34 ~- North Shore News — V/ednesday, December 22, 1999 GRANT CONARLL FOR MAYOR IN 2002? I's been a good year for local tennis hero Grant Connell. He retired more than a year ago and was saluted by the B.C. Sports Hail of *ame last spring. His name is on a tennis court al North Shore Winter Club and an entire public complex, the Grant Connell Tennis Centre. He's trying to bring a women's Pro tournament ic Hollybum next surmmer. CURLING CORNER North Vancouver skip Jahn Smiley frowned after striking out at the B.C. mixed curling championship in Enderby iast weekend. His rink defeated Prince Rupert's Terry Smith 7-6, then lost 7-3 to eventual champ Craig Lepine. Smiley fost his next two chances to remain in the hunt. North Vancouver's Jonathan Norrish fost 11-4 to Cloverdale’s Chris Rink at junior men’s zone playoffs in Chilliwack. PEOPLE PLAY News Reporter ONE of the world’s best tennis players practises in anonymity twice a week at the Grant Connell Tennis Centre. She happens to use a wheelchair. Yuka Chokyu, 32, is Canada’s reigning women’s wheelchair tennis champion and was ranked number 13 in the world this fall. She trains mostly at an indoor court built by her father Tadashi on farmland near Steveston. But she ventures north twice a week from her west side home to be with Wayne Elderton, her coach years of Indoor tennis court open to pub! ed and the head pro at the Grant Connell Tennis Centre. Chokyu, a Kawasaki, Japan native, took up icnnis in the after- math of a near-fatal auto accident in northern B.C. in 1990. The driver of her rented car Icst control. Chokyu, a passenger not wearing a seat belt, was thrown out a window. She was rendered a Shau; Rehal and fell in love with tennis. “They have all kinds of legic and spent six weeks in essy Hospital and another four months at G.F. Strong Centre. ‘That’s where she learned how to use a wheelchair sports programs (at G.F. Strong),” she said. “I tried basketball, volleyball, sledge hockey, but I found tennis. I think it’s my sport.” With time and patience, she mastered a multitude of ncw skills With her right hand she defily navigates a modified sports wheelchair around the court. In her lefi nd she clutches a rac- quet, on guard for the next ball sent her way. About the only dif- nace in wheelchair tennis is players are grven 2n extra bounce. But Chokyu prefers net to depend on the allowance. “Of course, I can hit one bounce or in the air.” Her first big win came in the 1995 U.S. Cpen at Irvine, Calif. when she took the second-tier title in a dramatic comeback: She won three consecutive games after saving match point. “I had B.C.’s 1999 athlete with a disability goosebumps all ovey,” said Chokyu, winner of Sport award. She won the Canadian championship in 1998 after 2 four- hour raarathon match and carned 2 spot among the slite ‘op eight playess in the world ai the masters tournament in the Nethezlands. She wrapped up ker fourth season as a touring pro at the U.S. Open in San Diego in October. She fost her first singles match but rebounded to win the consolation round. In doubles, she combined with Japan’s Chiyolo Obmae to challenge Netherlands’ Esther Vergeer and Sonja Peters in the doubles’ final. This year she repeated as the national singles champion, won four doubles tournaments and shared the bronze for Canada at the world team cup in New York. In 2000 she wants to return to the top eight and play in the Paralympics in Sydney. To get there, she adnite she'll need Elderton’s help to drastically improve the depth of her backhand. “I tike challenges. I still have lots of room to improve myself, skill-wise, mental-wise and physically.” Bob Mackin News Reporter — CHRISTMAS came early this year for the North Shore’s tennis players. The Grant Connell Tennis Centre opened Oct. 2 after eight years of lanning. It’s ons of only two pub- icly owned indoor tennis facilities in the Lower Mainland (Steveston is the other). The $2-rnillion, six-court lobbing bara on Lloyd Avenuc was made pos- sible by the 1996 recreation facilities’ funding referendum in North Vancouver District. A year-round facility shielded from the elements was sought long before that by local tennis lovers. It bears the name of the North Shore’s living tennis legend, Grant Connell. The Canadian Tennis Hall of Famer and B.C. Sports Hall of Famer climbed the world doubles ranks to number one with a: world charapionship and was a respectable number 67 in singles at the peak of his career. Now the North Shore Winter Club product is Tennis B.C.’s high performance director and is working to bring a Women’s Tennis Association tournament to West Vancouver’s Hollyburn Country Club next summer. Among those assisting Connell in Tennis B.C.’s elite program is Wayne Elderton, the centre’s tennis director. Elderton is a coach of coaches, having served as Tennis Canada’s head course conductor. He’s Western Canada’s only level four national coach and was at the helm of Team B.C. when it won gold medals at the 1993 Canada Games and the 19377 and 1999 Western Canada Summer Games. He’s also a key, able-bodied member of the national wheelchair tennis team’s coaching staff. A coach for 2] years, 40-year-old Elderton lives in Burnaby with his wife and three children. He’s charged with the iask of stimulating further interest in the sport at the centre, which has been designated as the west coast’s only national youth training facility. Elderton said it’s never too late to raise a racquet. He didn’t begin his pursuit of the bouncing yellow ball until he was 14. “I picked up the game because it’s hacd to get 10 friends together to play soccer or football, so there were some courts built by my house at Langara College and we just started to hang out there and work more and more.” Elderton carned a college diploma in graphic design, but spent more time teaching people on-court pat- terns instead of making them in 2 stu- dio. “So tennis got the winning shot YUKA Chokyu (left) is Canada’s reigning women’s wheeichalr tennis champ!- on, She trains twice a week in North Vancouver with tier coach Wayne Elderton, tennis director of the new Grant Connell Tennis Centre on Lioyd Avenue. ic and [ never looked back,” he said. He’s busy putting together the Grant Connell Rookie Tour, a grass- roots junior tournament in March at the centre. He’s hoping the building and its staff can do its part to boost Canada’s fortunes on the worldwide tennis scene and encourage more people to take up a sport that isn’: exclusively for the rich. So far so good, Elderton said. During part of November the centre was operating at 98% capacity. “It’s a neat challenge,” he said. “Pm really happy thar ?'m here.” ® The Granz Connell Tennis Centre is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to il p-m. and 7 am. to 9:30 p.m. on weekends. Hourly court rental runs from $13 to $16, depending on the time of day. It closes at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and will remain shut both Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Cail 983- 6483 for information. sports IN the trade it’s known as a year-ender, but this time around it’s also a century-ender. So we won’t be able to do this again for another 100 years, should the battered and bruised planet last that long. As far as the local sporting milieu is concerned, the old by ge manager (Stu Jackson) who fired him. Certainly not the classless act century hereabouts, but it will suffice for 1999. Imagine, too, if you can, The Frovince carrying a page-long Question and Answer inter- view with Jackson the day before the firing was announced and not a single question about the coaching situation. ; “Was that 4 condic Jackson imposed before grant- ing the interview? Nabb. 7 guess I just have a nasty, cyni- cal mind. While Jackson says the decision to fire Hil! was his alone, FE don’t doubt the Pat Quinn tience was still firmly etched in the back of his mind. went? Quinn was ordered by the Seattle suits who own and operate Orca Bay to fire the then-Canucks’ coach, Tom Renncy. Fat refused, so the suits fired him instead, and shordy after replaced Renney with Mike Keenan. Do vou think Su might have been anticipating a fire- the-coach message from Seattle and so launched a pre- emptive strike? Possible. In any event, most of the opinion out there is that the wrong guy had to take the gaspipe. Your agent can only agree. Jackson was hired five years ago to build a franchise. It’s a good thing he isn’t in the house construction business. He’d still be excavating the basement. Comparisons may be invidious, but they're inevitable. So, how about those Toronto Raptors? However, with only 10 days to Y2K, we're not here exclusively to ponder the vicis- situdes of a talent-challenged See Longhows next page