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copy phone your sports news to 6402100 sports classified fyvu r fjs jffl xvv v blue m orchid flneduung 124 main stw stouflvsle 6407724 second section a metroland community newspaper wednesday march 25 1987 antams an i stouffville has two hockey lteams in the this years all- i ontario championships 4 the bantam clippers became second stouffville squad to reach the omha bb finals with a 542 win in midland sunday after- bruins eliminated from hockey playoffs the hockey season ended for the junior c uxbridge bruins fri day night with a whimper the bruins lost 21 at home to the bowmanville eagles and were eliminated from further playoff action in the central ontario league uxbridge bowmanville and the lakefield chiefs were involved in a round robin series that would see two of the teams advance to i the central ontario finals the bruins lost all four games j they played in the series to find themselves eliminated going into action last week the bruins had a slim chance of advancing if they won both their games instead they lost 64 in lakefield last tuesday night and i then they dropped the bowman- ville game friday and that was jthe season bruin goal scorers against lakefield were kevin smith paul ibutterworth lee brown and chris brown chris also scored rthe lone bruin marker in the bow- imanville game j we should have been able to advance said bruin coach ran- pflyers caddys earn ifirstround sihl bye ji williamson motors cadillacs jjand the stouffville stockyards jjflyers have earned a bye into the tisemifinals in sihl hockey ac tion jj both teams had a record of four wins and one loss after the leagues five game round robin playoff series finished up satur day night g the remaining four teams in vthe sihl will battle it out next saturday to determine who will f ace the flyers and the cadillacs s last saturday burger treat penguins upset the flyers 73 al stewart and harold wide ly man with a pair of goals each led sjthe pens a meanwhile the cadillacs ran over canadian tire blackhawks 139 doug feasby had an incredi- ble for the cadillacs as he found the back of the net six times in another defensive struggle a s construction red wings beat dave blow insurance whal ers 98 keith mcguckin with a hat trick led the wings while kent dan- forth had four goals for the whalers this saturday the penguins take on the whalers and the blackhawks face off against the red wings uxbridge skaters win at ontario games in london 1 1 jennifer cook of the uxbridge skating club won the silver medal hn the novice ladies division at j1the ontario games this weekend jjin london last month jennifer 15 won f j the gold medal at the canada win- ifter games jjj uxbridges tracy taylor13 skating in the same division finished seventh some of the best skaters from across the province competed at the games the dance pair of jill cassie and troy mccully also of the ux bridge skating club skated to the bronze medal in prenovice dance category mmmuj jib v r ifg i m t members of the stouffville figure skating club fared very well in s number of recent competitions left to right susan anderson finished fifth in the finals of the prenovice ladles division in north bay lceahria hamilton was third in her flight and ninth overall in preiuvenile ladles at the same competition brenda hachey was fifth overall in senior silver ladies solo dance at the central ontar io sectional interclub stephanie barclay was fourth in junior vdies at north bay and elizabeth da via was eight in prejtnt eaalscxat north bay al sh idgets in ontario finals noon they now join the midgets who advanced to the finals with a win over midland last week the midgets won their best of five semifinal series 31 but the bantams had to go the distance before finally beating the strong dy hall but we didnt have a good game in the whole series hall said he thought his team might have been burned out af ter two very tough and emotional playoff victories over port perry and little britain those wins gave the bruins the walter crowley divsion title this season the team also fought back from an 11 point defecit midway through the season to tie port per ry for first place at the end of the regular season weve been playing a lot of tough hockey without a break for a long time hall said were a better team than what we showed in this last series we just didnt play up to par even though its a long way away hall said he was optimistic for next years bruins fifteen of the players are eligible to play next year i dont know if they all will but thats the nucleus for a good team he said hall said that over the season the play of stouffvilles joe risk in net and defenceman lee brown was especially impressive midland squad in the deciding game the bantam clippers are the defending omha bb champions bantam coach kerry keller said it was a tremendous series and the final game typified the whole thing the visiting clippers had every reason to be concerned when mid land opened the scoring midway through the first period up to that point in the series the home team always scored first and always won however scott mckinleys power play goal on a set up from darren baston and sven hennze put the clippers back into it in the second the clippers dominated the second period outshooting mid land 205 but they were unable to score again and they went into the third deadlocked at 11 just over four minutes into the final frame peewee captain jason underwood who was promoted to the bantams for this series scored to put the clippers ahead assists on the goal went to mckinley and hennze underwood scored again with 350 left in the game when he cir cled behind the net and banged one in off the midland goalie from a bad angle midland made a mistake on that goal and it hurt them kel ler said before game five he had predicted that a bad goal might mean the series with a two goal lead and time running out the stouffville play ers began an early celebration which quickly ended when mid land made it 32 with 43 seconds remaining midland was threatening to tie it up before craig stronach made an incredible play blocking a shot from the point and picking up the puck himself and firing it at the empty midland goal from just out side the blueline the puck bounced of both goal posts before finally going in i was just dying when it hit the posts keller said with only 36 seconds left the stouffville bench exploded with stronachs goal so did the large contingent of stouffville fans at the midland arena the key to the game for us was strong defence excellent back checking and the phenomenal play of goalie scott evans kel ler said he had nothing but praise for his players and the midland team after the series the boys really deserved this theyve worked so hard he said weve been practicing for mid land all year he added that because midland finished on top of the league and werent seriously challenged dur ing the regular season they were ripe for an upset it can be tough when youre on top everybodys always trying to knock you off he explained the bantams will face belle river in the allontario finals and play could begin as soon as this weekend in the best of five series keller said belle river is located just east of windsor almost a sixhour drive away so there will no week- night games in the series keller admitted to not knowing much about the belle river squad they beat hespeler in the semis and i know that midland destroyed hespeler when they played so we should be compati ble he said one thing keller is worried ab out is a possible let down by his players after the emotional mid land series a lot of people felt that the real ontario cham pionship was between midland and stouffville and winning the finals would be merely a for mality it was a tremendous victory but weve got to remember weve still got some hockey left to play this season he said the midget clippers opponents for the ontario championships will be the winners of the belle riverbeamsville series xmeveca gnpbotmnnm ctwwjjii iiiw illllj jib jihh karl winterstein pigeon racer earns respect by alan shackleton x sports editor racing pigeons owned by karl winterstein of claremont have to earn a name by how fast they fly but not so their owner mr win terstein is one of canadas most respected and well- known authorities on the sport the 66yearold vice- president of the stouffville racing pigeon club became involved in pigeon racing ab out 40 years ago and since then hes built up an impress ive reputation which includes a number of national cham pionships you may remember seeing him in a lotto 649 commercial last year along with sean osullivan and a number of other champions in a variety of sports that was quite an experi ence he remembered they came up and shot about six hours of film and i think- 1 was in the commercial for maybe eight seconds the commercial did lead to more recognition though and shortly after it aired he was featured in a segment of har veys people a profile done by former ctv newsman harvey kirk shown nationally on canada am p8nnb all the attention doesnt mean winterstein gets stop ped on the street by complete strangers wanting to talk pi geons but internationally he is considered one of this coun trys foremost pigeon racers and breeders he still chuckles when he thinks back to the day in 1980 when during an international pigeon racers convention in toronto four bus loads of visi tors drove up the dirt road to his small hilltop farm in east claremont to tour his lofts that little sideroad has never seen a day like that be fore or since he said r v the origins of pigeon racing go back to about 150 years ago when the birds were used as a means of communication for armies financial houses and news services winterstein said these were the days before telephones radios and tele graph lines and sending mes sages by pigeon was often one of the fastest means avail able with the advent of new tech nologies the amazing talents of the pigeon were put to a more recreational use however even today they are still considered part of the communications force of most armies we are a complete milit ary communications unit should we ever be needed winterstein explained in the last two world wars pigeons were used extensively as a method of relaying mes sages in world war two re porters often sent their dis patches back to england by pigeon as it was the only means available to them in peacetime though pi geon racing is the name of the game there are over 2 million pi geon fanciers in the world winterstein said about a thousand in canada and 200000 in the united states karl winterstein left of claremont is interna tionally known as a pigeon racer and breeder here he displays one of his best prospects for the upcoming season the ace of spades while grandchildren tessa lewis 7 of uxbridge and brother tommy 12 help out pigeon racing is a family affair in the winterstein household alan shackleton stouffville has a fine history of involvement with champion pigeons long time resident alec couts who lives in park view village bred the cana dian racing pigeon hall of fame winner in 1963 winter stein pointed out most pigeon fanciers tend to be in urban areas he added theres not too many out in the country one reason for this is there are not as many natural ene mies for the pigeons in urban areas for instance living in claremont means winterstein has some trouble with hawks and over the years he has lost a number of pigeons to them while training ive lost a few really good prospects to hawks he said you dont actually see the hawk taking the pigeon down but one day they just dont come back from a training run this is the worst time of the season for hawks in the area as many of them are in migra tion and winterstein wont begin training his pigeons for another two weeks at least training pigeons to come home to their loft may seem complicated but its relatively simple winterstein said basicaily the training pro cess consists of releasing the pigeons from the loft to fly around get some exercise and a look at the landscape which they do for awhile and then re turn to the loft when winter stein blows a special whistle they come back because the loft is their home its where their nests are and their food is theres nothing so myste rious about a bird going for a fly around the neighbourhood and then coming home robins crows and blue jays do it all the time what makes the pigeon so amazing is that it can be driven to a location some 500 miles away in a truck re leased with about a thousand others and make its way back to the home loft often on the same day with about two weeks be fore a race the training be comes a little more compli cated winterstein said as the birds are trained by being road tossed you put the pigeon in the backseat drive down the road five miles stop and release it he explained you keep in creasing the distance by five miles each time within 20 miles they can see the loft from the air so its not so hard getting back but between 20 and 40 miles away they some times make mistakes over 40 miles and its instinct obviously the birds that do well in training are the best prospects come race day winterstein said theres no way you can tell if a pigeon will be a good racer just by looking at it its an elusive thing that makes a champion pigeon he said theyre not like livestock and cattle where you can look for certain visible characteristics curiosity and intelligence are good signs for racers but its like panning for gold winterstein said as with race horses the theory that champions breed champions holds fairly true with pigeons all the laws of genetics are followed he said however since thereisnt much prize money in pigeon racing in canada just trophies and the honor of win ning champion pigeons dont command stud fees the way horses do also a pigeon pro duces offspring in larger num bers and much more quickly than horses do winterstein has about 80 pi geons in his loft at the mo ment though the- numbers keep changing with so many birds only the special ones are given names they have to be a gretzky of pigeons before they get a name he explained two of wintersteins gretz- kys are alfa ben and alfa dale who were canadian champions jn 1978 and 1981 re spectively the second part of their names comes from bendale secondary school in scarbor ough where winterstein was a trades teacher for 19 years un til his retirement in 1982 mostly the pigeons are identified by the code number on the band around their legs but if they win a number of races winterstein takes note of them puts a playing card in front of their nest at the mo ment he has two aces and a number of face cards in the loft the pigeon racing season in canada runs from midmay to midseptember and winter stein races in the lake simcoe combine race distances vary from 200 miles and under for youn ger birds all the way up to 520 miles which is the distance of the prestigious upper canada national that starts in fraserdale points are accumulated over the seasons by positions finished in races by each loft most races will have be tween 1000 and 1400 pigeons in them winterstein said this seems like a lot but races in europe commonly attract 50000 birds and the orleans race in holland and belgium gets some 165000 birds he added hsp the winner of the race will be the pigeon with the best average speed this is the only way to determine finishers because the birds home lofts are all over the pro vince the time a bird arrives back at the loft is recorded and a straight line drawn between the loft and the release point to determine the average speed special clocks are used in each loft that punch in the time that the leg band of the returning bird is dropped into them once the band has been put in the clock it cannont be taken out again wintersteins love of pi geons and of pigeon racing is obvious and its something hes passed on to two of his sons who also race- pigeons karl and his wife marie have seven children and 21 grandchildren some of the grandchildren are also taking an interest in pigeon racing and no visit is complete with out a trip to the lofts