Led to see. No, I'm nut talking about a complete lost season of the National Hockey league. Nor am 1 referring to Paris Hilton becoming a movie actres‘L And no, I dorit mean the scandal and ongoing costs involved with RIM Park. Insdiau,im talking about Steve Nash winning the most valuable player honour in the Natiorel Bash-Illa†Association, For a relatively short. white Canadian from Victoria. BC. to be named MVP in pro basketbali's biggest operation - a league dominated by African-Americans - is just a feat I never expected to celebrate in my lifetime, I will admit I didn't believe former K-W' resident and Cameron Heights grad Lannux lewis could win the heavy- weight boxing championship of the world. but that didn't have anything to do with his skills. I just felt he was too nice a guy to win in that goofy world of pro boxing. Nash's accomplishment in his ninth season in the NBA ranks up (here on my “Canadians are great" highlight reel with Sar- nia's Mike Weir winning the Mas,, ters gulf tourney and Larry Walker, from Maple Ridge, BAC., being named MVP in the National league of Major League Baseball. . J' I don't know for sure. but l sus- peer Nash is the first Canadian to win the roundhall MVP award, which separates him from Weir since Mike wasnt the first Maple healer to win a PGA golf tourna- ment. George Knudsen and Al Balding were great Canadians in men's gulf, as was PEl‘s Lori Kane in the lady pro ranks. all with victories before Mikey took the coveted Mas- ters title. The Nash honour comes as somewhat of a double-edged sword for me. It's not a secret to those who know me that I have loved basketball from my days of being a rather average ability player in an old Niagara Falls church league to the end of my fulHime journalism career at the Chronicle's distant cousin in downtown Kitchener. the Record. That passion for the game. however. focused mostly on the high school boys and girls teams that I wrote about for the better part of four decades, the university teams [covered and followed in Waterloo -- that would be the Warriors and Gold- en Hawks __ and the NCAA in the United States. I've never been a real ardent fin of the NBA despite watch- ing with some interest the careers of such people as Wilt Chamberlain. Bob Cousy. Magic Johnson, [any Bird and Knbe Bryant. to name just a few. Of course, the Kobe interest was probably for all the wrong reasons ' My love of basketball got more than a few shots of derision over the years here in the frozen north. including some from a legendary hockey coach and team owner by the name of Ieighton (Hap) Emma 'far, with supply my wife and I season tickets to watch his Niagara Falls Ftyersplayintheoid0ntario HockeyAssoci- ation Junior A league, which is we forgfather of totSy's OHL Because of high school basketball games and toumeys, I didnt always make the Friday night home games and Hap would always see me after the fact and want to know if I missedthegamebemuserwaswatcltingthesporthemferred to, with a good-matured sneer. as "pansyball." _ The tsi', that fullscale brawls didm'bmk out on the hard- wood among players with the frequency they did on the ice '"rTriTs-)ril"'i l HOLE l i 1 'ciir), {3 l i f†_ _ l Omtimaed on page 33 BILL "SKIP" JOHNS WCT's Ioslin wants another title ye, Michelle Joslin 1Ni,it),i,si,r1) get a lot of opportunity to go over the touch line with the Canadian women's under-ig rugby team by playing in the from row, So she makes up for it when playing for her high school club. looking for their first WCSSAA title since they started play a few years ago. Thatls when the determined runner. who plays a bruis- ing, physical game, can show off some of her speed in addition tty her power. "For the under- 19 team I play front row, but here I usually play eight." said loslin. "The past two or three games we've had injuries so I've been fitting in on the backtine, "Backs get all the glory. hut at forward I find you get into the game more because you're hitting more rucks and getting more tackles. You may finish twice as tired. but you feel like you got your work in there." The Vikings also showed their quality last week in a 52-7 route of the Preston Panthers to end the regular season undefeated, with loslin scoring three of her team's trys. She added another in the Vikings 36-0 of having other teams dictate I tempo and game play to them. the Kitchener-Waterloo Junior A Braves promise to tum the tables on the opposition this year. Featuring their most mature and physically imposing team in years, with physical specimens on the floor like Luke Finder. the Braves promised they won't be pushed around like they were in last year's first round playoff loss against Toronto Beaches. And further to the first-round playoff frustrations that has flummoxed the Braves organization over the past few Wars, the team is also implementing a new game plan that will feature more of a transition game like the one employed by their big brothers, the K-W Kodiaks, at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex Braves go on fastbreak fer opener Eirerything that is old will be new again. said general manager and coach SPORTS BY 300th chrortuesEtr, BvBoBVnmmc 01:0ng quarter-final win over Water loo-Oxford last Friday. If the Vikings can contin- ue that unbeaten streak today, it will set up a shot at the title where Joslin said her club is looking to improve on their best-ever second- place renish two years ago. with a chance at hosting the WCI Vikings Katelyn McCreary puts the grab on a Panthers ball carrier in her team's 52-7 win. BO! VREANAK PHO’D general marrow coach K-WO. A. Bram Corey Hallman, as the Braves will feat tureastykofplaythatwilibeathrow- back to the days when lacrosse didnt featureasetotfensNeanddefkmsiveset. Instead there was more Row to the game, and higher scores as goals were scored on the tty. championship game on their home field next Tues- day. From there it would be off to Sacred Heart in Walk- erton for the CWOSSA finals before a tour to Toronto for the OFSSA finals at the beginning of June. But first thing's first for Joslin and her www.matorlooxom "Most teams around the league play an offence, defence style. which means you've got five guys going out the back door and five guys going out the front," said Hallman. who took over the reigns from his dad, Lawrie. three years ago. "That doesnt leave a whole lot of room for transition. "We play at the rec centre where the ceilings are nice and high so we should beatgetotransitiontheballuptheNor That fist-break style of play will have the Braves' snipers facing more of the other teams' offensive players. giving the homeside more opportunity to put the ball in the net with the defensive spedalists of the other clubs still stuck to the bench. "rou'retakingotfassoonasthe other team shoots the ball. so you're gone and up the floor," said Hallman. who has been doing a lot of work on the fast- break in practice with the Braves "Think of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, the Whit-WWW teammates, who want to win their firstWCSSAA title. "I've never won a WCSSAA rugby champi- onship, so that would be awesome." said Ioslin. who has won a few tities with the schools powerhouse basket- ball team. "Being No. 1 has a Continued onpage34 Velma..- thet', Continued on page 35