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f p20 weekender april 4q 1993 st merchants remain a strong force bruce stapley correspondent the stouffville merchants are back in business the local junior mens fastball team which captured the ontario junior crown in 1990 and 91 and placed second at last years provincial tournament held in stouffville will remain virtually intact for the coming season the teams 1993 fate was decided when the ontario amateur softball association oasa voted to raise the junior age ceiling at its annual meeting last weekend in markham the age for junior eligibility was raised from 21 to 22 for the cur rent season and will go up to 23 for the 1994 season also upped was the midget ceiling which went from 18 to 19 the juvenile cat egory was also reinstated and will include players 20 and under for the 1993 season and 21 and under for 1994 all other categories remained unaffected with many of last years merchants having reached the age of 21 coach howard burkholders team would have lost its nucleus for the 93 campaign had the age not been brought in line with most of the other provinces in canada i would imagine well have the core of last years team back now said burkholder but im not certain most of the players are still at university or elsewhere however we should have most of them signed within a week or so i couldnt act until the age increase went through burkholder confirmed that the teams pitching ace byron bara nieski will be with the team once again burkholders sons and team mainstays chris and rich will be returning he said his younger son ryan may also be with the team and i would think well have darren crawford keith piette bill pride and rob parcells back as well he said and maybe ryan mclntyre and bob speers jason yoshida is still in tasmania where he has been playing ball all winter burkholder was hopeful gary yoshida and bill mcknight would be back as coaches hubert basilio who backed baranieski last season has signed with the oshawa juniors the merchants third pitcher rob gray is also being courted by oshawa burkholder suggested the team would have a hole to fill with both hurlers gone it could be a problem but im not too worried about it we may use some of the guys weve already got chris burkholder has done some pitching and i hear jason yoshida has been pitching in tasmania and darren crawford could pitch as well burkholder said the team would once again play in the oshawa city and district mens fastball league while not ideal he said the league was the best available for the merchants another change brought about in the off season will see the top two teams in ontario going to the national championships which will include 16 squads this year its one year too late for us we would have gone last year although the funding from softball canada wont be as much for the second team the ontario junior eliminations are to be held in north fredricksburg in july painters whitewash opposition the edwards murphy painting bantam clippers got out the whitewash to finish off their post season exhibi tion schedule last week the clippers blanked uxbridge twice 60 and 70 before closing out the cam paign with a 90 thumping of markham goal tenders brad hackert and evan boyd shared the trio of shut outs against uxbridge it was david hutchison leading the points parade with two goals and four assists john mck- innon had two goals and three helpers roger mcmann graham crowder and peter smith each had a goal and three set ups tim smart scored twice and added an assist ian ellis had a goal and an assist craig wood picked up two goals steve wilcox had two assists mike underwood set up one score mckinnon scored twice against markham with sin gle scores going to hutchison underwood peter smith lucas anderson graham crowder and don wilkie the three wins enabled the clippers to finish out the sea son with an overall record of 47166 photosjoerd wrtteveen return to sender andrew leung right of stouffville district secondary school makes an effort to return this shuttle to an uxbridge opponent in a mixed pairs tuneup match at stouffville on monday looking on is teammate leanna milos angies pee wees ice title the angies peewee girls hockey team com bined pin point execution with strong goaltend- ing to sweep to victory over mississauga in the recent north metro league playoff champi onships the stouffville girls prevailed 32 in the opener march 31 a closechecking affair at the rec cen tre but it was all angies in game two saturday a 51 stouffville win in a match played in north york deanne hibbert gina king and morgan dubkowski scored for angies in the first contest assists went to kellie cornell 2 king and dubkowski dawn williamson and king each scored twice in game two as angies dominated with passing and positional play cornell added the fifth stouffville marker hibbert picked up a pair of assists with sarah abrahams lauren clarkson williamson king and cornell each setting up one goal spartans spike bronze at guelph volleyball tourney the stouffville district secondary school spartan mixed volleyball team hung tough to pick up the bronze medal at the guelph invita tional coed tournament last weekend the stouffville squad placed second in its pool advancing to the championship round the spartans defeated glenview secondary school gait in two straight games in the quarter finals but they dropped a closely contested semi final match taking the opener 158 before falling 1513 1513 in a onegame showdown for the bronze medal with midland secondary school the spartans emerged with a 1513 win stouffvilles brian snooks was named to the tournament allstar team chris jackson nicole ellis stacie patten leslie palmer julia johnstone tim lavell jason cowan kelly sheridan kevin cargill kevin nicholls and marcus milos alsdslayed well for the spartans qqq a stouffville district secondary school boys duo went all the way to the consolation finals at the york north badminton finals monday at sutton district high school lindsay haylow and jason whitelaw showed good form throughout the tournament finally losing but amid stiff competition in the boys doubles event the stouffville team of chris lightfoot and nicole bardell went as far as the semifinals in the mixed doubles category in all 16 spartan students took part in the competition raiders to host slopitch tournament the a and s raiders will host their 11th annual slopitch tournament at stouffvilles memorial park over the victo ria day weekend tournament organizers are still accepting applications from teams interested in participat ing the event is to consist of 12 c level teams 16 mens recre ational squads and 12 mixed teams the c flight champs will take home 600 in prize money with the mens rec and mixed vic tors each earning 500 prize money will be given to the top four teams in each division the tournanment is a qualifi er for the labatts provincial championships to be held in august at london ont for applications or further information contact paul mur ray at 6401074 or gord stowar at 6402181