Wednesday. February 10, 1999 — North Shore News — 49 north shore news PORTS BADMINTON... The North Shore S Capilano College mixed dou bles’ ream of Colin Chav and Marion Morris placed first ata recent competition at BCE and second last weekend at Douglas College. Clay and Morris beat the Douglas duo of Rache! Shiu and Vincent ‘Feo ar BCIT, then fell 10 Douglas’ Thinh Nguyen and Jennifer Wong, at Douglas College. Following last weekend's tournament, the fifth and final in the B.C. college bad- minton regular season, the Blues, with 65.6 points are less than three points behind first place Douglas College, who have 68 points. Third place Malasping has 50.6 POWs. In women’s doubles, Cap’s Wendy MeGill and Alison Paterson have been consistent top five finishers, with a second at BCTT and a fourth-place last weekend at Bouglas. The B.C. College provin- cials take place Feb. 20-21 at Malaspina College in Nanaimo. eon BASKETBALL... Capilano College cagers are struggling as the regular season enters its final month. Bath teams last games te the Camosun Colleve Chargers on Saturday: thy women 67-54, the men 70 55. On the previous night a Capilano- Malaspina double header scheduled for the Sportsplex was postponed duc to cancelled ferry service benveen the Lawer Mainland 8 d Vancouver Island, Heading into weekend games against the College of New Caledonia Kodiaks and the Cariboo College sun Demons, Cap's men’s team has a 3-9 regular season record. The women Blues take their 4-8 record into Kamloops on Saturday for an evening game against the Sun Demons. The B.C. College provini- * cals take place March 4-6 ar Trinity Western University. CROSS-COUNTRY SKI. ING... Kevin Vailey skted away with top honours at the 4h Annual World's Fastest Cross-Country Skier evevit on Sunday at The Hills Health Ranch in 108 Mile Ranch. The North Vancouver res: ident posted a winning speed of 45 kim-h (28 aep.h) on bis first of ewo runs held on excellent snow tracks. Joe Buchar, also of Norch Vancouver, was second with a speed of 44 kin-h, followed by 1000 Mile House resident Chris Bolton in third with a speed of 43 kin-h. North Van's Helena Buchar skied tins place in the women's competition with a speed of 37 kin-h, followed by North Van's Ingrid Otto in second and Carolyn Daubony of Vancouver third. The Buchars then reamed up with Valley and Chriszian Fournier to give North Van skiers a clean sweep as) the foursome won the Four: Person Relay Race even. — Andrew McCredie C.J. Thomas Contributing Writer HAVE vou ever wondered what it would be like to play soccer here in British Columbia? Trv this expenment out ta see if the world’s most popular game is tor you. First, strap ona pair of running shoes and stand ina bucket of tree ing water tor about 20 minutes. So far so good, OR, now go outside in the cold pouring rain wearing just shorts anda ‘T-shirt. Fine. Now, find a chunk of concrete and start kicking it around in the mud for about 90 minutes. Now you know what it is dike to play the world’s most popular game in this province. Welcome to Beautiful B.C.'s ver- sion of the “beautiful” game. Te was a Saturday morniag. My sever-vearold nephew was playing pee wee soccer for Lynn Valley against aside trom Lions Gate. 1 thought Pd take in some of the action and drove ro Upper Lynn School to watch the match. What TF found was something quite disturbing. Instead of the raw enthu- siasm and laughter vou would expect from voung soseer players, | found wars and misery. The kids were plav- ing in pouring rain with temperatures hovering the freezing mark. Players were retusing ta play, content to stay bundicd up and dry. Al my nephew could sav after the game was that he felt sick and really wanted to vo home. On the drive home my brother-in-hae stopped off te repister his son for the summer sport, T ball. { recently received a coaching cer tificate from the North Shore Soccer Training Centre, a place where one lesson stands out far and above all others. [t's the part about having fun. Make soccer fun and kids will keep playing. Make it miserable and they will quit. [t's really quite simple. Last weekend, all grass fields on the North Shore were closed once again because they were waterlogged. The focal park boards have closed fields on the Narth Shore 1} of the 19 weeks since the saccer season beyan last September. Meanwhile, voung soceer players play on soaked, windswept gravel pitehey which cncourge ugly soccer and greatly: impede plavers skill devel: apment. Most senior soccer clubs ether plav on the gravel or don’t play atall. Vancouver Metro Premier Division Club Norvan $.C. have plaved only ene wane in pwo months, Premier League hopetuls Deep Cove Royals have been torced to play their last thieee matches on gravel, In addi: tion to the peor pitches, closed grass fields mean a scheduling nightmare for league Giganizers as they scramble to tind parks to reschedule games. It’s ame — no, it's way past time -- thar the soccer community: in Southwestern British Columbia admit aterribic mistake has been made. the great sport of soccer is not suited to the cold raiaforest we call home in the months of November, December, January and February. Many soccer enthusiasts around here fike to believe we have it all over the rest of the country beeause of our mild winters, [Eo contend this is garbage, and the great tradition of soccer in Southwestern B.C. would be even greater if we called the sum- mer Months soccer season, ‘Phe rest of the country already plays an April to October schedule, but southwestern B.C, continues to be mired fn the tra- ditional September April season. NEWS photo Paul McGrath SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Adam isn't tes impressed with the state of the soggy soccer fields on the North Shore. Sumner soccer is already huge on the North Shore, at least ar the senior tevels. The North Shore Sportsmen's Summer Soccer League is not only highly competitive, but brings people trom all over the North Share and bevond together during a short three month schedule. The North Shore alse supports highly successtul over-30 and over-40 leagues durmg the sammer months. Unbelievably, these successful and popular leagues are threatened as the ficld-keepers are making noise abour the necd tor the “stmmer soccer parks” ta be preserved tor the winter soccer season. This type of thinking is completely nearsighted. Summer soceer is growing and, if anything, parks should be preserved for the summer season. Likewise, senior and juvenile leagues: should be encouraged to switch to a summer schedule, Nor-Wes Cans one win away from team record WITH just one game feft in the regular season, the last place Nor-Wes Caps are one win away from setting a fran- chise record for wins. With last: week's 6-5 win over Richmond and 6-5 loss to Delta, the Caps have 5-36 record heading into Sunday's game inst the Grandview Secelers (7:30) p.m. at Trout bake Arenal. bn their freshian Pacitic International Junior Hockey League season last year the team posted 5-36-1 record. Considering, the Steclers are 1424-2 and out of the playoff hant, the Caps could very tN well set a new club record. “We have to win on Sunday,” said Caps’ owner and general: manager Ken Wilson. “Beating last’ season's record was a goal set by (coaches) Sean (Murray) and Rod (Braithwaite) when they took over mid-season.” ‘Yhe team's original bead) coach, Nort MeNamara resigned in early December, Wilson, of West fAancouver, said he has been disap- pointed with the on-ice performance ofthe team this year. “We've had avo losing seasons, 50 we're going to make some major changes this off-season,” he said. — Andrew McCredie