Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre lobby is home to terrific collection of artifacts and biographical material
Naturally, a good portion of this sports hall of fame is dedicated to career of 'The Great One'
By
Mark Schadenberg
People
in Brantford know how great the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre is, but soon even more
visitors from around the province will admire the unique 4-arena complex, which
also features an amazing aquatics facility.
(With the Woodstock Recreation Advisory Committee creating a new look for the Woodstock Sports Wall Of Fame, there are 2 posts here describing the Brantford and Cambridge models to honour their community's best-ever athletes and teams)
The
Gretzky centre, which is already the home to the Brantford 99ers (who are
struggling in the lower half of the OHA Midwestern Junior B loop), from Feb 1 -
7, the stunning facility will host the Ontario Tankard -- aka the Ontario men's
curling championships.
John
Epping, who is a previous team member of the Brantford-based Nick Rizzo team,
will be competing at the provincials as the Peterborough native earned a bye through
the playdowns as runner-up in 2015. (The current Ontario championship team of
Mark Kean from Innerkip dispersed after the '15 season).
More
on Epping in a minute, but the Gretzky complex is certainly a bright spot for
the city of about 100,000. It features a great location too as it's visible
from the 403 highway.
The
four arenas include a main ice pad with capacity over 1,000, while the other
three surfaces have seating for just over 350 apiece. With four rinks under one
roof, the Gretzky sports centre is ideal for minor hockey tournaments at all
levels.
The
main ice pad is very airy in its design as there is a running track around the
arena with a foot-friendly surface.
Many
Woodstock minor hockey parents are familiar with the Gretzky centre as local
players competing at the Alliance 'AAA' level will have Brantford as its
home.
During
the Ontario Tankard for curling this main arena will be transformed into four curling
sheets, but the other three ice pads will still be set up for hockey as the
curling banquet area will be inside the equally-impressive Brantford Sports
Hall Of Recognition.
It
may be too obvious to state, but the sports hall for Brantford features about
one quarter of its floor space to honour Wayne, but there are also closed-in
glass cases with memorabilia of many Brantford area athletes in countless
sports, they have an interactive recording machine which permits participants
to do play-by-play of famous sports events.
The important discovery for my visit was to check out the large touch screen. The recognition hall certainly features a photo of each
previous inductee, but most importantly the centre point is a touch screen
monitor which can access by sport or in alphabetical order an impressive
biography on all those previously honoured.
Gretzky
items range from Oilers to Indianapolis Racers to Team Canada to replica NHL
trophies to a jersey Wayne wore as a Brantford novice player.
The
sports hall includes autographed baseballs and countless other important
keepsake items from boxing to lacrosse, and track to football and figure
skating, as borrowed from its inductees. Each item has been carefully
categorized and catalogued, so it can be later returned to its rightful
owner.
By
the way, the display created to highlight the current-year honourees includes
badminton player Mike Beres, who was not only a world ranked badminton player, but
also a long-time member of the Woodstock Badminton Club because of the quality
facility our city has for that racquet sport.
As
for track and field, I have followed the career of long-distance runner Kevin
Sullivan in recent years from the Bell City.
You
can check out a virtual tour of the sports recognition hall on the facilty’s
website.
They
also have a video board set up so you can challenge your friends to a trivia
game.
A few weeks ago I chatted with Gretzky centre manager Sandy Jackson and toured
the complex to learn about all the facilities amenities because as chair of the
Woodstock recreation advisory committee it is important to visualize what other
areas in the vicinity have created whether it be an equal size city such as
Stratford or St Thomas or a larger municipality like Brantford, Sarnia,
Kitchener-Waterloo or Cambridge.
Touch Screen Monitor
The
Gretzky centre has undergone massive renovations in recent years and continues
to maintain its focus on the arenas, but also aquatics with six different
pools. That’s correct – six pools under one roof, including one which is long
enough to host competitive meets and a rather large therapeutic pool as well.
Kids will love the 150-foot water slide, and the community as whole can enjoy
countless possibilities in teaching and recreation of swimming.
The
Southside Aquatic Centre in Woodstock is a nice facility for our local
population base, but I was thoroughly impressed with all the aqua-fit avenues
in Brantford.
The
Gretzky complex also includes a large fitness centre. I can understand now why the City of Woodstock leased out a portion of the community complex here for an outside
entrepreneur to run a fit club in Woodstock. The Gretzky centre’s weightlifting
and cardio space combines with a ‘Zumba-like’ studio to create an overall club
– with paid memberships to the city and not an owner – which compares to any
fitness club.
When
the provincial curling championships arrive in Brantford on Feb 1, the Brant
Curling Club will be host committee, but for curling fans in Woodstock it’s a
short drive down the 403 to the Gretzky centre. By the way, a one-week pass is
just $99 and it’s not a three-ring circus as during the round robin The Tankard
is an eight-ring circus.
Curling team of John Epping (far right)
LINKS:
Mark Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal LePage Triland Realty Brokerage
757 Dundas St, Woodstock
(519) 537-1553, cell or text
Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter: markroyallepage
Facebook: Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . .
Destination
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