venning, a member of the inagural Flamingos’ executive.

team to two consecutive appearances in the All-Ontario Finals.

While the team featured some imports from the surrounding area, the Flamingos make-up was largely based of players cultivated from the Port Perry Minor Hockey system.

The Flamingos first captain was Harold Fair from Sunderland, he was joined on the team by fellow Sunderland natives Ted Prentice and Randy Hall. The youngest player on the team was Uxbridge’s Paul Curtis.

Some of the local talent that donned the red and white of the Flamingos were: Ken Davidson, Ken Nightingale, Rick Campbell, Cal Cochrane, Don Waldinsperger, Dave Bourgeois, Shawn Lackie, Paul ‘Killer’ Kane, Dave Jackson, Glenn McCoy, Bob Young and brothers Neil and Grant McLaughlin.

The original coaches of the team were Ivan Luke and Bob Lee, who had just led Port Perry’s Midget

Two players from Oshawa - Gary Elliott and Phil Gilroy rounded out the roster.

During the team’s early years under the Flamingos moniker, opposing fans could get quite creative when it came to taunting the boys from Port Perry, and their sponsor.

“It wasn’t uncommon in those early days for games in opposing

The team has always strived to provide area players with a place to continue their hockey careers beyond the minor hockey ranks and the first incarnation of the team was no exception.

“There were a lot of players from the area who were playing junior hockey at some of the larger centres around us such as Bowmanville, and we got together and put together a plan to have a junior team of our own to provide local players the opportunity to play junior hockey in their

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arenas to have to be held up so that the referees could clear off the butter tarts that had been thrown by the opposing fans,” said Dave Bourgeois.

First year player Dave Jackson, who has continued in a sponsorship role in later years recalled some fond memories of that first year to The Scugog Standard in 2007.

"We had a lot of fun competing at a higher level and it was great being part of a new venture," said &') ''. & #) % ' *#! % $ " ( ( + !%() ) ' '!+ # - '! '*!%( , !# ) $$ ) '& ! . '( )( ' . )& # ' ) ' &*% Jackson. "The family has always been proud to carry on my father the past 35 years after serving for a cans of black paint to touch the Ken’s legacy with its continuing season as the club’s equipment helmets up," Parliament said. sponsorship. My mom, Marj, is the manager/trainer.

The name MoJacks is one of the one leading the way on the One of his first functions after the most unique in junior hockey, and sponsorship front these days. And name change was to do away with over the years has spawned several the fact the MoJacks are still a big the red and white of the Flamingos theories as to what it means. part of the Port Perry sporting in favour of the MoJacks’ familiar scene is just the icing on the cake."

"It’s certainly one of the more green, back and white colour unique names in all of junior With 40 seasons of MoJacks hockey scheme. hockey," said MoJacks President in the books, they are the longest "One of my first functions after the Butch Simms. "There have been serving members of the Central name change, and you could never many, many people over the year Ontario Junior C Hockey League. get away with this today, was to buy who have asked just what is a Their chief rival, the Uxbridge a bunch of cans of black spray MoJack? It continues to this day.

Bruins came to be four seasons paint," he recalled. "The next day I Some of the time they think it later, and the league later added was in our equipment room with might be an animal or bird that’s teams in Lakefield, Little Britain papers all over the floor trying to native to Lake Scugog. It’s and Georgina. spray paint black over our red definitely something that sets us helmets." apart from other clubs."

Prior to the 1978-79 season, a corporate name change saw Flamingo Pastries transform into Mother Jackson’s Open Kitchens.

And with it came a new moniker for the club, MoJacks. The name came about through a newspaper contest, and one very creative fan merged the name Mother Jackson’s to come up with MoJacks.

Murray Parliament has served as General Manager of the club for

The team would spend the next two years wearing the painted helmets, although Murray added there were some hiccups along the way.

"We got two years out of them, but whenever there’d be some contact with a stick on one of the helmets, some of the paint would chip away and the red would come through.

So, I made sure to hang on to a few

In 1988, the MoJacks the MoJacks finally realized their dream of winning a Central Ontario Junior Hockey League (COJHL) championship.

The team’s head coach that season, George Burnett would go on to great success as a coach throughout the junior ranks.

Currently the Head Coach and GM of the OHL’s Belleville Bulls, Burnett has also served as bench boss of the Niagara Falls Thunder, Guelph Storm and Oshawa Generals.

Burnett’s success hasn’t been limited to junior hockey.

Through the years, he has also served as a Head Coach in the American Hockey League, where he won a Calder Cup Championship in 1993 while Head Coach of the Cape Breton Oilers and later with the Binghamton Rangers.

Burnett also served as Head Coach of the Edmonton Oilers during the 1994-95 season.

He also spent two seasons as an Assistant Coach with the Anaheim Ducks under Craig Hartsburg.

Taking the job with Anaheim meant he had to pass on the job of coaching Canada’s entry at the 1998 World Junior Championships.

The team would eventually fall in the Clarence Schmalz Cup Finals to the Mooretown Flags, in what to date is the lone appearance for the MoJacks in the All-Ontario Finals.

Since then, the team has won four more championships - 1990,1992, 2006 and 2011. But, for many, the first championship remains the most special.

Over 800 players have donned a Flamingos/MoJacks jersey over the past 40 years. For some it was a stepping stone to greater success and for some it was the last gasp of competitive hockey before taking their talents to rec leagues across Ontario.

One of the team’s first stars was Oshawa’s Mark Jobb whose sons Patrick and Nick have both suited up for the team.

The team would win their third COJHL championship during the 1991-92 season, although they would eventually be eliminated in the AllOntario semi-finals by the Stayner Jobb was one of the first Port Perry Siskins who featured Steve Walker, players to win a scoring champiwho himself had left the OHL’s onship, but getting there wasn’t easy.

Owen Sound Platers to suit up with “The scoring championship had been his hometown club. awarded to a player from Today, Clair serves as an Assistant Bowmanville, although the MoJacks Coach with the team, alongside Jon had one game left against Stouffville,” Campbell.

Parliament explained. “But he was Campbell is himself also former seven points clear of Mark so they MoJacks player, having suited up for decided to just go ahead and give him the team in the 1980s. the award. Well, Mark went out and scored nine points against Stouffville The lone Flamingos/MoJacks alum to reach the pinnacle of hockey - the to win the scoring championship, which then had to be retracted by the NHL - is Beaverton native Basil McRae who suited up for a single season with convenor and taken back from the the Flamingos in the mid-1970s.

Eagles player.”

Just four players have had the In 1991, perhaps the most talented opportunity to captain the MoJacks player to ever suit of for the team Clair Cornish - joined the MoJacks. for three consecutive seasons. Todd Wilbur, Gavin Cochrane, Corey News of his signing sent shockwaves Skene as well as current captain Matt through the league since Cornish Paul share this incredible honour. had spent the previous two years with the Oshawa Generals. In 1991, “I was definitely shocked when I was named captain my first year since I Cornish had scored 50 points with the OHL club and in 1990 had won a had just come over from the Penetang Kings. I’ve always tried to Memorial Cup with the team. live up to what it means to be the However, not everyone was happy captain of this team, and it’s with the news that Cornish would be certainly an honour I don’t take joining his hometown club. lightly,” said Paul.

“Other teams suggested that it wasn’t While hundreds of players have right that a major junior player should come and gone over the past 40 come back to play Junior C,” years, one thing that has remained Parliament said. “But, I argued that constant is the support of the when a local player wants to play for community for its hometown team. his hometown club, his calibre is irrelevant, it was his decision to make.” Congratulations to all of the MoJacks players, staff, volunteers and Ultimately, all teams benefitted as fans for making the past 40 years so capacity crowds came out and there memorable. was palpable excitement in visiting arenas when the MoJacks and Clair DARRYL KNIGHT Cornish would come to town.

Uxbridge Scucog Standard

niagara falls, ca

5705 Falls Avenue Niagara Falls, Ontario L2H 6T3 905-356-7625 • FallsAvenueResort.com/HardRockCafe ©2011 Hard Rock International (USA), Inc. All rights reserved. SeeTheShow™

PLAYER OF THE YEAR ACH (Senior Hockey): Cam Watson Dundas Real McCoys TOP PROSPECTS AWARDS Goalie: Jamie Phillips Toronto Jr. Canadiens

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Defenceman: James DeHass Toronto Lakeshore Patriots

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Defenceman: Paul Geiger Stouffville Spirit Forward: Drake Caggiula Stouffville Spirit Forward: Daniel Milne St. Michaels Buzzers Forward Mike Rebry Brantford Golden Eagles $

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DONALD SANDERSON MEMORIAL AWARD

OFFICIALS AWARDS

Tyler Crawford, Owen Sound Greys

Hugh McLean Award (Most Promising official): Justin Knaggs, Brooklin

TRAINER OF THE YEAR

Ivan Locke Award (Most Improved official): Tyson Orlie, Toronto

Amanda Gilroy, Pickering Panthers (OJHL)

John Blackwell Award (Most Deserving official): Peter Kostyk, Niagara Falls Jack Clancy Award (Most Dedicated official): Walter Arujo, Brampton

Although the first game of hockey wasn’t officially documented until 1875, it wasn’t until 15 years later in 1890 that the Ontario Hockey Association started its run as the oldest Hockey Association in the world.

In the last 120+ years the OHA has evolved, grown and seen many changes to the game of hockey but one thing has stayed the same ... the Hockey Hall of Fame has been preserving and conserving the history of this great association one game at a time.

Beginning with John Ross Robertson, one of the early pioneers of the Ontario Hockey Association, he was honoured by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947 for his contributions to the game at the amateur level.

Although he never played hockey, Robertson became a fan because the game excited him and he acknowledged its pertinence to Canadian sporting life. The future hockey administrator first made a name for himself in the newspaper business.

In 1867 he founded the Toronto Evening Telegram.

As a newspaper professional Robertson demonstrated a strong understanding of hockey. He was

steadfast in his conviction that hockey should not be professionalized. When the professional initiative was adopted in 1897, Robertson was elected to the executive of the Ontario Hockey Association. Through the OHA he was able to nurture and preserve amateur hockey.

During his second year on the executive in 1898, Robertson was appointed vice-president of the OHA. On December 2, 1899 he ascended to the presidency of the OHA where he served with distinction until 1905.

On November 16, 1907 Robertson was made a life member of the OHA. He donated three trophies bearing his name that were to be presented annually to the OHA senior, intermediate and junior champions.

Sir Montagu Allan held the same beliefs as Robertson did and was recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945 as one of the true builders of the game of hockey.

Allan is synonymous with outstanding amateur hockey competition in Canada. His donation of a cup bearing his name in 1908 ensured that there would be a symbol to which many of the top amateur clubs in the nation could aspire each year.

When the Stanley Cup was restricted to professional clubs, a tremendous void suddenly opened up for amateur teams, who had no crown to fight for. The lack of a suitable amateur trophy was addressed by William Northey, a strong voice in the amateur hockey circles of Montreal. Northey successfully persuaded his friend, Sir Montagu Allan, to donate a trophy that would represent the highest level of achievement for amateur teams across Canada.

The Ottawa Cliffsides were the first holders of the Allan Cup, but they soon lost it after a series against Queen’s University. At the time, all

Association (OHA) and Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) executive branches.

Initially he devoted most of his efforts towards the betterment of the OHA, serving as Second Vicepresident and First Vice-president before taking over as President from 1934 to 1936. From the commencement of the 1936-37 season until his death in 1960, Dudley functioned as OHA secretary. Dudley was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950.

challenges for the Allan Cup had to be approved by a board of trustees.

Sir Montagu Allan’s contribution to hockey fostered one of Canada’s oldest competitive traditions, involving communities from every corner of the country and continues today as one of Canada’s great annual tournaments.

Frank Buckland, although came a long years later saw the Ontario Hockey Association as one of the premier leagues around as he plied his trade with the OHA. Buckland coached and ran teams in the Peterborough area and eventually word spread concerning his administrative talents and he successfully ran for election with the Ontario Hockey Association executive. In 1955 he began a two-year term as president and in 1961 began working as OHA treasurer, a position he held for 15 years.

George Dudley was an ardent hockey fan, he first leant his adjudicative talents to the game as a member of the Ontario Hockey

His dedication to the game saw the OHA present him with its Gold Stick Award, and in 1973 he was named a Life Member of that organization. Buckland was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975.

Fame in 1945 and was one of the forerunners in developing the Hockey Hall of Fame to recognize the greats.

Like any sport, the builders play a huge role in the foundations of the game, however as the public sees it, it is the teams and players alike that make up this great game of hockey!

Over the years there have been many players who have gone on to play in the National Hockey League or represented their country at the International level, each and every one of them remember their roots in the OHA and of course the builders of the sport.

Thanks to these great men who have built our game, hockey.

James Sutherland lived for hockey ... playing regularly in his home town of Kingston. However once his playing days concluded, Sutherland channelled his interest in hockey towards its improvement via policy changes or the implementation of existing standards.

In 1910 he was appointed to the Ontario Hockey Association executive where his vision and creativity immediately became apparent.

He functioned in this capacity until 1915 when he began a two-year reign as the organization’s president.

He also established a trophy to honour those men who gave their lives during World War I. This award became the Memorial Cup, symbolizing Canadian junior hockey supremacy. Captain James T. Sutherland, who is often referred to as the “Father of Hockey” was inducted into the Hockey Hall of

To learn more about the Ontario Hockey Association and its impact on the game including their honoured members, please visit our website at www.hhof.com.

PHILIP PRITCHARD Vice President, Curator Hockey Hall of Fame

The game of hockey has taken coach Bill Wilkinson on a worldwide journey to exotic hockey locales in Spain and Australia, but a coaching assignment with the Goderich Sailors of the Western Jr. C Hockey League may prove to be the most challenging of his 40-year career.

The 65-year-old Wilkinson, a native of Goderich, racked up an impressive 437 victories as a NCAA Division I coach, mainly with Western Michigan and Wayne State Universities in Michigan, before taking on brief coaching stints in Jaca, Spain and Melbourne, Australia.

“I played junior hockey here in town for three years and my dad, Jim, was heavily involved with the Junior B Siftos with guys like Ted Williams and Jack Evans.”

Just two months into the season and with the team winless in 16 games, Sailors President, Kevin Meriam, asked Wilkinson to assume head coaching duties November 15 and restore some discipline to a team that was leading the league in penalty minutes while allowing nearly nine goals-per-game. With only a single point to show through a 16-game undisciplined effort,

Wilkinson knew that he wasn’t going to turn the franchise around quickly.

Drawing on his 37 years of coaching experience, and facing a daunting challenge, Wilkinson concedes that change will be, at best, gradual and measured.

“I have made a commitment to coach, I have the time and some skills and want to give back to the community. I want the players to be responsible and accountable. They need to know that playing junior hockey is a privilege and they need to be respectful of the game.”

After retiring to the Goderich area, where Wilkinson played in the Central Junior B Hockey League with the Goderich Siftos, a team then affiliated with the Detroit and Hamilton Red Wing organizations, he offered to assist with recruiting duties to inject a measure of stability and competitiveness into a struggling hockey organization.

“The territory for Goderich to draw from is really cut off and the team desperately needed players, so I volunteered to help with recruiting where I could,” he said early in the 2012-13 season.

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Following his U.S. college playing career, Wilkinson began his coaching career with the freshman hockey team at St. Lawrence in 1971. He became as assistant coach with the varsity team then at the University North Dakota in 1979, the year the team won the WCHA championship.

After a brief stint at Bowling Green in Ohio, Wilkinson landed a coveted head coaching position with the Western Michigan University Broncos in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a team that was lagging in the standings and struggling to be competitive.

Under Wilkinson the team went through a meteoric rise in the CCHA standings over the next three years, winning 76 out of 126 league games. On the strength of a 32-game winning season in 198586, one of the best season records in the nation that season, the Broncos rolled to the CCHA championship, the highlight of Wilkinson’s 17-year coaching career at WMU. He fashioned an enviable record of 313-301-53 over those 17 years with the Broncos, was selected coach-of-the-year in the CCHA three times and led the team into the playoffs 14 out of 17 seasons.

In 1999, he took on the head coaching job with the Wayne State University Warriors in Detroit as the school launched its hockey program before the school shut down the program in 2009.

During his eight years in Detroit, Wilkinson coached the team to 73 victories and took the team to the

conference title and the postseason tournament championship in 2001-2002. The Warriors also competed in the NCAA tournament in 2002-03.

Without a university-level coaching job for the first time in 37 years, Wilkinson returned to his basic love of high school sports and coached the Farmington High School hockey team through the 2009 season.

In the coaching business, life is anything but stable and job security tenuous, at best. However, contacts within the fraternity endure and it was a chance conversation with New York Rangers scout and former New Hampshire player, Gordie Clark at the NCAA regionals in Grand Rapids, Mi. in March 2009, during which Wilkinson indicated an interest in coaching in Europe, that led to contact with a Spanish team.

Amenable to new life and career challenges the job was an alluring and exotic challenge that took Bill and his wife, Mary, to the Pyrenees region of Spain near the border of France for three years.

Wilkinson was able to build a team that won all three championships over a two-year period with some of the players under his tutelage earning spots on the country’s national team.

After three years in Spain, he took a six-month coaching position in Melbourne, Australia, although he initially mistook the caller making the job offer to be from Melfort, Saskatchewan and wondered to himself “Why the hell would I

coach in Melfort,” before being corrected by the recruiter.

Life often comes full circle. And as Wilkinson sits in the team room adjacent to the player dressing room in the Maitland Recreation Centre in Goderich, getting ready for his once-a-week practice time, players drop in to inform the coach about their impending absence as the team prepare for a grueling three-game weekend.

He scans the dwindling lineup sheet on his ever-present clipboard, knowing the team’s winless streak will likely extend.

“When I coached at the collegiate level, I had players out to practice everyday. Here, we have one practice a week,” he lamented.

“Some of the players don’t show up, they go to school out-of-town and it’s hard for them. It’s not easy to build and sustain a program.”

After an 800-game, 37-year coaching career at the Division I level, 26 of those years as a head coach that ranks him 26th on the all-time NCAA coach’s win list, the chair in the spartan equipment room in the lower level of the MRC in Goderich feels mighty comfortable to Bill Wilkinson.

“I’ve been overseas and around the world coaching. Done that,” he said. “I’m here to help. We can become competitive and maybe even win some games. I like being involved with players and I enjoy coaching.”

DAVE SYKES OHA Blueline Magazine.

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When the opportunity knocked, the St. George Dukes answered.

After 18 years in the Southern Ontario Junior Hockey League, and with a Junior C merger in the works, the Dukes decided to get a head start on the rest of the old junior D teams, even if it meant taking a few lumps.

St. George joined the Niagara District Junior C Hockey League’s East Division for the 2012-13 season, filling a void left by Caledonia, which folded when Brantford moved its junior B operations to town.

“I was always in favour of it,” Dukes head coach Rick Wrobel said.

“When the opportunity came with Caledonia leaving, I suggested (we) jump all over this.”

“Next year you’ll have all the teams from D trying to make the transition, and the pool will be difficult and more people fighting over the same fish. Everybody will take their lumps, so pay now or pay later.”

This season, each SOJHL team is playing a home-and-home with a Junior C team. In 2013-14, the 15 remaining SOJHL teams will join junior C full-time, and divisions will be realigned based on geography.

It’s the main reason why the Dukes were willing to move one year early. !!!

"

“It gave us an advantage in recruiting this past summer,” Wrobel said.

“That’s what I was in favour of.”

St. George has struggled in Junior C, playing the likes of two-time defending champion Grimsby and a strong Glanbrook team that has been in first place for much of the season. It hasn’t changed the team’s rebuilding plan following the loss of its overagers and several veterans.

The Dukes have 14 rookies this season. Wrobel said the expectation was to win 10 games.

“It’s been a huge learning curve. On most nights we’re pretty competitive,” he said. “The atmosphere in the dressing room, you’d think we’re 14-0. The kids are having a blast.”

Teams like Chippawa, in the Niagara East division, split their games against a previously unfamiliar opponent.

The Riverhawks lost in Burford and won the rematch in Niagara Falls.

“They’re very good, competitive teams and will only get better,” Riverhawks head coach Rob Hubbert said. “They’ll play the level they need to play at. Burford is getting kids from all over the place, like us. It is what it is. It’s how teams respond to that.”

Hubbert said he likes the merger idea.

“I think it’s fantastic for the league,” he said. “Any time there’s expansion, people get excited about it. The junior D teams have skill and talent, but

they have to be disciplined. if they are they’ll be tough teams.”

As of late December, Junior C teams had won 17 of 26 interlock games.

There was worry that the merger would create a competitive imbalance, but that hasn’t been the case during what amounts to a test run.

“The D teams are beating the C teams in some of the crossovers, so I guess anybody who thought it was going to be a whitewash, that’s clearly not how it is. Maybe it’s closer than they thought,” New Hamburg Firebirds head coach Shane Gerber said.

“I don’t think you’re going to get a true reading until it takes full effect and it becomes an every night grind from both sides. I think too much can happen in one or two games when you can motivate yourself because you want to prove a point.

Wait until they realign and they can prove themselves to everybody.”

CORY SMITH Niagara Falls Review

OHA JuniOr C CHAmpiOns 2011-2012

grimbsy Peach Kings

Schmalz Cup Champions

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Jeff Zatorski grew up in Welland, and as a teenager played junior B hockey in Port Colborne.

He spent three years at State University of New York at Potsdam, where he registered 45 points in 74 games with the Division 3 Bears.

In 2009-10, he played for Louisiana and Pensacola in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

It took awhile, but the 27-year-old Zatorski is finally home, playing in front of family and friends with the Welland Whalers. The Ontario Hockey Association’s newest senior A team wants to become a destination for skilled players from the Niagara region who are looking to continue their careers after playing junior, semi-pro or even professionally.

“Fans (can) still take a look at players who have played major junior and played pro ... fans haven’t had the chance to see them play since their junior days. You give something back to fans so they come back,” Whalers co-owner Tim Toffolo said. “It’s been a great experience. It’s something we had to put together very quickly, but the city of Welland has embraced Allan Cup hockey. It’s been really refreshing, a lot of fun to see guys,

basically you’re bringing back guys to play hockey again who thought they’d never have a chance to play competitive hockey again. To see the sparkle in their eyes come out again, it’s really quite special.”

The OHA had been looking to bring a senior A team to Welland for “quite some time,” Toffolo said.

Minor hockey changes freed up some ice time in Welland, which opened the door for Toffolo and coowner Tony Passero to ice a team in the Niagara city.

“It was great for us,” Toffolo said. “It was a no brainer, and I feel like there’s room for two teams down here. I challenge any centres, Niagara-on-the-Lake, for instance, we’d love to see them have a team and have a rivalry down here. It’s something Allan Cup Hockey is looking into expanding roots down here.”

With teams in Brantford, Orillia, Dundas and Whitby, it made sense to capitalize on the number of players in the Niagara region. The Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Golden Horseshoe Conference, for example, has teams in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Thorold, Fort Erie, Stoney Creek, Port Colborne and Welland that could provide a pipeline for the Whalers.

Toffolo, who owns Port Colborne, and Passero, who owns Fort Erie, put their junior B rivalry aside to

run the senior A squad.

The duo know the Golden Horseshoe well and have already dipped into its deep pool of talent.

Whalers goalie Cody Vinnai was the OHA’s junior B Player of the Year last season with Niagara Falls.

“The level of hockey is certainly above and beyond what a lot of people would expect,” Toffolo said.

“It’s high level, skilled hockey. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with what I’ve seen this year. We only expect to get better and better.”

Players are calling every week asking about the team, Toffolo said, which bodes well for next season and beyond.

“I think we’ve reached a point where we are successful,” he said.

“I’d expect next year’s tryouts to be extremely competitive for our hockey team.”

Off the ice, the Whalers are already planning a bid to host the Allan Cup, likely around the 2015-16 season (Dundas is hosting in 201314). This summer will be important for the club, which will need to utilize a full off-season to build a team that can compete consistently at a top level.

Fans continue to support the team, with an average crowd of about 400 through the Whalers first seven home games.

CORY SMITH Niagara Falls Review

He’s won junior hockey’s Cherrey Cup and the Canadian University men’s golf championship.

He’s a third-year official in the Ontario Hockey League and came within an eyelash of qualifying for The Masters, the most prestigious of professional golf’s four majors.

But his biggest victory to date was achieved not on the ice or on the links but rather at home in bed, a place the active, energetic Garrett Rank spends little time these days.

Rank, 25, learned two years ago that he had testicular cancer. It was a Friday, and the following Monday, the Elmira, Ont. native and University of Waterloo graduate went in for surgery. The rest – including his cancer, knock on wood – is history.

outcomes.”

Rank added that a positive attitude has been essential in helping him overcome his ordeal.

“After surgery I was flat on my back for six weeks. I had some minor problems with bleeding so it elongated the recovery but that only meant a couple more weeks of having my own personal waiter and caretaker,” he added with a laugh.

“I have become a better person because of the cancer; I consider it a blessing in disguise,” he said. “Now, a bad swing or penalty isn’t going to end my life. Cancer could. But I have never worried about it or thought about the negative consequences and I think that is why I am currently winning the fight. This mentality has only helped my golf game and my officiating.”

Rank was able to avoid chemotherapy and radiation treatment and happily reports that he is in good health. He attends the Grand River Cancer Centre every three to four months and his tests have kept coming back clear.

Rank is a member of the 2013 Canadian Men’s golf team, the second year in a row he’s made the national squad. He is currently ranked fourth in Canadian amateur golf’s order of merit and is well inside the top-100 amateur golfers in the world (81st as of Dec. 31).

“I am not out of the woods yet but the further I get away from my diagnoses the better the chance of having no issues,” he said. “On January 31 it will be two years since the treatment and that will be a big hurdle cleared.”

“At the time I felt like I had the world in my hands,” Rank said during the Christmas holidays before heading to Australia, where he is currently competing in five tournaments over a six-week span.

“I was 23, successful at university and peeking athletically when the cancer was discovered. It was such a short time from then until the surgery that I didn’t have much time to worry or think of the

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spring of 2008, as Elmira triumphed in six games over Cambridge.

Rank scored five goals in the final, including two in the clincher. He collected 15 points in 16 Midwestern playoff games as the Kings defeated Waterloo in the quarters and Stratford in the semis, both in five games, before knocking off the two-time defending OHA champion Winter Hawks.

When he isn’t wearing the zebra stripes, Rank can be found on a golf course ... somewhere.

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He is also a Hockey Canada Level 5 official with one year as a linesman and two years as a referee in the OHL under his belt. He has four years experience in the Ontario Hockey Association and also officiates minor hockey in Woolwich (Ontario Minor Hockey Association) and Waterloo (Alliance Minor Hockey).

Prior to playing university hockey, Rank played four seasons in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, two-plus seasons with the Waterloo Siskins and the last season and a half with his hometown Sugar Kings. His junior hockey career was capped with a Midwestern Conference title in the

In November, he was in Argentina with Golf Canada for a couple of weeks and then spent some time in December working on his game in Florida. He was home briefly over the holidays before heading Down Under.

This past summer, he reached the championship match of the United States Golf Association MidAmateur championship, with a spot in the 2013 Masters at stake.

He lost by the closest of margins to Pittsburgh’s Nathan Smith, 1-down in the 36-hole final.

“It was a thrill to play in the championship match,” said Rank, who won his semifinal 1-up over South Carolina’s Todd White and his quarter-final 3&2 over New York’s Matthew Mattare. “My goal from the beginning was to play and be successful on the PGA Tour. I am just enjoying the process and the results that have come along. The sky is the limit and wherever I end up, I am happy playing a game I love.”

Rank’s results have included the aforementioned win at the Canadian University championships in his senior year at Waterloo and victory in the prestigious Toronto Star Men’s Amateur in 2011, where he drained a 30-footer for birdie on 18 in the final group to win by one stroke.

Growing up, the Elmira Golf Club served as a home away from home for Rank and his older brother, Kyle, 30, also a former Sugar King.

“We would spend sunrise to sunset there during the summer,” Rank recalled. “It essentially was my parents’ babysitter. It’s tough to get in trouble on a golf course.”

Rank is content right now to balance golf and officiating while seeking a professional career, either on the PGA Tour or in the NHL. “It’s a tough task doing both but for now, I feel very fortunate to pursue both my dreams,” he said.

“That being said, I will need to concentrate on one or the other in the future in order to make it to the highest level.”

With all that he has achieved and overcome to this point, it’s a solid bet the affable Rank will make one of his dreams come true.

Look for him on TV in the not too distant future, Saturday nights at the rink or Sunday afternoons on the links.

MIKE SAVAGE OHA Blueline Magazine

The Little Britain community was sent reeling from the tragic loss of Little Britain Merchants captain Nolan Jewell last summer.

The 21-year-old Oakwood native died suddenly in the early morning hours of Sunday, Aug. 12, sending shock waves throughout the tight knit community.

“It’s tough, he was obviously a huge part of our organization,” grief stricken Merchants Head Coach Steve Gourlie told The Scugog Standard. “You don’t get that from many players, but he was a great leader and all the kids really looked up to him. He was always my go to guy for anything with the players. If we needed to rebound after a tough loss or it was a pivotal part of the game, I could always count on him to rally the team.”

In addition to being a top-flight player on the ice, Jewell was committed to improving the Merchant organization off the ice as well. In recent years he had been the organizer of a summer softball tournament to raise funds for the Junior ‘C’ hockey club.

Last year, he spearheaded efforts to remodel the team’s dressing room.

Not only did he organize the softball tournament, but he also persuaded

local suppliers to donate materials to the project. This past summer, proceeds from the tournament went towards purchasing new equipment for players such as new pants and hockey bags.

Over the course of his four-year career with the Merchants, Jewell was a dominant player on the ice, accumulating 107 points in 106 career games played.

News of Jewell’s passing circulated through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook with many posting their condolences for a life lost far too soon.

“Thoughts and prayers go out to the Jewell family tonite, Nolan was a great kid and hockey player! He will be dearly missed #RIPNolan,” Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Duchene tweeted. Duchene was a former teammate of Jewell’s when both were members of the Central Ontario Wolves ‘AAA’ organization.

In the wake of the tragic loss, the Merchants announced that his number 5 jersey would be retired by the organization, and the team did not name a captain this season.

It is with heavy hearts that the Merchants then looked towards the next hockey season, with Merchants training camp scheduled to open just days after the tragic loss of the team’s captain.

“It won’t be the same without him

this year,” Gourlie said. “Being a Merchant is what he took the most pride in.”

On Saturday, Oct. 13, the Merchants honoured their captain by retiring his number 5 jersey and scoring a dramatic 3-2 overtime win over the Lakefield Chiefs.

The evening began with a special tribute to Jewell.

After a brief speech from former Merchants coach Geoff Field, and the singing of O Canada, a banner was unfurled from the rafters of Little Britain Arena bearing Jewell’s number.

In lieu of a moment of silence, Field asked the more than 600 fans who had jammed their way into the rink to honour Jewell with a moment of applause.

DARRYL KNIGHT Uxbridge Scucog Standard

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