Richmond Review

Sports Stories

Last season, the Richmond Blackhawks won the regular season with a 21-1-2 record and then swept through the playoffs without a loss to capture the RIHL's Championship in 94-95. However the ever-improving eight-team circuit is providing surprising and entertaining results this season. The Blackhawks are mired in fourth in a very tight race which includes five teams contending for a shot at winning the league's regular season title. The Blackhawks have enough offensive punch with centres Don Taylor and Yves LeBlanc near the top of league's scoring race, but they have been defensively suspect so far. Playing coach Dale Carter hopes to see vast improvement by getting his defensive regulars of Mike Nerfa, Leo Nickolas, Bob Lane, Bob Riddell, Terry Neil and Bruce Hayes in a regular rotation to support goalie John Boyd. The Skyline Skyhawks are currently sharing top spot, led by the brother-combination of Kevin and Jeff Dugvid, and Jack Ursaki dominating the score sheet each game. Export A Kings are enjoying a dramatic turnaround, currently sharing top spot led by Hoover Jong, Kevin McDonald, Les Wolandski and Russ Jung.

A lot of time went into organizing this year's Richmond International Midget Ice Hockey Tournament, which begins Wednesday (Dec. 27) at Minoru Arenas. Just ask organizer Mike Hodder, who began contacting potential participants back in July. In addition to inviting teams from throughout Canada and the United States, Hodder and his colleagues sent out applications to 100 teams in Europe. "We hoped we'd land a team from Europe but apparently this age group doesn't travel out of Europe any more," Hodder explained. But that doesn't mean this year's tournament - the 15th annual - will be any less competitive. Originally a "B" tournament, organizers a few years ago set up "A" and "B" divisions. It has since grown into one of the most respected tournaments in B.C. with 30 teams participating this year. "This year we attracted such top teams as Prince George and the Victoria Racquet Club and we also got a team from Aspen, Colorado and four from the Island," Hodder noted. Hodder said the goal is to get more teams from the prairie provinces, but the Mac's tournament in Calgary remains the elite tournament in western Canada during the Christmas break.

London Legends have only been playing senior high school boys' basketball since late November, and already they've improved in leaps and bounds. Even coach Sandra Howard is surprised how much, adding that some players are starting to emerge as standouts. Tommy Kao is the leading scorer and Jason Ding has been a standout at point guard; both instrumental in the team winning the Sutherland invitational recently. Benny Shih has also shown tremendous improvement in the key, said Howard. "Both Tommy and Ben are Grade 10s and going up against senior teams and averaging double figures," Howard beamed. "Tommy has been in double figures in every game." The Legends recently lost to league-rival Hugh Boyd Trojans 82-64, but Howard was pleased with the effort. Hugh Boyd coach Mike Patterson also had praise for his team's play, as several players emerged with strong outings most notably Jeff Tsao (24 points) and Dusan Gligorjevic, who Patterson praised for his strong rebounding and inside play.

Heading into their home-and-home series with the Port Coquitlam Buckaroos this weekend, the Richmond Sockeyes were comfortably atop the Pacific International Junior Hockey League standings. Yet coach Jeff Crossley wasn't completely at rest. You see although the Sockeyes had lost just four of their first 24 games, Crossley felt there were times when the team prevailed without playing particularly well. And as the bench boss, it's his responsibility to ensure the boys are prepared come playoff time. That's the reason he worries about the little things now. "I think in order to win the league we're going to have to reach another level (in our play)," Crossley said Wednesday. "We were able to get away with a couple of things early on." But now - just past the halfway point of the regular season - the contenders are starting to separate from the pretenders. "Right now everyone is jockeying for position," Crossley said. "There are three real strong teams (Richmond, Ridge Meadows and Port Coquitlam) at the top of league. We lead right now but playing Poco in this home-and-home could change things a lot." Port Coquitlam has a history of bringing out the best in the Sockeyes, but they also have had their number of late. In last year's playoff final for example, the Buckaroos erased a 3-1 series deficit and won the PIJHL crown with a 5-4 victory in game seven.

As people concerned about the survival of our precious salmon know, most B.C. salmon return to our coast via Alaska. For this reason, it is of some significance to monitor the Alaska commercial fishery from year to year. It provides at least an indication of the overall health of ocean salmon stocks feeding the area from Vancouver Island to the Charlottes. The news in an overall sense seems quite positive assuming Alaska's 1995 commercial fleet size and openings remain similar to 1994. In 1995, 202 million salmon were caught in Alaska, up from a previous record of 196 million in 1994. The 202 million consisted of 530,000 chinook, 62.5 mill sockeye, 3.7 mill coho, 120 mill pinks, and 15 mill chum. It's fair to say there's still a few fish in the ocean. From a broad perspective, the commercial fishery, when pared to a half way reasonable size, should be able to thrive over the long term. The B.C. commercial catch was less encouraging, but still reasonable in total fish terms, when you consider '95 and '96 as the two worst and dreaded El Nino years (Mackerel ate everything under a foot long that swims on the west coast in 1992). B.C. commercial fishers caught about 19 mill fish in '95 compared to 21 mill in 1994. They consisted of 4.2 mill sockeye (11.7 mill in 1994), 11.3 mill pink, 1.7 mill coho, and 1.6 mill chum (Chinooks were not mentioned). The large catch of pink partially compensated for the poor catch of sockeye. From a return on investment standpoint, this was somewhat disastrous for our commercial fleet as pinks aren't worth much. With coho and chinook steadily and slowly declining, we are certainly dependent on sockeye in this province commercially. (Just as dependent as the recreational fishery is on chinook and coho.) That over-fishing fiasco in 1994 which threatened the sockeye stocks was a very close call.

Regarding recreational fishing in Georgia Strait, creel surveys to date indicate 62,000 chinooks (71,000 in 1994 ytd), 86,000 coho (295,000), 5800 sockeye (14,000), 182,000 pink (18,000), 111,000 rockfish (162,000), and 4800 lingcod (6900). These figures are not too bad when you consider approximately 320,000 boat trips in '95, compared to 460,000 in 1994. This may indicate people are giving up on Georgia Strait, or fishing more on the west coast or in the Charlottes. The point of bringing out all these numbers is two fold. If all the user groups in B.C. make a concerted effort to work with the governments to preserve and effectively manage these salmon stocks, our grandchildren will still enjoy the excellent sport of fishing. Judging from the Alaska commercial numbers, the north Pacific Ocean continues to produce large volumes of salmon to support these essential preservation efforts. ('Twas lucky we slowed down the drift net slaughter a few years ago).

It's official, the 1996 B.C. "AAA" high school boys' basketball championships will be played at General Motors Place. Held last year to overflow crowds of close to 7,000 at the PNE Agrodome, the tournament's move downtown will enable more fans to enjoy the excitement. The lower bowl will seat 9,000 (out of an overall capacity of 20,056 in the basketball mode). "This is another great step in the growth and development of the "AAA" championships in particular, and high school basketball in general," said tournament director John Buis. "We realize such a move would not have been possible without the full support of both the Vancouver Grizzlies and General Motors Place and we look forward to working with both Orca Bay companies in taking these championships to the next level." The move of the championships, which began in 1946 and are the longest-running and largest high school sports championships in Canada, was facilitated as part of the new community partnership between the Grizzlies and the B.C. High School Boys Basketball Association. "The 50-year history of the B.C. "AAA" high school boys basketball championships has resulted in the finest high school tournament in the country," said Stu Jackson, general manager of the Grizzlies. "We're very excited to have the opportunity to work with the tournament and the high school boys association over the next 50 years."

The dynamic duo has the Steveston Packers riding a wave of success. Thanks to the consistent shooting of Carla Evans and Kristen Bennett, coupled with a team commitment to defence, the Pack are enjoying a fast start to the 1995/96 high school girls' basketball season. "Playing as a team always takes time, but the more we play together the better we look," said Steveston coach Mike Simmons. "But our success hinges on getting more than two people scoring, and while Carla and Kristen have been scoring the majority of our points we've been getting nightly contributions from others - usually Darcy and Lindsay Diehl." "I think we've been getting good leadership from our Grade 12s and the kids seem to be becoming a team," Simmons continued. But scoring alone doesn't spell success, and the Packers are no exception. "We've picked up our defensive play," Simmons acknowledged. "We've been able to get our forwards to move faster and get out on the wings." The Packers, which left Friday for a week of exhibition games in San Diego, defeated the Burnett Breakers 69-35 Tuesday - three days after an impressive third-place finish at the Richmond Colts Classic.

Richmond Review Home Page