BASKETBALL... West Vancouver Highlanders senior girls’ basketball team placed second at the 16-team annual North Shore Firefighters’ Tournament. The Highlanders, ninth in provincial triple-A rank- ings, beat Port Moody, Little Flower Academy * and Kitsilano en route to the tourney final, where they narrowly lost 59-52 to Steveston. Argyle finished in fifth place, while Sentinel was eighth. West Van's Sam Haladner and Heather Osberg joined Argyle’s Alison Mitchell = and Joanna Smith as touma- ment all-stars. 4: LYNN VALLEY LIT- TLE LEAGUE... The boys and girls of summer © can register for baseball in |,’ the Lynn Valley Little * League at the beginning of next month. 2 -.. Sign-up is taking place at: Lynn Valley Mall (by Time-Out Sperts) on the ‘following dates: -* Friday, Feb. 2, 6 to 9 p.m. ¢ Saturday, Feb. 3, 9 a.m. ‘to 6 p.m. = © Sunday, Feb. 4, noon to 5 p.m. pi For more information e contact 985-7216. FUTSAL CLASSIC... 5 ‘Danny Haas’ hat-trick [5 ‘paced Crostia to a 6-2 vic- ee .tory:over Pegasus in the Ps Bi final’ of the 12th- Annual % 2 Rucanor Indoor Futsal #1} Classic -at the Capilano % College Sportsplex. North Shore Olympics finished third while host Cap College was fourth. ROGER CROZIER, who -died of prostate cancer last week at the terribly young age of 53, was cast in the mold of most NHL goal- tenders. In other words, he was different. Nothing surprising about that. By the very nature of their job, goalies are men apart; loners who must feel the whole world is against them. You would, too, if you had to put on 40 pounds of special equipment and stand out there like a shooting -gallery target while all kinds of molicious people spend their time shooting hard rubber at your head in excess of 90 miles per hour. Even the hockey establishment admits they are different. In all the official listings, forwards and defencemen are referred to as play- ers. The guys between the pipes are in a separate category — goalkeep- ess. They aren’t recognized as play- ers. So, if they dance to-a different - Bremner prepares. for Olympic experience WHAT DEFINES athletes in the 1990s? The size of their contracts? The sponsors they represent? The number of times they’ve appeared on a magazine cover? By Andrew McCredie Sports Editor Perhaps these qualifications upply to the Michael Jordans and Pavel Bures of the world, but for Olympic athletes the timeless virtues of dedication and perseverance are most apt. Take Lynn Valley synchro- nized swimtning sensation Janice Bremner. The 21-year-old realized her Olympic dream in December when she was selected to the Canadian squad as a member of the cight-woman synchro team. But for Bremner, the path to the Olympics has been littered with obstacles. Through dedica- ° tion and perseverance, she moved every one. A natural at the sport since she began at age nine in Burlington, Ontario, Bremner quickly established herself as one of the best juniors in. the country. Her club. Etobicoke’s Olympian, was a hotbed of coaching and swimming talent WHO TO CALL: Sports Editor Andrew McCredie 985-2134 a7) & ” , NEWS pict Mite Viskeriold during the late '80s. By the age OLYMPIC REFLECTIONS — Lynn Valley’ 's Janice Bremner realized a tife- Once she had made the com- ™- mitment, she. remembered a coach from B.C. named Biz Price, “but | had it in my head that {had to be at the Olympian club if I was ever going to make » it to the Olympics.” ; Price convinced her other- wise, and with the team event » - making its debut at the Adanta ~ Games, Bremner seized the» opportunity and dove back into” her Olympic pursuit as a mem- - ber of the B.C. Aquasonics club. Due to the return of retired syn- chro stars, Bremner's’ only chance to go to the Olympics. was as a team competitor,» For two years she travelled ™: all over the Lower Mainland to train (the club now has'a home* ‘in Coquitlam), attended. Cap- ilano College and “supported herself with a parttime job at as “Of last: year Bremner and 12 other poten al “Sion. At the end of aye tes girls were cut and the Olympi team was selected. “Bremner. was adding, ‘Tm mt alive and.life “Her life i is one of total. con: centration now <3 approach. ‘Home. Depot, she’s new job. As part of .its'su the Atlanta-based’ Fetailer is of 13, Bremner had competed tong dream when she was selected to represent Canada as a member of _ full-time pay for part-time for Team Canada in Vienna and = the synchronized swimming team at the Atanta Olympics. Munich, Everything was going smoothly for the teenage athlete when her parents separated and her mother decided to move the family (Janice and her two sis- ters) to Lynn Valley. “My older sister Jane and my younger sister Jennifer are all excited about moving, and I'm left with the decision at the age of 17 to leave my club behind or let my family go,” Bremner says. Feeling that all her success to this point was due to Olympian club coach Mary-Jane Ling, Bremner opted to let her family go. In June 1991] pucks, Jim Kearney tune — as Crozier did —- who can blame them? Although not so evi- dent in these days of two goalies sharing the position on all teams, the position is designed to breed neu- roses, nervous stomachs and sundry ticks and twitches. That's exactly what it does and in all the long history of the game -. has there been a more outstanding she moved i in with Ling. During that fall she and duet partner Erin Woodley came fourth at the nationals. Time for another hard decision. “After going through all kinds of emotions and missing my mom and my sisters during that year, I decided that 1 was going to move out to B.C..” she “You have moments where you take a breath’ recalls. “i had a boyfriend of three years, so when I decided to leave, I was leaving him, I was leaving my club and 1 was leaving Erin, knowing that we had the potential ‘to compete at the 1994 Worlds.” “It's an "amazing opportunity: - and 1 can't thank Home, Depot enough,” Bremner’ says of -her job: in Bumaby. and the wor example than Crozier? Doubtful. He broke into the NHL with Detroit in 1964-65 and put in half a dozen seasons there before Punch Imlach acquired him for the expan- sion Sabres in 1970, the year both Butfalo and Vancouver came into the league. Two more years in Washington brought an end to his career. Considering all the things that hap- pened to him during this time, the only question one should ask is: how in the world did he last 14 years? Crozier set some sort of hockey record when he developed his first stomach ulcer at the age of 17 while playing junior in St. Catharines. It also set a pattern. For the rest of his time in the game he seldom was able to eat his pre-game meal and many nights he couldn't handle food alter the game, either. He needed pills to help him digest what food he did eat. He developed a twitch in his neck. One year he quit for halfa season because of his nerves. He was only 5 foot 7 inches and 160 pounds and would worry away 10 of them dur- ing the course of the regular season schedule. After just one year in the NHL. he came down with pancreatitis, a pancreas infection. Given a 50-50 chance {o live, he was pumped full of drugs and fed intravenously. He eventually recovered, but when he reported to training camp in the fall of 1965, he was down to 140 pounds and his complexion was bright yellow. He really shouldn't have played, but that season turned out to be one of his finest. Even though Detroit finished fourth, he led the league in shutouts, with seven, then went on to a spectacular Stanley Cup series. He was the whole show as the Wings upset second place Chicago in the semi-final, then Jed them to wins in the first two games of the final against Montreal. In the process he suffered a bad groin pull, losing much of his effectiveness as “They came in at a time when I needed them ‘mos! Though ‘she's trying. not” to'-look: past. the Olympics, she has plans to attend UBC in the future. “When I first moved here 1: was’‘compari everything to Toronto, but I got over it,” ‘she. say: second and look at the mountains, in another 30 years. : And has there been any goalie ; since then as superstitious? Always dressed and undressed on the left: side first. Left sock, left shoe, left © skate, Wore only dark clothes - because only dark clothes were. lucky. Had his black hat stolen the ‘night before the final game of his rookie. season. Gave up four goals the fol- lowing evening and blew his lock on the Vezina Trophy. For the remain: ” der of his time in the league, he blamed the stolen black hat.” While never talkative, perhaps: ° his best remembered quote was the’ following: “I like everything about. hockey — the travelling, the friends “ I've made, the interviews, the 7°. money. Everything but the games, they're pure torture.” There probably are a few goalies in today’s NHL who would drink to that sentiment, If their ulcers would “ permit it. .