Team Canada Alumni Association NEWsletter – SPRING 2012 Frank Prazak/ Prazak HHOF-iIIHF/Images on Ice/ HHOF-iIIHF/Images Wayne Gretzky Gordie Howe Gordon Renwick Jean Béliveau Cassie Campbell-Pascall The Team Canada Alumni Association Registration Update: The Team Canada Alumni Association (TCAA) was founded Where We Want To Be – Our Vision: Team Canada Alumni – Coming Together, to help connect alumni with former teammates and offer alumni opportunities Reaching Out. to help Hockey Canada grow the game and make the best sport in the world Why We Want To Go There – Our Mission: To engage, encourage and enable accessible to all Canadians. With over 1,200 alumni in our database we want Team Canada alumni to maintain a lifelong relationship with Hockey Canada to be sure that we have updated email addresses, mailing addresses and phone and our game. numbers of all our alumni, so invitations can be sent for special TCAA offers, news and alumni gatherings. Please register (no cost) with the Team Canada alumni Who We Will Be Along the Way – Our Values: We are committed to honouring administrator Norm Dueck, who oversees the alumni association’s activities, at Canada’s international hockey heritage, assisting with the growth of Canadian hockey [email protected]. and pursuit of international hockey excellence for Canada, while providing an opportu- nity for our alumni to reconnect and celebrate the game and their experiences. These objectives will be within a spirit of teamwork, inclusion, integrity and service. ❚ Message From Gord Sherven, TABle of Contents CHAIR OF THE TEAM CANADA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Back On Track: Brad Marsh bikes across Canada for Boys & Girls Club ..............2 ADVISORY COMMITTEE Gold Medal Memories: Carey Wilson reflects on winning the 1982 IIHF World Junior Championship......................................3 Welcome to your Team Canada Alumni Association (TCAA) newsletter for spring 2012. Congratulations to Canada’s National Women’s Team for their exciting overtime Recent Events Summary ................................................4 gold medal win over the Americans, and also to Jean Béliveau, Cassie Campbell- Upcoming and Past Events ..............................................5 Pascall, Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Gordon Renwick, who will be the first distinguished honourees to the Order of Hockey in Canada. These inaugural recip- The Big Game: Fantasy face-offs give fans the chance to take on their favourite Team Canada alumni ..................................................7 ients will be recognized at the Hockey Canada Foundation (HCF) Gala on June 25 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. A Decade To Remember: Canada celebrates ten years at the Hockey players have always been known for giving their time back to their com- IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship ...................................8 munities. Team Canada alumnus Brad Marsh is one of them, as he is in the midst Hockey Canada Condolences: In Memory of Don Johnson: 1930-2012 .............9 of completing a special 90-Day Challenge – a physically and mentally demanding coast-to-coast bicycle trek to raise both awareness and funds for the Boys & Girls Hockey Canada Condolences: In Memory of Paul Cyr: 1963-2012.................9 Club of Canada. Good luck Brad! Golden Experiences: Wallin brings POE success to U18 coaching position...........10 Enjoy the great alumni articles and updates of Hockey Canada and Hockey Publisher: Hockey Canada Canada Foundation events! Contributors: Chris Bright, Debbie Elicksen, Gord Sherven, Hockey Canada Communications Thank you, Alumni Advisory Committee: David Andrews, Chris Bright, Norm Dueck, Mike Murray, Terry O’Malley, Tom Gord Sherven Renney, Gord Sherven, Ryan Walter Chair, TCAA Advisory Committee ❚ Alumni Administration: Norm Dueck ❚ [ 2 ] BACK ON TRACK Brad Marsh bikes across Canada for Boys & Girls Club by Kristen Lipscombe He has represented his country on the ice, and now he’s biking across his “It’s a lot of freakin’ kilometres,” he said with a chuckle of the difficult trip, country – through rain, snow, and whatever terrain comes his way. acknowledging many are likely wondering, “What the heck is Brad Marsh doing!?” Team Canada alumnus Brad Marsh (London, Ont.) is on a mission. Not only to suc- But as he battles his way from mountains to lighthouses, Marsh is confident cessfully complete his current 90-Day Challenge, a physically and mentally demand- he’ll succeed in his eighth straight 90-Day Challenge. That’s because before he ing coast-to-coast bicycle trek, but also to raise both awareness and funds for the chose to challenge himself on behalf of his favourite charity, Marsh faced an Boys & Girls Club of Canada, a charity that creates safe, supportive environments for uphill battle of challenging himself, and made it back up to the top. children so they can build positive experiences, relationships and life skills. “When I started my first 90-Day Challenge, I was physically, financially and Marsh, whose own philosophy is to, “work hard, do your best, have fun,” has mentally bankrupt,” Marsh says on an online video, calling it “the beginning of the long had a soft spot for the Boys & Girls Club. end,” for him. He decided to re-start. “We do a lot with the Boys & Girls Club in Ottawa, and so I was just talking “My first 90-day Challenge was in June of 2010, and it was more or less to lose to the people that run the show there, and they were telling me how much it weight,” he told Hockey Canada. “Every 90-Day Challenge, I up the ante … so here flies under the radar,” Marsh, current president of the Ottawa Senators Alumni I am doing a monumental 90-Day Challenge.” Association, said May 7, while taking a bicycling break in Edmonton, Alta. “So I Now, Marsh promotes 90-Day Challenges of all sorts, whether he’s doing it for said, ‘Well, let’s do something to change that.’ ” himself or helping others reach their own personal goals. Marsh, who capped off a 15-year NHL career in the nation’s capital, and his “If you’re in my position, get off the couch and do something about it,” Marsh, fellow Sens alumni became regular supporters of the Boys & Girls following the who won a silver medal at the 1977 IIHF World Junior Championship, a bronze death of former professional hockey player and local sports broadcaster Brian medal at the 1978 IIHF World Junior Championship and also wore the red and Smith, who was randomly gunned down outside the television studio where he white at the 1979 IIHF World Championship, advises fellow Team Canada alumni. worked on August 1, 2005. Brian “Smitty” Smith had attended the Boys & Girls “And if you don’t have a charity of your choice, then by all means, please look Club as a youngster, and volunteered there in his later years. at the Boys & Girls Club,” he said. “The kids would love to … play a game of floor “So it was easy to get involved,” Marsh said. “It’s just grown and blossomed hockey against you.” from there.” To support Marsh on his 90-Day Challenge across Canada for the Boys & Girls His incredible cycle across the country started April 25 in Vancouver, B.C., and Club, follow his journey at www.Twitter.com/BradMarshNHL or will continue until he reaches St. John’s, N.L., in July. The 10,000-kilometre journey bradmarsh90daychallenge.blogspot.ca. includes stops in several major Canadian cities, where he’s visiting kids at the Boys & “Perhaps, in the future, people will consider donating to the Boys and Girls Girls Club, and even picking up a stick to play a little floor hockey with the star-struck Club,” Marsh said. “Or more importantly, getting involved in the mentorship role, youngsters. He is accompanied by son Erik, one of four children with wife Patty. and in helping out through volunteering.” ❚ Team Canada Alumni Association – Newsletter – SPRING 2012 HockeyCanada.ca/HCF [ 3 ] GOLD MEDAL MEMORIES Carey Wilson reflects on winning the 1982 IIHF World Junior Championship by Debbie Elicksen He’s not your usual Team Canada pick. Carey Wilson (Winnipeg, Man.) is the In 1982, the Soviets were pushing for hockey supremacy. For Canada, the only person to have played in the Canadian Hockey League, Division 1 European emotions from the 1972 Summit Series were still strong, but as a team, it was hockey, NCAA and with Canada’s National Men’s Team before stepping foot into hanging on. The players’ impression was they hoped they wouldn’t embarrass the pros. themselves. Sweden and Finland were also strong. Wilson only spent a year in junior hockey before his freshman season at The Soviets were favourites ahead of Canada, and the Boxing Day match in Dartmouth College. His team was third in the nation, and then the following year, Winnipeg was one of the most anticipated. Nobody had high expectations for it didn’t make the playoffs. He was drafted after his freshman year but opted to Canada to win, but that all changed when they scored a 7-0 win. play in Finland, where he thought he would improve his professional chances “To say we believed at the start that we had a gold medal team, realistically, after the uncertainty of two college seasons. I’m not so sure,” Wilson said. “There’s always that, well, if everything just comes “Back in Canada, I’m sure nobody had ever heard of me, but when the World together, we can do well. We weren’t the top seed.” Juniors came up, there were a few people in my court,” Wilson said. After the Boxing Day game, the team headed to Minnesota, where its only “I know, for one, the president of the Finnish Hockey League called the entourage at the time was administrators, family, and friends. It was not a bus- Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and said, ‘This kid Wilson, if he can’t make load, either.