B.C, WINTER GAMES... Lett off our list of Nerth Shore athletes who won medals at the > recent B.C. Winter -. Games in Campbell River was biathlon bronze medal winner Claire Poliquin.

: TENNIS... Five North Shore junior players have carned berths at the Canadian Nationals in April with strong showings at the recent , Nasional qualifier. In girls 16-and- under, two of three : B.C. positions will be * filled by West Vancouver players: Janis Hui, 2 Sentinel Secondary student, and Rossi Thomas, a student at 3} Collingwood. North s Vancouver’s Sanjin ? Sadovich aid West Van’s Preston Woo comprise two-thirds of B.C.’s 16-and- under boys’ team. All four will travel to Quebec for the

& Canadian Nationals

; April 14-20.

And in the girls 1 i and-under catego- Sentinel’s d Michelle Applicion won one of threz berths for the Nationals in Niagara- On-The-Lake,

' Ontario April 4-14.

VOLLEYBALL... Jenny Raub has been = named to the CIAU » All- Canadian rq women’s volleyball * team.

JENNY RAUH — Seiected to All- « Canadian volley- * pall all-star team.

The 25-year-old UBC player, from North Vancouver, averaged 3.55 kills per game in the

- Canadian-West con-

ference this season.

On Saturday, the Thunderbirds were edged out of the national title as the University of Alberta took a tight 3-2 match (15-8, 10- 18, 15-7, 1-15, 15- 12). Rauh paced the T-Birds to their best national finish in 19 years with 16 kills and 15 digs. UBC won bronze ar che nation- als fase year.

NEWS photo Cinty Goodman

ARGYLE’S Rosalyn Hicks gets off a shot during the Pipers game against W.J. Mouat in opening round action of the B.C. Triple-A senior giris championships at Capilano College. The Pipers fost the game 54-43, but downed J.N. Burnett 73-44 to take 13th place in the final provincial standings.

Voices from past apropos in the

IF all the collected media wisdom being proffered these days to Pat Quinn and Tom Renney as a cure for the Canucks’ problems could be bottled and sold, it just might take up the entire Cold Cures aisle at your local Shoppers’ Drug Mart.

And if there were buyers, which is doubtful, it might have gone a long way towards paying the now trad- ed Esa Tikannen's ludicrous salary demands. Your agent has never been in the busi- ness of telling geeeral man- agers and coaches how to do tieir jobs, And ¢! -y have never been in the business of telling me how to do mine. As long as it stays that way, we're both happy.

There are, however, respected hockey voices from the past, whose comments at various times over the years might reflect some of the basic realities of the game Canadians still like to call their own. Even as it contin- ues to move to Dixieland, there to make its ever-

expanding stand.

Bud Poile, well retired in North Vancouver, bur 25 years ago the first g.m. of an even more woeful dand of Canucks, speaking at that time on the subject of trad- ing from weakness: “There's one thing you can always be sure of in the NHL. When you're drowning, vour part- ners are always the first to throw you an anchor.”

There’s a moral in that quote and no doubt Quinn is well acquainted with it.

Poile is an expert on hockey trades. When he was running the Detroit farm team in Tulsa in the 1950s, he made a trade with the meanest team owner in hock- ey, Eddie Shore of the Springfield Indians. He con- gratulated himself on beating Shore because the guy he sent him had a broken arm.

The next day the other half of the trade arrived in Tuisa. On crutches. He had a bro- ken leg.

One-time Chicago coach Rudy Pilous (and doubtlessly 10,000 others as well): “Keep things tidy in your own end of the ice and the rest of the game will look after itself.” Was that Renney, saying “Amen”?

Ip a similar vein, another coach from from the Pilous era, Punch Imlach: “Defence is the hardest position to master. No one learns to play it properly uneil he’s at least 30.”

Imlach took Toronto to four Stanley Cup wins in the 1960s with a defence so old it prompted comedian Jehnany Wayne to observe: “All the other NHL teams have knee and shoulder problems. The Leafs’ problem is prostate.”

Another word on the importance of the guys oehind the blueline, from Scotty Bowman in the late 1970s when he was coaching, the Canadiens to four straight Stanley Cups: “You guys are always writing about Lafleur and the rest of our fast forwards. I'll tell you something — they'd be skat- ing to nowhere if they

Cap Col

Thomas Haney takes B.C. titie; Argyle finishes 13th

By Andrew McCredie Sports Editor

THOMAS Hancy Thunder rained on the McRoberts Striker parade as they downed the Richmond team 57-55 to win the B.C. Triple-A girls basket- ball title Saturday night at Cap College.

The sole North Shove school in the tournament, Argyle, sailed into rough ‘waters carly, but recovered strong to finish 13ch.

“The first game [ thought we had a good chance but we didn’t play great and they played very well,” said Aigvle coach Jack Tasaka of his squad's opening-round 54- 43 loss to W.J. Mouat. “And it's tough — once you don't win that first one the best you can do is ninth.”

Considering — Lambrick Park was the Pipers’ next oppenent, a ninth place finish was a fleeting hope. Park was ranked secon in the province before —_ being stunned 71-68 by Kitsilano in the opening-round. The Pipers lost to Lambrick Park 75-60.

Argyle picked up the pace from that point on, winning their next two games handily — they beat Prince George 78-40, then J.N. Burnett 73- 44 to finish 13th in the 16- team tournament.

What was especially frus- trating for Tasaka was the fact his team played so well in the Lower Mainland tournament.

weren't petting all that ser- vice from the back end.”

The back end comprised Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe and whoever else happened to be handy. All three are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. All three were in their 20s dur- ing that Cup run. How about that, Punch? And the obvious question: When are the Canucks going to get a back end?

Harry Neale, when he was coaching the Canucks 15 years ago: “Teams are made up of painters and the guys who mix the paints. Inasmuch as NHL games are played within five feet of the boards, it sure helps if the imaxers have size as well as tal- ent.”

Gordie Howe, from long ago: “The player | most admire is Bobby Hull. There’s a lot of talk about skills. But if you don’t have the musele ro back them up, skills aren’t going to do you much good. Bobby has both, more than anyone else in the feague.”

Can you relate the two previous quotes to the cur- rent Canucks? Goad. You win tisst prize for acute per- ception.

“We were hoping we could carry that play right through (into the B.C. $), but T guess the 10-day layoff hurt us,” Jasaka said of the time berween the Pipers last game at the Lower Mainlands and their first game last Vednesday at the B.C.s.

“I think the (Grade 11s) know what they have to do to improve.” he said of his team’s prospects for next sea- son. “Hopefully they don’t come back with the’ feeling thar they're going to be right up there — that’s certainly not going to be the case if we don’t work over the sum- mer.” eee

The K.C. Triple-A boys’ championships __tipped-off yesterday at GM Place in Vancouver.

The North Shore’s sole entrant in the tournament, Argyle, plays the always tough Vancouver College Fighting Irish today at high noon. If the Pipers beat VC, they play tomorrow at 5: 15 p.m.; if the lose the play tomorrow morning st 10:15.

Readers of last Wednesday’s sports page were no doubt shocked to see that Argyle forward Brad Harris had shaved his head.

Never fear Piper fans — the Argyle player in the photo on page 36 was in fact Piper guard Hidesh Bhardwaj. All apoiogies to Brad, Hidesh... and Harris’ mum (she reports she’s been fielding calls from friends asking why Brad shaved his head).

present

Motivation? Phil Maloney, who coached them in the mid-’70s, found the answer in deeds, not words. His Canuck team had the same problem as today’s bunch: first period snoozing. One night, seconds before his mercenaries took to the ice, he apened the dressing roora door and roiled a dummy hand grenade inside. The players almost killed each other in the rush to get out of the room.

They went on to win not only the game, but their divi- sion. However, such successes san be misleading. In Gary (Suitcase) Smith they had the league's hottest goalie that season. Ditto Richard Brodeur during the playoff run to the 1982 Stanley Cup final, And ditto Kirk McLean in 1994,

Lester Patrick, who helped invent the game of hockey: “Goaltending is 60 percent of a team.” When apprised of this estimste, Gump Worsley, who played goal for a bad New York team: “How come, then, T don’t get 60 percent of the payrall?” Worsley also said, when asked what team gave him the most trouble: “The Rangers.” He might have a soulmate in McLean.