300 students participate in Seaway’s Sports Day

The stands were empty for the annual general meeting of the South Dundas Minor Hockey Association held at the Morrisburg Golf Club, last Tuesday, April 07.

“The attendance tonight is not very good, and I’m happy to say it is likely because we have no issues,” said minor hockey president David Lapier.

With just a couple of interested parents joining the eight executive members on hand, the various reports were wrapped up quickly, and the South Dundas Minor Hockey Association executive for the upcoming 2015/16 season was elected.

David Lapier was returned as president and Jeff VanMoorsel remains past president. Mike Domanko remained first vice-president and will also handle the duties of the Head Coach position.

Jamie Smith was returned as second vice, Johanna Kronstal as secretary, Mike Barclay as treasurer and John Connors as equipment manager.

Also returned were Matt McCooeye as Electronics Communication Coordinator, Lisa Swerdtfeger as Referee-in-Chief and Jason Broad as Ice Scheduler.

Cassandra Barry was returned as Rules and Discipline Coordinator and will also fill the Registrar position which she held for many years. Barry is replacing Jennifer Veldhoven-Lyle who is leaving the area.

The new face to the board is that of Kristy Connors who is taking over the position of fundraising coordinator from Joanne Backes, who, after several seasons, is retiring.

“Overall, we had an excellent year,” said Lapier. “We had three league champs, three playoff champs, and the peewee Bs won the whole league. We also had three sportsmanship awards which I am very proud of.”

Inhouse Skating and Coaching Clinics and Goalie in the Net Vouchers were both new this year and both were well-received.

Lapier thanked the executive for their hard work and commitment throughout the season. “If you have good people then all runs well.”

“Jason [Broad] did an excellent job handling the ice scheduling again this year. He has it right down to the minute and everyone is getting equal ice time. We had no issues with our referees, and the IP program is in very good hands. The guys are doing a great job with it. They are very detailed, and it is very well done. We also had minimal parent problems this year.”

New for the association was the purchase of a goaltender net target for practise. This was augmented by the loan of Lapier’s privately owned net. “They were very well received because a lot of our teams only have one goalie, and it’s better to have something there in the net at the practises.”

Also new and successful was a player exchange with the North Dundas Minor Hockey Association. This exchange, which saw two players come to South Dundas and four players go to North Dundas, enabled the Morrisburg Association to ice a Bantam Rep team and North Dundas to ice a Minor Midget team.

“It worked very well,” said Lapier. “We’ll both always maintain our house levels, but our associations don’t have the numbers to make us strong enough to ice rep teams. It was excellent, and hopefully we will be able to build on it, in the future.”

Referee in chief, Lisa Swerdtfeger reported, “a good year. I think it went well. I’ll be contacting everyone to see who will be coming back and will probably look at getting at least three more.”

“I think we have the most consistent quality referees of anywhere,” said Lapier. “I think the South Dundas referees are the best in the area.”

“It is great that we have a level five referee who is willing to be a linesman for a Novice C game,” noted Mike Domanko.

Treasurer Mike Barclay reported the association was down about $6,000 in revenue, mainly because there were fewer players. With all ice and referee bills paid, and only a few banners yet to be purchased, Barclay stated it is likely the association will end the year with a surplus of $3-4,000.

There were 191 minor hockey players this year, down three kids from the year before. 

Because of the small surplus and the association’s diligence in keep a good financial safety net, Barclay said it would not be necessary to increase fees for the 2015-16 hockey season.

The Association’s main revenue is from registrations which this year totalled $75, 334. The annual fundraising lottery draw brought in $38,200 and Lions Day raised $1,209. Donations to the minor hockey organization totaled $2,650.

Major expenses were: ice rental at $74,661; Referee pay of $16,092; Insurance for team officials and players $8,914; $8,018 for Lottery prizes and licencing; League Fees $2,090.

[…]

We’re into the third week of curling at the Morrisburg Curling Club and things are rounding into shape. 

The Swing and Sweep event had to be cancelled this year, as a result of low numbers interested. Instead, the executive organized an opening bonspiel for last Saturday. 

Other events scheduled are Glenn Cougler’s stick bonspiel, the women’s Invitational on Tuesday, December 4, the Gamble bonspiel on Saturday November 17, and the OCA Zone 1 Intermediates from December 22-23. 

In addition, a lady from Cornwall is trying to organize an Alzheimer’s bonspiel for Saturday, November 10. Club president, Mahlon Locke tells us there’ll be an information sheet in the lounge. Why not put together a team to support this charity? More information on all events is available at the Club or from the organizers.

Over the summer a good deal of work was done by the executive and other volunteers. The new carpet is in, painting (especially interesting is the red door) and upgrading inside has taken place, -washrooms, bar, etc., and feet-cleaning mats are down at entrances to the ice surface. 

The ice is fast, and Wally Baker has some other innovations that have much improved the surface and our curling experience. On November 10 our rocks’ running bands will be reconditioned, to bring back the wonderful curling ability they used to have, well back in the last century. 

Our membership numbers are down slightly from last year, but there are a number of new curlers, and it is still possible to register for the league of your choice. Those interested can also curl as a spare, or pay for single games if there is an opening on a team. 

Dave King is looking after the day men for anyone who would like to join that league. Tuesday night men’s coordinator Joe McCooeye is the person to see about signing up there, Alice Thompson for the Tuesday afternoon ladies, Susan McIntosh and Claire Locke for Wednesday night ladies, Ruth Kelly for daytime mixed, Ian Wilson for the Thursday night competitive league, and Mahlon Locke for the Friday night mixed league. 

Also, the little rockers are being looked after by Ian and Kathy Wilson. Hope to see some more people out!

Mahlon and Paula Locke and their committee organized the opening bonspiel, and arranged a delicious lunch for the curlers in the event. In the early draw, there was some mid-season level curling, with Sid Morrell’s foursome emerging victorious. His team included Ron Beaupre, Ted Herriman and Paul Gunther. 

In the second draw Mahlon Locke, Wendy Casselman, Dave McIntosh and Claire Locke were victorious. When the total points for the teams were considered, Sid’s foursome finished first, with Mahlon’s warriors ending up second overall. It was a good day, with profits from the event turned over to the club. 

A women’s team competed at Kemptville last Saturday. Gretta McGann, Cheryl Thompson, and Paula and Claire Locke played a single eight-end match in the morning, and defeated a foursome from Brockville. When the winners’ scores were tallied, Morrisburg was in second place, while Smiths Falls took the overall total.

Local teams are entered in several bonspiels around eastern Ontario, and we’ll report on those when they occur.  There will be friendly competitions with other club teams from various leagues, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed about those. Do keep us posted on your events, so that we can report to your fans.

Good curling, folks! 

[…]

It’s those well-known words, “Let’s Play Ball” that Austin Marcellus hopes he will hear this fall to herald in one more season of U.S. University NCAA level 2 baseball.

The Pigeon Island Road, 22 year old has been south of the border for the last four years, attending school on partial baseball scholarships. 

He first completed the two year college program at Lochawanna Collge and one year of ball (he was injured the first year),  at Scranton, Pennsylvania, and then transferred to Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina. He graduated from Limestone this spring and completed his second year of college ball for the Saints.

Austin, who was team captain at both schools, is back home for the summer but is hoping to return to Limestone for one more season.

“I was injured in my freshman year at Lochawanna, which means I have another year eligibility to play ball.”

Having graduated from Lochawanna this spring with “my Bachelor degree in Sports and my Bachelor degree in Business, if I go back this year, I would get my Bachelor degree in Marketing and a Coaching Minor.” 

Austin began playing ball when he was six or seven years old. “I didn’t play when I was really young, and when I did start it was because my mom forced me.” He is the son of Bert and Sandi Marcellus.

“I started playing here (Morrisburg) and played on some Upper Canada All Star teams. I played with the Bunnies (Brockville) for about five years.”

It wasn’t until he was a young teenager that Austin, who plays the infield moving around between second, third and shortstop, began to lean heavily towards baseball. 

“I was always excited about playing hockey when I was growing up. I actually thought I was better at hockey. Guess I just wanted to be different,” he says of his success on the ball diamond.

It was while he is was in grade 12 at Seaway District High School, that Austin began looking around for a U.S. baseball scholarship. He went to work sending a number of applications out and the result was the partial scholarship at Lochawanna.

“At Lochawanna, we won our conference both years, and we won the North East Region both years.” That put the team in the Jucco Division 2 World Series, both years in Enid Oklahoma.

Although Austin was injured his first year out, he recalls his first experience at intense training. “My  junior college, the only way to describe it is if you’ve ever seen military training, that is what it was like. They are there to win, and you are there to play baseball. At the Junior College level there are no rules, so we would practise 10 hours a day around our studies.  We would start at 6 a.m., go to class until noon and then practice until 8 at night.” The college baseball season runs from early February to the end of May.

In contrast, once he transferred to Limestone, there were some time guidelines that restricted practise to five to six hours per day.

This spring, Marcellus had a solid season with the Saints who play in the 12-school Carolinas Conference. At five foot 10 and 175 pounds, he had a .331 batting average and was named the Limestone College Saints, Best Offensive Player. He also led the team in stolen bases and was second in RBIs. As a team, “we didn’t do that good.”

Marcellus would like nothing more than to return to Limestone for one more year. Down the road he says he would like to be coaching at the college level, but right now, he just wants to play ball.

 “I am kind of hoping baseball takes me somewhere. I am too old to get drafted, but I’d like to play some independent ball, or I might try to go to Australia. There’s lots of ball to play, now it’s finding a spot.”

Marcellus does have a spot with the Saints again this year, but again on a partial scholarship. So it is the remaining tuition money that is his consideration.

He is working the summer in interlocking landscaping, which helps to keep him in shape and is playing ball with the Capital City Reds in Ottawa which offers ball to college eligible “amateur” players. The Reds have games against teams in the Elite U-18 Summer Baseball program, college summer teams and with semi-pro and professional level teams.

Coming off a good college season with the Saints and playing well with the Reds, Marcellus is hoping he has himself positioned for the opportunity to play ball next season.

[…]