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8 v saturday may 18 2002 economist sun stouffville tribune sports snowball has a date to play hockey in the memorial cup markham resident is a member of first victoriaville team to play in nationalfinal by mike hayakawa sports editor if someone told robert snowball one year ago he would some day be playing on a major junior a hockey team in the memorial cup champi onships he might have questioned their sanity last year the 20yearold markham residents aim in hockey was to earn a collegiate scholarship south of the bor der to do this he elected to play tier two junior a hockey first with the north york rangers of the provincial junior a hockey league before being traded at the deadline to cornwall but with no division one or two schools knocking at snowballs door early this season the victoriaville tigres of the quebec major junior hockey made him an enticing offer snowballs decision to accept their proposal proved to be a fortuitous move as the tigres captured their first- ever qmjhl title last sunday and earned a berth in this years memorial cup playdowns which begins today in guelph for snowball a 6foot4 220pound right winger playing in the memorial cup is the best thing thats happened to him to date in his onice career its exciting its amazing he said one day after the tigres clinched the league title by defeating the acadie- robert snowball wanted to get a hock ey scholarship before victoriaville major junior hockey team came calling on him bathurst titans in six games i started this past season in cornwall and never expected to be going to the memorial cup i talked to some schools in the united states but there was nothing concrete that i could hold any hope in when victoriaville came up with an offer i went home for a week to discuss it with my parents and kevin malcolm a markham resident who played in the ontario hockey league he said he enjoyed his four years in the ohl so i said i would take a shot at the quebec league now im happy with the deci sion that i made amassing four goals and seven assists in 36 games for the tigres snowball felt his team had the potential to reach the memorial cup however he noted his team was plagued by inconsistent play during the season and finished second in their division when the regular season con cluded i knew that we had a good team it was just a matter of us having to per form every night things just started rolling for us last month and we never gave up we just came together in the playoffs and worked hard hailing from markham and moving to victoriaville where the culture is dif ferent and english is almost a sec ondary language snowball had to make some adjustments in his lifestyle studying french at franklin public school and at markham district high school was beneficial speaking french strayed away from me a bit but since ive been here it caught back up with me its helped me get by you dont have much choice but to speak french he said looking ahead to his future snowball has one more year of major junior eligibility as he could be one of three overage players qmjhl teams can keep snowball though is still inter ested in pursuing a college education he has been talking with brock university and sir wilfrid laurier and is entertaining the possibility of playing hockey for their varsity teams im now sure if i want to take one more stab at playing in victoriaville i want to get back into school ive been out for two years but well see what happens over the summer said snowball the tigres begin play today when they face the host storm at 430 pm the tigres will then face the ontario hockey league champion erie otters on tuesday at 7 pm and conclude their roundrobin segment against the western hockey league champions on wednesday at 7 pm stoufmue mennos bats go cold against mount albert the stouffville mennos suffered its first loss of the oshawa city and district softball league schedule on wednesday when they dropped an 80 decision to mount albert in a game played at ballantrae mount albert roughed up mennos starting and losing pitcher byron baranieski with three runs in the first three innings and were never threat ened i- terry reesor relieved baranieski in the fourth inning with two runners on base and none out to get the side out mount albert added their other five runs in the sixth inning the mennos mustered just two hits sports digest now 11 on the season the mennos will play a rescheduled road game against markham on monday and then go to oshawa on tuesday before returning home on wednesday to host scarborough gaels turn back ironheads the markham ironheads suffered its seventh setback of the season on tuesday when they absorbed a 135 loss to the visiting clarington gaels in f k h ontario lacrosse association junior b action at centennial arena jesse lumsden dustin moore connor treacy dan ackerman and scott chilvers each scored once for the ironheads who trailed 31 after one period and 82 through two before narrowing its deficit to 95 early in the third period now 27 on the year the ironheads will host the owen sound flying dutchmen at centennial arena on may 24 at 8 pm staff photosjoerd witteveen taking it to the rack tyrell williams scores on a layup in a threeonthree bas ketball tourney at armadale community centre last saturday as part of markham youth day festivities spartans cheer their way to fifthplace finish by jim thomas correspondent if sports teams representing stouffville district secondary school are unsuccessful no blame can be attached to the cheerleaders in a may 11 competition hosted by power cheerleading athletics and held at paramount canadas wonderland in vaughan the sdss contingent of 19 girls placed fifth out of 22 entries in the novice varsity division the choreography was arranged by student ashley armstrong also a member of the team other team members were alura riley anne fleetwood ashley croft ashley wells daesha lynn dyan beavis jessica muto karlee dudley kendra jacobs kiira poerschke kymberly huke natalie moncada sarah hadji shaunessy joyce victoria sider stefanie davies stephanie king and stephanie trembley the team coach was teacherlibrarian stephanie greaves staff teacher natalie white also accompanied the girls other team members not part of this competition include carley mcllwaine dara neale jen lloyd kristy laing laura smith melissa messam and shawna comstock dont pay that traffic ticket experts traffic ticket experts is staffed by expolice officers who will act as your agent in court defending all traffic tickets speeding accidents careless impaired etc call for free consultation guaranteed service 905 9403000 4418 hwy 7 east unionville