Local rinks via for B.C. berths

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

Four Richmond rinks are still alive in the drive toward the B.C. men’s curling championship.

After winning an open bonspiel last weekend in Esquimalt, Ken Maskewich joins zone winners Craig McLeod, Craig Lepine and Bruce Davey at the Pacific Coast playdowns Friday through Sunday at Marpole.

The top four teams advance to the Safeway Select provincial championships Feb. 6-10 at Richmond Winter Club where they’ll meet the Interior’s top four.

“It would be excellent for the fans to have (any of the local rinks) playing here at the B.C. Selects,” Richmond Winter Club manager Doug Bradley said.

Maskewich, whose rink features Brent Giles playing third, won straight games to win last weekend’s open, while Lepine recently competed at the national mixed championships in Halifax, N.S.

The Coastal playdowns are as competitive as any region in the province, said Bradley, who lost the B-qualifier at Esquimalt.

“Experience, knowledge and being able to handle the pressure are the key things,” he said.

Other teams competing at this weekend’s Coastal playdowns include: defending B.C. champion Dean Joanisse of Victoria; Al Roemer, Dean Geiger, Brian Gessner and Doug Wilcocks of Royal City; Steve Waatainen of Nanaimo; Randy Thiessen of Duncan; and Ray James of Alberni Valley.

Tickets are still available for the B.C. playdowns in Richmond. For ticket information, call 604-278-1722.

Skaters impress at nats

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

Sydney Gelfer and Paul Gagnon skated to a sixth-place overall finish at the Canadian Junior National Figure Skating Champion-ships last week in St. John’s, Nfld.

It was a strong showing for the B.C. ice dance pair, who impressed officials with their performances to a Rocker Foxtrot, Harris Tango, and Cha-Cha Congelado. One international official even complemented their dance coaches Rod Mackie and Laurie Elward, on how tidy their feet were and how precise their pattern was. Their edges and flow were good.

Gelfer, 13, was one of the youngest skaters at the competition and represented Richmond’s Connaught Figure Skating Club. Gagnon, 16, represented the White Rock-South Surrey Figure Skating Club.

Gelfer and Gagnon won the national juvenile dance championship last season and are now skating at the Pre-Novice level.

“We had a good skate and I’m proud of that,” Gelfer said.

Calvine Lefebvre, 13, of the Connaught Figure Skating Club skated to a 12th-place finish in the Pre-Novice men’s competition at the junior nationals. He qualified for the junior nationals by placing seventh at the Western Canadian Challenge in Prince George. He was third at the B.C. Sectionals.

Lefebvre is coached by Jason Mongrain.

Locals shine in scholarship series

Richmond players figured prominently in the 25th anniversary Midget Division scholarship tournament hosted last week by the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association as part of Minor Hockey Week.

Playing for the Fraser Valley Flames, one of four teams in the round-robin series, swift-skating Michael Heath captured a $500 bursary for his post-secondary studies, Calvin Wong led his team in points, talented playmaker Brad Taylor earned an MVP award, and goaltender Dustin Murao had the lowest goals-against average.

The Flames were favourites after round-robin play, but wound up winning silver medals after being upset 5-3 by the Avalanche in Saturday’s final.

The select teams were formed with players from as far north as Whistler, as far south as Seattle, and east to Chilliwack.

The all-Grade 12 tournament featured players who are proficient both on the ice and in the classroom. All the players sport C-plus averages or higher as well as demonstrating good sportsmanship.

The tournament was founded by Bruce Allison whose son Jim is currently principal at R.C. Palmer Secondary.

Richmond Minor hosts the PCAHA’s Juvenile Division scholarship tournament Feb. 4 at Minoru Arenas. Game time is 7 p.m.

Two former Richmond players, Justin Browe and Dave Perron, are members of the Senators.

Five players from the Seafair Minor Hockey Association’s Juvenile Division “A” team have also been selected to participate in the tournament Feb. 3 to 9. Mike Rae, who is captain of the Seafair team; alternate captain Jayson Eliott, Allen Morris, Robby Buckoll and William Dunn were all nominated from their team based on the qualities of good sportsmanship, leadership, character and playing ability. The players are all involved with coaching at Seafair.

Coach John Taylor has also been selected to coach on of the three teams representing their conference grouping.

A bursary award worth $300 is to be awarded to a player on each of the three tournament teams.

Athletic Centre to celebrate its jubilee

The Richmond Athletic Centre celebrates two anniversaries next month — the 20th Dogwood Invitational and the gymnastics club’s first year at its SportsTown B.C. facility.

The Dogwood Invitational, Feb. 9 and 10, is one of the largest competitions of its kind in the Lower Mainland, featuring more than 200 athletes from local gymnastic clubs as well as from throughout B.C. and Alberta. This is also the first year the invitational is expected to have a full men’s competition as well as high-performance women’s events.

Under the guidance of former world team member Sara Markel and former national level competitor Rory Kerrigan, local athletes are taking steps toward realizing their competitive dreams.

Richmond Athletic Centre gymnast Darren Dos Santos, a member of the national team, recently enjoyed a strong finish at the Elite Canada competition in Calgary. He is poised to be at this year’s world championships.

Two other Richmond athletes, Ben Sheppard, 14, and Mitchell Joblin, 13, have been selected to a talent pool for selection to represent Richmond at the next Canada Winter Games.

Russell at home with T-Birds

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

Kyle Russell is finally getting a break — a positive break.

And his former high school hoops’ coach isn’t surprised he’s making the most of it.

“He’s one of the best players I’ve ever coached,” says long-time Richmond High senior boys’ basketball mentor Bill Disbrow, for whom Russell played two seasons in 1995 and 1996.

“He can play inside, outside, play defence, is a scorer, unselfish, a rebounder, and he hustles — and he’s intellingent. Another simple way to say that is he respects the game.”

A member of five university or college teams since graduating from Richmond High, Russell’s strong all-around game may have actually worked against him while he was trying to earn an opportunity to play Division One basketball down south, Disbrow said, simply because he didn’t fit a stereotype.

“He loves the whole game and tries to do all aspects of it well,” Disbrow explained. “He cares about all of them and that’s not as common as you might think.”

Now 23, he’s finally been given the opportunity carry the torch as the starting point guard for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and he’s lighting up the scoreboard.

Russell was recently honoured as the Canadian Inter-university Athlete of the Week after back-to-back 35 and 34-point efforts in T-Bird wins over the University of Winnipeg in men’s hoops action. He also had a game-high 12 rebounds in one of the contests and had nine assists, a block and four steals in the two-game series.

One of the highest-scoring university players in recent weeks, he led UBC in scoring for 10 games in a row while averaging 30.5 points in a six-game stretch leading up to the two games against Winnipeg. He sits second in conference scoring and seventh in assists per game. He’s also second among guards in rebounding.

“Since the last week before Christmas we’ve doing really well,” he said. “It’s one of those things. We’ve got a lot of new guys and it takes a little while for everyone to gel.

“It took us about five to six weeks to get going but once we were on the same page the pieces seemed to fall together. And once you’re winning you start feeling good about yourself and your shots start dropping. Winning is so contagious.”

Russell joined the University of Calgary Dinos out of high school, but played just one semester before being sidelined by a knee injury. He then realized his goal of playing state-side the following season when he made Northern Arizona but wound up red-shirting.

“That was a humbling experience to say the least,” he says. “In high school I had always been athletic and gotten by on my athleticism. That’s not to say I didn’t work hard but some of the skills I didn’t have to develop as much. As soon as I went to the states (I was playing with above-average athletes) and had to really develop my other skills, shooting especially. In high school people would stand five feet off and let me shoot.”

It was a great season none-the-less, he says, and he made some good friends.

Northern Arizona decided not to keep Russell for the following season, but did help him find a place to play — at Snow Junior College in Utah — where he played one season.

“I’m thankful for that,” he says.

“It was one of the most enjoyable years I’ve ever had, basketball-wise and everything,” he says.

The team was coached by former Utah State player John Judkins, whose relaxed and positive demeanor Russell compares to Hansen’s. Russell was a first team All-American at Snow and helped lead the team to fifth in the nation averaging 14 points a game as a point guard and led the nation in three-pointers, shooting 57 per cent.

“We weren’t supposed to be very good but it was one of those years where everything went right,” he said. “It was sad to leave there where I’d made a lot of close friendships.”

But opportunity beckoned and Russell headed to the University of San Diego, and a shot at playing for a Division One team.

Things started out alright, he says, but after starting the first two games he was injured and had to work his way back into the lineup.

“That was cool,” he said. “But at that level it’s very, very serious and you have to follow the rules very stringently. Basketball just kind of rules your life.”

That’s when he decided to head home, and continue his studies at UBC where he’s working toward a degree in psychology. He decided also to continue playing hoops, but took a quick detour to spend a few months in Japan.

“It was my first time off the continent and I loved it,” Russell says. “I had so much fun.”

After sitting out last year’s hoops season at UBC, he was eligible to play again this season and was anxious to do so.

“I was excited to play again,” Russell said. “I hadn’t played (Canadian university basketball) for a long time but with guys coming in I thought we had a chance to be pretty good.”

He said playing for coach Kevin Hansen has made the game fun again too, a big change from university down south were they take the game — and wins and losses — very seriously.

“(Hansen) and I are both very competitive people, but (the game) doesn’t get too serious,” Russell said.

“When I’m on the floor it’s the most important thing to me,” he explained. “But as I get older I also realize it’s also just (a game).”

Sockeyes struggling to retain second spot

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

With four games to go before the playoffs start, the Richmond Sockeyes are struggling to hold on to their second-place standing.

After winning 12 of their previous 15 games, Richmond dropped its third in a row Thursday, 4-1 to the Port Coquitlam Buckaroos, and now leads the Bucks by just a single point for second as the Pacific International Junior Hockey League regular-season winds down. The Ridge Meadows Flames and Delta Ice Hawks are also quickly closing the gap, with the Sockeyes and Ice Hawks scheduled to face off in two of their remaining games.

Richmond coach Ron Johnson said he didn’t anticipate the Sockeyes’ current stumble, but doesn’t appear to be ready to panic.

“It’s a test of character, I’d say,” he said.

Disappointed with his team’s play in back-to-back losses to the Queen’s Park Pirates last week, particularly a 4-1 loss here last Thursday, Johnson was more than pleased with the way Sockeyes played against the Buckaroos.

“It was a great game,” he said. “The problem was we were bitten by the lack of scoring bug. We played more than well enough to win, we just didn’t get any bounces.”

Instead of taking a 2-1 second-period lead, Richmond had a goal disallowed while Port Coquitlam tallied twice on the powerplay to take a 3-1 lead into the final frame and then added an empty-netter with 25 seconds to play. All Johnson could do was look on and shake his head.

“We hit four goal posts and missed three wide-open nets,” he said.

“We had nine scoring chances to their one and (the shots) just didn’t go in the net.”

Adding to Richmond’s woes, three Sockeyes left the game in either the first or second periods as the result of mild concussions.

While Johnson is hoping the Sockeyes get back on the winning track in their next game Thursday (7:15 p.m. face off at Minoru Arenas versus the Grandview Steelers), his biggest worry is that the Sockeyes don’t under-estimate any of their opponents — particularly those teams currently lower than them in the standings.

ICE CHIPS: Richmond plays at Grandview on Feb. 3 before facing the Delta Ice Hawks here Feb. 7 and at Delta Feb. 8. The Feb. 7 game at Minoru Arenas features a $10,000 shootout and a silent auction.