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Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 27 ME AND MY BOYS: Local senior Juanita Stewart (in red) poses for a photo with members of the Oakville Minor Baseball Association's select rookieball team after receiving a jersey from the squad earlier this season. Pictured with Stewart are (back row, left to right) Carter Dombek, Michael Kovacs, Blake Cooper, Joe Moszcelt, Ethan Malicki, (front row, left to right) Jackson Round, Alex Gaudet, Johnny Brace, Drew FIsher and Adam Conn. Absent for the photo were players Chayse Fielding, Luca de Silva, Matthew Ocamp and Michael Chornous as well as coaches Michael Dombek, Daniel Ocampo, Marc Gaudet and Jason Round. PHOTO SUBMITTED Take me out to the ball game Why local senior's happiest moments are watching youngsters play baseball By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Monica Preiner had noticed the elderly woman in the stands before. In fact, 82-year-old Juanita Stewart seemed to always be at the Bronte Athletic Field baseball diamond whenever Oakville Minor Baseball Association house league and select rookieball teams of eight-year-olds took the field. Stewart would cheer on the players and interact with the coaches, getting as involved in the action as an average parent. Finally, Preiner's curiosity gets the better of her. "Who's your grandson?" she asks Stewart. "Oh, dear," Stewart replies with a warm smile, "they're all my boys." Summer routine As the air begins to cool, the leaves begin to turn and children return to school, there might not be anyone in town more disappointed than Stewart. Those signs don't just indicate the imminent end of summer. They also mark the conclusion of the OMBA house league season and, in turn, the end of Stewart's summer rou- drive her children to practices and games. "My brothers played hockey their whole life, and I was a tine. Many weeknights and weekend afternoons for the past two gymnast and also played hockey," recalls Stewart's daughter, years, the Toronto native has left the confines of her room at Robin Ribeiro. "Her job was all about paying the bills and getthe Oakville Senior Citizens Residence, walking across ting us off to where we were supposed to go." Those roles became especially demanding when Ribeiro Lakeshore Road to Bronte Athletic Field. developed into a national-level gymnast, vying "It's nice to get outside," says Stewart, who for a spot on the Canadian team for the 1980 has also long been known as `Winnie'. "I think "Oh, dear, they're Summer Olympics. (Canada ended up boycotnow, being my age, I can go whenever I want. I all my boys." ting those Games.) don't have to answer to anybody." "My brothers missed out on a chunk of my But it's more than simple freedom that Juanita Stewart, 82, mom, because she was always taking me," says prompts Stewart to go watch youngsters play when asked which Ribeiro, a former Sheridan College student who sports. young ball player she now works as a personal trainer in Tennessee. It's also a continuation of what she's done her was watching was her entire adult life. The only difference now is that "They would play (hockey) too, but my gymnasgrandson the children she's cheering on are not her own. tics was 40 hours a week at one point." In her younger days, Stewart raised two sons Too busy to play sports in younger days and a daughter, mostly as a single mother. Working as a customs broker at Toronto Pearson International Airport, she Having grown up with five brothers, Stewart has always picked up as many overtime hours as possible in order to sup- loved sports. port her family. "I just like the team. I just like the idea of the team," she See Players, page 28 Yet, Stewart somehow always managed to find the time to