Few changes for South Dundas Minor Hockey

Promoter Ron Morin, along with his management team presented the highlights of the Cornwall Motor Speedway 2012 season in a special Press Conference held Tuesday, March 6th  in Cornwall. 

According to Morin, Cornwall Motor Speedway Race Fans can expect that 2012 will be the best year ever at the dirt oval.

The season will officially start on Sunday, May 20th with first of three events of the Canadian Nationals for the 358-Modifieds. 

As previously announced, Cornwall will host for the first time ever the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series; the best in the business on DIRT will be at the track on Sunday July 29th as this earth trembling event will be sponsored by LKQ Auto Recycling in conjunction with Oshweken Speedway.  

Back by popular demand in June, after a two year hiatus, are the heart stopping World of Outlaws Late Models. 

Along with the opening night, the MrDIRTcar 358-Modified series will also make another appearance at the speedway part of the final race of the Canadian Nationals Series on Sunday, September 2nd part of the Jiffy 200, again a 125-lap race including a mandatory on track pit stop at lap 75.  The second race of the Canadian Nationals is scheduled for Sunday August 5th. The first two editions of this series attracted nearly 40 cars per night!

On Canada Day, the Super DIRTcar Big-Block Series will be in town for their annual visit. 

The Sportsman and Pro-Stock classes will also have a busy summer with a doubleheader MrDIRTcar Series event.  Also returning is the Mohawk Race Parts Pro-Stock Series, a six race series held at five dirt tracks.  

Sprint Car fans will be thrilled in July when the Patriot Sprint Tour comes to town and appearing in August are the Eastern Ontario Vintage Stock Car Club. Finally the ever popular Fireball Enduro will close out the season in September. 

After listening to race fans, the start time will be pushed back to 7 p.m. except on the Labour Day Weekend and 2 p.m. for the Fireball Enduro.  

Fans will also be happy to hear that the general admission for a regular show was cut back to $10, and some new featured pricing has been added to attract young people and families. 

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Six games of basketball ushered in the boys basketball season at Seaway last Wednesday, and when the final basket dropped it was the Spartans coming out on top of their four matches.

At the senior level, the Spartans posted victories over Tagwi Warriors, 46-42 and Rothwell-Osnabruck (RO) Lancers, 29-25. 

The Junior Spartans ran away with both of their games, 34-17 over Tagwi and 43-15 over Rothwell-Osnabruck.

The two Seaway teams are coached by Mark Lewis who was pleased with the day’s results considering the Spartans had gone 1-3 in an exhibition tournament a week earlier.

“We do have a lot of work to do, but the guys seem very committed to improving so that is promising,” says Lewis.

In other action, Tagwi picked up wins at the Senior level over RO, 51-46 and at the Junior level over RO, 30-24.

Under this year’s format, the SD&G boys basketball schedules are set up as tri-meets with three schools, at both the senior and junior levels, competing in the one day, six-game events. Each school will compete in three tri-meets, giving each team six game seasons.

Wednesday, the Junior Spartans got it rolling with a 34-17 win over the Tagwi Warriors.

Dillan Sullivan had a big game as he dropped 17 of the Spartans points.  Backing him was Clay Dumoulin with 11 points. Travis Barkley added two baskets and Randy Keller dropped a single.

H. Legue was the top Tagwi shooter with six points.

In their second game, the Spartans turned it up a notch to nab the Lancers for a 43-15 victory.

Again, Dillan Sullivan led the Spartan attack, this time accounting for 18 of their points, before retiring to the bench for the third quarter.

Travis Barkley was good for eight points and Randy Keller added seven. Casey Dean, Cal Bilmer and Griffin Patterson all added to the point total.

C. Bazinet was the top Lancers shooter.

“We are starting three grade 9 students in Griffin Patterson, Randy Keller and Travis Barkley,” says Lewis. “Clay Dumoulin and Dillan Sullivan round out the starting five. We are raw and have lots to learn, but we have been practicing three mornings a week at 6 a.m. and they all seem to make it, so I know their desire to improve is there.”

The Senior Spartans got rolling with a 46-42 win over Tagwi.

AJ Jarvis and Zack Frawley led the Spartans with nine points apiece and Tanner Hummel contributed eight. Answering for Tagwi were Andrew Brambilla and Brett Ouderkirk each with none points.

In game two against Rothwell-Osnabruck, Tanner Hummel put together a 10 point effort in the 29-25 win. AJ Jarvis and Luke Strader added six points each and Devon Miller pocketed four.

Casey Winters answered with eight for the Lancers, Kale Wall had six, and Logan Kennedy five.

“The senior boys are doing extraordinarily well considering only two of them played last year. AJ Jarvis and Zack Frawley played last year in the very shortened season we had and none of the others have played for two years.”

“Again they are working hard and being very keen to improve. It will certainly be a process, but one that hopefully will end up with them developing into solid players and citizens in our community.”

Lewis says the two teams have been working on improving their defensive skills and he was pleased with what he saw Wednesday. “They were able to hold the other teams down and in spite of our offensive struggles, they kept the other teams from scoring too much. The offense will come, but will take a bit longer to gel. We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball as we had far too many turnovers. Better teams will take advantage of this and will hurt us down the road.”

[…]

 

Reading a book with a child is about to take on a whole new meaning in South Dundas.

Beginning this week, youngsters and their parents will be able to head down to the waterfront in the villages of Morrisburg and Iroquois to read together a new book. And they’ll be doing it as they walk along the waterfront paths in the two communities.

“I saw The StoryWalk® Project on the Web and I thought, what a great idea,” says Fiona Carr, Family Resource Coordinator for the Ontario Early Years Centre. “When I saw it, I thought of course we are going to do that in South Dundas. So I pitched it to Ben, (Macpherson, Recreation Program Coordinator for South Dundas).”

The StoryWalk® Project, developed in 2007 by Anne Ferguson of Vermont, promotes physical fitness and literacy skills by creating opportunities to walk and read outdoors.

A child’s book is selected, the pages are separated, then laminated and attached to posts which are driven into the ground at regular intervals along the path. 

With the two beautiful waterfront paths in Morrisburg, between the dock and the beach, and in Iroquois, between the beach and the marina, it is a perfect fit.

“So families can go to the dock, park their car and walk along the path where we have the posts with the story pages,” says Carr. “By the time they are finished the walk, they are finished the book.”

“It’s brilliant and even the library is on board. Ben did up all the wooden posts, and I did all the books and the laminating.”

The kick off for the StoryWalk® launch was yesterday, November 20 which is also National Child Day.

Carr says she has selected two different books for the two communities in the hopes that perhaps families will take in both locations.

She is also looking to expanding it to include the Two Creeks Forest area north of Highway 2 where the book selection will be geared to older children, with a longer story to accommodate the longer trail. “That will be our winter walk, which I hope to put out before the first snow.”

It is expected that the two riverfront StoryWalks® will be left in place for several weeks. At the Morrisburg Dock starting point, and the Iroquois Beach starting point a red bag will be suspended at the first pole.

Carr is asking that those who take in the walk will sign in, on the books enclosed in the red bags, and perhaps comment on the concept.

“That way we will an idea of numbers and whether or not there is enough interest to continue.” 

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