Bad boy, meets Lil' fan

Page 12

Scott Kile of North Bay Minor Hockey and head coach and organizer of the Lil' Centennials Hockey for Beginners in North Bay picked 16 children aged four to six to form two hockey teams, which played against each other for a five-minute period at North Bay's Memorial Gardens Arena during the first intermission of Eddie Shack's Battle of the Badges. NHL bad boy Dave "Tiger" Williams was playing for the North Bay Police Services hockey team.

Shaiyena Cote had just graduated from the Lil' Centennials hockey program on March 9 after playing her first year of hockey. She was among the 16 children picked to play, only two of which were girls.

"It was really fun, I wasn't nervous. I got a break away but I didn't score. Nobody did. The only thing, it was too short a hockey game. I wanted to play longer. My dad really likes 'Tiger' Williams so I got my picture taken with him. He was really nice and gave me an autograph too. I told him that I was going to win the Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal in hockey when I grow up. He told me to keep playing hockey and that I played good. He called me 'sweetie' and patted my head. When we skated out on the ice the hockey players all held their sticks over our heads and we skated under them. We even got to use the Centennials' (North Bay's former OHL hockey team) dressing room."

The Toronto Police hockey team beat the North Bay Police Services hockey team 7 to 2.

In the April 2002 edition of Ontario Birchbark, under the heading Bad boy meets Lil' fan, AMMSA publications should have credited Abby Cote for taking the photo and, at minimum, should have provided Cote partial credit for writing the story. Contributor Cathy McCarty tells us she did not write this story, although she received credit for it at the time. There is no indication that any of the information provided in the piece was in any way incorrect. We apologize for any confusion this matter may have caused our readers.