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tribune i december 24 1991 pll stouffville christmas wish list for stouffville sports sport notes twas the night before christ mas and down here at the old tribune sports desk things were a little slow as a matter of fact there hasnt been a thing come in over the wire for more than an hour now as all the sportsmen and women of stouffville put down their hockey sticks basket balls and bowling shoes in order to spend their last few available christmas dollars and as old st nick warms iipthe sleigh and carboloads his rein deer on pasta for the gruelling night ahead theres probably a vision or two of sugar plums of the sporting variety dancing around in the heads of a few stouffvillites tonight s after all theeconomy may very well be in a slump comparable to the one known only by those who wear the blue maple leaf on their hockey jerseys and the signing of jumpin jack morris for 15 mil- lion might have driven away the last of the oldtime baseball fans who still remember the game when sanity rather than obscenity was the order of the day but luckily sporting triumphs in a town like stouffville depend less on megabuck funding than on blood and guts dedication and there are some athletes and sports officials out there who deserve a little something under the tree by way of reward for their honest efforts each year the perfect gift for jim fletcher the resident volleyball maestro at stouffville district secondary school sdss would be an ofsaa allontario title at last the guy has earned it after knocking on the door the past four years and it would also be nice to see his bas- ketball efforts rewarded by having his boys play 500 ball for the rest of the season for andrea crothers the little keg of athletic dynamite at sdss a top three placing at the ofsaa track and field championships this spring would be a great stocking stuffer she was 10th in the 400- metre run last spring in sudbury and as a second year midget she should be able to move up near the top this time around then theres the stouffville merchants junior boys fastball team the guys have owned ontario the past two seasons and even picked up a bronze at the canadian championships in newfoundland last summer this summer the provincial eliminations are to be played right here in sunny stouffville in a refurbished softball complex lets hope santa can deliver one more title for us you can be sure the late carl myers the guy who started the ball rolling to have theprovincial championships played here a few years ago would be smiling from somewhere if the merchants were to do it in front of the home fans as for the nationals well that gets a little tougher especially when merchants coach howard burkholder elects to go the honorable route using bona fide amateur players when most of the other provincial champions are paying their players to perform shame it would also be nice to see one of our many young rep hockey teams girls and boys go all the way this year the novices have turned the trick a couple of times in the past and the pee wee girls took the ontario crown last spring but the best present of all for the hockey fans in town would be a shiny new junior c hockey club its been talked about and with the right backing and promotion it would surely take off here the huge collection of rep teams in stouffville especially at the lower levels would serve as a great feeder line for the team as the years went on it would take some fancy footwork to stock the squad at first as the uxbridge bruins have corralled most of stouffvilles junior hotshots but the talent is here and with a few knowledgeable hockey people on board we could import some of the best junior b cuts from towns around toronto maybe santa could even arrange to have stouffvillemarkham hock ey son brad may really catch fire in the second half of the season and bring home the nhl rookie of the year award next spring now that we have our state of the art track and fieldsoccer complex completed it would makefor a nice present to all those who put so much time into the project to have the thing booked solid once the good weather comes it would be great to see the students at sdss as well as the commu nity at large really get into the swing of things with a welltimed high school track team causing some excitement at the new facility hopefully the towns soccer program can continue to thrive making maximum use of the night time spots opened up by the addition of the lights to the main fields in closing heres hoping all our athletes enjoy a rewarding year in terms of both victories and overall satisfaction in a recession such as this the role of sport takes on a very important role serving as a muchneeded distraction from the pressures of everyday life so may the best team win arid remember it matters not if you win or lose its how you play the game oh yes and dont ever forget casey stengels old maxim that it aint over til its over and to all a good night photosjoerd whteveen mike hedley of the markham district high school marauders prepares to shoot while stouffville district secondary school spartans player fred klien goes up for the block during senior boys action wednesday at sdss the marauders won the game 8040 senior spartan basketballers happy to end seasons first half the stouffville district sec ondary school spartans senior boys basketball team showed up gave an honest effort then said goodbye to the gruelling first half of the 199192 season in a home encounter with markham district high school wednesday the sdss cagers eventually fell 8040 to the higher ranked markham squad but the spartans were a game bunch all the same playing without first stringers bill pride and derek sheahan against the first place markham outfit the spartans used brian power to score most of the points they were able to man age with brian leoni hooping 16 points and point guard brian snooks adding another 13 jason cowan chipped in with six points while jeff cowley nabbed several rebounds for the stouffville unit the game marked the end of the schedules first half during which time doublea teams were pitted against the higher rated triplea cage crews in the new year a realignment will see the spartans up against teams which share their double- a status sdss will start off 1992 by participating in the port perry rebels senior boys basketball tournament slated for jan 10 to 11 the spartans will be made up of a combination of the schools junior and senior teams according to senior coach jim fletcher fletcher will link up with junior spartans coach rusty hick for the tournament junior spartans beat unionville high 5950 it was all systems go for the stouffville district secondary school spartans junior boys basketball team in a match up with unionville high school last week the spartan cagers led by the sharpshooting of rob jones and jermain franklin hustled all the way to a 5950 victory jones went to the hoop for a total of 16 points with franklin close behind with 15 chris leonard chipped in with nine points franklin shone on defence as well for the spartans with trevor bardell and andy frew also helping keep the unionville squad at bay a 1 j r