Sports wall of fame is an annual celebration in Woodstock

Eight people and one team were added to city's sports recognition roll

Deadline for public to nominate for 2018 is June 1 

The Woodstock Sports Wall of Fame celebration -- held Oct 28 at Reeves Community Hall at Cowan Park -- is all about recognizing sports-related accomplishment, honouring the past and congratulating the efforts of volunteers.
There were 8 individuals and 1 team enshrined this year, but before I place emphasis in this column on the Woodstock Wildcats girls' bantam hockey team of 2008-09, I would like to thank the crew who created the successful event.

The volunteer Woodstock Recreation Advisory Committee (WRAC) met back in June to look through all the nominees to be considered. The public is always invited to nominate deserving candidates annually up to June 1.

WRAC includes myself as chair, but the group also includes contributions from Don Fulkerson, Steve Gilbert, Dan Gray, Jeremy Jeanson, Nick Karalis, Shawn Lowes, Todd Materick, Dan Molinaro and Adam Nyp. As an advisory committee of city council our elected reps are Todd Poetter and Shawn Shapton, and I must add both were in attendance at the selection meeting as both are committed council members.

WRAC meets monthly and receives its main direction and updates from parks & recreation manager Brian Connors.

Others integral in a successful sports wall ceremony are: city events coordinator Brad Janssen,

city hall administration Ann Ash, city technology department rep Jason Dunham (Programming the touch-screen monitor with photos and biographies), parks & rec administration Glynis Hill, What’s On Woodstock magazine writer Jeff Culp, and from outside city hall there is Brian Keeping who coordinates the program, plaques & large easel photos. This city is lucky to have both the organization skills and thorough planning ideas of Brad Janssen and Ann Ash, something also very evident at Cowapolooza, Canada Day, Victoria Day weekend, Pavlo In The Park, and many more events.

The 2017 ceremony was an important day for the inductees, their family and friends, and the entire community.

Other inductees were Dr Peter Fowler, Peter Campbell, Ross Garner, Beth Lochhead, Peter Ewing, Danny Sutherland, Dawn Brokers, Michael Heath and Harry McIntosh.

I give additional thanks to the Woodstock Public Library staff for assistance with microfilm Sentinel-Review reels, both the Oxford Historical Society and genealogy groups (Fran Irwin in particular), and Jean and Bill Roberts who had pictures and stories about Harry McIntosh to share with me.

Michael Heath

Beth Lochhead

Danny Sutherland

Harry McIntosh

TEAM INDUCTEE

      2009 Woodstock Wildcats girls’ bantam hockey.

The winners of a provincial Bantam ‘B’ OWHA championship, they began the road to qualifying for Ontario playdowns by winning the Lower Lakes league title. The squad had an excellent regular season of 20-1-4, outscoring opponents 70-23. 

The Wildcats had earlier won both the Durham West Lightning and Oshawa Fall Fest tournaments, along with silver at their own Wildcats tourney.

At the OWHA finals, the Wildcats would run the table, going 6-0 and allowing just 3 goals.

 Brittany Brown had a hat trick in a 6-0 round robin win over Mississauga. Woodstock also beat Markham and Sarnia in round robin contests.

In the quarterfinals, it was a 2-0 win over Durham West on goals by Emma Roefs and Dallas Burdette. 

Zoe Talbot would then score 2 in a 3-0 semifinals win over Stratford.

In the finals over Nepean 2-0, Allie Rivest had the shutout, and goals were by Stacey Simmons and Emma Roefs. 

That's correct, Rivest had three straight shutouts in playoff games.

Woodstock won the championship with just 11 players – due to injuries.

Dee Roy was head coach and players included Stacey Simmons, Larissa Jones, Meghan Thompson, Zoe Talbot, Rachel Pace, Chelsea Roy, Brittany Brown, Emma Roefs, Kayla Condota, Frankie Hendershott, Dallas Burdette, Andrea Hunniford, Bethany Heaman, and goalie Allie Rivest. Assistant coaches were Ed Pace, Brent Hunniford and Nikki Richard. Trainer was Sue Hendershott.

LINK:
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2017/10/29/the-woodstock-sports-wall-of-fame-inducted-their-2017-class-of-athletes-and-coaches

https://www.cityofwoodstock.ca/en/living-in-woodstock/resources/Applications_and_licences/2016---Sport-Wall-of-Fame-Nomination-Form.pdf
http://www.rogerstv.com/show?lid=12&rid=15&sid=7655&gid=284658

Photos at the event by: Tracey Thompson.

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