My alma mater hosted a Homecoming Reunion this past weekend
By Mark Schadenberg
I am proud to say, I'm a former Red
Devil!
Woodstock Collegiate Institute held a
75th Homecoming Reunion this past weekend. The school is
more than 75 years old, but I think that particular number has been
established as the age of the current building housing Red Devils
between the ages of 14 and 18.
From 1980 – 85 (five years), I was in
Galahad house and like everyone else I own many fond memories,
including junior volleyball in 81-82, senior volleyball in 83-84, and
the still unknown reason why I attempted football in my fifth year of
high school in the autumn of 1984. I unsuccessfully ran for student
council, played the role of a wall flower at many high school dances,
and was both the foe and assistant for Al Huras (Note: Today, Al
Huras is one of my Lions Club friends, but in the early 80's I was a
typical teenager). My broadcasting career – you could say – began
when announcing the up-coming matches and who was 'on deck' at a
wrestling meet at the Collegiate for Mr. Huras, but I would (at the
same time) also be his nemesis as my older brother and I were the
'Hansen brothers' of intra-mural ball hockey.
Mr. Terry Hobin would be another
teacher who might recall an incident or two. One day, instead of
sitting inside the school in my desk for Calculus, I was hiding
outside my first-floor math class knocking on the glass and then
quickly squatting below the window sill to disrupt Mr. Hobin from his
chalkboard instructions.
I don't know if I was a Red Devil, but
at times I was a little devilish.
VISITING THE ALMA MATER
This past Saturday, I attended the WCI
open house. I ran into Audrey Hess, who ran the cafeteria in my era
and baked great cookies. I had a chat with Ron Lindsay who coached me
in volleyball in Grade 10 and was my teacher for the informative
Economics 401 class I conquered. Our volleyball team would practice
in the small gym, which today resembles a fitness club.
In the hallways, I spent a brief moment
with current principal Chris Friesen and asked why he didn't have his
picture on the wall with all the other former principals and he
indicated the obvious answer (I always thought there was no such
thing as a bad question, so I ask and that's why I became a reporter)
– because he was still there. Richard Hall was vice principal, and
Kerry Johnston and Ray Thomson were my principals. I noticed that
Mrs. Hall (I think they weren't related), who was one of my teachers
for one year, would later become a WCI principal. The surnames of
some of my favourite teachers were: Duckitt, Harvey, James, James
(brothers: one taught geography and the other science), Lavin,
Tebbutt, Terry, and McDermott.
BACK TO THE CURRENT
Chris Friesen was pulling on a dolly
cart a refurbished vintage desk and chair which was going to be
auctioned off that night at the Reunion reception at the Oxford
Auditorium. (With some regrets now, I did not attend the dinner or
the Saturday afternoon alumni concert).
One hour (give or take) at WCI Saturday
also included a short conversation with my graduating year prime
minister Ellen Roach, and a stroll down memory lane by visiting the
'80's room' on the third floor.
Several yearbooks (The Oracle), old
school shirts, photo albums, record albums from the era, newspaper
clippings, and bristol board with cut-and-paste pictures were all
proudly on display from my decade. I talked with a recent grad, who was scouring
through yearbooks to search out recollections of his dad's tenure as
a Devil.
Each decade had a classroom with
memorabilia specific to that era, while the school's hallway also had
displays of pictures from times long ago – cast from plays,
orchestras, sports teams, Reach For The Top, and of course the gun /
rifle club. For example, I took a picture of a picture of a 1930-31
girls' basketball team – quite an artifact indeed.
FRIDAY NIGHT SPORTS TRIBUTE
The inaugural ceremony for the WCI
athletics hall of fame took place on Friday night and it was in
tribute to the late journalist Steve Coad who spend many many years
at the London Free Press after earlier being sports editor at The
Woodstock Sentinel-Review.
Honoured on Friday were former Canadian
Olympian Catherine Bond-Mills, a former world badminton champion in
Penny Parkes, along with Dr Peter Fowler, Dr Henry Janssen, Dr Seth
Yates, Tom Moulton, Douglas Stevenson, multi-sport athlete Dan
Morris, Mike Elliott, cross-country skier Mary Thompson, and three
football squads – 1960-61 senior, 1960-61 junior, and 1969-70
senior.
Bond-Mills was an outstanding track
athlete, winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games, and competing
twice in the Olympics (Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996) in the
seven-discipline heptathlon. When she competed at the Ontario high
school championships, she dominated on the provincial stage.
OFSAA 1985
OFSAA 1986
Moulton was a defensive back in the CFL
with the Hamilton-Ti-Cats in the 1960's, but passed away in 2011. I
had the opportunity to talk to him when he was inducted in the
Woodstock Sports Wall of Fame in 2009.
It's interesting to see three doctors
on the list. Yates is a two-time OFSAA gold medallist in the pole
vault. Janssen was a football star with the Western Mustangs and was
drafted into the CFL. Fowler, meanwhile, was a Pan-Am Games medallist
in swimming and is a founder of the Fowler-Kennedy sports medicine
clinic at London's Western University campus.
Mary Thompson has competed
internationally in nordic (cross-country) skiing.
Dan Morris was a terrific basketball
player and a standout hockey player with the Woodstock Navy Vets. He
would play NCAA hockey at Ohio University and then coached at that
school for many many years.
Congratulations must also include the
athletics hall committee led faculty member / coach Kathy Roberts for
the task of assembling this first-ever group to be enshrined,
including the invites and plaques.
I'm a proud Red Devil.
LINKS:
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal LePage Triland Realty
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
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