Emery’s hockey coaches

By Tim Lambrinos

In the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s, spirited organized hockey for boys was thriving in our community.

An intramural church house league system was founded and called the Humberview Hockey Club. Local sponsoring included Emery United Church, Riverside United Church, St. Jude Roman Catholic Church, St. Timothy’s Anglican Church, Academy Auto Collision and Globe Electronics.

All of the teams in the house leagues played their home games at Habitant arena. Prior to Habitant’s opening in 1965, area teams played organized boys’ hockey at indoor ice rinks in Richmond Hill, Aurora, Woodbridge and Nobelton and outdoor rinks Amesbury, Glen Long and Grandravine.

Local teams in higher competition were Humberview, and Northwest competing against teams in the North York Hockey League. Other North York teams were Amesbury, Duffield, Victoria Park, York Mills, Don Mills, Golding Park, Willowdale, Fenside, Finchurst, Young Canadians and Downsview.

The Humberview Hockey Club and the Northwest Sports Club for boys were established by local volunteers. Marg Elliott of Franson Crescent was a well-known advocate. Jim Baird of Rosette Court coached boys’ teams and ultimately handled the entire North York Minor Hockey League organization. There were many other volunteers for community events, including Tom & Doreen Curley and Anthony & Jean Lance of Legume Road, June King of Storer Drive and Noel D’Sylva of Davelayne Road. Other local hockey coaches included names such as Ken Lambe, Mr. Glynn, Mr. Samborski, Mrs. Jordan, Tom Cobb, Ian Elliott and Keith Dawson. Many residents spent immeasurable hours flooding our outdoor rinks in parks so that children could skate outdoors and play hockey.

Frozen Crang’s Pond was often used as a skating rink.

One successful coach from years past was Keith Waddell. He was influential in developing sports activities for youth in our community. In the 60s and 70s, Keith volunteered as a baseball coach at Lanyard Park for the Rivalda Heights Baseball League for boys and girls. In 1974 and 1975, he coached the North West Sports Club Hockey Juveniles to two consecutive North York Championships. Waddell lived on Windhill Crescent with his family and worked at IBM in Don Mills. He left our community in 1979 due to family circumstances and moved to south Etobicoke.

Recently, Keith Waddell’s son Mark had been unable to corroborate the condition and whereabouts of his father for some time. Mark was consequently informed by the Province that Gordon Keith Waddell had passed away 7 years ago and was laid to rest in the Parklawn Cemetery on March 10, 2008. Mark found this out by contacting Service Ontario and requested an online search for a death certificate. Service Ontario can be easily contacted online and charge $15 for every five years of search. The process is straightforward for anyone wishing to confirm if or when a former family member has passed.

Our local community now has three indoor ice rinks within Emery’s boundary lines – Habitant, Gord and Irene Risk and Downsview. Today, hockey for youths includes a select league for girl’s hockey with The Storm Girls’ Hockey Club. Humberview Hockey Club for boys now plays home games at Westwood Arena in Etobicoke and still plays regularly at Habitant Arena. For information about boys’ hockey, contact Humberview by calling Donald Bamford: (416) 743-9247.

The Duffield Hockey Club merged with the Downsview Beavers Hockey Club several years ago. Call Kevin Dingeldein: (416) 997-4144.