Tag: sports

World Cup viewing parties could cost Port Moody big bucks

Port Moody is considering whether to spend up to $355,000 to host public viewing parties for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

That’s the most expensive of several options for viewing events to be presented to council at its meeting Oct. 14.

In a report, the city’s manager of cultural services, Karen Pighin, said the budget for public viewing events at Rocky Point Park that would attract up to 2,000 people to watch matches on a large outdoor screen would start at $130,000.

But that would only cover three games.

Adding a family-friendly activation zone would cost an additional $10,000, she said. Five outdoor viewing events would raise the cost to $203,000 plus another $11,000 for the activation zone.

Showing 10 matches on the outdoor screen, including the semi-final, bronze and gold medal finals, would cost $314,000, with another $13,000 to add the activation zone.

The cost for hosting the viewing events in a large tent in the park that can accommodate 250 people would range from $114,500 for three matches and no activation area to the maximum proposed budget of $355,000 for 10 matches plus the family area.

Hosting the viewing parties at the outdoor amphitheatre behind city hall, as well as the nearby parking lot and warm-up field, would cost anywhere from $800,000 to $219,000 and if the events are held in the curling rink at the recreation complex, the costs range from $35,000 to $134,000.

No sponsorships allowed

Pighin said FIFA rules won’t allow the city to recoup any of its costs for the viewing parties through sponsorships, although those rules don’t apply to the activation areas.

“A separate family fun zone may be able to have sponsorship attached where the physical location is set in another area from the viewing site,” Pighin said in her report, adding parking revenue could also help cover costs for the viewing parties or the city could chose to cancel other events like Car-Free Day and reallocate their budgets.

Pighin said the budget estimates are still preliminary as the city doesn’t know what sort of funding might be available from the provincial government, which has put out a call to communities to join the World Cup party, nor does it yet know how much will cost to license broadcasts of the matches. Technical costs could also balloon, she added, because they depend on the scale of the viewing parties and their set-up, which “may require advance technical infrastructure.”

The budget estimates also include costs for staffing, security, policing and rental of equipment such as chairs, tables, tents, waste management and portable washrooms.

Other viewing options nearby

Pighin said while other nearby communities, like Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Burnaby and Richmond, have expressed interest in public hosting viewing parties, most are still just in the planning stages. Fans seeking a communal experience will also be able to attend the FIFA Fan Festival at Hastings Park in Vancouver as well as local businesses like bars and cafés.

Pighin said in her report some summer events in the city have already decided to scale back their ambitions to avoid conflicting with the World Cup. The Sunday summer concerts in Rocky Point Park will focus on dates in August, RibFest will run later in July, from the 26th to the 28th, and Golden Spike Days may also be truncated.

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Coquitlam hockey star defies the odds with his NHL debut

Coquitlam’s Ben Kindel has always defied the odds, according to his mom, former soccer star Sara Maglio.

Tonight, Oct. 9, the first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in June’s NHL entry draft will make his home ice debut against the New York Islanders.

Tuesday, Kindel became the fifth-youngest player in Penguins history to make his NHL debut. The 18-year-old — who’s still more than half a year away from his 19th birthday — skated on a line with veteran superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in a 3-0 win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Gardens.

Kindel’s 15:11 of playing time was fifth-highest of all Penguins’ players in the game, he won four of his five faceoffs, recorded one shot on net and blocked another.

Maglio, who was at the game in New York with Kindel’s dad, told Penguins’ team reporter Michelle Grechiolo her son always believed he was going to someday play in the NHL.

“Me knowing the statistics and the percentage, I never really let myself believe it,” Maglio said. “Not that I didn’t believe in him, but we’re realistic.”

Unlikely accomplishment

Making the Penguins roster right out of the Western Hockey League, where he played two seasons with the Calgary Hitmen, is an especially unlikely accomplishment for a kid who grew up in a soccer household.

Kindel’s dad, Steve, played for the Vancouver Whitecaps and the old Vancouver 86ers, as well as Canada’s national team. And his younger sister, Lacey, will play for the U-17 women’s national team that will play at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Rabat, Morocco, from Oct. 17 to Nov. 8.

Steve Kindel told Grechiolo his son’s love for hockey was forged watching Montreal Canadiens games on TV together, as the Habs were his favourite team.

“It seems like when he was that little kid up until now, it went by in a flash,” he said.

Not his first rodeo at MSG

Tuesday’s game in New York wasn’t Ben Kindel’s first time in Madison Square Garden. He and his family toured the famous facility in 2022 during a side trip following a spring hockey tournament in Philadelphia.

“I feel like that wasn’t very long ago,” Kindel told reporters after his debut game. “I think it’s one of the best buildings in the league. The energy in there was just unbelievable, so it was just a great experience.”

Penguins coach Dan Muse was full of praise for Kindel and fellow WHL graduate, defenseman Harrison Brunicke.

“They were poised out there,” he said of the rookies. “They were in good spots. I didn’t think that there was anything too loud the wrong way. It’s a good start.”

Kindel signed a three-year entry-level contract with Pittsburgh on July 8. In his two seasons with the Hitmen, he scored 159 points in 133 games, including a franchise-record point steak that lasted 23 games. He also played five games for Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2025 IIHF U-18 World Championship in Texas, where he scored a goal and added six assists.

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Racing to return to Coquitlam’s Westwood Plateau. Sort of

Racing could soon be returning to Coquitlam’s Westwood Plateau.

But residents of the area’s luxury homes and golfers on the greens of its palatial golf course won’t have to worry about high-speed cars careening into their backyards or disrupting their putts.

An international team of historical racing enthusiasts is building a digital recreation of the plateau’s old Westwood race track that can be used in computer simulators like Assetto Corsa.

WILLEM PETERS/SCREENGRAB A view of Marshall’s hairpin toward Deer’s Leap in a digital recreation of the old Westwood race track in Coquitlam.

Console games fuel passion

Willem Peters, a graphic designer and care attendant for the elderly in Arnhem, Netherlands, said he’s been a fan of classic sports cars and racing history for as long as he can remember, fuelled by console games like Gran Turismo.

Peters said he started recreating historic racing liveries for cars in Assetto Corsa to be raced on digital versions of legendary circuits like LeMans, Brands Hatch and Watkins Glen. 

It was while researching a classic Ferrari Dino 206 S that was once driven by late Canadian racer David Greenblatt that Peters stumbled upon photos of the old Westwood track.

Peters said the “gorgeous Coquitlam mountains vista… truly captivated me.”

He started digging into Westwood’s history, sharing it with some of his racing simulator friends.

Peters said he found an old digital recreation of the track and tried it out.

‘Each lap exciting’

“Despite spinning out multiple times, it was a very enjoyable layout to race on,” he said. “It looks deceptively simple from above, yet it has all the nuances and oddities about it to make each lap exciting.”

Looking to do the old circuit justice, Peters reached out to Sergio Loro, a fellow historical racing enthusiast who’s digitally recreated storied tracks like Nosiring and Zandvoort as well as circuits like Rouen in France and Stardust International Raceway in Las Vegas that no longer exist.

Working from old photos, videos, maps and topographical information about the surrounding terrain, Loro is able to reconstruct the base layout of the track. Details like guardrails and trackside structures are added later.

“There’s still plenty of missing info on this part of the project,” Peters said, adding the team is seeking more photos, maps, video and even personal recollections that might help fill in some of the gaps.

“To complete the 60’s look, we’ll make sure to model all the details right.”

Peters said the digital Westwood track should be ready for release on Assetto Corsa by the end of the year, with further refinements and more simulator platforms to come.

He said recreating vintage tracks gains even greater significance as many of those circuits are modernized and changed to accommodate contemporary racing or just bulldozed outright for new development.

“It isn’t just a fun playground to drive virtual cars on,” Peters said. “The loss of smaller racing venues impacts the grassroots racing communities the hardest as the modernized, high-tech race circuits of today often don’t allow the more casual, weekend racers to enjoy the tracks. It’s the closest we’ll ever likely get to getting tracks like Westwood back.”

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Port Moody’s first homegrown wrestling show is ready to go ‘over-the-top’

A year-long absence from the ring because of injury has helped birth Port Moody’s first homegrown wrestling show.

Oktober Slugfest takes place Saturday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. at Site B Community Space (3012 Murray St.).

The event heralds the return to the squared-circle of former Canadian Apex Wrestling champion Dance Daddy DeNero, who hurt his knee the last time he fought at Site B, in Oct., 2024.

But DeNero, who favours a wardrobe of garish neon-coloured spandex and outsized goggles, was far from idle during his downtime.

DeNero and his alter-ego, workshare executive Mike Arboit, decided to go their own way and form Port Moody’s first hometown wrestling promotion company, Tapped Wrestling Federation.

The TWF aims to put on four shows a year at Site B, in partnership with The Fountainhead Network as well as Brave and Twin Sails breweries.

Take control

DeNero said the time was right to take full control of his own career as well as provide opportunities for other local pro wrestlers to develop their personas.

He said like his 1980s fashion sensibilities, TWF is a throwback to the colourful characters from that era like Hulk Hogan, Randy “Macho Man” Savage and Rowdy Roddy Piper, who helped propel the sport from dingy arenas and beer halls to 60,000-seat domed stadiums.

“It’s okay to have these over-the-top characters again,” DeNero said. “It’s part of the show.”

Not that Arboit has any illusions about taking his show from the 2-300 seats at Site B to BC Place anytime soon.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Port Moody wrestler Dance Daddy DeNero, in action at a recent card at Site B Community Space.

Arboit, whose Fountainhead Network workshare space recently merged with the company that runs Site B, along with Brave and Twin Sails, said the decision to bring together the various enterprises that already share a working relationship made logistical sense.

More than a ‘side project’

“It’s a lot of work to put on these shows,” Arboit said. “It’s time to look at it more as a business than a side project.”

Of course, working out the finer details like scheduling wrestlers, crafting storylines, finding sponsors and securing insurance, didn’t leave much time for training.

To ease his way back into the ring, DeNero will form half of a tag-team duo with the White Tiger, another veteran Port Moody wrestler who’s decided to cast aside the mask that used to hide his true identity and now flaunts his distinctive long handlebar moustache in all its flowing glory.

“We’re on the same page with a lot things,” DeNero said of their partnership. “We understand each other.”

DeNero said the key to the duo finding success in the ring will be putting aside individual egos for the sake of the team

Working together

“It’s not about who does the flashiest moves,” he said. “You have to work together, know when to tag your partner in at the right moment.”

Also on the card will be “Heartless” Sharif Morrow, who’s known for his aerial manouevres off the turnbuckles and top rope, going against up-and-comer Cyrus Maddox.

As well, there will be a “hard-core match” in which combatants BJ Laredo and “Bad Man” McCann are allowed to use pretty much anything they can get their hands on and haul into the ring, like tables, chairs to trash cans, to defeat their opponent.

And, of course, given the current state of cross-border tensions, there will be opportunities for fans to boo some bad guy wrestlers from Washington state deigning to assert their authority on Canadian good guys.

“You’ve got to go heavy with what works,” said DeNero.

“It’s something the community craves,” added Arboit about wrestling’s future in Port Moody.

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Professional setbacks spur Coquitlam kicker to set collegiate records

Coquitlam’s Dawson Hodge isn’t letting professional setbacks get him down.

Instead, the kicker for the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks is getting better.

Saturday, Sept. 27, Hodge set a new school record for kickoff yards in a single game and became Laurier’s second-leading career scorer in the team’s 59-21 win over the University of Toronto Blues in Waterloo.

Hodge’s nine kicks from the tee sailed a total of 640 yards, breaking the previous record of 629 yards set in 2011 by former Canadian Football Leaguer Ronnie Pfeffer. Five of his kicks in Saturday’s game sailed deep into the Blues’ end zone for single points.

Hodge also kicked seven touchdown conversions as well as a field goal, bringing his career total points to 296.

“The guys had me working today. It was a lot of fun,” Hodge told Golden Hawks’ reporter Natasha Giannantonio after the game, which elevated the team’s record to six wins in six starts and solidified its place atop the U Sports national rankings for a sixth consecutive week.

Back to school

Hodge is in his fifth season at Laurier. He returned to the school for his final year of eligibility after failing to get selected in the CFL draft then attending training camps for the Toronto Argonauts and Saskatchewan Roughriders as a free agent last May. He kicked a 31-yard field goal in the third quarter of his lone appearance in an exhibition game, a 27-20 win by the Roughriders over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Hodge didn’t start playing football until his senior year at Terry Fox Secondary School in Port Coquitlam, after his twin brother, Brandon, coaxed his soccer-playing sibling to try his toe as the Ravens’ kicker.

He subsequently helped the team reach the semi-finals of the 2018 Subway Bowl provincial championships.

Working to hone his game with former BC Lions kicker Lui Passaglia — who also happens to be a neighbour — Hodge turned heads at a high performance kicking camp attended by some of the best high school kickers in America then enrolled for an additional year of secondary school at a football academy in Toronto.

The strategy paid off. 

Hodge was recruited by half a dozen university programs in Ontario as well as Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.

Kicking history

He opted for Wilfrid Laurier, which has a history of sending kickers like Pfeffer on to play in the CFL.

Hodge said it was a special moment when Pfeffer, who is a kicking consultant for his alma mater, celebrated his performance against the Blues.

“I have Ronnie mentoring me every day,” he said, adding Pfeffer “came over, shook my hand and said congratulations.”

In 2021, Hodge was awarded the Golden Hawks’ rookie of the year and the following season he was named an Ontario University Athletics all-star and second-team All-Canadian. The geography student is also a four-time U Sports Academic All-Canadian.

Last season, Hodge helped Laurier to its first appearance in the Vanier Cup national championship since 2005, where the team was defeated by the Laval Rouge et Or 22-17.

So far this season, Hodge has successfully hit on six of his 10 field goal attempts and all 29 of his point-after kicks. His kickoffs have sailed a total of 2,134 yards.

Laurier’s next game is Oct. 10, against the Carleton Ravens.

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Beloved Westwood track lives on in racers’ hearts

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News in Feb., 2019

Al Ores helped build the sport of car racing in British Columbia. So much so, his efforts are being honoured by the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame when he’s inducted as a builder on Feb. 28.

But the 85-year-old mechanic and racer can’t bring himself to visit the site where most of that building took place.

Almost 30 years after it was closed to make way for a golf course and luxury homes, the loss of the Westwood Motorsport Park on Coquitlam’s Westwood Plateau still cuts deeply into the heart of the province’s racing community.

“It was something very special,” Ores said of the 2.9 km track that sliced through the woods on the southern flank of Eagle Mountain.

Westwood was the first purpose-built permanent road racing course in Canada. It was constructed and operated by the Sports Car Club of British Columbia (SCCBC) to support grass roots racing and help develop young racers who were looking to step up from the go-kart track nestled inside Turn One of the eight-turn circuit. One of its most famous graduates was the late Greg Moore, who worked his way up from the karts at 10-years-old to Formula 1600 and 2000, Indy Lights and then won five races in four seasons in the Champ Car World Series before he was killed in a racing accident in California in 1999.

Ray Stec, who served as the president of the SCCBC three times, said while Westwood was geared toward the amateur racing crowd of local hobbyists and weekend warriors, the track’s unique challenges attracted some of the sport’s biggest names, like former Formula 1 world champion Keke Rosberg, Indy 500 winners Bobby Rahal and Danny Sullivan, Daytona 500 champion Bill Elliott, as well as Gilles Villeneuve and Michael Andretti in the formative years of their illustrious careers. Even the legendary Stirling Moss visited.

“The setting of the track was very technical and quick,” Stec said, recalling the often rainy conditions that made navigating the 15-degree banking of the first corner or the hump halfway along the long backstretch that was known as Deer’s Leap especially precarious and teeth-clenching. “The luminaries were all impressed with the facility. Nobody had negative comments about it.”

COQUITLAM ARCHIVES
Racers clash in one of the famous turns at the old Westwood Motorsport Park that was closed in 1990, but not before it attracted a star-studded lineup of amateur racers from across North America, and top professionals from around the world, including Formula ! champions like Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve.

Ores said the ability for amateurs to rub shoulders — and paint — with top professional racers was part of Westwood’s magic.

“You were just the average guy talking to these big time racers,” Ores said.

The hobbyist nature of the track also made it a family place, where the racers tried to keep their costs down by enlisting family members and friends to work in the pits, count laps, and keep time.

Ores said his four kids grew up at the track, helping out by bleeding brakes, or keeping time from the bleachers. All of them went on to take driver’s training at the track and his late son, Mike, raced for a stretch. Some of his grandchildren remain active in the sport.

“We were involved so much,” he said. “We lived up there the whole time in the summer.”

Westwood’s first official race was held on July 29, 1959. It attracted more than 20,000 spectators. Open-wheel Formula Atlantic cars raced there regularly from 1971 until it closed, as did sedans from the Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am series, the Players GM Challenge series and even high-powered Porsche 911s. Motorbikes, including ones with sidecars attached, held races there, and modified mud buggies churned around before the track was paved.

Ores recalled ploughing his way through two-foot snowdrifts to open the gates to the track so the Canadian military could conduct winter maneouvers there.

But as Vancouver’s urban sprawl began extending eastward towards Coquitlam, Ores said the racing community sensed the end of Westwood was nigh.

“We knew we were going to have to move,” he said, adding efforts to establish a new facility in the Fraser Valley inevitably ran into resistance.

“Even to the last year or two, we were still hopeful that the winds of politics would change and people would realize the value of the track being there,” Stec said.

When the checkered flag fell for the last time in August, 1990, it was a tough moment, said Ores, who was among the crew of volunteers who helped dismantle the track after it closed.

“We got so hooked being up there, it was like an addiction,” he said.

Stec said membership in the SCCBC plummeted from about 350 to 80 in the aftermath of Westwood’s closure. And while the club is back to around 350 members now as racers rent track time at Mission Raceway, it’s not the same.

“Racing has fallen out of the top of mind of people,” Stec said, adding the demise of high-profile events like the Vancouver Molson Indy, along with the declining interest in driving amongst young people hasn’t helped.

The Westwood track is memorialized in some of the Plateau’s street names, like Paddock Drive, Carousel Court and Deer’s Leap Place, that wind amidst the multi-million dollar homes and exclusive townhomes. But, Stec said, aside from a delivery he once made to the area, he’s had no inclination to revisit past glories on those streets.

“I just can’t bring myself to go up there,” he said. “Once the door closes, you can’t.”

Ores said he’s only visited once, to attend a friend’s memorial at the golf club.

“I went on the balcony and saw part of the pits, the way it was, and turn one, and that’s it, I don’t want to go back there anymore,” he said.

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Local high school football teams looking to make gains

St. Thomas More’s homecoming football game on Sept. 6 was just that for Knights’ head coach Jared Power.

The sports field behind the Burnaby school that hosted Notre Dame is named after his grandfather, Patrick Power, the patriarch of a family that’s been connected to STM for generations.

“It’s pretty cool and special for me to be able to head coach a program that meant so much to me as a kid,” said Jared Power, an alumnus of the school himself. “It is extra special to have the privilege to lead a team that defends its home field with my family name.”

This year’s Knights is laden with seniors hungry to improve on last season’s record of two wins and four losses followed by a quick exit in the first round of the playoffs.

But their experience will be tempered by the loss of several players to injuries even before practices started in late August.

“It feels like we have been ‘battle-hardened’ because of the setbacks the kids have already gone through,” Power said. “It should make for a team this is high in skill and motivation even if we lack depth.”

Power said he’ll be leaning on leadership from seniors like center Alex Jaspar, guard Aiken Chavez as well as running backs Milano Peloso, Tason Tran, Cristian Coletta and Steven Nicklin to ease the path into the varsity lineup for a pair of promising sophomore quarterbacks, Isaiah Smith and Ken Marasigan.

“They are very different athletes that offer very different strengths for our offense,” Power said. “It will be fun to watch them step up as young difference makers on our team.”

Tran, especially, could be a catalyst for success. He joined the football program last year after winning the provincial 100m track and field championship when he was in Grade 10.

“He will stand out an as absolute burner on the field,” Power said. “We are looking to him to be an explosive player for us on both sides of the ball.”

New Westminster Hyacks

After going 4-2 last season and reaching the third round the playoffs, New Westminster Hyacks co-coach Darnell Sikorski said his charges are ready and eager to take the next step.

“There’s a level of focus and hunger with this team that we might have lacked a bit the last few seasons,” he said. “They’re attentive and really want to improve.”

Sikorsky said the Hyacks’ strength will be its speed and versatility.

“We feel we have a group that can hurt teams in different ways.”

Leadership will come from senior quarterback Gavin Rai, who played the position part-time last season.

Sikorsky said his confidence and poise progressed during the spring season last May.

“He’s an intellectual guy who makes good decisions,” said Sikorsky of Rai.

“You can see him playing much more freely and he is letting the ball rip.”

Grade 12 linebacker Mateo McDonell is also one of the Hyacks’ biggest offensive threats running the ball out of the backfield.

Sikorsky said he’s a “fast, aggressive and versatile athlete.”

Newcomers to watch include linebacker Adriano Maranhao and wide receiver Nigel DeRasp.

Terry Fox Ravens

Staying healthy will be key to the fortunes of Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Ravens.

After a winless season in 2023, Fox improved to 3-3 in 2024 but fell short in its lone playoff game.

Ravens’ head coach Tom Kudaba said a rash of injuries late in the season sealed Fox’s fate.

“We will need to be healthy this year,” he said, adding more consistency and greater depth across the team’s lineup should help smooth the inevitable bumps and bruises.

Requiring fewer players to do double-duty on both offence and defence will also help.

“We think we will be able to stay fresher throughout the season,” Kudaba said.

Leadership will come from Grade 12 quarterback Bobby Tilley and his junior battery-mate, Ben Firth, with Grade 11 running back Cameron Seed carrying the ball and senior wide receiver Cole Samson ready to catch it.

Grade 11 linebacker Lukas Graham and senior outside linebacker Ethan Lafortune will be looked to for defensive leadership, Kudaba said.

Centennial Centaurs

Centennial Centaurs head coach Dino Geremia said his team has “growing and maturing to do” if it’s to improve on its .500 season last year.

“Building confidence and playing with confidence will be the factors that will help us make those improvements,” Geremia said.

Leading the way will be a trio of seniors; running back and safety Jasper Baron, quarterback Jacob Cusker as well as offensive and defensive lineman, Amir Ghambari.

Geremia said Ghambari has worked to improve each season.

“Amir is one of those players that has consistently gotten better and continues to just work and dedicate himself to being a great football player.”

Cusker is coming off a strong showing at the National Prospects game last spring in Hamilton, Ont.

“His leadership consistently shines through,” Geremia said.

Baron also played in Hamilton, where he finally had form after playing with a broken hand most of last season, though that didn’t stop him from making the conference All-Star team.

“He is always the hardest worker,” Geremia said.

Regular season begins Sept. 26

St. Thomas More opens its regular season schedule Sept. 26. The Knights host Carson Graham at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex West at 1:30 p.m.

Centennial plays Belmont at Gaudy Field in Victoria at 4 p.m. while the Terry Fox Ravens travel to Chilliwack to play G.W. Graham at 7 p.m.

The New Westminster Hyacks host Robert Bateman at 7:30 p.m. at Mercer Stadium.

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New faces fuel optimism for Coquitlam Express anniversary season

A few more fans might have been inclined to pick up lineup sheets for the Coquitlam Express prior to the team’s BC Hockey League home opener on Saturday, Sept. 20.

Only a handful of players from the squad that finished fifth in the Coastal West division last season and then lost its first round playoff series in six games to the fourth-place Victoria Grizzlies remain.

But Express head coach Jeff Wagner said the addition of several veterans who feel they still have something to prove makes for an enthusiastic, motivated group.

“The guys that we’ve added, they kind of have a fire in their belly,” said Wagner, who’s entering his second full season as bench boss of the Express. “There’s a lot of guys in that room that really want to win.”

The lineup revamp also meant a busy training camp for captain Cooper Wilson, who’s been charged with integrating the newcomers into the Express’ systems on the ice and culture off it.

“We play a style that some of these guys have never played before,” Wagner said. “So we just talk about the details and habits they need to do in order to be successful.”

The results through the preseason were encouraging, as Coquitlam won three of its four games.

Wagner said second-year defenseman Liam Loughery appears ready to elevate his game after his promising rookie season with the Express was cut short by an injury.

“He’s mature beyond his years,” Wagner said of Loughery, who’s from Pitt Meadows. “He’ll be a guy that we’re leaning on heavily.”

Newcomers bolster defense

Bolstering the blue line corps will be BCHL newcomers Tyler Russell, who played 27 games with the Wenatchee Wild in the Western Hockey League last season, and 18-year-old James Odyniec, the younger brother of former Express forward Joseph Odyniec.

As well, Wagner said he expects Will Distad, who scored 23 points in 27 games in his final season at White Bear Lake High School in Minnesota, to have an immediate impact in his first season of junior hockey.

“Despite our veteran presence, we really like our young guys as well,” Wagner said. “It’s a really nice blend.”

Veterans lead offense

Up front, familiar names include Nate Crema, who’s back for his third season with the Express after scoring 28 points in 45 games last year, and Carson McGinley, who contributed 17 points in 25 games after starting the season with the Vernon Vipers and then the Sherwood Park Crusaders.

They’ll be supported by veteran acquisitions like Cole Bishop, who joins the Express after two seasons with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, and Port Moody’s Luke Pfoh, who’s played for the Langley Rivermen, Cranbrook Buck and Merritt Centennials.

Christian Maro spent the previous two season with the Powell River Kings, where he scored 54 points in 80 games, while Justin Ivanusic spent time with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants and Calgary Hitmen before playing last season with Camrose and Drayton Valley in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

One rookie forward who’s likely to attract a lot of attention is Cole Bieksa.

The 18-year-old son of beloved Vancouver Canucks’ defenseman and current Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster, Kevin Bieksa, signed with the Express last February but spent much of training camp with the WHL’s Giants. He helped lead his Fairmont Prep program in Southern California to the national final last season, scoring 73 points in 55 games.

Goalie position wide open

The departure of starting goaltender Andrew Ness for Wilfred Laurier University has left that position wide open.

Ness blossomed in the Express net after he was acquired last November from the Penticton Vees, where he’d been playing a secondary role.

Wagner said he’s hoping former Trail Smoke Eaters’ backup Ryan Parker will follow a similar developmental trajectory.

Parker won 12 of the 20 games he played last season, including one shutout, and posted a .910 save percentage.

“He was part of probably one of the best goalie tandems in the league,” said Wagner of Parker. “He’s calm and he plays the puck really well so that helps our transition game.”

Also seeking time in the crease are returnees Logan Kennedy and Mitch Pearce.

Kennedy played in three games for Coquitlam last season, losing twice and allowing 11 goals, while Pearce allowed seven goals in his two appearances.

Wagner said he’s confident both will continue to progress under Parker’s mentorship.

Wagner said despite the high turnover of players, he’s setting high expectations for this milestone season.

“We’ve created a non-negotiable standard for our players to abide by,” he said. “The guys who are willing to compete and do what it takes to win are the guys you’ll see here at the end of the year.”

Express tame Grizzlies

Three goals in the third period powered the Express past the Victoria Grizzlies, 4-3, in Saturday’s season opener for both teams.

Trailing 3-1 midway through the final frame, a power play goal by Christian Maro at 12:42 sparked the late comeback.

Nolan Dupont tied it 3:09 later, then Nolan Flynn scored the game-winner with 2:45 remaining in regulation time.

Maro added an assist to lead all Coquitlam scorers.

Justin Ivanusec scored the other goal for the Express, 4:21 into the first period.

Ryan Parker stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced in the Express net, one of them a penalty shot by Victoria’s Max Silver.

Coquitlam fired 42 shots at Grizzlies’ goalie Carter Capton.

The Express host the Chilliwack Chiefs on Friday, Sept. 26. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex.

Express honours quarter-century team

As part of Coquitlam’s 25th anniversary season, the team unveiled its Quarter Century Team of distinguished alumni as voted by fans.

Forward:

  • Kyle Turris
  • Mark Soares
  • Tyler McNeely
  • Alex Kerfoot
  • Corey Mackin
  • David Jones
  • Tyler Kopf
  • Brett Hemingway
  • Massimo Rizzo
  • Brandon Yip
  • Andrew Ladd
  • Ryan Tattle

Defense:

  • Brad Hunt
  • Keith Seabrook
  • Matthew Campbell
  • Marc Biega
  • Noah De la Durantaye
  • Alan Mazur

Goal:

  • Clay Stevenson
  • Mark Dekanich
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‘He was our warrior’: Port Moody hockey player loses cancer battle

A Port Moody hockey player has lost his battle with brain cancer.

Wade MacLeod died Sunday, Sept. 13. He was 38 years old.

In a post on social media, Karly MacLeod said her husband died “in a room filled with love, surrounded by family.”

Wade MacLeod first fell ill in 2013 after collapsing while playing his second pro season for the Springfield Falcons in the American Hockey League.

Golf ball sized tumour

Doctors subsequently removed a non-cancerous tumour the size of a golf ball from the left side of his brain.

After months of extensive physical and speech therapy, MacLeod was able to resume his playing career with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies and several ECHL teams.

MacLeod, who played his minor hockey in Port Moody as well as the Coquitlam U18 Chiefs and Port Coquitlam Buckaroos before scoring 146 points in 101 games for the Merritt Centennials in the BC Hockey League, then headed to Germany.

Coming off a 61-point season for the second division Rosenheim Star Bulls, MacLeod collapsed again while preparing to return for another season in Germany.

This time doctors diagnosed a cancerous glioblastoma.

MacLeod worked to get back on the ice. In the spring of 2016 he signed with the Allen Americans. He scored 13 points in 13 games, good enough to secure a contract for the following season with Lowen Frankfurt.

MacLeod played 49 games plus another seven in the playoffs for the Lions. He scored 49 points.

Another setback

But in September, 2018, MacLeod was felled again.

Doctors removed a Grade 3 glioblastoma tumour and prescribed several rounds of chemotherapy.

The setback cost MacLeod three seasons of hockey. But it didn’t diminish his desire to play again.

“I said from the very beginning that cancer wasn’t going to be the reason I retire from professional hockey,” MacLeod said.

Working out with trainer Kai Heinonen and skating at Coquitlam’s Planet Ice with veteran NHLer Brad Hunt helped MacLeod get back into what he called the best shape of his life. In September, 2021, he and his family — that now included two young daughters — packed up for Manchester, England to play for the Storm of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League.

MARIO BARTEL PHOTO
Port Moody’s Wade MacLeod worked his way back into shape after a third setback from brain cancer.

‘Never give up on your dreams’

“The biggest thing is never give up on your dreams and always stay positive,” MacLeod said.

But after scoring just one point in seven games in Manchester, MacLeod signed with Narvik Eagles in Norway.

In June, 2023, MacLeod announced his hockey career had come to an end.

“I gave all my life to hockey and now it is time to turn the page,” he wrote on Facebook.

Months later, MacLeod underwent a fifth brain surgery. Doctors upgraded his glioblastoma to Grade 4 — the most serious and aggressive form of the disease.

Working with a medical team at Port Moody Integrated Health, MacLeod pursued alternate treatments like hyperthermia, drug and dietary therapy, as well as radiation.

“He was our warrior,” Karly MacLeod said. “Despite any obstacle he had to overcome, he faced it head-on with so much determination and never stopped smiling along the way.”

Indelible mark

MacLeod also left an indelible mark along his hockey journey.

The Manchester Storm posted a message about MacLeod’s passing on social media, “He was a true warrior, and his spirit will forever be a part of the Storm family.”

“We are heartbroken,” said Loewen Frankfurt.

In a statement on its website, the ECHL said, “its member teams mourn the loss and express their condolences to the family and friends of former ECHL player Wade MacLeod.”

The Northeastern University Huskies, where MacLeod scored 137 points in four seasons, said he “left a lasting mark on the program both on and off the ice.”

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For this Port Moody teen, basketball is the quiet game

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on June 13, 2021

Playing a game in front of a gym full of raucous, cheering fans is a highlight for most high school basketball players.

For Olivia Pero, it’s kryptonite.

The Heritage Woods secondary school senior is deaf, and though she has cochlear implants that allow her to have normal, verbal conversations, a loud gymnasium with sounds and vibrations reverberating off the walls, hardwood floor and ceiling can be overwhelming.

That hasn’t held Pero back, though. In fact, she said, it’s made her more resilient, competitive and prepared to advocate for her disability.

Pero’s deafness was diagnosed when she was just six months old. She received her first cochlear implant — a small electronic device that delivers sound signals directly into a person’s auditory nerve — shortly thereafter.

As the only deaf person in her family, Pero said it was important everyone have the ability to communicate normally, although she also knows American Sign Language (ASL).

But, she explained, the implants don’t deliver a perfect experience. Ambient noise fuzzes up the system so she has to be in close proximity and she also supplements the electronic signals that create a sense of sound by reading lips.

Achieving both of those in the frantic action up and down the basketball court, with teammates all around calling for the ball and the coach shouting plays and positioning from the bench can be a challenge, she said.

“I really can’t hear on the basketball court.”

So Pero’s adopted various coping mechanisms and worked to educate her teammates and coaches on how they can adjust to her unique needs. Some of those include getting them to enunciate very clearly and look directly her way when speaking to her. Her coach at Heritage Woods, Ross Tomlinson, uses cue cards and colour-codes plays on his iPad so she can process them visually rather than aurally.

“Yelling out plays was not an option,” said Tomlinson, who’s coached Pero since she was in Grade Five — a year after she picked up the sport at a Steve Nash camp.

“Your visual response and body language when communicating with a player is just as important as what you are saying verbally.”

Pero said her hearing disability has been both a blessing and a curse, on and off the court. The focus she’s had to learn to be able to follow conversations or absorb lessons in the classroom can serve her well in the chaos of moving bodies and waving arms during a basketball game.

But all that concentration can be wearying. By the end of a busy day at school, she’s ready to remove her implants and just settle in silence to read a book.

Pero said not being able to finish out her high school basketball career because of the COVID-19 pandemic that put the brakes on all school sports since March, 2020, has been difficult. The team continued to practice through the winter, but, she admitted, motivation sometimes flagged.

Instead, Pero said she channelled her competitive energy into her studies and she started a support group for other deaf and hard of hearing students called CoCo.

Invisible disability

She said because deafness is an invisible disability, it can be hard to get the hearing world to understand and empathize with the challenges deaf people face daily.

Connecting with other students in the school district and providing a sounding board for them to share their experiences has been an important outlet.

Pero said one challenge that’s been unique to the past year is the face-masks everyone is required to wear in school and out and about in the community because of the pandemic. They may help keep everyone safe by limiting airborne spread of the virus, but they also hide lips and facial expressions that are vital components of communication for the deaf.

Another was online learning where teachers giving lessons to a mix of live students and those watching from home still wore masks and sounds echoed around the classrooms so Pero sometimes couldn’t tell who was talking.

Starting anew

In the fall, Pero heads to Trinity Western University in Langley to study biology, play basketball and begin anew the process of educating her classmates, teachers, teammates and coaches about how best they can communicate with her.

She said the school’s reputation for small classes and inclusivity should smooth the process.

“My motto is ‘nothing is going to stop me, I’ll just find a way to make it work,’” Pero said.

“It’s my way of living in the world.”

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