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tribune february 24 1988 b3 by bruce stapley jn a contest that saw the com petitors struggling against their own natural resistance to discom fort as well as their opponents the students of st johns school for boys ran their annual marathon snowshoe race saturday the competition is the corner stone of the claremont private schools winter activities prog ram with the 56 students being divided up into nine teams the senior teams consisting of grade 9 and 10s cover a gruelling 27 miles the junior teams made up of grade 7 and 8s do a 23 mile course the race typifies the entire phi losophy of a school dedicated to catering to the needs of the whole boy as opposed to restricting it self to academic development and its no picnic a point not lost on the parents who come from homes as far away as detroit michigan to be a part of the big day i feel every ache every pain every blister my son is enduring shared one parent near tears she watched her boy strike out for the final six miles of the race af ter a lunch stop that saw most boys applying ointments and dressings to feet rendered soak ing and sore by the heavy slug ging its an ordeal the boys are al ways glad to have behind them a character builder designed to show them they are capable of pushing themselves far beyond their perceived limits the emph asis is on the team not the indi vidual everyone must finish and a team becomes as fast as its weakest member team captains must find ways of motivating boys whose attitudes would have them slow the team down to a crawl you get tired but you cant let the others on the team know youre hurting offered shane stapley of stouffville captain of the junior team that placed second we were dead last well after the half way mark and it would have been easy to give up and worry about just finishing but we dug down deep and came up with that extra effort to get us up to where we should have been all along first place in the senior com petition went to the squad led by adam petersen of scarborough dale strano of toronto was cap tain of the winning junior antry unlike last years race which saw the winning senior teams separated by a matter of seconds at the thrilling finish the winners this time were in control all the way petersen and strano credited their decided advantage to a dis ciplined approach and a strategy that saw them charge out into an early lead and then maintain a steady pace from there on race coordinator bill for- dham of markham was pleased with the boys efforts they all finished and that in itself is an accomplishment in a race such as this he said after wards its great to see an event like this where so many parents come out and get so actively in volved in what their kids are doing his son robert is a stu dent at the school fordham who has logged un told hours as the parentincharge of the support group which assists the school in its operation felt the weather conditions had been close to ideal for the big race it was a little warm when the boys started at seven am but it cooled down as the day wore on last year it was sunny and the boys were down to their tee shirts because they were sweating so much he said the end of the race was fol lowed by a spaghetti dinner for students and parents in the school dining room the students up since430 am x vt3 markham team members right to left kevin clifton and determination that secured them the title of cham rhys davies staff teacher glenn march darryl pion senior team hooper and captain adam peterson show the skill jack harper recalls bygone hockey days by bruce stapley jack harper netminder for some of the great markham and stouffville hockey teams of the 40s and 50s recalls the days when sticks were straight goalie didnt wear masks ice was natural and referees would sometimes use bells instead of whistles i can actually remember when i first came to play with the markham aces he recalls max reesor was the referee for one of the games and he actually had a school bell instead of a whistle the scarborough resident along with his wife of 47 years bertha remembers several bizarre happenings from his hockey heyday one night we were playing a playoff game at the old markham arena the other team had come in by train theyd brought so many supporters with them that the boards caved in with the weight of so many people crowd ing around to watch the game jack says jack a netminding phenom started out playing junior b hockey at northern vocational school in toronto alongside fu ture national hockey league star bob goldham in 1940 he was con tacted by the markham aces to play junior c he then played two years for the markham mil lionaires before going overseas with the army in 1942 after the war he returned to the millionaries and enjoyed his glory year culminating in a trip to the intermediate finals against owen sound harry lumley future nhl goalie was in net for owen sound he recalls he was only 16 yearsold at the time but he stoned us jacks fondest memories go back to those years with the ms playing with george and fred scott bert baker harry milroy ernie and bob lawrie bob and nick bangay and charlie perciv- al for two years straight the players voted him most valuable player jack finished his playing career in stouffville with the intermedi ate league clippers playing against the markham club he once was a part of for many years there was a healthy rivalry between stouffville and mar kham back then he remembers some of the markham guys went to playjor stouffville when they were guaranteed a financial re turn that made the markham guys pretty upset but despite the hard feelings jack insists they always stuck to hockey and played a little tougher against each other like so many of the oldtime hockey players- jack feels to days hockey with its needless violence is a lot rougher than the hockey of his day theres so much more body contact now more taking the guy out of the play now each team puts a tree big forward in front of the opposition net and the other teams players try to hack him down there was always good chemis try with most of the guys on the team it was more like recreation back then not the winatallcost stuff you see so often today con- 5 jack harper eluded the former canada wire and cable worker and of course in jacks day goalies didnt wear masks there were no slapshots or curved sticks then so it wasnt as bad as you might think going out there without a mask he assures but he suffered his share of cuts and scratches i remember a game in colling- wood we were winning 21 when i got hit right between the eyes with a screen shot jack says i was bleeding pretty bad but they patched it up and i played the fin al two minutes of the game i had it stitched up afterwards he also remembers a february playoff game where he dropped to his knees to field a loose puck and took a stick in the face from an opponent trying to free the puck but despite the bumps and bruises jack takes pride in the fact he never missed a game due to injury not bad for the goalie who was considered on the small side at 59 and about 135 lbs as for personal rivalries and vendettas jack says there was the odd cheapshot but the play ers of his day were more patient than those of today waiting for their chance for revenge unfortunately for those play ers when jack harper retired at 33yearsoid there were plenty of frustrated snipers who realized theyd never get the chance to set tle old scores for scoring opportu nities lost hardball registration saturday february 27 900 am 100 pm crosby arena milliken arena centennial arena markham arena highways 7 48 or call conleybayley 4714016 alex roberts 4715746 john kerr 4775177 houseleagucs and rep teams available all ag to prepare for their big day were more than ready to head home to bed when things broke up around 830 pm for them it was the end of one and a half months of intensive training and mental preparation for st johns school it was merely another example of what boys can do when they give it ev erything theyve got and then some although snowshoeing may look easy the hills are real killers espe cially when theyre at the end of a greuling 27 mile race for seniors and 23 mile for juniors here kyle lebianc left and chris muuy find i time to look up at the camera between gasps for breath photos bruce stapley mom op