Am at e u r Sp o r t

This Month in History

Masters league priorities: players rst, winning second

The whistle blows, and John Cassidy, our 6'6" centre, comes off the floor. He tells me to go on for him. I look at the clock, look at the score, and ask him if he is sure. John replies, Its your turn. Everyone plays. Whats the issue of the score? I remember saying to myself: This man means what he says. Hes serious (about this principle). So I sub in, our team loses, but I gain some insight in both this man himself I learned about six weeks later that he was an Olympian and former Canadian national team member for ten years and how the game was to be played in the new Metro Mens Masters Basketball League. I came up with a motto for it, Friendship First, Competition Second. Cassidy and Jimmy Walker formed the Masters League in early 1987. They were both playing, and still play in the Nova Scotia Senior Basketball League (nsbbl). But, they say, a lot of guys were over 35, and werent as swift or competitive as they used to be. Secondly, and as important, was a conviction which had grown over recent years against a vulgar style of play and attitude epitomized in the American motto, winning is everything the only thing. Would players respond to another ethic? Thirdly, they wondered how many other people getting on in their years [1] who werent as competitive as they used to be, or [2] were inactive but who could be energized into active participation. The whole thrust of organized sport is focused on youth. What about when you get older?, asks Cassidy about the reason for the emergence of masters sport. Then theres this massive hype, hype, hype for professional, or spectator sport. Are we just to be couch potatoes? We wanted to see if we could develop a structure and atmosphere where ordinary players come out too. Where they feel the most important, rather than some aging super jock. Another origin of the league was the continuing success of lunch-time basketball at Dalhousie University, now in its 11th year, and at the Technical University of Nova Scotia, now in its 8th year. So, in the spring of 1987, they organized a masters tournament, the Frank Baldwin Retirement Classic. The response was so good enough to form six teams they put a notice in the paper that summer (a very small notice!) , with the first 40 who replied composing

Ones mind plays tricks with creeping age ... or dementia. And so it was this past December in a wet locker room at Dalhousies Studley Gym, as I asked a group of fellow basketball players just when our old mens league had been formed. Most were founding members. The discussion was hilarious. Answers ranged from 1978 through to the early 1990s. We referred to wedding registers, childrens birth certificates, school graduations, gyms and tournaments. No one knew. The mystery continued for several weeks and onto a Christmas Day flight west where, lo and behold, sat Walt Finden, a sometime professor of mathematics at Saint Marys. Somewhere over the Great Lakes, we finally pinned it down with the precision of science, which is another story altogether. The Metro Mens Masters Basketball League is one of Nova Scotias best kept secrets. On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, we are reproducing an article from Full Court Press, Basketball Nova Scotia, March, 1990, unearthed in a scrapbook in Grand Desert, and slightly edited for this publication. Along with elaborating the origin and features of this league, and the joy and fraternity of sport, it enunciates a simple principle: sport, arising from the people, belongs to the people by right, and should be taken back into their hands.

s Photoshop

watercolour by Bob Semple

New players are always welcome and can obtain information from Jim Walker 423-6161 Website: www.basketball. ns.ca/halifax/

ts my second game ever of basketball. There are two minutes left to go in the second half. Our team is two baskets behind.

the rosters for four teams in that first full season as a league back in the winter of 1987. The notice stated, No previous experience necessary. I had played but one game in high school, indeed, in my entire life. Not quite believing what I had read, I humbly put in my name. Ive been playing ever since. The season has expanded to about 25 weekly games with some 85 players registered. They have a phone list of some 150 or more, and are always on the lookout for more. Minimum age for playing in the Masters League is 35. But the average age of the players is over 40. There are several players in their 50s and Don Wheeler swears he is only 61. He has steel plates in both legs and can only run in one direction. Once, during a game, I asked his team-mate Darrel Clark how it was that they were passing the ball to him so many times. Basketball is a game played with five players, he replied. Wheeler also organizes two representative teams each year from the league to participate in the annual Acadia Over 40 Tournament, organized by Bill White, which attracts some 10 teams from the Valley, Truro, the South Shore and the Metro region. Wheeler and seven others function as team reps, and together with Walker, Leo Weniger, Peter Cooke and Jim Wigglesworth constitute the organizing committee. But it was Walker and Cassidys team-mates from the Dartmouth Building Supplies team in the nsbbl such as Albert Slaunwaite, Bruce Duffy, Mickey Ryan and Chip Budreski who formed the core of the league in its formative period, and who still play. Wheeler says the masters league is not designed for pros, but for anyone who wants to participate. It really doesnt matter how good or bad you are. Because its for fun, although many games can be intense, hard-fought and competitive indeed more exciting than your average nba tilt the league does not keep records of team standings or individual scores, because its not important. We have tried to balance each team, says the leagues introductory form written by Walker and handed out to each player, to the best of our knowledge so that there will be a 8-way tie at the end of league play. How well you do is a function of how well you combine your efforts with the other members on your team. Good Luck! Another important principle: players join the league first, a team second. And players are recruited. In
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s Participants in the provincial Grand Masters (Over 45) Basketball Tournament, April 2007. Seven teams participated in the annual festival organized by Paul Stacy and Jim Walker.

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PHOTO BY WAYNE FOUGERE

Atlantic Salmon once teemed up the rivers of eastern Canada in staggering numbers to spawn in an annual ritual that put the biological richness of the region on full display.

Dwindling Salmon is still king on Miramichi

BY ED STODDARD
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his flow of fish has been reduced to a dribble in the face of habitat destruction, pollution, and overharvesting. But the king of freshwater game fish still reigns supreme on the Miramichi River in the heavily-forested province of New Brunswick. At Norrads Clearwater Brook camp nestled so deep in bear and moose country that it has no electricity the gin-clear pools were alive with salmon during a recent warm summer week. I think the fishing is as good as it ever was here, said Clint Norrad, a burly oldtimer who has been a registered guide for almost 60 years. Of course it goes in cycles. You have some good years and some bad. The Miramichi continues to produce good runs because of the sheer size of its watershed and the vast stretches of relatively undisturbed forest habitat that it passes through. But Atlantic salmon populations from Scotland to Maine are in sharp decline, and there are even concerns for the Miramichis population. According to one estimate, the number of wild Atlantic salmon returning to North American rivers fell from 1.5

illustration by Mike Vavra

million in 1975 to 350,000 in 2000. Other estimates are more dire. The Atlantic Salmon Federation says that between 1994 and 1999, the number of adult fish available to return to North American rivers is estimated to have dropped from around 200,000 to 80,000. Local threats include hydroelectric power generation, urbanization, and upland land use such as agriculture, mining, or forestry practices, said Peter Cronin, manager of the fisheries program at New Brunswick's Dept of Natural Resources. The primary reason for the decline is still not known, he said. Forestry practices such as clear-cutting reduce shade cover for feeder streams, which means water levels drop faster than usual sometimes to dangerously low levels in hot summers, which rob salmon of crucial oxygen. Other fisheries in the region are also in crisis, pointing to widespread and related problems. Eastern Canadas cod fishery collapsed over a decade ago. Because of the pristine conditions they require for survival, the Atlantic

salmon is regarded by biologists as an indicator species, meaning its abundance or scarcity can be a good indicator of an ecosystem's health. From that perspective, eastern Canada's rivers with a few notable exceptions such as the Miramichi are in trouble, giving the lie to Canada's global image as an oasis of unsullied northern wilderness.

Famed fighters
The Atlantic salmon has become more of a poster species than cod because of its renowned fighting abilities. Britain's royal family are enthusiastic salmon anglers. Fly-fishing is the only legal way in these parts to take an Atlantic salmon. Weve had great fishermen come here and catch nothing. A salmon has no respect for a person, said Miramichi guide Weaver Amos. A big salmon can strip all the line from a reel in a matter of seconds while taking acrobatic leaps that can make even a seasoned angler's pulse race. Set this against a backdrop of towering pines, soaring eagles, and diving king fishers,

and fishers may feel they have stepped back to an era when this region was virgin wilderness. Conservation is key, and the salmon fishery is heavily regulated with no commercial harvest. For sports fishers, the rules are strict: flyfishing only with limits even placed on catch and release. Anglers are only allowed to land four fish a day, even if they release them all. This is because it is easy to mishandle a fish and some released salmon are believed to perish. Only one fish per day may be taken home to the dinner table and then only grilse, young salmon who cannot measure more than 63 centimetres long. This is because the bigger fish have more eggs. Many of the best pools on the Miramichi are privately owned, thereby restricting access. This has obvious conservation benefits but does not sit well with everyone in a rural region with an egalitarian streak. Most rivers in neighbouring Nova Scotia are closed to salmon fishing or are strictly hook and release. Only a few rivers in some of the remoter parts of Quebec and Newfoundland can compare to the Miramichi. Anglers across the region hope the salmon comes back, which would be a good sign for the overall health of the regions environment.
Ed Stoddard is a Reuters journalist with over 15 years experience specialising in political, current and environmental affairs. H He now reports f from and lives in the US. A native of Dartmouth, Ed is a Masters history graduate of Dalhousie and an avid fisherman and birder.

fact, on an individual level, the recruiting is surprisingly active. But the new player is recruited to the league, and in this way participation of the individual is enhanced and strengthened. After the first couple of games, players may be traded in order to balance teams. Games are played according to fiba rules, with some notable exceptions. The Masters League tries to keep play as clean and as sportsmanlike as possible. Thus, only four fouls are allowed and, to save time during the game, no foul shots are taken, with a point added to the score of the team which has been fouled, if in the act of shooting, or possession. Games which end in a tie are settled with a shoot-out foul shots by all players. After a brief experiment with players volunteering to referee, games are now played with a paid referee. But its not uncommon for players to call their own fouls or to point out to the ref that, in fact, the ball had gone out off their hand. You (players) keep the game in perspective, is a recurring theme of many comments by officials, after reffing their first game. In this context, many players were astonished earlier this year at the first altercation, with two players receiving technicals (one game suspensions). Indeed, says Leo Weniger, our most important award is for the player who everyone thinks has added the most to others participation and friendship. The other important award is for the most

improved player. These are judged by the players at a season-ending social evening. The ethic of increasing and improving the quality and level of play and participation is expressed in a number of creative initiatives.

Coaches Clinic
The leagues first coaches clinic has held last December in place of the regularlyscheduled game. Its theme: you are never too old to learn new things. Carolyn Savoy of the Dalhousie Lady Tigers, together with her assistant coach, Doug Partridge and player Angie MacLeod, who tried out for the national womens team last year, enthusiastically ran the players through two hours of drills in such fundamentals as warm-up exercises, dribbling, shooting, and inside power moves as well as aspects of team defence. Some 20 players one quarter of the membership participated. When Ms. Savoy first received the invitation to coach, she was intrigued: Ive conducted clinics all over the province and Canada, but never with a group of men older than myself! For her part, she distributed Dal passes and posters to all the participants. The evening finished with a most amiable social function where Carolyn was presented with several gifts of appreciation.

family day was inaugurated last year with some 35 family members of all ages from three to sixty spanning three generations, participating in a program of games and competitions, basketball and swimming, work and fun. This year, the programme is being deepened, and will commence with a coaches clinic, with Ms Savoy, in which the parent and child participate together in a learning activity. Along with this, the Masters League is extending an invitation to all players whether they are members or not, to participate, including women masters players (over 30). This may also assist in the development of co-ed games. Our family day stems from seeing the number of kids who would come out to watch their fathers play its usually the other way around! So, they would take part in warm-ups, cheer and we would encourage them to help out with scoring and timing. One time, our team was short and we got Chip Budrewskis son to play. And another concern was to extend the field of social activity beyond the locker-room, as well as a concern for the family.

an activity, we dont try to shoot beyond our possibilities, to do too much. And it works. Thirdly, the League has tried to keep a low profile, neither chasing after the media for publicity nor spending time begging for corporate sponsorship. Fourthly, the Leagues democratic spirit is shown by the fact that the major controversies usually follow the few unpopular decisions which are not wellfounded, such as suspending games on the evening of the American Super Bowl, or are poorly explained and communicated. It is said by the sports media that the time of true amateur sport has passed with the dying out of the Victorian era. But the Metro Masters League is proceeding on the course of the best sporting ideals of amateur sport. Its stability, vitality and dynamism are clear and concrete proof of this. These fundamental features of amateur sport will be carried forward through ever more active participation, cooperation and expansion amongst the population base of the metro region and the province itself. Tony Seed
2007 Update. The league has expanded to 12 teams and 108 players who play 21 games. Fifteen are over 60; Darrel Clark, at 69, is the elder. Ryan, Slaunwaite, Budreski, Cooke, Wigglesworth, Walker and Seed still play. Cassidy was inducted into the NS Sport Hall of Fame in 2005. On Labour Day weekend, his family holds the Sandy Young Memorial Tournament in Grand Desert, honouring a former team-mate and Nova Scotias leading amateur sports historian. Don Wheeler has tragically passed away, as did Duffy who became a referee and Weniger who turned to bridge.

Self-Reliance
Of special importance are the organizational principles followed by the Masters league. It tries to actively implement the principle of self-reliance, of organizing on the basis of ones own efforts. Secondly, adds Jim Walker, weve learned to try and keep things simple. When we have

The Annual Family Day

To be held this March 25 from 1-5 pm. The

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