The annual collection of athletes are set to be enshrined in the Wallaceburg Sports Hall of Fame.
All of the inductees, along with the annual winners, will be honoured at an induction dinner and ceremony being held on January 30 at the UAW hall in Wallaceburg.
The inductees include:
Honourary Chairman: Guy ‘Ticker’ Celotto
This year the Sports Hall of Fame is honouring Guy “Ticker” Celotto for his contribution to the town of Wallaceburg. Guy has been a member of the Wallaceburg Sports Hall of Fame for 31 years serving as Chairman and on various committees.
Guy was born and raised in Wallaceburg and started skating at about 12 years of age. He played on the Wallaceburg High School hockey team and in 1949 they won a WOSSA Championship. They played on an outdoor rink at the high school which was located on Lisgar Street.
The rink was maintained by the students and staff of the school.
About this time the Wallaceburg Memorial Arena was built and in 1950 Guy played on the Juvenile hockey team that lost the Ontario Final to a team from Midland Ontario, by one goal. Ticker was invited to a tryout with the Toronto Marlies Junior “A” Hockey Team but unfortunately broke his wrist and was sent home.
Guy also had a tryout with the Windsor Spitfires.
In 1952/53, at the age of 19, Guy played Senior “A” Hockey with the Chatham Maroons where he also played in 1954/55. Ticker came back to Wallaceburg to play with the Senior “B” Wallaceburg Hornets and in 1957 they won the Ontario Senior “B” Championship.
Ticker coached Minor Hockey for 12 years and in the 1959/60 season he coached the Knights of Columbus Junior “C” hockey team that lost out to Stratford Ontario Semi-finals.
Guy started playing Old timer Hockey with a team from Morpeth and in 1977 he travelled with them to the first Old timer tournament in Amsterdam Holland where they lost the Championship Game in a shootout. In 1978 they travelled to Zurich, Switzerland to play in the second annual Old Timers Tournament.
Guy returned to Wallaceburg to play with the Wallaceburg Hornet Oldtimers who in the 1981/82 season won a Canadian Old Timers “D” division Championship and were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012.
In 1999 Guy was inducted as the Male Athlete.
Guy was married for 57 years to his wife Shirley who died in 2013 and they have three children Guy, Todd and Dina.
Marion and Bill Chinnick Memorial Award of Excellence: Ladies Inductee 2016 – Karen Simpson
Karen graduated from Wallaceburg District Secondary School where she received her Athletic Letter for her involvement in volleyball, tennis and golf.
After high school she attended university helped financially by scholarships and awards. Karen is a registered physiotherapist graduating from York with an honours bachelor of science in physiotherapy and McMaster with a Master’s of Science degree in exercise physiology. She is a certified physiologist and is also certified with the Acupuncture Foundation of Canada. Karen specializes in muscle therapy, exercise prescription and myofascial release techniques.
At university, varsity squash occupied many of her free hours along side volunteer hours attempting to bring the 1996 Olympics to Canada.
Summers were spent coaching and fitness testing athletes in a wide variety of sports.
Having grown up in Wallaceburg where it is hard to travel any great distance without crossing a bridge over the Sydenham River or any one of the numerous creeks it was a natural switch to water based sports. She has competed in all sizes of boats from the one person kayaks to the large dragon boats. The levels of competition have ranged from small weekend river races, to marathon canoe races, Olympic trials and World championships.
She has won numerous races in the two person kayaks both sprint and marathon where the races may be 115 kilometers.
Karen has competed in many countries around the world including Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and the Czech Republic.
She won the Women’s Canoe singles at the World Masters Games in 2002.
Karen and her teammates competed in the World Dragon Boat Racing Championship in the Czech Republic in 2009 in fact the team won seven gold medals in various categories. Also in 2009 she won the Women’s Master at the Club Crew World Championships held in Malaysia.
She has been involved in the Canadian Cancer Society River City Dragon Boat Festival for many years.
Karen has competed with her teammate Stan Machacek in the mixed expert division of the Sydenham River Canoe and Kayak Races and in 2011 won the 12 mile event.
Karen has not slowed down at all. In the Womens C2 Master Division (40yrs +) at the US National Canoe Championships she placed first in both 2014 and 2015. In 2014 Karen won the Women’s Open in the OC2 division at the Canadian Outrigger Championships held in Gibsons, BC.
In 2015 she competed in the Adirondac Classic 90 Miler and finished 2nd with her two teammates, in 2015 she also won first place in the unlimited OC6 at the Liberty Challenge Outrigger Canoe race in New York.
Karen has competed in the General Clinton 70 mile endurance race in New York over the past 12 years and has one first place finish and always in the top seven positions.
Karen has competed in the NaWahine O KeKai in Molokai, Hawaii, which is a 42 mile open water crossing 5 times with a first and second place finish.
Karen also coaches canoeing in Florida for one week each year where she tries to get others excited about canoeing in all different water challenges.
Mike Childs Memorial Award of Excellence: Builder inductees: Lorri and Tom Moynihan
The husband and wife duo started Basketball Wallaceburg, which is a basketball program for youth girls in the Wallaceburg area.
Dan Bertrand Memorial Award of Excellence: Male Athlete Inductee 2016 – Brent Stucke
Brent was born in Wallaceburg and attended HW Burgess elementary school and Wallaceburg District Secondary School.
He was very active in school sports in elementary school playing basketball and volleyball.
He participated in the Wallaceburg Minor Hockey program from 1977 to 1986. In 1985 he was on a team that were Ontario Finalists and were known as the “Cardiac Kids” because of all of the close games most of which were settled very late in the game.
While in high school Brent was very active in school sports playing volleyball, basketball and football.
In 1985, he played on the Junior Volleyball team that won the Kent County Championship defeating CKSS and the SWOSSA Championship where they defeated Leamington. He was elected to the Junior Kent County All Stars in both 1984 and 1985.
In basketball played on the Junior team that beat CKSS to win the Kent County Championship and the beat Windsor Assumption and Tecumseh to win SWOSSA. Brent was selected for the Kent County Junior Boys All Star Team. In 1987 Brent played on the WDSS senior Boys Basketball team that won both Kent County and SWOSSA. Brent was selected for the Senior Boys All Star teams 86, 87, 88.
Brent played quarterback for the Junior Football team in ’85 and ’86 and in 1986 they were the in the finals for the Kent County Championship. Brent played on the Tartan Senior football team in ’86 and ’87 and in 1987 he was one of the coaches choice award winners.
In 1990, Brent began his post secondary school education at Wilfred Laurier University. In his freshman year he was the league leading wide receiver in Ontario and 2nd in the nation and was named second team OUA All star.
In 1991, Brent helped the Golden Hawks defeat the Mount Allison Mounties 25-18 in the Vanier Cup emblematic of the Canadian Championship of University Football.
Injuries prevented Brent from playing up to his potential the next year.
In the 1993 draft Brent was selected 11th overall and the first receiver selected.
He spent time on the practice roster of both the Calgary Stampeders and the Toronto Argonauts.
Since then Brent has restricted his football to flag football and played for the Mississauga Rattlers from 1993 to 1999 winning the Canadian Championship in 1999.
Brent is also very active in Mississauga minor football coaching his team to league championships in 2012 and 2013. Brent also is involved in basketball and his team won the OBA Division 1 under 14 Ontario Championship in 2014. Brent’s son Cameron was an integral part of this championship team. In 2015, his under 14 team was ranked 1st in Ontario. Brent has been a Board member of Burlington Basketball since 2012.
2016 Team Inductee: 1983/’84 WDSS Sr. Girls Soccer Teams
This year we are inducting two teams into the Hall of Fame, the 1983/84 and the 1984/85 WDSS Senior Girls Soccer teams.
In the fall of 1983 the WDSS senior girls soccer team won the Kent County Championship defeating CKSS 3-0 on goals by Susan Casier, Karla Davis and Veronica Templeman. The Tartans had earned a booth in the final by posting a 4-0 record in the one day tournament at Blenheim. In the tournament the Tartans posted a 4-0 record scoring 18 times with no goals against. In the semifinal they defeated Blenheim Bobcats to advance to the final against CKSS. They went on to defeat CKSS 3-0 to advance to OFSAA in the spring of 85 where they did not qualify for the semi finals.
In the fall of 1984 the Senior Girls won the Kent County Championship tournament.
They ended up tops in their pool at 4-0 scoring 16 goals with none against. In the semifinals they defeated the WDSS “B” team 9-0 and then faced Blenheim in the final. They defeated the Blenheim Bobcats 4-0 in the final with goals by Veronica Templeman, Susan Casier, Suzanne Hoorelbeck and Lori Hoorelbeck.
Wallaceburg advanced to the Swossa semi finals which were played in the spring of 85.
In the semifinals the Tartans defeated Windsor Herman in a very exciting game played in bad weather. After going scoreless in regulation time the game was determined by penalty shots. With goals by Susan Casier, Lori Hoorelbeck, Karla Davis and Veronica Templeman the Wallaceburg girls prevailed. Lynn McCreary was a standout in net throughout the whole playoffs.
In the SWOSSA final against Leamington the game was tied 1-1 at the half on a goal by Susanne Horelbeck. Wallaceburg took over in the second half scoring three unanswered goals, Susan Casier with two and Lori Hoorelbeck led the Tartans. This qualified the Tartans to go to OFSAA Championship tournament in Burlington.
At OFSAA the Tartans won their first game 2-1 over Queen Elizabeth Park of Oakville in the morning but suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Waterloo Collegiate in the afternoon. Needing either a win or a tie in their final game to advance unfortunately the Wallaceburg girls were defeated by L’Amoureaux of Scarborough 3-0.
Frank and Zine Mann Honour Role: Masters Classic Inductee – Oscar ‘Trip’ Trepanier
Oscar “Trip” Trepanier was born in Tilbury but spent most of his growing up years in Wallaceburg. Oscar was very active in his youth playing both baseball and lacrosse.
Lacrosse was his first love and about the time that the Wallaceburg Memorial Arena opened up he became more involved in the Wallaceburg minor lacrosse association. In 1952 Trip was a member of the Wallaceburg Red Devils lacrosse team that won an Ontario Lacrosse Association Intermediate Championship by beating Streetsville in the final. Trip had 17 goals 11 assists in 19 regular season games and added 1 goal and 4 assists in the playoffs
In 1959 Oscar was a member of the Red Devil team that won the Ontario Intermediate “B” Lacrosse Championship by defeating Fergus in the finals 18-15 and 13-9. Trip had 15 goals and 7 assists in the regular season and 4 goals and 3 assists in 5 playoff games.
In 1969 Trip was Captain one of the most successful Red Devils teams in Wallaceburg’s history. Wallaceburg was 22-2 in regular season play. Oscar was the teams 5th leading scorer in the regular season with 39 goals and 27 assists in 24 games.
In the quarter finals the Red Devils defeated the Windsor Clippers 3 games to none In the semi finals they defeated Point Edward 3 games to 1 and in the finals the Wallaceburg squad defeated Huntsville 3 games to 1 to win the Ontario Championship. The win qualified the Red Devils to meet the Nanaimo Luckies in the Canadian semi finals for the Presidents Cup. The Luckies managed to beat the Red Devils 3 games to 2 in one of the most exciting weeks in Wallaceburg Sports. Oscar contributed 13 goals and 9 assists in 11 playoff games.
Oscar retired from lacrosse after this year and eventually moved to Kincardine to work. Oscar was able to spend time with his family watching his two daughters Kaitlin and Darlene and two sons Philip and Paul grow up. His two boys took up the game of lacrosse which was new to Kincardine and won a Pee Wee All Ontario Championship in 1975.
He loved all kinds of sports and in his later years thought he might have made a pretty good baseball player.
He also managed to spend time hunting ,fishing and using his skills as a carpenter to build many beautiful things.
Trip also played an integral part in the construction of the Somerhill Golf course between Kincardine and Tiverton where on June 6, 2006 he got a hole in one on number 9.
