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p8 weekender august 31 1985 weekender sports sports 2942200 6402100 markham girls third at provincial final only one team stood between the markham girls and a berth in the ontario softball association mite championship game last weekend in whitby1m but that club port colborne dealt the locals two crushing defeats and forced them to settle for the bronze medal markhams first loss was a 2514 deci sion in game one the score was as close as 1211 for port colborne in the third inning with lori taylor fanning three straight batters but the opposi tion finally managed to put it away cathy taylor paced the offence by scoring four times the club rallied in the second outing handing don victoria a 1510 defeat this time it was stephanie burns with the hot bat clubbing a threerun homer in the first inning jan petrou led the offence with a sixthinning double play while lori tjaylor 15 strikeouts including eight in- arow in outing three markham gained re venge for an exhibitiongame loss to unionville by downing that club 2312 andrea papertzian scored four times burns and mandy booth had homers and lori taylor collected 18 strikeouts markham actually held a 41 lead over port colborne after the first in ning of the semifinal but inexperience and fatigue took their toll with the opposition cruising to a 235 annihila tion angie soetemans had a strong de fensive game unionville girl earns nationallevel bronze wendy johnstons first swimming meet as a 15yearold has turned out to be a memorable one the unionville resident and markham aquatic club mac member was at the recent canadian junior nationalyouth championships in edmonton where she earned a medal and two top 10 finishes johnston picked up a silver in the 200- metre individual medley and copped eighthplace finishes in the 100 and 200m breaststroke she also won the consolation finals of the 100m butterfly and backstroke her finishes in all five events established new mac record times ken ahlberg placed eighth in the 100m butterfly and won the 200m butterfly con solation finals both finishes broke club re cords hed established ahlberg also finished fourth in the 200m individual medley consolation final greg stokes swam in the 400m freestyle and individual medley and the 1500m frees tyle the girls relay team of johnston jennif er cardwell julia williams and stephanie schulz became the first mac tandem to place in a national meetfinal they copped a sixth overall in their freestyle event in the youth championships 13yearold laurie demorest came away with a bronze in the 100m butterfly and a fourth in the 200m butterfly both times bettered mac records set by johnston before she moved up in age groupings also in the youth meet was karina collie kelly stafford julie klein laurie statham jef jurgeneittsubouchi and gannon jones markham man in cfl versatility was collins forte by francis king sports editor one fact of life in the somewhat mystify ing world of canadian football never changes for homebrew players versatility is the key to a long career one person that exemplified that rule is markhams merv collins he turned his ability to play three positions into a 13year canadian football league cfl career with toronto hamilton ottawa and edmonton if you were a canadian you had to be as versatile as possible collins said in a re cent interview about his 195366 cfl te nure i figure i was good enough to play several positions not necessarily first string but to back someone else collins was both an offensive guard and linebacker with ottawa he also handled the kickoffs teeing up the ball on an angle to make it harder to catch the 51yearold ramona blvd resident broke into the league as the lone rookie in the 1953 argonaut lineup but two years later he was sent to hamilton after a dis agreement with coach harry sunshine over preseason pay but he didnt last long there either i enjoyed it there but they the tiger cat managment were cheaper than otta wa collins recalled it was incredible if i didnt dress for a game i wasnt paid my full salary there was nothing i could do about it so at the end of the season i asked to be traded i was happy to get out hamilton dispatched collins to ottawa where he stayed nine years and played his best football he was on the roster of the 1960 rough rider grey cup team however collins didnt gel a chance to play in the game earlier in the season he merv collins injured his right knee and had to undergo a cartilage operation we had russ jackson and ron lancas ter then but i dont think people realized at the time what a combination that was said collins about two of the greatest quar terbacks to ever play in canada howev er in those days a team couldnt afford two so eventually lancaster had to go the club came close to other grey cup appearances while collins was healthy but on both occasions it blew twogame tot alpoints scries against hamilton in the eastern final every game we played against hamil ton was war i really enjoyed that rivalry it was tough hardnosed grinditout foot ball despite those grey cup disappoint ments ottawa was collins favorite team on reflection there was a stability and a comraderie there he recalled it was a fairly tightknight group we loved to play toronto and beat them because we were sort of the ragtag team frank clair was the rough rider coach then and combined with line coach bill smith made for a successful duo clair was wellknown for being the ab sentminded professor said collins in sticky situations youd wonder how hed re member what to do bill was an outstanding motivator whatever franks weaknesses were bill would compliment them it was during his ottawa years that col lins and some teammates started agitating for a players association poor salaries and payoffs from playoff games were be hind the movement but ironically the cfl players asso ciation didnt come into existence in 1967 one year after collins retired in 1965 ottawa released him and at 31 that could have been the end of his career i probably would have retired when i was cut but i was married then and hadnt completed my education i needed the money that factor sent collins west when the edmonton eskimos offered him a spot on their roster it was a different experience he re called citing neil armstrongs coaching methods neil was much more thorough than frank clair collins played one season there then went back to school at the university of alberta he taught at an edmonton high school then came back east and settled in the ottawa suburb of nepean there collins obtained his masters de gree from the university of ottawa and taught business at algonquin college he and his family came to markham in 1977 and enjoy the area because of the re creational activities and its similarity to nepean colins now teaches management and business skills to gulf oil employees on the sports scene hes a pitcher in the mar kham fun league and a pastpresident of the markham region ringette associa tion what about football the canadian game is outstanding to day but im just not that interested in fol lowing it collins reported my oldest son dave is a big argo fan though he may not keep tabs on all the scores but collins still has some strong opinions about it and they go back to homebrew players requiring versatility to survive in the old days canadians were treated as secondclass citizens he pointed out you were regarded as necessary but not important today its much better but weve kind of built up a mystique about the american players markhams merv collins posed for this shot while a member of the ottawa rough riders in 1964 a year later the versatile veteran was cut and then picked up by edmonton where he played out his career collins was on the 1960 grey cup ottawa roster that included both russ jackson and ron lancaster but an injury kept him out of the actual championship game