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Nobody deserved this win more than nice guy Jeffries Played before more than 16,000 enthusiastic fans â€" predominately WLU boosters â€" at Hamilton‘s Ivor Wynne Stadium, winning the top trophy in Canadian universiâ€" ty playoffs put a wonderful exclamation point on the remarkable past three years Of course. Em talking about the memorable last weekend when the Wiltrid Laurier Golden Hawks und their nice guy head voach Gary Jeffries â€" rallied late in the game for a draâ€" matic 24â€"23 victory over the bigger _ and _ favoured Saskatchewan Huskies in the Vanier Cup university footâ€" ball shootout. nce qyuairt. that old Os]lulh adage miue guys tinish last has taken a faral blow to the head After 35 years in business, Westwood Greenhouses (located outside of New Hamburg) has opened a NEW greenhouse/garden centre in Mannheim (ust west of Kitchener), called Colour Paradise Greent RORREOUAMOAEASmte 23 2VESY HRADPIRZ MH4S OPENCC 4 Poinsettias available NEW greenhouse/garden centre in Mannheim 4",642", 8" and 10" just west of Kitchener), called Colour Paradise Greenhouses. ~ and poinseltia trees. Wwith 200.000 sq. ft. of growing space. we bave an amazing We also have wintergreen patto planters selection of plants to offer Et ‘erything we sell is grown by us,. and gift baskets! so you can be guaranteed great selection and quality [ e WATCH FOR YOUR CITY OF WATERLOO www.colourparadise.com | colourparadise@sympatico.ca C 22 °U LC Patauise.com | colourparadiset delivered to your door this week WINTER Program and Activities GCuide for Jeffries. I‘ve told his story before in this space, but it bears repeating, Named to succeed former Hawks boss â€" and another nice guy â€" Rick Zmich , it was hinted quietly that Jeffries was just going to be a oneâ€"year appointment. ® ow _ i e | l BILL "SKIP" JOHNS They just never quit, as you saw Saturday. That‘s the makeup of this group. The score didn‘t matter," Jeffries Irue to his fashion, Gary credits his remarkable group of footballers â€" players, coaches and support personâ€" nelâ€" for the success. Coming oft a 1 2 recoud the youu betors the Pons Hamks turned tungs around with a groateffort It was the same story the feXxt year when WIU got even better working their way to the national semifinals After working on two oneâ€" vear contracts, Jeffries was finally recognized for his work and long dedication to the Purple and Gold â€" in other sports as well as footâ€" ball â€" with a threeâ€"year pact. And presto. the national title came last Saturday. I don‘t get to all the Lauriâ€" er home or away games, but since Gary has taken over the team the Hawks have never lost when I completed the ritual. I must admit I thought I have made it a practice to go out on the field at Lauâ€" rier football games before the opening kickoff and give the head coach a handshake with the aforementioned phrase. It started for WLU way back in the Tuffy Knight era, continued with Rich Newbrough and Zmich, and for the past three seasons with Jeffries. siid, and he was night 1 must acdimit [ thought the Someem hell, coach" hucks handshake had finally run ts course when the big Huskies went up by eight points with about six minutes lett on the scoreboard clock. That was nearly 30 years ago and the two have been buddies ever since with Greg also "keeping stats" during Gary‘s basketball coaching tenure at WLU with both the mens and womens teams. Despite all the things Gary had on his plate last week. he made the time to contact his longâ€"time friend Greg Walâ€" ton. A developmentallyâ€"chalâ€" lenged man in his 60s, who first came up to Gary in the late 1970s and announced he was going to be his assistant coach with the Waterloo Tigers of the Interâ€"County baseball league. the tmidmon was toast late in that tmal quauter but I should mever have doubted But one thing you might nut know about Saturday‘s great day in Hamilton was the "Coach Greg" factor. Bill (Skip) Johns retired from fulltime sportswriting in 2002 after 45 years at two difâ€" ferent Ontario daily papers. He can be reached skipâ€" schips@golden.net. I‘ll always remember the university football year of 2005 when a good guy, a good grid program and a good school finished first. the tact that Gary con tucted Greg‘s sister and worked out details to get hun to the game, on the field and un the bench last Saturday for the biggest day in Gary‘s grid life, win or lose =â€" tells you more about my golfing buddy than what the final scoreboard shows. He even gave Greg a Yates Cup ring last season with "coach" inscribed on it.