MAY
• The War on the Shore 2 boxing event hosted by the Sunshine Coast Boxing Club at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre had all a boxing fan could ask for.
Excitement, drama, action and great story lines unfolded during the fights for the 400-plus who packed into the arena. In the main event, Marcus Baptiste of Sechelt lost a close decision to Aaron McKitrick of Kelowna.
• The Chatelech and Elphinstone secondary school golf teams were tied for second place with identical 3-1 records in the AA North Shore standings.
• The Sunshine Coast Cycling Club (SCC) hosted its annual general meeting as it prepared for another mountain bike season.
This club has a rich history and has seen many years of success and activity. But it is also a pivotal time in the club’s history — and the question of its continuation. Like many clubs and organizations, the current club executive has been looking for new blood — without success.
• Rick Cooney ran his 100th marathon on May 4 — 11 years to the day after he ran his first. Coming over the finish line in a more-than-respectable 4 hours, 18 minutes, 18 seconds, the huge grin on the 56-year-old’s face told the whole story.
• It was a moment that Kim Doerksen could only dream about. The 23-year-old distance runner from Gibsons captured the women’s title at the BMO Vancouver Marathon.
• Another fantastic weekend of mountain bike racing in Roberts Creek saw 300-plus riders enjoying the local trails for the annual Coaster race.
Local pro racer Kris Sneddon took the men’s title 30 seconds ahead of Quinn Moberg from Squamish, with Sandra Walter taking the women’s pro title.
• Coast high schools finished second and third at the North Shore golf finals at the Northlands Golf Club in North Vancouver. Elphinstone finished in second place with Chatelech third, Mulgrave in fourth and Collingwood as the clear winner, claiming the North Shore title.
• Attack of Danger Bay 13 was a huge hit up in Pender Harbour during the May long weekend. Organizers called the day one of the best race days ever held in Pender Harbour.
• The Chatelech mountain bike team finished its season in style with a pair of second place finishes between the boys and girls teams at the North Shore championships.
• Roberts Creek’s Kyla Richey helped lead Team Canada to a World Championship berth in Italy this September after Canada won the NORCECA Women’s World Championship Qualification volleyball tournament at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ont. This came after a successful second pro season she completed in Turkey.
JUNE
• Avery Struck called Texas home this September. The 17-year-old from Halfmoon Bay signed a full golf scholarship in the athletic training program at West Texas A&M University, a NCAA Division 2 school, located in Canyon, Texas, just south of Amarillo.
• The Chatelech team was small, but clearly present at the B.C. high school track and field championships in Langley.
Junior shot putter Theo Kontekakis threw 13.12m to gain Chatelech’s only podium spot with a silver medal. Elphinstone athletes were also strong. In the senior men’s 100m final, Felix Rankin finished with a time of 11.04 to pick up a silver medal.
• The best offence is sometimes a good defence and that’s exactly what turned the tide for the Sea to Sky Sirens roller derby team against the Red Tide Warning from the Sunshine Coast. Trailing 131-124 to the Coast girls with eight minutes to go, a combination of great blocking, timely defence and strong jamming saw a 23-point jam for the Sirens, and they cruised that momentum to a 189-135 win.
• The Sunshine Coast Special Olympic soccer team played in a two-day tournament in Abbotsford, coming back to the Coast with a bronze medal.
• The impact that Connor Richey had on the lives of so many people came full circle at the Sechelt Golf and Country Club in an event that raised about $10,000.
In what his mom Jan termed a “bittersweet day” 120 golfers came together at the inaugural Connor Richey Memorial Golf Tournament. There was laughter, a few tears, some great golf and lots of shared memories — all while raising money for a legacy fund that has been created in Richey’s honour.
• Gibsons resident Allan Harding was selected to compete at the 2014 XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
• Ryan Dempster was on hand on the links at the fifth annual Dempster Family Foundation Golf Tournament — with his World Series ring, which just added to an even greater day.
JULY
• The Garden Bay Sailing Club celebrated its 25th running of the Malaspina Regatta.
• Christel Jensen was burning up the laps in the pool preparing for the national Special Olympics Games at the University of British Columbia. Jensen competed in the 25m and 50m freestyle and 25m and 50m backstroke.
• The Triple Bs beat All Mitts to repeat as champions at the second annual Mitts women’s slo-pitch tournament at Connor Park in Halfmoon Bay.
• After Kris Sneddon secured his second consecutive BC Bike Race title, he was quick to credit the win to a little help from his friends. With Kona teammates Spencer Paxson and Barry Wicks joining him in the top four of the Men’s Solo Epic class of the seven-day mountain bike stage race, the Sechelt rider said their support was key to earning a repeat victory.
• The Sunshine Coast Bantam Rapids lacrosse team found a silver lining to their season last weekend in Victoria, capturing a silver medal at the 2014 provincial championships.
• BA Blacktop Bantams ended up on top at the Sechelt Minor Softball year-end tournament. In the squirt division, Claytons capped off another dominant year, defeating Star Tek in the final. In the peewee division, BC First Aid team was able to take first in the round robin and went on to down an exhausted Flemming & Sombrowski team that had to take the long route to the final.
• The Sunshine Coast Rapids peewee C lacrosse team finished another great season at the provincial championships in Richmond.
AUGUST
• The Gibsons Crusherz were bronze babies this year after a third place finish at the U19 C softball provincials in Richmond. The medal is the third in four years for the Gibsons association who battled against stiff competition despite not playing a lot of competitive games during the season.
• The Sunshine Coast summer all-star Peewee Dodgers secured a berth into the provincial championships after an undefeated 7-0 season.
• The Sunshine Coast became home to a national power lifting record holder. Pete Williams, who coaches and trains fellow athletes with coach, trainer and competitor Curtis Munson at Valhalla Gym in Sechelt, set national records in the squat, bench press and dead lift at a competition in Vancouver.
• Sechelt’s Kelila Peel won a bronze medal with the Team B.C. girls soccer team at the North American Indigenous Aboriginal Games in Regina.
• Thirty-seven teams and more than 250 participants took to the waters just off Gibsons for the 13th bi-annual Howe Sound Iron Outrigger races.
• Lon’s Gun Show earned bragging rights for the year, picking up a 7-0 win over the Brewers to claim the men’s fastball league playoff championship at Hackett Park in Sechelt.
