Yorkton This Week | www.YorktonThisWeek.com | Wednesday, July 25, 2018
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SENIORS Our Monthly Feature
…For Seniors and about Seniors
Sports a passion, education a career By Calvin Daniels Staff Writer Over the years few have been more supportive of the ‘Land of Orange’ than Barry Sharpe who worked tirelessly for years as counsellor at Yorkton Regional High School. It was however a winding road to the Land of Orange. Born in 1942, Sharpe said while very young at the time of the Second World War, it still left him with indelible memories. As a kid he said he remembers the Harvard airplanes flying over Yorkton from the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan centre at what it now the Yorkton Municipal Airport. “They would scare the hell out of me,” said Sharpe. It was a situation
which may have been inpart because he lost an uncle in the war, an uncle who was a pilot. And there was, for example, the end of the conflict. “The troops coming home on the trains … all the soldiers hanging out the windows waving,” recounts Sharpe over coffee. And after the war it continued to play a part in his formative years. “Shortly after the war they had a big air show in Yorkton. It was a hot, hot day,” he recalled. They had brought in a Lancaster, or similar bomber, something they did not see from the training centre. “It sank right into the tarmac. They had a heckuva time to get it out,” he said. “It was quite a thing.” He said while very
young the impact of the war on everyone seemed to be something that simply ingrained the memories in him. But the war did come to its end, and as the world settled back into a semblance of normalcy, so too did the life of a young boy growing up in Yorkton. In a time before computer games and television, Sharpe like most youth in those times hit the playgrounds for fun and entertainment. “I played lots of sports,” he said. That meant learning baseball, and hockey, two sports Sharpe would emerge to excel in. It seemed like a very normal upbringing in a time after the war, but there were bumps. “When I was 13 my mother died,” he said, and two years later his father passed too. Sharpe would move to Wynyard to live with an older sister and finish his high school, where he continued to show he could play football. After winning a provincial title with the Yorkton Collegiate in 1957, as a Grade 11 student with Wynyard they lost to Prince Albert in the provincial finals. A year later they took the final, this time over North Battleford. The football championships would be two of many Sharpe would garner playing at a top level in the sports as a young man. Sharpe said while he was in the University of Saskatchewan Huskies
football team, two losses 72-6 to BC and 54-0 to Calgary made him rethink continuing on the gridiron. But then there were the Saskatoon Quakers, the team that would become the Blades one day. Doug Bentley, a former National Hockey League player and Hockey Hall of Fame member was the coach. “They had a rural camp,” said Sharpe. “Seventy-eight kids showed up, and only two made the Quakers.” He was one of them playing with the team for the 1960-61 season. Sharpe would be something of a hockey gypsy for a time. After a year with the Quakers he played with the Weyburn Red Wings for a season. The next season “I got a phone call from Dauphin. I’d never been to Dauphin in my life,”
he said. But he packed his skates and headed to Manitoba where the team would be intermediate provincial finalists for the 1962-63 season. At the time his pro rights were held by the Detroit Red Wings, and he was invited to a camp to play with their affiliate in Edmonton. In spite of local success, he didn’t go. “I didn’t think I had a career in hockey,” he said. While sports would continue to be a huge part of Sharpe’s life, he was also beginning to think about some sort of career, and eventually he settled on being a teacher. Sharpe’s early teaching career would see him finally drawn back to Yorkton, where he began teaching at St. Joseph’s. And he was back on the ice with the Yorkton
Terriers, a paying opportunity at the time. “That didn’t last very long. The team ran out of money,” he said. While at St. Joseph’s he continued his own teaching education, eventually heading back to the U of S to finish his degree. Of course there was more hockey as a U of S Husky too. “I played at the first ever Canadian Winter Games (with the Huskies),” said Sharpe. Through it all Sharpe was also on numerous baseball teams from Rosetown to Yorkton. Where ever he went sports was part of his life. After completing his degree he was offered a teaching job back in Yorkton. Looking back he said something always popped up when he needed it in terms of teaching. Continued on Page A12
Barry Sharpe, left, with the Olympic Torch when it visited Yorkton in 2010.
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PASSION Continued from Page A11 “I never applied for a teaching job in my life,” he said with a smile. When back in Yorkton this time Barry would meet his future wife. At the time he was singing in a duo with Brother Paul from St. Joseph’s, an act they called Brother Paul and Barry, as a sort of ode to well know group Peter, Paul and Mary. At a show he saw Dale Cosgrave, then attending nursing classes in the city. “She looked pretty good to me,” he said, again with a grin. Dale was a farm girl from Whitewood, and in time that would lead Barry to have cattle and horses, but that would only happen after finally settling at Yorkton Regional High School starting in 1967. Sharpe started as a science teacher, and of course helping out with sports, including running an intermural hockey program for 20 years. “We used to pack the rink,” he said. When the league faded the teacher-student benefit game would emerge, another of Sharpe’s effort. In part because of the success of the hockey Sharpe was asked to go into the guidance office more as a school event organizer than a counsellor. “I said I’d try it for a year, I guess,” he said. The new role quickly grew, and his time in front of a class disappeared. It
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A young Barry Sharpe and his father Stephen. was a unique role. “There was only one other school that had a position like it; Kitchener-Waterloo,” he said. It was a position where Sharpe would achieve much success, perhaps most notably hosting the first Canadian National Student Leadership Conference. The year was 1985, the year proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Youth Year. Sharpe said he took 20 students to a provincial event a year earlier where then Premier Grant Devine spoke suggesting the 1985 gathering be a national affair.
The provincial and federal governments put up a combined $72,000, and Sharpe and YRHS took on the challenge of hosting the event. A thousand students from across Canada and states such as Kentucky took place. The involvement of the contingent from Kentucky would lead to Sharpe being given the title of Colonel by the state’s governor. Not one to rest on a success Sharpe and the school took on the 10th anniversary of the Conference as well. The second event would include the first Canadian National High School Rodeo Finals.
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Before the event in Yorkton high school rodeo participants headed to Gillette, Wyoming for the US finals, said Sharpe. Looking back Sharpe said the two conferences were certainly a highlight of his unique position at the school. “I saw Canada differently than I’d seen it before,” he said of the opportunity to bring all the youth together. As for the rodeo, it was just another sport event for Sharpe to rally too, part of a life of sport which earned him induction into the Yorkton Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. But there were other moments at the school he remembers fondly such as the school being twotime Canadian National Champions of MOGA (Most Outrageous Group Activity) Madness, setting a Guinness record for 250 participants skipping on a single skipping rope, and the reestablishment of a football program which was cancelled in 1972.
In 1994, Shape would retire. As for the unique position; now called Student Activity Advisor, it is in hands he trusts, those of his son Robbie. And, retirement has not been so bad with cattle and horses, grandchildren and volunteer work
to fill the time, although he admitted leaving the school was not initially easy. “The hardest part was handing the master key over,” he said. But he knew it was time following some advice; “always quit while you’re still having a good time.”
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Barry Sharpe, checkered coat left, and an early edition of the YRHS Raider football team.
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Yorkton This Week | www.YorktonThisWeek.com | Wednesday, July 25, 2018
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What used to be the “golden years” of life for seniors is now turning into any opportunity to spend even more time with their youngest family members. Nowadays, a growing number of grandparents are called on to provide child care for their grandkids, many of whom are growing up in two-income households. Others are helping to raise grandkids while providing financial assistance for adult children who may not be able to live on their own. Grandparents often cite helping their own children financially as well as staying in touch with grandchildren as motivating factors behind providing care. According to Generations United, staying in touch with grandkids can give seniors a feeling of self-worth
and improve their overall health. When spending so much time together, grandparents may develop special relationships with their grandchildren, who may benefit from the knowledge and wisdom offered by their elders. The following are some lessons grandparents can share with youngsters. • Empathy: By sharing stories of how things were when they were younger, when opportunities may have been more scarce, grandparents can help teach grandchildren empathy. Grandchildren may learn to be grateful for the things they have and the people around them, rather than taking what they have for granted. • Family history:
Grandparents can tell grandchildren about family members, including youngsters’ own par-
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ents, and shed light on the generations that came before them. Looking through photos or watch-
Staying flexible as you age Men and women may begin to feel less flexible as they get older. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, that loss of flexibility is because muscles lose both strength and elasticity as the body ages. A lack of flexibility can make men and women more vulnerable to certain types of injuries, including muscle strains and tears. While people might not be able to maintain the flexibility they enjoyed in their twenties, there are ways for them to combat agerelated loss of flexibility. • Stretch frequently. Stretching is a great way to combat age-related loss of flexibility. Stretch major muscle groups, such as hamstrings and shoulder muscles, several times per week. When practicing static stretching, the goal is to gradually elongate the muscle being stretched before holding the elongated position, and ultimately
allowing the muscle to return to resting position. As flexibility improves, elongated stretches can be held for 30 seconds. Avoid stretching muscles that are sore or injured, and discontinue a stretch if you feel pain or discomfort. • Include yoga in your exercise regimen. Practitioners of yoga typically love how this unique discipline that exercises the body while relaxing the mind
improves their flexibility. Many yoga poses are designed to improve the strength and flexibility of muscles, and some physicians may even recommend yoga to aging patients. Yoga DVDs or streaming sessions can be great, but beginners may want to visit yoga studios or sign up for classes at their gyms so instructors can personally ensure they are doing each pose correctly. As their flexibility improves, men and
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women can try more difficult poses and classes if they so desire. • Get in the pool. Swimming is another activity that can help aging men and women improve their flexibility. Strength-training exercises are an important component of a well-balanced exercise regimen, but such workouts tend to focus on one or two muscle groups at a time. That means other muscle groups may be inactive and tighten up as a result. Swimming works the entire body, which helps all muscle groups stay loose and flexible. One or two swimming sessions per week can contribute to great gains in overall flexibility, especially for men and women who remember to stretch when they get out of the pool. Flexibility may decrease as men and women age, but there are various ways to combat the natural loss of flexibility.
ing old movies can provide the avenue by which to start conversations about family history and
give children opportunities to ask questions. • Interests: Children may be excited about learning new skills or hobbies taught to them by their grandparents. Anything from gardening to woodworking can be shared. • Respect: Children who grow up respecting their grandparents may have an increased tendency to respect authority figures outside their homes, which may help kids grow up to be more courteous and kind. Grandchildren also offer benefits to their grandparents. Companionship, new experiences and conversation can help keep grandparents’ minds sharp and bodies active well into their golden years.
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