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The kids are all right
Uxbridge Township takes great pride - and rightly so - in its arts community. Not only is the community large and talented, it boasts internationally known actors, musicians, film-makers, writers, painters and sculptors. But just how many of us recognize that the township also boasts a plethora of top athletes and sportsmen? For a municipality of around 20,000, the successes posted by home-grown practitioners of a variety of sports is amazing and equally worthy of community pride.
For example, Chris Begg pitched for the Canadian baseball team at the 2008 Olympics. Jessica Phoenix has represented Canada internationally in the horse trials known as eventing. Colleen Cooke of Sandford played for the Canadian women's baseball team in 2004.
Now there's a new crop of youngsters making their marks in the sports of their choice.
In late February, three former swimmers from the Uxbridge Swim Cub competed in the 2012 National CIS Swim Championships in Montreal. Laura Thompson swam for the University of British Columbia, Bryan Fumerton swam for the Dalhousie Tigers from Halifax and Bernard Joosten represented the Ottawa Gee Gees. All three were captains of their respective teams and all went to the Olympic trials. All three of these young athletes grew up in Uxbridge and swam for the Uxbridge Swim Club under the coaching of Mary and Terry Bryon. But the Bryon touch doesn't stop there. Last month, Mitchell Ferraro, 15, and Scott Kerr, 14, were honoured at Council for their performances at the Ontario Provincial Championships in March. Kerr had seven top-10 finishes while Ferraro came away with six gold medals and a silver.
At the same time, the Uxbridge Secondary School Senior Tigers hockey team was honoured for its fourth-place finish in the OFSSAA provincial championships.
There are other teams and individual athletes who have also brought honour to the township over the years (see our story on page 14, for example) and yet, for the most part, their accomplishments are put out of mind quite quickly. Not for them any annual recognition such as the studio tours or the Celebration of the Arts that the arts community enjoys. In fact, even the tradition of giving winning hockey teams a tour around town on a fire truck has been dropped in recent years.
We at the Cosmos think that is rather a shame. We'd like to suggest that maybe it is time to honour the achievements of some of our athletes in a more concrete way, maybe with a type of Wall of Fame at the arena. Such a wall exists at the Garnet Rickard Sports Complex in Bowmanville and it is a fascinating look at the sports history of that community. Perhaps it is something that the leaders of this township's sports organizations could at least discuss among themselves.
And that brings us to the Uxbridge Bruins. The Bruins recently announced that Ron Archibald is returning as general manager. One of the first things he said after his appointment was that he would like to see more Uxbridge youth playing for the Bruins. Given that only a handful of last season's players called Uxbridge home, we applaud Mr. Archibald's approach. We believe the incentive to play hard and do well is increased when playing for the hometown folks. A sense of community pride comes to the fore and we have talked to enough young people in Uxbridge to know that many of them have pride in their community.
The Bruins have performed well in their 35 years of existence, but have not yet reached the pinnacle: ownership of the Schmalz Cup, emblematic of Junior C supremacy in Ontario. They reached the final once, only to lose to Essex in 2004. Just maybe a squad made up mostly of Uxbridge youth would have that little extra something, that unknown quantity, that is needed to go all the way.
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We received a call from Her Worship, Mayor Gerri Lynn O’Connor, earlier this week, saying that she and other Township folk have heard from quite a few residents upset about our story in the March 29 issue, reporting on the plans for a roller derby rink, and associated activities, on the abandoned First Leaside property. She would like us to remind our readers that the story was pure April Fool’s fiction; there were a lot of clues to that embedded in the article, which we’re sure you’ll find if you re-read it on our website (just download page 6 of that issue).
We’ve actually run April Fool’s stories each of the last four years, but we’ve never taken in so many of you before. Maybe this one was just more plausible than the others... Sorry. April Fool!
July 14, 2011
