For Release: May 31st, 2000

I remember a few years back or so I wrote an article about the Beatrice Ice Gardens on the campus of York University, raving about the six ice surfaces, the sports bar/restaurant, the spacious, bright lobby and so on.

If I could find it, I would simply copy a lot of what I said about this facility and apply it to the newly renovated John Rhodes Sports Complex in Sault Ste. Marie.

Although I was primarly confined to a corner office during the N.O.S.S.A. Track and Field event last Thursday and Friday, I made it a point to check out the facility and some of its virtues.

There are many.

On top of the newly added second ice surface (which is open all summer by the way), the facility boasts a swimming pool, a soccer pitch (which doubles as a speed skating oval in the winter), a snack bar on the main level and sports bar & restaurant on the upper level (which overlooks both ice surfaces), a pro shop, baseball fields and a weight room. Walk out the back door and you find yourself on the Jo Foreman track (the track surface is asphalt - okay so no one's perfect).

The restaurant menu for Brody's Sports Bar & Grill even features updated stories about local amateur athletes on the cover, with prices and food items and such on the inside. Food's pretty good too.

Soo officials should be congratulated on such a fantastic multi-purpose venue which I'm sure many thousands of visitors will benefit from in the many years to come. Who knows how many events will be attracted to the Soo as a direct result of this facility (a hint: right after the N.O.S.S.A. track event, they were setting up for an inline skating show Friday night, then a computer show on Saturday).

Now why was it that we couldn't pull this off in Sudbury again?

Still on N.O.S.S.A. track, cudos are extended to all Sudbury athletes who represented the S.D.S.S.A.A. extremely well at this championship. Sudbury schools are sending a total of fifty-six athletes to the O.F.S.A.A. Championships in Windsor, which for many is the pinnacle of their high school sports careers.

Best of luck to you all!

Finally on track this week, my sincere apologies to Kyla Vainio of Lo-Ellen Park Secondary, who won the Senior Girls Individual Aggregate crown at the City Track and Field meet May 17th and 18th. I had incorrectly reported earlier that an athlete from Lockerby had won the award but after merging the results found indeed that Kyla had won with a total of 28 points, two golds and one silver medal performance, good for a Senior Girls' first overall.

O.F.S.A.A. SOCCER BEGINS TODAY!!

Now on to the best thing that has happened to Girls' Soccer in Sudbury since 1983 when the sport was introduced to the S.D.S.S.A.A.

Yes, it's O.F.S.A.A. Girls' AAA Soccer, and our fourth and final O.F.S.A.A. championship of the 1999-2000 millennium school year.

The event starts today at the Lily Creek, Delki Dozzi and Cambrian Fields, and will continue at these locations until Friday at 5pm. For Saturday's semi finals at 9am and 11am respectively, Lily Creek will be the featured venue. For the medal games, the scene switches to Laurentian University, bronze at 2pm and gold at 4pm.

Sudbury will be represented by N.O.S.S.A. Champs Lockerby Composite and S.D.S.S.A.A. Playoff Finalist Lasalle Lancers. If you've been following the Girls' AAA soccer scores from local league play, you know that these girls have worked extremely hard to advance to the O.F.S.A.A. Final - now you can do your part by cheering on our local charges as they challenge for top honours in the Province!!!!

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