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Bluevale‘s Bela Kozsa, pictured centre, takes on the rest of the field in the boys 200 m finals. t was another good day at Ithe track last week for the Bluevale Knights as they brought home another CWOSSA track and field team title. The Knights ran away with the title at the annual meet held at Centennial Staâ€" dium in Kitchener, finishing 123 points ahead of their nearest competitor, the Grand River Renegades, with 270 combined points. Knights win another title The Knights finished on top by winning both the Jr. Tigers season comes down to quality of the wood with the wood bat in Junior Interâ€"county Baseball play. ‘s called the great equalizer IE:Ebasebafl, and it comes in shape of a wooden bat. After years of hearing the ping of aluminum bats at Bechtel Park, the crack is back And Waterioo Junior Tigers manager Brian Bishop, for one, thinks it will improve the game, returning the focus back to pitching and defence after enduring the offensive marathons of the past few The wood bat gives the By Bos Vrmanac combined male and female divisions at the meet, with 36 of the school‘s athletes now off to the OFSAA regionals in Windsor this week. Leading the way were two male runners who finished with double gold â€" Andrew Van Pelt and Adam Hortian. Van Pelt won gold in the Midget boys 100 and 200 m dash. Hortian won the senior boys 1,500 and 3,000 m runs. Not to be out done, the girls _ team‘s _ Deanna Hollinger also finished first advantage back to pitchers, allowing them to throw inside without worrying that a batter will jack it out of the park. Instead it‘ll make batters earmn their hits and homeruns, levelling the playing field between pitchers and batters. "It‘ll be more of a pitchers game again," said Blshgfl "Itll call on your defence pMying well to win the game, and teams will now have to manuâ€" facture runs instead waiting for the long ball. "In the long run in makes for a more competitive game." And Bishop thinks he‘s got a competitive squad with this year‘s team, with the right mix in the Senior girls 400 m hurâ€" dles, and qualified in four other events for the upcomâ€" ing regionals. Other first place finishers for Bluevale included Josh O‘Hagan in the pole vault, Amy Tiffin in the Junior women‘s discus, Elaine Dumas in the Junior girls javelin and Jessica Splettsloesser in the Senior girls discus. _ Other athietes advancing to the OQOFSSA regionals of pitching, defence and hitâ€" Those elements were on display last Thursday during the Jr. Tigers home opener win over the Hamilton Cardinals. The Tigers got a strong start from John Morbey in the 4â€"2 win, and three runs scored by the midgetâ€"aged Mike Roeder, who also flashed a good glove in centrefield. "We don‘t have the depth of last year‘s team,"said Bishop, who‘s team finished second in league play last year. "But we do have some quality players, and the attitude seems to be right. These guys really want to take ar run at it." SPORTS Continued on page 26 HRONICLE | With the Canadian Hockey Association voting last week to continue the body checking pilot program for age groups of Atom and above across the country, the Waterloo Minor Hockey Association faces some tough decisions. Incumbent president Clive Smith said the association‘s board has to decide whether or not to allow bodyâ€"checking at the house league level. Smith, for one, is a fan of staying with the status quo and leaving the physical contact out of house league play at the lower age groups. "I would personally be against it because [ think that kids deserve the right to play with or without contact," he The decision was made more for the allâ€"star programs and kids with the skills to potential go on in hockey. _ But it ignores the other 99.3 per cent of players who don‘t, and Smith said it might curtail their future involvement in the As far as the pilot project, it‘s been running for the last four years at the representative hockey level with no significant Jr. Tigers centrefielder Mike Roeder slides safely into second base against Hamitton last Thursday. By Bos VRBANAC Chronicle Staff Tryouts for the Bantam program continued at RIM last week "The statistics show that there weren‘t any significant differences in injuries in southâ€" ern Ontario versus the rest of Canada which didn‘t have body checking," said Smith. But Smith also thought there were more important skills to focus on in improving increase in injuries. player development, namely skating and stick handling. "Personally I wish they‘d introduce bodyâ€"checking later," said Smith. "We don‘t have enough time to teach the proper skills now. _ "And bodyâ€"checking is often a skill that isn‘t taught as well as it should be."