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i 5 36 economist suntribune sports thursday dec 16 1999 kim gellard far left and her unionville curling club foursome of left to right sherry scheirich sally karam allison ross and coach mary gellard will take to the unionville curling club ice this weekend in an eightteam ontario ladies curling association regional event the secondyear team hopes to have a repeat performance this year where they represented ontario in the scott tournament of hearts gellard rink hopes to sweep past opposition provincial champs take nothing for granted on the road to the all ontario playdowns by mike hayakawa sports editor when kim gellard formed her unionville curling club rink last season the only request shehad of her team was to play to the best of their ability that effort produced an ontario ladies curling association scott jburnament of hearts title and a berth in the scott tournament of hearts play- downs in charlottetown eei taking to the pebbled ice surface for their second season and setting sights on an encore performance the gellard rink does not intend to alter from that philosophy refusing to apply any undue pres sure on herself or her team of vice sherry scheirich second sally karam and lead allison ross gellard insists the task of qualifying for this years scott tournament of hearts playdowns is no rftore difficult than a year ago were not looking at it as a harder challenge the 25yearold gellard insisted going into the playdowns last year as a new team we had some expec tations we just wanted to go in and play to the best of our abilities this is what we want to do this year just recently gellards rink took the first step toward finding their way back at the provincial championships by win ning the a side of a zone playdown in uxbridge taking the b side was janet browns fbtursbme from sutton this was the same team that gellard defeated in last years olca scott tournament of hearts playdown final gellards team will take the second step this weekend as they will take to the unionville curling club ice to compete in an eightteam regional event the action begins saturday with draws at 9 am 130 pm and 6 pm and con cludes sunday at 930 am to 230 pm the event will also see several other local curlers taking part as sara garland is a lead on browns sutton entry sherry cordina is a lead on kristen turcottes bayview rink and julie anderson will skip a bayview rink which includes her sister kristy as vice and katrina sale as a lead two rinks from this event will advance to the southern ontario play downs in lindsay on jan 8 and 9 from lindsay another four will advance to the all ontarios in tirnmins in late january in tuning up for this weekends event gellards rink took part in the recent jvctsn skins game in thunder bay gellards rink was defeated in the semi finals by eventual champion sherry andersons rink from saskatoon for their efforts they pocketed 1500 we just werent executing and we just werent getting any breaks gellard said of their effort in thunder bay but it was a great experience while gellards rink took the first step toward making a repeat appearance in the all ontarios she is not looking beyond this weekends play theres still lots of games to play yet i never look too far ahead and try to put pressure on myself to achieve our end goal its good to strive for one larger goal but you have one accomplish a lot of smaller things first she said we just try to take things one step at a time milne dam fishway receives public approval any objections or questions that were raised concerning the proposed construction of a fish way at the milne dam site on the rouge river next summer were put to rest at a recent piib- lie information session in markham for the fish ladder which would allow migrating fish to manoeuvre their way past a 4- 12metre dam on the rouge river to reach suitable spawn ing areas it now means that all systems are go in its construc tion fish ladder constructed at a public information ses sion conducted at roy h crosby public school in unionville on dec 1 close to two dozen people heard the ministry of natural resources and consultants plans to con struct a fish ladder along the rivers west bank and on conser vation area property mark heaton a ministry biologist from the districts aurora office noted the session was well received and no seri ous objections were raised it went pretty well he said some good questions were raised but we came to an understanding that there were no serious issues with the design and direction of the pro ject di the construction of the proposed fishway the ministry and consultants gave the peo ple one option to consider heaton said the ladder could mike hayakawa either be a single slot denile fishway or have a second denile slot a single slot denile fishway allows for 15 cubic feet per sec ond of water to move through although a second denile slot would increase construc tion costs by 10 per cent it allows for more water to move through to be more exact heaton said 30 cubic feet per second of water would move through this in turn could entice more fish to utilize the facility heaton speculated however this could only be determined through actual usage when all was said and done the people supported the cre ation of a second denile slot model heaton said this ladder design would be the first of its kind to be utilized in the province with public support heaton said the plans will now go to detailed design heaton said this process is expected to take about six weeks and then go to an approvals process through fisheries and oceans the min istry and toronto region conservation authority if all goes according heaton expects the ground breaking ceremony for the fishway which has an estimated cost of 175000 to 200000 will take place by july 1 among the species that would utilize the ladder include rainbow trout brown trout smallmouth bass northern pike white sucker and different minnow species licence renewal time the ministry of natural resources recommends that anglers and hunters who plan to renew their outdoors card for the year 2000 act now the new year is fast approaching and the busy holi day season is just ahead anglers and hunters whose outdoors card expires dec 31 and who plan to fish or hunt in january are encouraged to renew their licence and outdoors card quickly by using the ministrys 24hour seven- daya week tollfree phonein card renewal service the number is 1-800-288- 1155 new cards and licences will be received by mail within two to three weeks after renewal by telephone callers will need their outdoors card number and a visa or mastercard to complete the renewal by phone skate with spirit sunday at rec centre the third annual skate with the spirit will take place at the rec centre main pad on sunday from noon to 2 pm those interested in attend ing will have the opportunity to skate with members of the spirit of stouffville provincial junior a hockey league club anyone attending are asked to bring a donation of food or money to support the whitchurchstouffville food bank a number of door prizes will be given out for further information call the spirit office at 6426755 students in fine form students representing sean wongs karate and kickboxing studios team meibukei hauled in 10 medals from the recent karate ontario tournament grand prix 2 com petition in individual kata sarah irvine won gold in the seven and under beginner division alishayee won gold in the 12- 13 girls intermediate i brendon cheung was sec- sports digest ond in the 1213 novice while justin yee won bronze in the 8- 9 intermediate in sparring george lambropqulos won silver in the mens novice under16 kilo gram division and yee claimed a bronze in the 1213 girls intermediate in the black belt division morana zeskoski won gold in the womens under53 kg group in team kata a silver was won by the under13 novice team of randall cheung erica cheung and sarah irvine another silver was claimed by the over13 intermediate team of mark soto kristina chin and alishayee vanessa andres alyssa andres and stacey chong earned a bronze in the over13 intermediate minor bantam hot for the markham islanders minor bantam a team its so far so good reaching the midway point of its greater toronto hockey league schedule the islanders sport an impressive 18- 01 mark included in those wins were recent decisions against the ted reeve thunder 91 the hillcrest summits 20 and north york knights 53 in addition to its firstplace mark the islanders goaltend- ing tandem of matt peacock and michael biback sport the lowest goals against average in the gthl minor bantam divi sion at 168 also helping the club attain its impressive goals against mark are defencemen chris chapman ben hemming daniel hinton tim lawless and danny mccracken amassing 135 goals this sea son the islanders scoring has come from mark anderson nicktsantsouias chris rose peter christopoulos paul arlin louis covens brett kitchen ziv zukier and philip chow v vv 1 i t 11 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