The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

rp22fweekendmseptembetfn1vt996 t st swixsvvi v kvix4ivxmiivtiii spirit setback not indicative of final result by bruce stapley correspondent the spirit of stouffville took to the ice against a fully stocked milton merchants outfit in an interconference provincial junior a hockey league preseason tussle wednesday night at the rec centre and while the high flying merchants used a third- period flurry to claim a 62 victory over the host squad the stouffville crew put on a show that had team gen- eral manager wally crowder crowing we played really well said crowder noting that the score was only 32 for milton approaching the mid way point of the third period we had seven of our signed players sitting on the sidelines we were giving the unsigned guys one last chance to show what they can do and they were play ing good hockey the loss left the spirit with a healthy preseason record of four wins against just two defeats crowder said he fully expected his team to be in for a tough match against the merchants who placed first in their division in the provincial leagues western conference last season milfon is a team of veterans theyre loaded up to take a run at it this season but i would bet if we had all our signed players in the lineup wed be able to keep up with them mike peralovis and rob frost scored for the spirit the spirit play their final preseason game with the ajax axemen sunday in ajax before opening the sea son against vaughan on the road next friday their home opener is sept 28 against the gobourg cougars spiritually speaking the meet the players dance being held by the spirit tonight s to take place at the choko complex on hwy 47 just north of stouffville not at the rec centre lounge as was reported in the sept 11 tribune the dance gets under way at 8 pm running through the country side members of the stouffville district secondary school crosscountry teams found some hilly terrain just south of musselmans lake on wednesday to practice for upcoming meets photos witteveen rebels pick bad time to lose contest the shroud of invincibility cover ing the claremont rebels since the north york mens fastball league season began last spring has been penetrated the rebels who went undefeated in 22 league matches this season and won their playoff opener last week finally fell off their perch when they lost 41 to the north york knights at claremont park on wednesday the loss left the rebels in danger of being eliminated in the double knock out north york league play off format they are tentatively scheduled to play their third post season match this tuesday at home the rebels got off on the right foot wednesday night taking a 10 first inning lead when dave jones scored on a tom watson sacrifice fly but the knights tied it in the third then went ahead 31 in the sixth on a pinch hit home run that came with two outs and two strikes on the north york batter the knights added an insurance run in the top of the seventh the rebels had runners on base in each of the first five innings but were shut down in order in the final two frames tim evans pitched a solid eight hitter for the rebels walking two and striking out six the rebels are without ace pitch er chris wilson for the playoffs as well as 300 plus hitters greg home and jim closs sahl takes the good with the bad the bad news is that the senior citizens of the stouf fville amateur hockey league sahl will have to endure predawn sunday morning face offs for at least one more season with no firm date set as yet for the construction of the second ice pad the good news for the eight team 40 and over division is that they dont have to start until 630 am sundays a full hour later than last year the sahl which is fast approaching its 20th anniver sary kicks off the 199697 sea son tuesday teams in the 20 and over and 30 plus divisions play a 27 game schedule with the over 40 squads facing off 26 times for the second straight year the league will hold a tournament dec 27 28 at the rec centre with play ers from all three divisions mixing together for the tour ney the sahl will go prime time with its championship day this season the three title tilts are to be played sat urday april 26 from 5 til 11 pm if its anything like recent years this should be one of the most entertaining and exciting nights of hockey of the entire season at the local arena girls hockey growing girls hockey continues to be a fast growing sport in stouf fville and the surrounding area as the whitchurch-stouf- fville girls hockey association wsgha expands to 200 players this season up 40 from last year according to wsgha president dianne white who has been an ardent worker with the orga nization ever since it assumed its current shape 10 years back there would have been sport notes bruce s tap ley more new players but they had to cap it due to a lack of ice time the wsgha has doubled its markham ice time this season playing four hours at two arenas in that town this has been done to make room for the markham area players in the wsgha as that town doesnt have a girls program white says interest in the wsgha rep program is grow ing thirty two girls have been trying out for the midget rep team with 30 out with the bantams theres also good local interest with the inter mediate squad dianne points out that stouffville teams are competing at the a level which puts them in elite com pany with the other seven a centres in ontario including mississauga ottawa scar borough and london the wsgha junior house- league will grow from four to six teams this season the senior houseleague will stick with four teams but rosters will be expanded for each team to accommodate the demand the houseleague gets under way sept 23 with the first week to be spent grading play ers to set teams wsgma rep teams begin their season after thanksgiving and will prac tice and play exhibition games until then flyball team ranked third in world stouffville dog groomer paula perini has informed me that the fly ball team she is involved with is now ranked third in the world with a growing stable which now includes 16 dogs mostly bor der collies the team called total recall has shaved its best tune a full half second to 1705 seconds the sport involves teams of four dogs jumping over a series of hurdles to retrieve a ball thrown by handlers the action is fast and the noise level high she says paula who will travel to penn sylvania next month with fel low team member louise tackaberry to teach the amer icans the sport paula said the team is seek ing a corporate sponsor to help defray travel expenses and costs incurred in purchas ing the electronic equipment required for the sport anyone looking for corporate exposure please see page 23