“+, Bowl at-Em “Canadian -’ > encounter. The green Riders’ EX-SFU star CG Bob Mackin News Reporter JAY Prepchuk was one of the greatest quarter- backs to don Simon Fraser University’s red, white and blue jerseys and march the Clan up and down field. In 1982 he was successful on 199 of 375 pass attempts for 2,409 yards, including 375 yards in one game against Western Montana. Those are all - school records that still stand. Now he sports a blue golf shirt and khaki slacks for the University of British Columbia while pacing the sidelines as the Thunderbirds’ rookie head . coach. On Saturday he'll fead the T-Birds onto the Swangard * Stadium turf for Shrum Bowl XXIL He'll face Chris Beaton, the longtime Clan head coach . who | was on staff when Prepchuk* played there from “1979-82 , The . 38-year-old former Windsor Dukes’. coach wus most valuable player when SFU beat UBC in the 1980 Shrum ire Stadium 30-3. .. Prepchuk grew up in North “Vancouver and starred as Handsworth secondary’s quar- “- terback in 1977-78. School "principal and football coach Dave Pearce was his mentor, oa helping him. excel on-field and . in the classroom. Prepchuk was ~.signed by the Clan on a schol- ,-arship ‘in 1979 to play on the’ ‘+ gridiron and study for a geogra- -”. “Americans ‘like: Jon Hufnagel ‘. and Homer Jordan who were ". preferred: by the American- Loyalty a one-way-street in pro sports entertainment ‘operating in Canada, plus the all but done, maybe the Grizzlies could find a < hole in that solid rock — os music wall they erect at " call their games. ; ‘Ta that wall, they could “,.-" place.a verse or two of that old -” Judy, Garland favourite — a “Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, +Meet me at the Fair”. Or, in this case, the Kiel, as in the Xiel Centre, the arena the new Grizz. owncr, billion- aire Bill Laurie, purchased a month ago, along with the NHL St. Louis Blues, for a bargain basement $100 mil- lion. Much can be — and was — read into both purchases, _ And what was read into it by the local media seemed to offend the new Vancouver (pro tem) professional basketball proprietor from Columbia, Missouri., 2 ovo-hour drive from St. Louis. We had put a cloud, it seems, on the happi- aches UBC dominated coaching staff. He returned to B.C. and played for the Vancouver Meralomas that fall before launching a carcer as a high school teacher and foorball coach at R.C, Palmer secondary in Richmond. That led to a job co-coach- ing the Vancouver College Fighting Irish with Paul Dal Monte, and a part-time gig under then-UBG head coach Frank Smith. But it was his record over the last 11 years at Windsor secondary in) North Vancouver that convinced UBC athletic director Bob Philip to hire him. He resurrected the Dukes" . football program ar the end of the *80s. At the end of the "90s it’s one of B.C.’s most, domi- nant since the Notre Dame Jugglers’ 1970-78 dynasty. The Dukes have appeared in the last five B.C. AA finals, winning three of them. Now it’s up to new Dukes’ head coach Jason Parachnowitsch to pick up where Prepchuk left. The © stability § Prepchuk brought to Windsor is what he wants to duplicate on Point Grey where chaos has reigned in the coach’s quarters. Frank Smith’s son Casey Smith suc- cumbed to cancer less than a year after coaching the team to the 1997 Vanicr Cup rriumph. “His replacement was Dave Johnson. He exited in disgrace after a drunken punchup with assistant coaches at a UBC bar last March. “They're. an outstanding group of young men, highly motivated, highly driven who really just want to play foot- ball,” Prepchuk says of his play- -ers. “They want to have a good stabilizing force as their leader _and T intend to bring that to the program. These guys have worked their butts off for three, four, five years and had unfor- tunate situations with their coaches. It’s not their fault. We just don’t want the lack of con- tinuity to hinder — their est day of his and his wife’s ” lives by repeatedly asking him about his plans for the team $ future residence. On this subject he was about as elusive as he must have been as a five-foot-10 point guard for Memphis State when, 3 quarter century ago, he played in the- NCAA cham- pionship final against Bill Walton and the UCLA Bruins. . He may have set a new world record for issuc-skirting. If it was a cloud on his life, I wonder if he gave any thought to the cloud that now rains on all those-Grizzlie fans (Le. suckers) who so loyaliy north shore news @ SPORTS Wednesday, September 29, 1999 — North Shore News — 45 Duathion deer ‘crossing: MIKE Harrison of Burnaby had a wild obstacle during the Canadian Endurance Sport duathion Sept. 19 © at Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. Harrison lost a few seconds during the 30-kilometre cycling portion whan he had to brake for a young buck. He finished in one hour, 51.48 minutes, 0. 06 behind top female Michelle Foster. Dave Patitucci was the overall winner in 1:34.25. . WLA’s Indians are gone for good TRE senior A North Shore Indians are no more. The Western Lacrosse Association franchise has been sold to a Kelowna group and will move to the Okanagan city tor. the 2600 WLA season. The league’s board of governors voted unanimously 6-0 on Sept. 23 to approve both the sale and move. The new owners are: Todd Vogt, publisher of the Daily Newspaper, Ken Buchan, Ken Buchan jr. and Derek Buchan, president and CEO of Okanagan Beverage. Financial terms ofth the agreement were not disclosed. The team will play at the new SkyReach Centre in Kelowna, which Courier. holds up to 6,000 people. Tt appears "few, if any, of the Indians’ plavers will move ‘with the team. . The ownership group wants to stock the team with a roster of Okanagan play- crs. Travel time for visiting teams will be - minimized by air travel in and out of | Kelowna. Further plans for the 2000 season will be discussed when the WLA meets for its annual convention - Oct. 22-24 ‘in Whistler. The Indians finished the 1999 regular season 10-14-1, good enough for fourth place and a berth in the WLA semi-finals against the Victoria Shamrocks. The Shamrocks swept North: Shore and went on to win the Mann Cup national championship. a The Indians played four reguiae sea-. 7 son home games in Kelowna and two in Vernon during the May to July’ cam- paign. Team president Wayne Baker unsuc- °° cessfully applied to move the team north last winter. He argued the Lower ‘Mainland has - too many teams and there were too many: empty scats inside at Lonsdale Arena for : the summertime sport. However, the North Shore Indians of the senior B West Coast Senior, Lacrosse league are slated to réturn:néxt season. . The. team:_lost- the President’s: Cup national championship. last month | ’ Burnaby Bandits. supported the NBA’s raunchi- est team through the first four years of its ever-losing exis- tence. Probably not. Billionaires don’t concern themselves with such trifles. John McCaw was entitled to sell the operation. Why not? It lost him-a reported $20 mil- lion last season. Laurie was entitled to buy it. All that was asked of him was to be up front, to say something like: “Yes, if the NBA gives me per- mission, Pil be moving this team to St. Louis in two or three years. In the meantime Pil spare no expense tt, ‘ng to turn it into a winner before it leaves Vancouver.” Better that than his eva- sions, Either way, however, selling scason’s tickets and cor- porate boxes for the coming season will be up there, in degree of difficulty, with high diving from the Lions Gate Bridge. And if the crowds, which averaged more than -16,000 a game iast season, slump to half that number, no doubt he'll use them as an excuse to get out of here as fast as the NBA will permit in that event his Vancouver purchase will cost him a reported $200 million US— the $150 million US purchase price, plus the $50 million US . NBA penalty for speeding up the carpet-bagging process. Those numbers should be of distressing interest to the NHL. Lauric is in the process of paying 200 million for the worst team in the NBA. Yet, a few weeks ago, he was able to pick up the almost new, 20,000-seat Kiel Centre and a most respectable hockey team for a mere one hundred mil- lion.What does this say about the value of an NHL franchise as we head into the new mil-’ lennium? Pre sports franchises are supposed to inercase in value over the years. That’s the rationale for buying a product that’s going to lose money for you every year. When it comes time to sell, the franchise value has so increased you can actu- ally make a few million. That’s the theory, but try . telling that to the 19 guys whe sold the Blues and the rink to :- Laurie. After they've paid off - the $96 million deficit they.’ - had ro assume and carved up . the remaining $4 million 19 ways, for them hockey will be - the dirtiest word in the old mother tongue. Now that he’s disposed of the Grizzlies, Canucks’ owner McCaw says ‘the team and GM Place no longer are for sale. Sure, but for how long? Nothing in this world is forev-- er, especially if it’s a team that has shown ev very sign in pre- season games, not to mention Brian Burke's rough talk on free agent holdouts, of being every bit as raunchy as fast - year’s hopeless lot. Add in the other well pub- licized problems attendant to escalating value of False Creek ... real estate; how ‘long until the team winds up in 40- billion- ; dollar-man Paul Allen’s) * Portland Rose Garden ‘and GM Place is sold for a knock-. down price, to be replaced by 2 highrise condos? . Somebody please tell the PNE to keep ¢ Pacific... - Coliseum in good shape for’: Arthur Griffiths’ projected 2010 Winter Olympics. As for’ are now discovering that . Vancouver basketball fans, you .. nobody ever said life is fair; or. that in the professional sports ~~~" entertainment industry, loyalty is a two-way street. It ain’t. But if you feel bad; how about the Grizzlies’ general manager and West Vancouver resident, Stu Jackson, and the coach, Brian Hill? Their new" billionaire boss is 2 former col- lege player and high school coach. Ever hear about hands-' on ownership? This one may top them all.