Southpoint Hockey News kept players and parents informed

By C. Scott Holland

The Southpoint Hockey News was a newspaper entity which revolved around life and issues at the local hockey arena – originally Leamington Agricultural and Recreation Centre.

It began as a means of keeping the players, coaches, parents and fans interested and involved in their own local hockey jurisdiction.

Frank Silveira (left) gives Jim Ciacelli of Southpoint Minor Hockey copies of the inaugural edition of the Southpoint Hockey News.

Photo courtesy of the C. Scott Holland Collection

While the former Leamington Post had weekly stories summarizing the games played, the Southpoint Hockey News had biographies of the town’s NHLers, interviews with players and coaches and touched on important issues, and also held a few contests.

The paper was free and bundles were given to the coaches to distribute, as well as being available in a rack within the arena.

Its conception was developed and published through a small group of people who worked hard to bring joy to the thousands who read the paper.

Mark Ribble, Frank Silveira, Scott Holland, Jim Bowman, Dave Dawson and Roger Shires were among the core group who got the paper started.

Often it included a guest columnist like the ‘Kanteen Queen’, Claire McCormick, who had a column called What’s Cookin’.

Claire was a favourite of players and parents alike, along with Jean Pepper, who ran the canteen for many years.

CLAIRE MCCORMICK

Looking back at all the paper’s features brings back fond memories of the original arena and the people who gave us those memories.

The paper was published from Dec. 1996 until February 2000 when the new arena (now known as the Nature Fresh Complex) opened. The group published about five times per year.

For everyone, it became an anticipated part of the hockey season and laid the foundations for other centres to follow suit.