INSIDE ead ‘SPORTS MENU 2 ‘SKEENA‘ANGLER | ROB BROWN On the water T MISKUSA I climbed aboard the West Coast One as two Haisla Watchmen — young conservution officers in training — and a family of obviously well-heeled folks from somewhere in the American heartland, each nicely turned | out in that nouveau outdoor wear that comes in a varicty of unnatural, recently patented colours | and materials, climbed into Bruce Hill's whaler with some difficulty. The clegant woman — apparently the mother of the two teenagers on board and a former model, [ suspected — looked fearfully at the bilge water sloshing around in the bottom of the boat, at the bold black letters painted on its side "that gave the maximum capacity as seven, at the bear-like man who was now to be her pilot into the wildemess, at all the mounds of camping gear strewn about the decks, at the crowd of passengers surrounding her. Then looked im- ploringly at the bearded man (whom I fancied was some kind of financial wizard dealing in bonds, stocks, or some such junk). T noticed that her outdoor bat — which, piven its starchy appearance was secing the outdoors for the first time — was bobby-pinned to her hairdo. A gray, pipe smoking, tweedy gentle- man, obviously the patriarch of the clan, and obviously loaded (with money, that is) bade farewell to the Haisla skipper before squeezing onto Hill’s craft, ‘Nice trip Russell,” he said as if he were talking to his chauffeur our his stable boy. I was glad I didn’t have to spend any time with this character. Dark clouds. were scuddiag over: our ‘heads. ... ~ We could see hard rain on the highest peaks. Dirty weather was rolling quickly down the val- leys. L turned and shook hands with the captain: ~ "Rab Brown,’’ I said. ‘‘Russell Ross,’’ he said. We watched as the the whaler bounced through the growing chop toward the Kitlope, The white folks were obviously potential benefactors ', whose trip to wilderness had been arranged by American conservation group Ecotrust. I watched as it headed into the teeth of the storm and wondered how the well-to-do Amer- '; jeans would fare in the sopping woods for a « week. “‘That’s scrious weather coming at us, Russell.’’ “You bet,”? he nodded. “Those guys are rich, ch?”’ - Russell had the anchor up and was cruising North. ‘“Yeah. One guy told me be had mil- lions. I told him whales swim up on the beach when they are ready to die. E told him you can find their skeletons in the woods.’’ He smiled impishly, ‘‘He believed me.”’ T laughed but made a note to watch out for ~ similar yams. The big diesel thrummed from the heart. of the boat. The ‘radio crackled. Russell ‘held out a thermos of iced tea. ] poured a big “-oup, and accepted a sandwich. Russell opened his eycs wide, ‘‘Somctimes we hit rough weather, I open my eyes like this, and get real ‘quiet. Boy, some of those guys wonder what they got themselves inta,”” he winked. We moved down-channel, just ahead of the weather, talking of sasquatch sightings, log sal- vage, netling culachon and fish and fishing in general, “TF remember fishing the Kitimat River with my dad when I was small,’’ Russell said. ‘We set up camp near the mouth of the river. Some- times we brought up toilet paper and stuff from the sewage plant in our nets, It made my dad mad, One day we strung a gill net for steelhead — if must've been the spring — and this rookie federal fish officer from Kilimat came down and told ug it was illegal to fish there. He said we had 1o take out our nets. My dad told him, no way. So, next day the boss came down. ’ “Anyway, the old guy comes the next day and asks my dad to take out the net. My dad tells him that ifanyone touches that net there's going to be trouble. He tells the alder cap that its ali the crap from the mill and the sewage plant that’s ruining the runs, not native gill nets.’? A picture of waste bubbling up in the industrial park land part of the Kitimat streaked through my mind. *'That water’s clean, Russ, the officer says to my dad, So, my dad emptics his coffee, reaches down and scoops a cupful of it. Then he holds it up and says, here you drink it if it’s clean. The guy looks embarrassed, [ don’t have to drink that water to know it’s clean, he says.’”’ ‘Russ shook his head and poured another cup of iced tea, ‘We haven’t fished there for years,’’ he said wistfully. At the confluence of Kildala Arm, Douglas and Devastation Channels we hit heavy seas. Russ’ eyes didn’t widen, but he did get quiet. Instead of the direct crossing we went with the waves for a mile then tumed, smashing against the grain for ten tense minutes before finding security in the lee side of an island. I was glad I had spent some time with this character, Terrace athletes take Games by storm MEDALS, MEDALS and more medals. Northwesterners were simply phenomenal at the BC North- ern Winter Games held in Wil- liams Lake. By the time the three day event was over, the Kitimat- Stikine zone had walked away with 80 gold medals, the most collected by any zone. And its tally of 179 medais was only six less than the host’s, a stunning performance given Games hometowners normally walk away with the medal title. ’ Terrace athletes were the- engine that drove the zone contributing more than three & quarters of the medals includ- ing 63 golds. Badminton, gymnastics and swimming provided the lion’s share of the medals. On the court, Terrace domi- nated, winning all but one of the available golds and each of the eight athletes bringing home three medals. Jennifer Shepherd (senior fe- male) and Kosta Kollias (jun- ior male) were unstoppable as they. each pulled off a singles, doubles and mixed ‘doubles golden haitrick, Laurie Sager completed a Temace sweep of the junior gold by nailing down the fe- male singles title then teaming with Trish Gair to add the doubles. , The duo were back in action but on opposite sides of the net in the mixed doubles final where Trish Gair and Kollias got the belter of Sager and Vincent Gair. Vincent got his golden mo- ment in the male doubles when he teamed up with Kal- lias. Both Gairs added a bronze in their respective singles events. , On the senior side, Alison ‘Chase had to settle for bronze ‘in the singles and mixed dou- bles but struck gold in the fe- male doubles with Jennifer Shepherd, In mixed doubles it - was Michael Cooper’s tum to Terrace’s gymnasts were equally tough in their competitions, tak- ing overall gold in four of the five divisions in which they competed. share the top podium spot with Shepherd, Chase and Daren Chalupiak picking up bronze. Cooper and Chalupiak fin- ished two-three in the singles and then partnered up for a sil- ver in the male doubles. Terrace’s gymmasts were equally tough in their competi- ‘tions, taking overall gold in four of the five divisions in which they competed, _ Erin Sandhais and Fiona Earl owned Division A Open, finishing one-two in every event and the overali. Sandhals beat out Earl in floor, bars and vault but Earl got a taste of gold by reversing placings on the beam. In Division B Argo, it was a clean sweep in the overall standings, Anna Wittkowski, Kimberley Rooker and Leesa Harvie finishing in that order. Wittkowski came away with a perfect golden performance, "TERRACE STANDAI The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 15, 1995 - C1 What a performance _ THREE OF A KIND. Kosta Kollias takes a break from Saturday's local junior bad- ‘minton tournament to pose with the trio of gold medals he earned at the Northern B.C, Winter Games held in Williams Lake, Kollias’ coliection was part of an im- pressive 24-medal tally for Terrace’s junior and senior badminton players. taking top spot in all ‘the indi- vidual events while Rooker came away with four silver and Harvie a bronze. Chelsey Schulmeister was on her form in Division A Argo compttition, collecting two gold a silver and a bronze on the way to the overall gold. Terrace landed two of the three overall medals in the remaining categories. In Division B Midget Loren — Elgert brought home gold and Genevieve Roy bronze. Although unable to make that podium, Ashley Blake. came away. with a gald in floor and a second place finish in the Vault behind Elgert. Roy won the bars and silvered on ° the beam ahead of Elgert. Camille Fagan was overall runner-up among Division A ~ Tyros just ahead of tcarnmate Meghan Westerman, Fagan was golden in beam and floor with Westerman picking up the bronze in each. They reversed placings with a . silver-bronze finish in vault while Fagan completed her tally with a bronze on the bars, The Terrace Special Olympians again proved their prowess on the Janes, Sabrina. Brown, Lavern Chin, Arlene Lindley, Trevor Oliver. and Frank Polkstad rolling to an- - other gold, And there was still another gold to come, this time on the ice as the Recreational Preci- - sion . Skating team out- performed allcomers, The arena also produced a silver from the Junior Preci- — sion skating team and. the | PeeWee House hockey team . collecled a bronze. Bronzé was also the colour. ° for the adult mixed volleyball team. For details of the swim-.|. mers medal haul and photo «|| of the successful gymnasts, a ae see page C4. Athlete. . Badminton : Alison Chase Darren Chalupiak.- Michael Coop Trish Gair Vincent Galr Kosta Kollias - Laurle Sager _ _— Jennifer Shepherd = = Gymnastics ‘Ashley Blake. - Fiona Earl Loren Elgert - Camille Fagan — Leesa Harvie. - Kimberley. Rooker Genevieve Roy * Erin Sandhals Meghan Westerman .. Anna Wiltkowski _. Hockey. . PeeWee House League team’ takes Bronze. Special Olymples Bowling. ' Sabrina Brown, Lavern Chin, Arlene. Lindley, Frank Polkstad: Gold in team-¢ event.’ i Skating Recreational Precision team take. - Junior Precision team win Bronze, ' Swimming Tristan Brown Marina. Checkley Garth Coxford .: Seth Downs Audrey Erb ~ Dylan Evans: 20. George Joseph Chris Kerman. - Jason Kumpolt - “Kyle Nartz - Bryan Palabic ~~ Stacey Parr ' Marie Pritchard — Julic Vanderlee © Relay Teams. = Volleyball | oo - Bronze in Mixed Adults /DONETALLY | 1 - 4 Chelsey Schulmeister 3. 4 Terrace Medal Winners - Bo “Total er we ee ney id ares a ay