The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

30 stouffville suntribune thursday aug 25 2005 stouffville suntribune staff photosusie kockerscheidt spirited goalmouth scramble stouffville spirit hopefuls aaron maltais left and matt hoffmann battle for the puck in front of goal- tender adam davis at stouffville spirit training camp last weekend the jr a hockey team hosts pre season games tonight against st michaels and next thursday versus markham at 730 pm the reg ular season home opener is sept 15 against newmarket junior a hockey tourists hope to score big goals in russia aurora tigers duo to get their first taste of playing overseas by jim thomas correspondent brandon walker will be cel ebrating his 17th birthday this sunday but the stouffville resident wont be doing it at home with his immediate family he will however be doing it with another family that being the provincial junior a hockey league team for which he will be playing for this season the aurora tigers it also has the makings of being a memorable occasion as walker will be doing it overseas in russia dealt recently to the tigers from the stouffville spirit walker and the rest of his teammates including 19- yearold stouffville resident cale tanaka will play a series of six exhibition contests in a 12 days departing toronto saturday and arriving in moscow sunday the tigers will face highly competitive teams including the under20 team that will represent russia at this years world junior championships and power- brandon walker tigers forward will celebrate his 17th birthday in russia during hockey tour house dynamo im absolutely excited said walker who in hisrook- ie season with the spirit last year had eight goals and six assists in 40 games it should be an incredible and fun trip tigers head coach jermone dupont hasnt set any high expectations in terms of number of games to win walker said in facing the urider20 squad walker anticipates that contest will be a large challenge but regardless of what transpires in the sixgame set walker feels it will be a learn ing experience for theentire team i anticipate that it will be a different style of game with the bigger ice surface over there he said and weve been given information on what to look out for when we are there such as certain types of food to avoid a secondyear forward with the tigers who was dealt to aurora by the spirit a year ago tanaka will also be mak ing his first trip to russia and like walker he is excit ed with the prospects of going overseas itll be a- new experience for sure its something i wont forget he said compiling 12 goals and 19 assists in 47 games last sea son with the tigers tanaka feels the trip will help the team gain experience in preparation for their upcom ing regular season we will go there to get some experience and to see what hockey is like on the world stage we will be meet ing some real good teams over there and we hope to get experience and have a good time in doing it he said walker noted the tigers have been going full bore for- the last three weeks in prepar- ihg for the trip which will also act as a form of team bonding for the defending north conferencechampions stouffville roots spurred golf pro to career in game former stouffville resident head professional at vancouver golf club byjimthomas correspondent its a long way from membership on a golf team at stouffville district secondary school to being the head professional at vancouver golf club but randy smith hasnt forgotten his roots the 44yearold sdss graduate admiringly recalls coach lin jones and a close group of golfing bud dies including steve schell dave raymer steve middleton dave huxtable and mike rehill all of whom helped kindle his interest in the game during early teen years mr jones taught us the values of sportsmanship and fair play of being gentlemen he says ill be forever grateful s it was don smith randys father who initially inserted the key and unlocked the beginning of a fabu lous career my dad obtained a weekday membership at rolling hills and this provided me an opportunity to play remembers randy he was 12 at the time later he worked in the bag room and the pro shop at sleepy hollow under the guidance of michael schufman smith turned pro while employed at credit valley golf and country club his trip to the top took him to the toronto golf club beacon hall golf and country club in aurora whistler and capilanp in british columbia and now vancouver while at whistler smith also taught skiing parttime it was here he met karen his future wife they have a 3 12 year old daughter makena named after a resort in hawaii where they spent their honeymoon smith spent seven seasons at capilano as the clubs senior associ ate pro he became the head pro at vancouver in 2002 hell never forget his introduc tion to the course holeinone helped cause iwas invited to play in a club directors tournament he recalls the president was there and i wanted to make an impression it was on the 7th the signature par- three that i sank a holeinone that sealed the deal he smiles i should have gone out and bought a lottery ticket smith describes the vancouver p randy smith sdss graduate is grateful for the lessons he learned in golf from for mer coach lin jones course as one of the best in north america its open 12 months and boasts amembershipof 800 i hope to complete my career there he says smiths golfing expertise has taken him many distant places including scotland mexico california north carolina and arizona he also accompanied a team to mauna lani hawaii to compete in the american express classic he came first in his division with a four under par among the stops thai randy smith made along the way included employment at credit valley golf and country club the toronto golf club beacon hall golf and country club whistler and capilano in bc before settling at the vancouver golf club smith credits phil hardy of beacon hall gerry chatelain of capilano and michael schurrhan of credit valley with helping him along the way he once caddied for george knudsen and received lessbhs from al balding he also rubbed elbows with moe norman at several semi nars i love teaching the game says smith this is my passion ive enjoyed great success with stu dents he admits hes had the benefit of working at some of the highest level clubs in the country v i started at the bottom of the ladder and have loved every minute he said