Tickets are still available for the Wallaceburg Sports Hall of Fame annual dinner and induction ceremony.
It is being held on Saturday, January 28 at the UAW Hall in Wallaceburg.
Tickets are available for the event from any Sports Hall of Fame member, at Kim Murray Insurance on McNaughton Avenue in Wallaceburg and from Gus Lalonde at 519-628-5508.
Three-time Olympic gold medalist in women’s hockey Gillian Apps will be the keynote speaker at the event.
Before announcing her retirement from the national team in 2015, she competed in three Olympic Games winning a gold medal with Team Canada in all three – 2006 in Turin Italy, 2010 in Vancouver and 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
Here are the complete biographies for the 2017 inductees and the annual winners.
Inductees
Builder: Mark Childs
Community involvement has been a top priority for the Childs family for decades and this years inductee in the builder category is no exception. Mark Childs has worn many different hats over the years. In 1988, he along with Andrew Jeffs formed the Wallaceburg Flag Football League, which originally had six teams before expanding to eight the next year. 2018 will mark the 30th anniversary of the league . Over its history over 5,000 people have played in it and Mark served as president for the first 15 years. He was instrumental in starting a junior flag football program, that included a very young Shaun Suisham. It evolved into a junior tackle football travel team which in its only season as a member of the Sarnia Minor Football Program went undefeated and were not invited back. He also coached a Wallaceburg entry in the Junior Football League for four seasons.
In the 1990’s Mark coached in the Wallaceburg Minor Baseball Program and served as convenor of the league Executive. After the death of his brother Mike in 2005, he returned briefly to serve as president. In 2012 with the help of Joe Perry he founded the Defiance Running Club. Each year the membership averages about 100 runners and walkers. The club has a wide variety of competitors from triathletes, Tough Mudders, cyclists and competitive runners, among others. They host two events each year, The WAMBO River Run and the Jingle All the Way run. The youth program which began in 2013 has had 6,000 participants who logged 73,000 kilometers. This spring the club will start a pilot project in two local schools. It will be a running and reading program where students will be paid in scholastic dollars to run and walk, with all money earned being used to buy books. Each spring Defiance hosts a 10 week ‘Couch to 5K’ program and the club motto is “Run for your life, it depends on it.”
From his early days at the Oaks Inn, to the present day at The Black Goose, Mark has given back to his community financially as well as through his tireless involvement in local sports at the coaching and executive level. He is also very well known as a lifelong fan of the NFL’s Washington Redskins.
Female Athlete: Jamie Gittens
From a very young age, Jamie Gittens showed great athletic ability. While attending elementary school at St. Elizabeth in 2003 she competed in three track and field meets in Chatham, Exeter and London. The results were tremendous, she won two gold medals in the following events, long jump, triple jump, 60m hurdles, 200m hurdles and single golds in the 60m and 100m sprints.
In 2004, she started at WDSS and had a great season winning both the triple and long jump at OFSSA, a 1st in the triple jump and a 2nd in the long jump at the Canadian Legion meet in Chatham as well as winning both events at the Ontario Super Meet. 2005 was more of the same winning both events at OFSSA and the Canadian Legion meet to go with a 4th place finish in the triple jump at the Canadian Juniors in Montreal. She got even better in 2006 winning golds in the triple jump at OFSSA, long and triple jump in Timmins and three more at the National Juniors in Burnaby B.C. in the long and triple jump and the 400m relay. She closed out her high school career winning the long and triple jump at the Ontario Legion meet.
The next stage of her life would take her south of the border to Ohio and the University of Toledo. Her first year there in 2008 saw her finish 3rd in the Mid America Conference in the indoor triple jump, 5th in outdoor and 2nd in the all-Ohio meet. She was 4th in the 2009 Toledo Invitational. She won the 2010 Bowling Green Challenge and Toledo Invitational in the triple jump. She graduated in 2011.
Male Athlete: Josh McNaughton
Josh McNaughton began his lacrosse career as a goaltender at age 11 simply because most of the other kids were a bit timid of the ball. He started with the Wallaceburg Griffins Minor Lacrosse organization in 1993. During his time as a Griffin until 1997, he was named an All-Star each year as well as being named his teams MVP in 1995 and 1997. From 1998-2001 he was between the pipes for the Jr. ‘B’ Wallaceburg Red Devils. In 2001, the Red Devils won the Ontario Jr. B Championship and qualified for the Founders Cup to play for the National Jr. ‘B’ Lacrosse title. At the Founders Cup, Josh was named Player of the Game twice in five games and was the First Team All Star Goaltender as Wallaceburg went on to win the Championship.
In 2002, Josh was traded to the Halton Hills Bulldogs and he also played Jr. ‘A’ for the Brampton Excelsiors and helped them to a playoff berth for the first time in eight years. The next year he was in goal for the Sr. ‘B’ Kitchener Kodiaks. They would lose to Owen Sound 7-6 in the championship game but Josh had a great season and was runner up for league MVP and was named the Rookie of the Year. The next season it was off to Peterborough where he backstopped the Lakers to a Mann Cup title defeating Victoria who had another Wallaceburg player Sean Pollock on the team. He moved on and spent the 2005 season as a member of the Brooklyn Redmen. The final two years of his career he spent playing for the Owen Sound Woodsmen. In 2008 he was named to the 2nd All Star Team and won the Presidents Cup. His final year in 2009, he played in all 16 regular season games going 16-0 and repeating as Presidents Cup Champions.
Team: 1983 G&B Sports Ontario Oldtimers Slow Pitch Champions
The 1983 season started rather slowly for G&B Sports a team made up of a bunch of middle aged guys from both Wallaceburg and Dresden, who participated in the Wallaceburg Slow Pitch League. They played in tournaments on many weekends throughout the year. These would start on Friday evenings and go until late Sunday afternoon depending on how well you did.
As the month of July ended they were trudging along playing about .500 baseball. But as August began, things were about to change. They entered a tournament in Newbury on the Civic Holiday Weekend and things started to click. Playing against teams much younger than them they eventually won the tournament after coming back from a 7-3 deficit to win 10-7 in the Title Game. Shortly after that they entered an OV Sponsored tournament in Dresden . They would again come out on top defeating Rutherford in the semi-final and sweeping Tupperville two straight to take home the prize money.
Next up was the Ontario Slow Pitch Championship Tournament being held in Shakespeare near Stratford. G&B trounced St. Mary’s 11-1 in the opening game and behind the four-hit pitching of George Segaert who also had two hits they beat Ottawa 5-2 to stay undefeated. After pounding Stratford 14-4 they would then face a familiar foe, their arch-rival Sport Mart from Chatham. Led by Tom Ayres who had a homerun and a triple, they won decisively 12-2 to advance to the finals. Their opponent was Canadian Fram from Chatham who would have to win twice to win the tournament. After Chatham shut them out 7-0 in the first game G&B waited until the bitter end to score 6 runs in the top of the 7th inning to break a 3-3 tie and win the Championship Game 9-3, with Paul McKellar getting 3 hits while Tom Ayres, Don Gordon, Barry Lightfoot and Ron Regis each collected two.
But the season would not end for them until they returned home and won the League Championship capping off a tremendous second half of the season by beating the Bandits three games to one in the finals.
Annual winners
Athlete of the Year: Jonah Pataki
2016 would prove to be a great year for former Wallaceburg Tartan Jonah Pataki . As a Tartan in 2011 and 2012 he would play a huge role in the Tartans back-to-back SWOSSA ‘A-AA’ championships and 2012 Western Bowl Title as a running back and was named League MVP in 2012. This past season, his 4th as a member of the Queen’s University Golden Gaels, he topped off a fine career. His statistics were off the charts, in 8 games he carried the ball 148 times gaining 814 yards averaging 5.5 yards per carry and 102 yards per game on the ground, to go with 7 rushing touchdowns. He also caught 12 passes for 146 yards and a TD. In a game against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gee’s he had the best game of his career, rushing 35 times for 204 yards and caught 2 passes for 13 yards. For his career at Queen’s he gained 1703 yards on 309 carries for a 5.5 yard average .
As the result of his tremendous season Jonah was invited to play in the East-West Bowl at McGill University in Montreal and gained 6 yards on 2 carries. At the combine in front of Canadian Football League scouts he placed 2nd in the vertical leap at 37 feet and performed well in the broad jump and 40 yard dash.
Outstanding Female Athlete: Torri Handsor
The 2016 season, her second as a member of the St.Clair College Saints Ladies Basketball Club, would be a breakout year for Torri Handsor. In 33 games, she averaged 9.3 points per game and scored 308 points overall. Her best game of the year came against Durham College when she had a double double scoring 17 points to go with 11 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in a 73-58 victory. The win qualified St. Clair for the Ontario College Championships. At the OCCA’s they were defeated 69-59 by Niagara in the consolation game. Next up were the Canadian College Championships and as the host team the Saints automatically qualified. Torri had another double double in the opening game scoring 14 points along with 10 rebounds in a 56-51 loss to top seed St. Foye Quebec. She continued her hot hand with 12 points in a 82-72 loss to St. Marys University and 11 against Montmorency. The previous year she was named to the All-Rookie team and was 4th in Rookie scoring averaging 6.7 points per contest. Torri, who was an All-Star at WDSS, was also named St. Clair College Athlete of the Week last March.
Outstanding Male Athlete: Casey McGee
Playing in his second season with the Wallaceburg Sting Men’s Soccer Club , Casey McGee led the 1st Division of the Western Ontario Soccer league in scoring with 19 goals. He also added 7 in First Cup play and 3 more in League Cup play for a total of 29, an amazing season. For the first time the Sting are 1st division league champs and League Cup champs. After finishing 1st in league play the Sting defeated Crotia 5-1, with Casey scoring four times. Next up was London America whom the Sting beat 2-1 with Casey netting another goal. That win clinched a promotion to the Premier League. Not only did Casey have an incredible year playing for the Sting in 2016, he was also the Wallaceburg Tartans nominee for the prestigious Dr. Jack Perry Award. And he was named the Male Athlete of the Year at WDSS.
Builder of the Year: Penny and Bob Bishop
Both Penny and Bob are certified Tennis Canada instructors and have been taking their program into local schools for the past decade. This past spring they were very busy as they were invited to 25 schools between Forest and Tilbury. The response to their program was so great that they had to turn down a few schools. If a school does not have a tennis court the Bishops set up in the gymnasium. They bring all the equipment including nets, racquets and balls. They teach the basics of tennis to the school children. Penny and Bob were also very instrumental in helping to raise the funds for the repairs to the tennis courts at Steinoff Park in Wallaceburg, as they are now back in great shape. For several years now they have run a summer tennis program at the Steinoff courts. This past summer saw 44 juniors and 6 seniors enter the program. On the final day of the program they had the 6th annual Little Caesars Team Tennis Tournament with all 44 juniors participating.
Coach of the Year: Ric Vancollie
The year 2016 would prove to be a fruitful one for Ric Vancollie as he guided the Wallaceburg Minor Midgets Hockey Club to an Ontario Midget ‘BB-D’ Championship. They started their long playoff run by sweeping Lincoln 6 points to zero. The next series saw them beat Ingersoll 6 points to 2. From there they would play North Middlesex to see who would get to the finals. Wallaceburg won easily 6 points to 0 setting up a showdown with Erin-Hillsborough for the Ontario Championship.
Ric’s boys completely dominated the series winning the final game 4-3 in overtime and winning the series 7 points to 1. Ric who has had a long involvement with both Minor Hockey and Soccer is the second member of his family to be honoured by the Sports Hall of Fame, joining his older brother Tony who was inducted into the Hall in 2009 in the Male Athlete category.
Ray Aarssen/Sports Hall of Fame Scholarship: Brad Maxim
The Ray Aarssen family and the Sports Hall of Fame have joined together to create this scholarship. The individual must be a recent graduate of WDSS who is attending a college or university. During their time at WDSS they must have been involved in school activities and athletics while maintaining high marks. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the award named in honour of “Radio Ray”.
This years most deserving winner is Brad Maxim who is currently studying Engineering at The University of Western Ontario. Brad excelled both athletically and academically as a Tartan . First his athletic career would see him play volleyball, football, badminton, hockey where he was named an All-Star, curling with a trip to the SWOSSA semi-finals and was chosen MVP. He won another MVP award as a member of the Tartans soccer team that reached the SWOSSA finals. He even found time to be a member of the swim team.
Academically he was an Honours student and won the Jesse Houston Scholarship, the RJ MacLean Award, OPG Student Achievement Award, the Archie Stewart Memorial Award and the Western Scholarship of Excellence Award. Very active in Student Parliament as well as the Student Athletic Association, Brad also played ‘AAA’ Bantam and Minor Midget hockey for the CK Cyclones in 2016 and was the 2nd leading scorer on the Wallaceburg Sting mens soccer club.
