north shore news @ SPORTS _ The life and times | Eagle takes flight GURTIS Hogarth (with ball) outruns Argyle players Dave Crozier (centre) and Charlie Kelsch (left) fora try during Grade 8 boys’ semi-final rugby action last The:score helped pace the Carson Graham Eagles io a 15-5 win. On the Eagles were upset by Salmoral in the North Shore final 14-0. 'HE North Shore Griffins are three - games into the first undefeated ‘streak of their rookie season. ” *2 Over the past.10 days, the Junior B hockey of. .team_ has won two games 2nd tied one, giving oy ‘thern a’2-12-1 season mark. On: Monday aight at West Vancouver Arena, the Griffins beat the Richmond *.. Sockeyes 7-4 for their second win in franchise “history. Jayson Taylor had two goals for the Griffins: and goalie Jordan Sigalet steered “asidé’"21 ‘shots in the win. :, The -bigger news. for head coach Norm 7+. McNamara and his struggling team, however, . is their third period play. ~~ During the opening month of the season, layed two strong - periods then lost focus, and often a lead, in the “ final'20 minutes. _the Griffins consistently Trailing 4-3 heading into the third period against defending league champions Port uitlam Buckeroos fast Saturday night, the Griffins held PoCo to just seven shots, while Clayton Whitman added the offensive punch with a goal to force overtime. Japanese import netminder Tomo Ushida faced 49 shots in the 4-4 tie. And on Monday night against Richmond, the Griffins never looked back after taking a 5- 2 edge into the lockerroom after 40 minutes. Both icam’s scored twice in the third, with North Shore getting goals ftom Whitman and Jason Kirby. The Griffins next game is Friday night in Maple Ridge Flames. 7:45 p.m. Not so in their last two games. FOOTBALL... Handsworth ™Rofals foiled the Windsor Dukes’ attempts at revenge last Saturday, as the Royals dumped che visiting Dukes 36-19 in boys’ senior fuorball. . ¢ league game was a rematch of last year’s B.C. double-A final (won by Handsworth 20-13). In other North Shore high school —week-nine senior action, Carson Graham beat Abbotsford 21-14, and ine) blanked John Bafsby 12-0. West Van had a bye week. SWIMMING... As reported in a recent sports page, West Van Otter Swim Club broth- ers James and Cameron Ballard won gold and silver medals at the recent Fall Swim Meer in Delta. In addition to the gold James won in the nine- and 10-year-old 50-metre butter- fly race, he stroked to fisst- Place finishes in the 50m reaststroke, the 5Um_back- stroke and the 200m IM. TRACK & FIELD... Four NorWesters track and field club athletes have been pre- sented with B.C. Athletics Awards of Excellence. Lindsay Bailey, Darren Guild, Marc Noble and Sarah Nelson were honored with Junior Development awards at a banguet on Saturday in Chilliwack. Bailey, 15, won gold in the javelin at the = B.C. Championships and picked up silver medals in the 80m hur- North Shore’s next home game is Monday night against the Abbotsford Pilots at the West Vancouver Arena. Game time is slated for — Andrew McCredie dles and the discus event. Guild, 14, posted all-time top-ten distances in the discus (33.1m) and the javelin (30.12m). Also making provincial all- time top-ten status was 12- year-old Nelson, who wrote her name in the record book three times: the long jump (4.76m), the triple jump (9.73m) and the pentathlon (2526 points). She atso placed first in the B.C. Championships pentathlon, in addition to earning five silvers and a bronze. Noble, also 12, made the B.C. top-ten record book for his performance in the 80m sprint hurdles, and placed first at the Provincial Junior Development Championships in his age group. The Awards of Excellence are the top awards for track and field in the junior devel- opment category (for nine- to 15-year-olds) in the province. ‘or more NorWesters info call 929-3554. — Andrew McCredie of an NHL coach ON the subject of coaching there are cer- tain givens. Such as: © The day a coach is hired merely brings him one day closer to the inevitable day he'll be fired. (The only exception to this rule was George Halas, who coached the NFL Chicago Bears. He also happened to be the team owner.) © Coaches should never buy houses. They should always rent. Years ago, when the real estate market wasn’t moving, a well travelled coach named Johnny Wilson (his nephew, Ron, currently coaches Washington Capitals) wound up owning, three houses in three differ- ent cities. His problem remains a pro hockey record. Twenty years have passed since then, but presumably he has man- aged to sell them. *® Coaches get too much credit when teams win and too much blame when they lose. As one result, they are among, the world’s jeading expendables, right up there with paper cups, plastic forks and failed politicians. The NHL provides a par- ticularly instructive example in Terry Crisp, the first of this season’s expendables, fired last month by Tampa Bay Lightning. He had coached there for five years. At the time of his execution, he was the longest serving coach with one club in the entire 26-team league. Ridiculous? Of course. The pundits’ sclection as the next victim to follow Canucks GM Pat Quinn to the scaffold, after just a little more than a year on the job, is Ton Renney. And Mike Keenan, a man greatly admir:d by the Canucks’ $20-million man, Mark Messier, seems to be the favorite to take over for Quinn, in which case his hands-oh approach to both jobs probabiy means Renney’s days are num- bered. Coaches days always are numbered. It’s a lot easier to fire the coach than it is to ship the entire under-per- forming team to deserved exile in Ulan Bator. Or some place even farther removed. Renney continues, remarkably, to retain his gentlemanly demeanor despite being so badly served by so many of his players. One can only won- der what it will take for him to blow his top at this sad sack crew. Members of that hardy perennial, the “fire the coach” movement, currently in full flower, should remember this is fundamen- tally the same outfit that managed to get Rick Ley fired a couple of years back. And just as certainly will do the same to Renney’s even- tual successor. There’s something special about Vancouver. Maybe it’s the water. Maybe it’s the salt air. This year it could be El Nin. Or could it be the infectious Lotusland virus? Whatever, it’s a pro sport disaster area in the second half of the 1990s. The other Orca Bay pos- session, the Grizzlies, while not expected to do that much as an expansion fran- chise, have managed to do even less. The football Lions’ second half of the season free fall ended Sunday in Montreal. However, the main focus of jock interest in the village by the sea remains the Canucks, the biggest over- sell of the year. And all because of the Mark Messier signing. A total triumph for the Orca Bay hype machine. Like a high powered industrial vac- uum cleaner, it totally - sucked in the local media. It implied, through full. page ads and the willing acquiescence of a regiment of broadcasters and writers who should have known better, thar all this team needed to turn it into a win- ner was leadership. And Messier, the greatest leader in the game, would provide it. As events so far have shown, a leader must have something to lead, And, just possibly, this leader might be past it; his arrival a year too late. . If there isn’t a growing suspicion out there that much of the Canucks’ per- sonnel isn’t as good as man- agement would have you believe, then your problem just may be an advanced case of blind loyalty. Quite apart from atti- tude, the kind of problems besetting the Canucks — Jack of size, up front a weak left side, a fourth line that doesn’t belong in the league and a physically passive defence — indicate that the problems start at the top, not at the coaching level. This apparently has been recognized by John McCaw — this time the GM, usually secure because it is the coach’s role to.be the cere- monial sacrifice in times of trouble, paid the price. That’s not the way it normally happens. Nonetheless, Renney must be waiting for the sec- ond skate boot to fall. athletes of the week NAME: Greg Campbell SCHOOL: Carson Graham GRADE: 12 SPORT: Sr. soccer POSITION: Striker COACHES: Darren Embley and Dave Mo Greg has been instru- mental in the Eagles’ four-game win streak at the end of league play in which he scored six goals; and in three straight wins of a potential five playoff games in order to qualify for the B.C.s, scoring both goals in the second playoff game. NAME: Margo Dunnet SCHOOL: West Vancouver GRADE: 12 SPORT: Sr. volleyball POSITION: Middle blocker COACH: Dave Rea Margo’s consistent serving and passing and her solid team attitude in her role as captain has led the well-balanced and unbeaten (16-0) Highlanders to top spot in the very tough North Shore girls’ senior league, which. ranks just behind Surrey’s as the best in British Columbia. Selections are made by the North Shore Secondary Schools’ Athletic Association based on outstanding performances in school competition.