86 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 19, 2000 TERRACE STANDARD. wu. SPORTS _ --SKBEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN A winter day spent wisely of television with its tinned laughter, away from the unsavoury stew of fiction and fact ladled outby virtual news men, out of earshot of the hysterical hucksters offering the promise of UNBELIEVABLE deals on ONE-TIME-ONLY sales of things like thin furniture on display in blowout bams, and distant from the sea of ugly quick pics of ethnic cleansing, destitute farmers, angry min- ers, School shoot outs, and the like. There are no malls in the Kalum valley yet, no designer colours in the corridors of the river, just muted grays, greens, red brown and white. There is nothing bearing a remote resemblance to a crowd, Only the clean, cold wind gets in our faces. We plane downstream, faces covered and hands shield- ed, over shivering riffles, and through memories. There isa 10-year-old memory a few minutes below Camp Creek where rocks protrude from a thin riffle on a sharp bend where Mike Whelpley, on a dangerously cold January day, ran his Gray inflatable over this part of the river, I sat, mak- ing myself small, in the front of the boat; Mike leaned over me, his beard frozen like mine, hanging on to the tiller, peering ahead for snares. , making the skinny sections of the river even more difficult, Mike scanned the spot, overlooked an insidious rock at the bend and hit it. The boat lurched, he fell forward on me. The engine roared: We spun. We scrambled. We. limped to to assess the damage. It was bad enough to put an end to our fishing. Things were tighter. We made our way upstream, the wounded boat unable to get through the rif- fles with me in it. The prospect of slugging miles through the bush in tundra temperatures had no appeal. We cheered the engine on and made it. Tell Stan of this escapade and get a knowing nod. “When the river drops,” he says, “You just stay out of here.” There are ather memcrable spots for me, but there are more for Stan who has spent more time upon the Kalum and knows it better than anybody. Piloting sleds on narrow Tivers is a slippery task. Stan negotiates the Kalum as if it snags and shore and between quickly appearing mid river rocks with the effortless technique that virtuosos have. Looking out of the confines of my hood, I see eagles and ravens sitting like omaments in skeletal cottonwoods. I think about Stan’s boat handling and J think about masters. We like to bestow the title “master” upon these who demonstrate a high degree of competence at something, We have master crafismen. We listen to people who have mas- tered musical instruments. There are master bridge players and grand masters of chess. When we ponder the accomplishments of masters, we have to admit that, though these people demonstrate a high degree of excellence in their chosen endeavours, ultimate- ly, the masters are proficient slaves to the things they have chosen, or are driven, to pursue: no one plays the cello per- fectly; no craftsman has built the perfect cabinet; the perfect Sicilian Defense waits to be played. Masters are closer to the mastery. of something than the rest of us. No mortal can reaily master an art— and angling is indeed an art, I think about the tests a master sleelheader would need to meet, Bass masters are anglers who understand the structure of mechanisms of the ponds and other impoundments where those spiky fish are ‘found. They prove that understanding and demonstrate their boat handling and casting abilities by consistently catching more fish than most of their counter- parts in lavish tournaments with fairly large prizes. A master steelheader will need‘to demonstrate similar skills in a much more fluid and complex — and dangerous knows he will always be fishing over fish, ihe master steel- header needs to know run timing and the influences of sea- sons and water fluctuations on it. A master steelheader will also need an intimate knowl- edge of the wildly differing behaviours exhibited by dif- ferent strains of steelhead: Where the lake bound master master needs to know not only how to run a boat on mov- ing medium, but how to drift a raft, and how to execute dif- ficult wades when the first two options are not available. We glide into a long, wide, poorly defined mn. Stan scans the riverscape for references then throws out the hook. “Here,” he instructs, “And for about a hundred feet down. That’s where they like to lay.” Hook at this lake of a run, as flat as pee on a plate, and wonder at the specificity of Stan's directions, A few casts later Thook and lose a steelhead. Ashort time after that loss, Stan finds a shiny steelhead that jumps into the cold air twice and makes some long rns before he can release it. Being ont in the Real World wilh a master steelheader is is a fine experience. an lan and I are on the river, out of the videotic glare - 'S ERAS IATIO 638-7283 Falcons take over Pipers for THE TERRACE Men’s fut- sal season resumed Mon- day, Jan. 10 after a long layoff during the Christmas holidays, The Cavalheiro’s Bla- zers have continued to lead the league and took on the last place Northern Knights to start off the year, The Blazers took a 4-0 lead in this game and looked to be cruising to an easy win. Northern Knight weren't satisfied in taking the potential loss and bat- tled back, scoring three goals to make the game very competitive. The Bla- zers held scored again to regain the lead. In the second half, the International’s lack of sub- stitutes took its toll as the tired players were unable to keep the Blazers from scor- ing three more times. Wiilie McLeary man- aged to score one more goal in the second half to finish the game 5-2 Blazers. The second Jan. 10 sec- ond match-up pitted Super BM against, Canadian Tire, with Super BM dominating the game throughout, Leading goal scorer Brian Barwise led Super Northern Knight off in the last min- utes of the game and took the win. The Bla- zers played Leading goal scorers Brian Barwise, Super BM Mare LeBlanc, Super BM Nilton Predicanta, Blazers John Krisinger, Internationals Corey Trogi, Canadian Tire Trevor Lutes, Super BM flying in the second half, scoring a goal and getting third in men’s futsal action League standings to Jan. 12 some help from the Pipers’ GF GA GP W L TPTS defense, who deflected the Cavalheiro's Blazers 31 15 8 6 1 1 «19 ball into their own net. Super BM 32 14 6 5 10 15 The Falcons took the KitwangaFaleons 22 22 6 9 2 7 10 lead minutes later and Jock'sPipersFC 18 18 7 3 40 9 suclagelintegne's Inoratonas 23-27 «8 2 4 OB . Canadian Tire 15 2 6 2 40 6 moved up in an attempt lo \cthem Knight 19 30 7 «1 60-3 score the tying goal. The sky was clear, The sunlight lit the dancing waves, were his driveway, taking quick, narrow routes between — venue. Where the bass master or master. trout fisher - fisher needs a modicum of boating skills, the steelhead again Tues- day, Jan. 11 Troy Maitland, Falcons Sebastion Hugon, Internationals 9 8 8 6 6 6 6 5 against the Internationals and came away with an- other win. The Blazers controlled the ball early in the game, scoring a quick goal in the first five minutes of play. The internationals then tied the game when Willie shore, where I caught my breath as’ Mike lifted the engine |. McLeaty.scored on a break... ie die away, but; béforé the end af the first half, the Blazers BM to a 6-1 win with two goals. Cameron Gordon ,, scored the lone goal for Ca- nadian Tire to break the shut out. On Tuesday, Jan. 11 the Pipers started out strong . against the Falcons, taking . a two-goal lead into. half. time: and controlling” most” 76f the play. " The Falcons’ canie Bak Ringette juniors prepare for Winter Games with tough Houston road trip TERRACE’S Junior ring- ette team travelled to Houston Jan 8-9 fora tour- - Mament against northern B.C.’s best ringette play- ers, They kicked off the tournament with a heart- breaking 11-8 loss to Quesnel. Though each game this season against Quesnel has been very close, Terrace has yet to win @ game against the tough team. Terrace’s Juniors played their second game against an outstanding Prince George Tween team, play- ing up one age group for the extra challenge, in a 5- 5 match up. The Juniors then played Prince George’s Junior team and although they looked much stronger than Prince’ George, the game ended in an 8-8 tie. New. players Kirsten Daumont and Allie Young showed steady improve- ment in net and handling the ring. Veteran player Kylie Bird played well on defense. Coaches Blaine Mac- Kenzie and Ross Smith seem pleased with how the team is developing. The host team in Houston came to the match with only six play- ers and had to forfeit their Tetrace game. But since the- zone Winter Games. team is made of both Terrace and Housten players, the two teams pitted the zone team against Terrace’s re- maining players and came up with another tle game. . Besides getting the two - practice sessions, the Zone - 7 téam from Terrace and ‘Houston also played the Zone 8 team from. Prince George and Quesnel. They won this game 13-7. Four girls who play for the Terrace Juniors and the Winter Games team are also playing on a Junior team made up of Terrace, Houston, Prince George and Quesnel players. This team will play at the Ca- nadian National Ringette Championships in Prince George in the first week of April. The top team from each province will travel to - Prince George in hopes of becoming Canadian Champions. : Jasmine Williams, Nikki MacKenzie, Daniel- le Billey and Roz Smith will travel with this team to Calgary Jan. 28-29 to play in the Esso Golden Ring Tournament. This is one of the main tourna- ments in Western Canada with 150 teams participa ; ting. The National team will play in the the top double- A division. They had a practice session in Houston and are looking strong and head to Prince George again this weekend for several on and off-ice practice sessions, Melissa Beaupre and Melanie Krug are Belle aged players, aged 16 and up, who made the Belle National Host team. also playing in Prinice George. They travel less than the four competitive Ju- niors but still play at an. - extremely high calibre, “Considering ringette's a -lack of ice time we’ are fortunate to have. such strong players coming ‘from our area,” said ringette spokesperson Joan Billey. 5 ini, m@ Future stars Clare Stiksma and Stephanie Neufeld were two of many girls who took part in Nick Kolias’ soccer skills camp at Centennial Christian School this month. Kolias says Stiksma and Neufeld show enough promise to make it onto provincial soccer teams when they're older. Practice up, giris! 3 Terrace Men’s Hockey Oldtimer League stats to Dec. 31, 1999 ; GP W L T PTS GF GA SRD Slues 21 #13 #5 38 29 96 70 Terrace Timbermen 17 8 G&G 4 20 73 61 Northern Motor Inn 21. 8 10 3 19 388 78 Terrace Subway “21 6 13 2 i4 78115 | _ Scoring leaders Team. Goals Assists Points PIM Wilf Taekema - *< SRD 25 18 43 3. Rob Bell 14 19 33 15 Fraser Dodd 17 13 30 42 Roy Vick 16 13 28 18 Darcy Mallat 11 13 24 25 Greg Inkster. . 12 10 22 43 J.P. Malenfant’ -: 18 a 21 3 Charlie Smoley |: 10 11 21 3 Tom Turner — 7 13 20 0 Larry Payjack 7 13 20 21 Rec League : stats to Dec. 31, 1999 GP W L T PTS GF GA Precision Builders 20 12 6 2 26 68 54 Back Eddy Bullies 20 12 7 #1 26 84 64 All Seasoan’s Lightning . 20 1010 0 20 73 80 Chapter One Aeros . 20 9 9 2 20 72 &6 Canadian Tire Canadians 20 8 9 3 19 65 63 White Spot 20 515 0 10 55 96 _ Scoring leaders ; Team’. Goals Assists Points PIM ~ Mario Desjardins ASL... 23 11 34 15 Brad Owen = “BE @ 23 32 15 Matt Shinde ASL 14 15 29s 3a Dan Lindstrom “BE 16... 10, 26 51 Troy Farkvam COA 16 9 25 6 Mitch Shinde “PB 15 10 25 8 ‘Ted Taylor “PB 7; 5 12 12 jan Alger -........ CTC .. 13 10. 23 ) Doug Wilson ~~ GOA 4. “+9 - 23: 24 Mike Funk | ‘PB 19. 9. 22 19g a " ur, ig ‘ . ' } o !