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m 1 rr t p 24 weekender april 19 1997 st maples of ballantrae getting bigger and better practice makes perfect although the weather outside is still a little on the cool side to be playing baseball some miteaged girls have been diligently preparing for the upcoming cam paign by partaking in an indoor clinic staged at sum- mitview public school on monday evenings during a recent session one of those participants carrie mar shall makes an attempt to improve her fielding throwing and catching skills photosjoerd witteveen the folks running the show at the maples of ballantrae golf club believe that if you want something done right you do it yourself so much so that when they decided to expand the course after 15 years of providing golfers with an attractive pay as you play facil ity they opted to make the design and construction of a ninehole executive course an in house pro ject maples owner mike wade who also owns the pines of georgina and the new oaks of cobden course between renfrew and pembroke has been his own con tractor for all three of his courses but while he has always used the services of bramptons rf bob moot and associates for course design this time around hes pret ty much taken on the whole thing himself moot outlined the new course then mike mark elliott maples course superintendent and myself finished the design said the clubs pro tom aird aird who has held his post for the past 13 years said the new par 3132 course should be com pleted by the fall of 1998 or the spring of 99 work has begun consisting mainly of cutting trees to this point it will eventually take form on the 24 acres of land immediately to the south of the existing hwy 48 course in the mean time aird and his staff have been applying cosmetic touches on the big course in preparation for a season that was scheduled to take flight as early sport notes b r u c e s t a p i e y as april 6 but got caught up in springs sudden retreat the course sports new cart paths and some new trees in an ongoing effort to make it more interesting for the regulars to play aird cringes when he recalls last years debacle that saw rounds of golf down 3700 due to bad weath er we had 60 rain days last sea son thats well over average he said the damage could have been worse but for the fact the course has good natural drainage weve got a sandrock base were right on the edge of the oak ridges moraine aird hopes it will be blue skies and pleasant weather once the 1997 season finally gets into full gear once again the course has scheduled a full range of tourna ments with 8090 events on tap the maples is to host the cpga seniors summer championships july 7 the whitchurch-stouf- fville mobility transit the mayors challenge and local chamber of commerce tourneys are also at the club this year aird says the key is to incorporate the events into the general flow of the clubs pay as you play traffic so as to keep the course open as much as possible we usually run the tourna ments on weekdays and we use a shot gun start for the bigger tour naments lots of our tournaments involve just 5060 people so we can put them on at midday and you dont really notice they are out there when asked if the economy can affect the number of rounds played each season aird suggest ed die hard golfers will do what ever it takes to feed their addic tion people always find the money to play golf laducas rule the ice it was a hockey season to remember for the laduca family of stoufiville carlo laduca 11 was our athlete of the week for leading the whitchurch-stouf- fville minor hockey associations atom houseleague playoff scoring race little brother ryan 9 also made his mark scoring 55 points during the regular season to fin ish on top in the novice house league points parade ryan helped his swirlers restaurant team to the title in this seasons christmas tournament both boys play on their respective select teams students have lots of heart stouffville district secondary school students raised a whop ping 4038 for the heart and stroke foundation with their sec ond annual jump rope for heart marathon april 10 in the school gym congratulations to staff rep jim fletcher and his fit students plenty of fastball to be played at memorial park by bruce stapley correspondent stouffvilles memorial park will be the place to be this summer as a local rep fastball team prepares to stage an international dou- bleheader as well as a game involving a provincial allstar fastball team the betz pools midgets will host the new zealand national midget team july 16 at the town park as the kiwi crew tunes up for this summers world midget championships on aug 7 the betz boys are scheduled to take to the diamond against the ontario midget allstar team just days before the provincial outfit heads to brandon manitoba to contest the canada summer games tour nament evan boyd and paul koert who play with the betz team have been working out with the ontario team for the past three years the pair hope to be included on the summer games roster the second game of the july 16 twin bill will likely see the local midgets square off against the neighboring uxbridge bandits mens team the bandits will sport a distinc tive stouffville look this season local residents byron baranieski chris and rich burkholder and rob reesor have all signed on with the uxbridge club which plans to play out the oshawa city and dis trict fastball association this year the quartet played with the greenbank gamblers of the oshawa league last year then jumped to the bandits when the green- bank team disbanded stouffvilles jason underwood and reno dambrosio also plan to join the bandits the bandits played with the betz team in the north york major fastball league last sea- please see page 25 now open for business the longawaited second ice pad at the rec centre opened for business on monday evening christening the new playing surface was this mens pick up contest photosjoerd witteveen smmmsm9 sbqsbpwhp