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It was a shaky start to the campaign with player move- ment and refining of the ros- ter leaving the club five games under .500. That tur- moil culminated with the departure of starting goalie ly shme ream for optirhitJn as they prepare for the 15 games of their schedule. aying .500 hockey Pwouldn'l be something to celebrate, but after the Siskins' early season struggles, and a losing cam- paign last year, there's actual- Kitchener-Waterloo has now been home to the Brier, the Scott's Tournament of Hearts. the M&M Skins Game and the Grand Slam of Curling event. Bakes said the Tankard will fit right in with those, with the winner quali- Siskins hope thi/. "When we agreed to come here we didn't even know that wason the radar." "It was nice to have the Grand Slam event here a few weeks back because it was a good test," said Bakes. "Lis- ten, if that whole group likes it there's no reason why we shouldn't. Both clubs will partner to host the event. along with the City of Waterloo, with atten- dance expected to be in the range of 10,000 fans for the event, which will be called the 2008 TSC Tankard after the chain of stores came for- ward with a three-year spon- sorship of the event. The players, including Glen Howard who is the defending Ontario champ and expected to compete again for the title in 2008, raved about the ice condi- tions and the overwhelming volunteer support the Mas- ters of Curling event enjoyed. The reviews were equally glowing for the mived cham- pionship at Westmount, Curling championship was held by the Westmounl Golf and country club and the Granite Club's hosted of the Wodd Curling Tour's Masters of Cutting event last month. Doug Bakes. the executive director of the OSC, said the decision lo award the event lo Waterloo came before the successful Canadian Mixed tedoo is becoming W: hot bed for major curling events after the Ontario Cuding Ncsocia, tion announced last week that its 2008 men's provincial curling championship is coming ttt the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Com- plex next February. BvBoanwuc fyrronickstqr But a funny thing hap- pened on the way to what looked like another disap- pointing season. The team started to buy into what the coaching staff was selling and played the style of hockey that Al Kimmel and his brain, trust were demanding. Canr pled with a Five-game win- ning streak they actually reached the .500 mark before the Christmas break. and had a firm grasp on fourth place and a home-ice advantage for the opening round of the Colin Way from the team who was shipped to the Strat. ford Cullitons "This area has been used by the Canadian Curling Association and the Grand Slam event so there's no issue," said Bakes. "We're quite confident the k-W area Continued on page21 While the facility sold itself, said Bakes, it was the strong local volunteer sup- port of the two local curling clubs that ultimately con- vinced the OSC to come. He joked that volunteer support has been a problem in other centres but doesn't expect anything but the best from a strong local curling commu- nity. "But there's also a lot of teams that are up and com- ing, and on any given day they can make life awfully tough for them." WATEKETi6 "The host committee always likes to have a name or two they can sort of " ture." said Bakes "And Mid- daugh and Howard are always the ones that every- body talks about. . lying to go on to the Brier. And the big names in curling like Howard, who won the Masters of Curling event and is currently No. l on the World Curling Tour, and Wayne Middaugh should draw some people to the event, 500 marks a starting point for new year some we cess, more- so recently. " said Kim- mel, who is in his sec- Al Ki and year as head man of the club. "We have a good group of guys. and they want to wort hard for each other. IWwant, ed to imple- ment some things and we've been Midwestern lu n ior B playoffs. That helped propel the swim Knights to their third "I went from being more in the shadows in a sense to trying to lead the team as best I can," said Gfroerer. "I'll even help (Shannon) Henkel coach sometimes." But Conor Gfroerer has matured nicely into the role of elder statesman on the team. leading by example as much as he helps out with tips he's learned himself since he started swimming for the Region ofWaterloo Swim Club as a six-year-old. So there he was again at the WCSSAA swim champi- onships last week at Wilfrid Laurier University winning three individual golds and a relay gold to take the senior boysoverall title. t's different being the old Iguy on the Bluevale swim team at the age of 17, instead of being the young hot shot with the growing reputation. Knights Wlllthlrd straight SWImtltle The Bluevale swim team won its third consecutive WCSSAA swim title championships held at Wilfrid Laurier University. Br BOBVRIMNAC qmnickSagr SILBTS At Klmmel clicking on the power play. Their five-game winning streak started with two power-play goals against "Winning never gets old," said the freestyle and back- stroke specialist who is one of the open swimmers on the team because of his club connections. "l think it helps motivate the team, and in But at least swimming at the high-school level adds some hm to what is usually a lot of hard work for a club swimmer like Gfroerer. who trains almost every day. Win- ning can be a salve for some ofthose aches and pains. "It's going to be a com- pletely new experience, " said the Grade 12 student. "I'll be back down at the bottom again trying to work my way up." consecutive WCSSAA title, and they now have their sights set on repeating as CWOSSA champs. Gfroerer also has bigger fish to fry as he hopes to wrap up his high-school career with a strong showing at OFSSA before heading to Kentucky next year on a full swim scholarship at the University of the Cumberland; It's no coincidence that the Siskins' for- tunes started around wheri they started “1119 cred- it goes to them.They've been putting in the blood and sweat out on the ice." "We're not entirely happy with it and we don't want the "We have some skilled people this year and it's taken some time to get it going," said Kimmel about his team's play on the man advantage, "We've had some frustrating moments and obviouslywehavealong way togoyet. Specialty-team play is especially important this year with the continued emphasis on eliminating obstruction from all levels of hockey. Stratford and wrapped up with two more against sec- ond-place Elmira. Bennett said the main attraction of swimming for his high-school team is being "Medalling at OFSAA would be the best for me, so I could leave a little bit of name here and move on to next year and start all over again," said Gfroerer, His goal is to finish out his high-school career on top, and hopefully pass the torch on to the next generation. There's already a couple of swimmers willing to take over the mantle, including fellow ROW teammate Ross Bennett who won three golds and a relay title to win the junior boys OMI title. and Wes Palmer, a recre- ational swimmer who won three golds and a silver. He's also going to the Dominican Republic for some much needed rest and relaxation during the Christ- mas break But it's funny that even when he goes on vaca- tion, he's not very far from the water. turn the team Gotivates me as well to swim faster. " with 38 of the 47 swimmers earning a ribbon IO. VII-AW MK ttt2rw.vwwohrHoi.eiG "It couldn't have worked out better for us," said Kim- mel. "They're both good lunior B goaltendem The goaltending situation has also started solidifying itself for the Siskins with Calum McCullough and Kyle Brodhagen sharing the duties after the Stratford native was picked up hom the Cullitons. Brodhagen dropped his first game of the season last Sat- urday for the Siskins after going 5-1, while McCullough has established himself as the No. I goalie on most nights kidyo be happy with it. For Palmer, swimming comes a distant fourth after football. hockey and track. He was the starting quarter- back on Bluevale's junior football team, which won its fourth consecutive title and is starting to think that win- ning a WCSSAA title is a nor mal thing for the Waterloo school. "I hope this becomes a normal thing we do at this Continued onpageZl "I do most of the events except for breaststroke," said Bennett. "I'm not really good 'at that." He even swam the indi- vidual medley in addition to his preferred strokes, the freestyle and the butterfly, to give his team a better chance at winning. "When you swim com- petitively it's more by your- self," said the Grade 9 stu- dent. "At high school it's more ofa team thing so it's a lot more fun." able to cheer on his friends, and getting that support in nemm. Continued on page 22 cuot “I! V‘s-q- In t W Pin-Id tis Valium Numb. at the