Raiders' success helping to raise football profile

The success of the Richmond Raiders last season is helping to raise the profile of football throughout the community.

At least that's the view of Richmond Minor Football president Terry Kehoe.

During the 2001 campaign, the local Midget Division team won the Vancouver Mainland Football League championship and followed that up with the B.C. community crown.

Both of these accomplishments garnered them a nomination for the Richmond Sports Team of the Year Award at the annual Richmond Sports Awards, sponsored by The Richmond Review.

Also, three players (R.C. Esteban, Chad Brown and Stuart Milton) were selected to play in the Senior Bowl and six (Brown, Milton, Richard Ertner, Brock Aura, Scott Downey and Tyler Cameron) played in the StarBowl (featuring the top players in the Mainland and Valley league teams).

The Raiders' coaches were also honoured. Head coach Glenn Kishi headed up the coaching staff for the Mainland all-star team for StarBowl, guiding them to a 54-0 win over the Valley All-Stars. Kishi was later selected as the Richmond Sports Awards Coach of the Year.

The Raiders expect to continue their success this season, with most of the players from last season expected back.

Registration for all new and returning players is Saturday at the Thompson Community Centre from 1 to 4 p.m.

Richmond Minor Football is also introducing its inaugural registration for a Richmond girls' football team, said Kehoe.

"Following the success that the local high schools have had in presenting a spring league for the girls, we have been approached about continuing the girls' program in the fall," he said.

"This will be the first time that our association and our league have (entertained) the idea of a separate all-girls division with the VMFL."

Richmond is also hoping to revive a Flag Division program this season, Kehoe said.

For more information, call 604-448-0342.

Free wheelin'

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

The casual observer might not see much more than a few hills of dirt.

But to the young riders who helped create it, the new Steveston Bike Park at the foot of No. 2 Road is a mecca. A safe place where they can test their skills in jumping and trail riding.

Largely funded and constructed through the efforts of Richmond youth, parent volunteers and community supporters, including the city, the park is the realization of an initiative primarily started to meet the needs of local BMX and mountain bike enthusiasts.

The new bike park provides hundreds of local youth with an appropriate place to ride, while directing them away from other public spots that are inappropriate or unsafe, says Judy Kelly, whose son is an ardent bike rider.

Kelly was inspired to help the youngsters find a place to ride after they were kicked off a vacant lot near her home.

"They had litle dirt jumps all over the place," she says. "There were three or four (riders) one day and seven or eight the next day. There were 34 gathered the day they got kicked off. Their heads just dropped. They were having so much fun and not causing any harm."

As they were cleaning up the site, Kelly recalled hearing of a bike park possibly being built and encouraged her son and his friends to go the Steveston Community Centre and see what, if anything, was happening.

"We just organized a meeting by word of mouth and about 40 people turned out," she says.

The meeting was positive, and soon the ad hoc group met with the city's parks and recreation committee and later made a presentation to city council which was approved.

"You could see his little face beam," Kelly says. "It was so nice to give him some positive feedback."

Kelly says the community support overall has been incredible. Several companies have donated in-kind goods and services. The next phase is to build a wooden obstacles section including trestles, logs and ramps to simulate mountain bike trail riding, and a trails area containing logs, boulders and highway barriers used to test balance and control. Each area has features for novice, intermediate and advanced skill levels.

The riders are also planning to hold a raffle so they can modify the park in the future so it doesn't become stale for them. Adding lighting at a future date is also a possibility.

"We've been operating on people's goodwill," Kelly says. "We've raised about $7,300 but have probably been given more than that already in-kind."

Having the youth more directly involved in all phases of the project has perhaps made them committed to the park, she suggests. But it was still difficult for them to understand how much time the process takes.

Kelly says last Sunday's "Get Bent" event, which helped launch the park, gave a lot credibility to the project. And she was happy to see the youth show pride in what they've accomplished.

"They got credit for it on Sunday and I'm hoping that carries on."

Steveston youth coordinator Sherri Gosse says there had been talk of a bike park for about a year.

"There was nowhere at the south end of Richmond for youth to hang out," she says.

"I would guess there are at least 150 to 200 youth who are into (serious) biking. You see them all over, anywhere there are stairs," Gosse says.

"But they're seen as being troublesome by the public because these (stairs) are the kind of obstacles they need to do their sport. And they're kicked off by local merchants when all they really want to do is bike."

Gosse has been impressed by the youth's resolve to see the park to fruition. She says there have been at least 15 meetings in the last few months and many of the riders attended every one.

"They showed a lot of responsibility and handed out letters to local businesses (explaining their goals)," she says.

"They wanted to see this thing happen."

As trends change quickly within the youth culture, the bike park in five years probably won't look much like it does now. But Gosse says she expects biking to remain popular.

"If you look across our culture in general, we all have very different ideas of what is entertaining or what we like to participate in," she says.

"There are youth who skate, are in drama or love music. The more variety we can provide the more we get the youth involved in the community."

Gosse says the kids aren't going to stop their sport because it what's they love. By providing this space we're putting faith in them.

Northey wins national sportaerobic crown

A passion for life has helped Margo Northey accomplish great things.

Besides running her own business (Tsawwassen Massage Therapy Clinic) and teaching aerobics at Richmond Fitness World, the Richmond woman is also an accomplished athlete.

She recently won two gold medals at the Canadian Sportaerobics Championship, capturing the women's individual title for the first time in her competitive career, and earning the mixed pairs title for the fourth consecutive year with Dakota Hart. Hart, who lives in Calgary, also won the men's individual title. The titles marked a clean sweep for the western Canadian athletes who train at Richmond's Fitness World and Nuana Sports Academy for 15 to 20 hours per week.

The titles are especially sweet for Northey because she is still recovering from a serious neck injury, which almost ended her athletic career. She was forced to take 12 weeks off from training and it has been a long and difficult road for her to regain her world-class form, strength and flexibility.

Northey credits a never-say-die attitude for helping her through the injury.

"When you work so hard towards a goal and have a massive shift in focus it's upsetting," she said. "But what is the option?"

"It doesn't matter how talented you are if you're not going to put the effort in you're not going to be successful."

Out of necessity Northey has had to reduce her level of training a bit, but said it has proven to be positive.

Sportaerobics is a competitive, performance sport originating from the traditional aerobics/group exercise class. It combines the power and flexibility of gymnastics with complex aerobics movement performed with speed, precision and intensity to high-energy music. Each routine lasts one minute and 45 seconds and has been called "the hardest two minutes in sport." It is a very exciting spectator sport with massive popularity in South America, Japan and Europe.

Northey and Hart are now among the best in the world artistically and their performances always leaves the judges smiling and the spectators cheering. At the recent Suzuki World Cup in Tokyo, Hart and Northey achieved the best placing ever for Canadian athletes. These talented athletes consistently rank in the top 10 worldwide. Northey and Hart will be representing Canada at the World Championships in Miami this August. Coaches Alan Hay and Gabi Szabo are very optimistic about Northey and Hart's chances of making the finals in Miami.

Should you wish any information about sportaerobics or would like to help sponsor Northey and Hart for the upcoming World Championships please email motivating@ shaw.ca.