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BA. The Terrace Standard, Weseary October 31, 2001

Maney: Pend inntee A aad 0

ARAH A. ZIMMERMAN

SKEENA ANGLER: ROB BROWN

Odd Odds

erb looked out the window. A few gray wisps flitted by. The sun was brilliant. The engines thrummed, He picked up the magazine he'd laid on his fap a few minutes before and _ Stared at images of tall buildings. One had a fireball on its side that looked like a fungus on the side of decaying tree. The other showed its twin absorbing a jet liner. A flight attendant strode past then sat and strapped herself into a small fold out seat at the front of the plane.

“You shouldn't be reading about that,” said Max. “It’ll make you more nervous than you are already,”

“I’ve never been comfortable in the air, Max, never. After all those missions in Nam youd think flying would be a piece of cake, but, it never was, and in the last few years it's become a worse. And after this thing,” he shook the magazine, then stuck it in the mesh pocket on the seat in front of him, “I’m just a wreck.”

“Look old pal,” Max said, patting his partner on the shoulder, “since you've retired, you’ve lived to fish. You've talked about fishing browns in Patagonia, bonefish in the Bahamas, salmon in Iceland, and steelhead in British Columbia. You’ve saved for this all your life. If you want to wade into the rivers in those places and wet a line, you're just gonna hafta fly.”

“The pilot has left on the seat belt sign,” an- nounced one of the'attendants, Herb clutched the handles on his seat.

“T talked to Phil just after he got back,” con-. ‘tinued Max. “He ‘said’ fishing steelhead in the’

Skeena valley was great. There were lots ‘of big fish, rivers of every shape and size, and incred- ible scenery to boot. And get this, Herby, my boy — on the rivers we’re going to fish you can get them on dry flies. Dry flies, free floating dry

_ flies, Herb, just like we did in Idaho last year.”

For a moment Herb forgot he was in the air. “T don’t have any flies like that.” “Don’t matter,” said Max. “After what Phil

" said about free rising fish up to twenty pounds, I

BSA ess peach

grilled him about the best patterns. He said he did good with Gray Wulffs, so I went out and

bought a couple of dozen eights.”

The plane hit the tarmac. The tires chirped. Herb gave a start like he’d just experienced a small jolt of electricity. “I hate that,” he said.

As his feet met the ground, Herb was over-

come with relief. He and Max made their way

to the terminal where they were delighted by the fact that the wait for their luggage was short compared to the interminable waits at O’Hare.

Herb thought the man holding the sign with their names on it was a little young to be an ex- perienced fishing guide, but Fred, it turned out, was 40, and had, he said, been fishing the rivers in Skeena since he was a pup. “I’ve done a lot helifishing in the last 10 years tao,” said Fred as he pulled into the driveway to the lodge.

Herb’s eyes widened. “Helifishing,” he said, “wha said anything about helifishing?”

Fred looked puzzled. Max looked sheepish. “T was going to tell ya,” he said.

“What's the problem?” asked Fred,

“I flew chopper in Viet Nam; did hundreds and hundreds of missions during my tour. I've flown so much that my odds of crashing are really high. God, my next trip could easily be my last!” said an intense and troubled Herb.

“You mean,” said Fred, “that the odds of

crashing become greater each time you fly?” "It’s a statistical fact,” replied Herb.

“Well, we're fine then,” said Fred, abviously | delighted with the elegance of his proposition.

“We're all flying together. I’ve flown in heli- copters quite a lot, but not nearly as often as

you. We'll use my chances of crashing and

lower the odds a lot.” The suggestion was met with silence. The

¥ two Americans looked perplexed, until Max lit " up and said, “Wait a minute, I can count the {. times I’ve been in a helicopter on the fingers of

one hand, We'll use my odds of crashing, which should be really low.” He looked at Herb ex- pectantly,

“Won't work,” said Herb, after what ap- peared to be deep reflection. “You’ve got to total all our odds and average them, but that's not so bad.”

Early the next morning the three made their way to the helipad. Herb’s fears were allayed until a gray haired man emerged from the build- ing and began loading gear into the helicopter.

“Who's that?” asked Herb, .

“Our Pilot, Zoomin’ Newman, one of the most experienced pilots on the coast with thou- sands and thousands of hours to his credit.”

“] ain't goin,” announced Herb with un- mistakable finality. “When you add his odds to ours and average them, we'll be in extreme

danger. We're almost certain to have an acci-- dent!”

TERRACE STANDARD

PORTIS

Leong dreams of provincials

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN LOCAL figure skater Ste- phanie Leong hits the ice sporting a blue velvet uni- form with silver Chinese lettering emblazoned on

her chest.

The characters translate simply into the English word dream.

It’s a symbol that not only represents a dream of becoming a successful fig- ure skater but it’s also a symbol of her heritage — she is one half Chinese.

The 11 year old Terrace figure skater is just back from the B.C. sectional qualifiers held in Vander- hoof Oct, 21.

She skated her way to a first place finish which means she’s representing our tegion in Abbotsford Nov. 8 in the B.C. Section- als.

If she fares will there she could be going to the divisional championships which would bring her one step closer to national

competition,

Competing in the Juve- nile Ladies 11 and under division, her coach here believes she’s got a good shot at performing well.

“She’s an incredibly hard worker,” said coach Barb Long. “She’s going to

represent the” ‘Tegion very

well. hs

“Leonig’s “stféngth lies in her artistic interpretation and that’s what Long is hoping the judges in Ab- botsford will zero in on.

ZIMMERMAN PHOTO.

STEPHANIE Leong demonstrates the starting pose for her artistic skate presentation. SARAH A.

A major influence in Leong'’s skating routines come from the club’s chor- eographer Leah Correia.

“Leah has really helped,” said coach Long.

“She had an awesqme skate" —“nité‘and strong,”

said; Long: ‘about: ‘Eegng's

performance tin Vanider- hoof,

“Overall it was her pre- sentation that gave her the edge,” she added.

Figure skating for six years, Leong is not afraid of hard work and the in- creased pressure of com- petition,

“Sometimes I pretend like agthing big is happen- ong said about ing, for competition. .

out of the Terrace Figure Skating Club to compete provincially in over three years.

Bluebacks improving early

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN IT’S STILL early in the season but the Terrace Blucbacks are already showing

improvements.

“At this time of the year it’s tradition- ally an opportunity to work on technique and turns,” said coach Mike Carlyle.

The swimmers have been focussing an

them.

make the difference between beating na- tional qualifying times or being beat by

A 200 metre swim, for instance, has

seven turns.

“If they can improve the length of time it takes for them to get in and out of the wall, itll make a big difference over

Sports Scope

Karate clean-up

LOCAL karate athletes returned to the northwest last week with a little metal in their hands.

Fresh from the Western Canadian Martial Arts Challenge at B.C.1LT. in Vancouver Oct. 20, several athletes from the northwest fared very well.

Six martial artists from the Shogun Martial Arts school took part. Terrace’s Michael Diana came home with three gold medals and Val Jeffery also of Terrace nabbed one gold medal.

Smithers’ Trevor Merdink returned with one gold, two silvers and one bronze medal. Houston’s Steve Concalvise of Houston took home a silver and Shel- don Lainschbury came back with two silver medals.

Jessica Yuen, who has been making her mark al major competitions around the province topped off the winnings with four gold medals.

Athletes competed in vasious styles including, kata, point fighting and continuous fighting.

New executive named

THE B.C. Senior Games Zone 10 has a new exec- utive after their annual general meeting Oct. 20

Terrace’s Bud Kirkaldy has been named president.

The rest of the executive is rounded out by repre- sentatives throughout Zone 10. Kitimat’s Dorothy Cheyne is the new zone director, Prince Rupert’s Vern Whittles is first vice president and Elizabeth Glover of Kitimat is the second vice president.

This year’s secretary duties will be taken up by Ro- berta Perry of Terrace while the treasurer’s position will be headed up by Judy Degeneres, also of Ter- race,

638-7283

pat Leong is the first skater

their in-water turns — the key is to make the turns at the end of the pool as quick

seven turns,” Carlyle said. It may seem picky to focus on the

and powerful as possible.

Just a few weeks ago the swimmers were timed going into turns and coming out. They were then timed at their first meet of the season Oct, 20-21 in Prince Rupert and the improvement, said Carlyle is evident.

“We're seeing on average three to five per cent faster times with the turns,” Car- lyle said. “When you can see that im- mediate improvement it’s quite reward-

small details, but for high level swimmers being picky is what gets them to the top and Carlyle wants his team to understand every facet of their swimming,

Everything is mapped out at the natio- nal level, Carlyle explained, From the ‘time it takes to get out of the blocks to the first 10 metres of a race.

“So, we can look at what they’re doing at a national level to give the kids an idea of what they’re looking forward to,”

ing.” Carlyle explained.

Speed — particularly in shorter pools where competitors make more turns - takes off precious seconds that could

Apart from in-water training, the Blue- backs continue to meet with Prince Cont'd Page B10

SKIP Kevin McDougall calls the shots frorn the house during inter-zone mixed playdowns here Oct. 27, SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO.

Hurry hard

TERRACE’s McDougall rink took on the Fuester tink from Prince George in the Inter-Zone Mixed Playdowns here last week-end.

His team was rounded out by third Kim MacDou- gall, second Duane Melanson and lead Joan Kuchary- shen.

The winning rink from the best of three match-up advances to the Provincial Mixed Championship to be held in Smithers Nov. 9-11.

Winning streak screeches to a halt

Team White downed

in back to back games

AFTER FOUR weeks of undefeated play in the Midget House league, Team White lost not one, but two games in week five action.

The Oct. 22 match-up saw Team White take on Team Blue. It didn’t take long — only two minutes - before the game saw its first goal. Eric Eide set up Devon Mercer to put Blue in front 1-0.

Team Blue then went up 2-0 when Kristian Gough scored at 11:31. The score stayed the same until the first minute of the second per- iod when White’s Tysen Leblond scored to cut the lead in half. But at 7:52, Nathan Mattern added another for Team Blue, posting his first marker of the season.

Team White was being unusually outplayed throughout the third period, most likely due to a short bench. Nevertheless, at 9:16, Danny Biggs took a slap shot and scored for White to make the score 3-2.

The game still looked to be in reach for White until late in the period. With 2:49 left, Devon Mercer was back to put the game away

‘ for Blue. Danny Biggs added another for White

in the final minute, but it. was. too little, too late, After an cight-game unbeaten streak, White lost, with Blus taking the game 4-3.

Team Bive returned to the ice on Tuesday night to take on Team Red.

Blue opened the scoring at 5:54 with Ryan Beau- lieu setting up Braaden Green. Shortly after, Devon Mer- cer scored to put Blue up 2-0.Near the end of the period, Jack Ha- worth put Team Red on the board with his third goal of the season. Team Blue went up 3-1 only 30 seconds into the second when Devon Mercer scoted his second of the game, while Ryan Beaulieu picked up another assist. With lots of game left, Team Red continued lo work at gaining the lead, With 2:27 to go in the middle frame, Chris Webb scored for Red to cut the Blue iead to 3-2,

Team Red continued to score in the third. At 16:22; Jack Haworth scored his second goal of the game, to tie the contest at 3. Soon after, newcomer Ryan Hallam scored to put Red in front 4-3.

‘AT THE ARENA” TYLER NOBLE

Blue »was losing control of the game. Team |

Red added three mote goals, from Mike Scar- borotigh, Robby Stach and Jack Haworth, who

completed his hat trick with 5:22 to po.

Team Red went on ta defeat Team Blue by a score of 7-3.

The Thursday night game featured Team , Red squaring off against Team White. This was a key match-up as Red looked to win two in a row, while White hoped to bounce back from a 4-3 loss to Blue on Monday night.

Scoring first was Team Red’s Chris Webb at 11:18. Ryan Hallam made the score 2-0 for Red with a goal at the 3:38 mark.

With only 18 seconds Icft in the period, Jon Marceliin put Team White on the board, and cul the lead to 2-1. White tied the game at 13:45 of the second period, with Dan Mat- thews posting his sixth goal of the ycar.

Shorily after that Team Red went in front 3- 2, when Jon Sarsiat scored. But, this was a back and forth game and at 3:42, Tysen Le- blond put one between the pipes for White to tie the game at 3. Nevertheless, Red respon- ded at 2:20 on a goal from Mike Scarborough.

The turning point of the match-up happened at 1:40 of the second when Sean Mahoney scored to put Red in front again by two goals.

The teams exchanged goals, but White was never able to catch-up. Jon Sarsiat, Sean Ma- honey, and Mike Scarborough each added goals for Team Red as they went on to down Team White by a score of 8-5, Jon Marcellin and Tysen Leblond each added another. for Team White In the losing cause, '