Playoff hockey, new residents, and updates from a few old friends
In every hockey rink in Canada, usually hanging above the centre ice surface, is what drives competitive hockey, the acknowledgement of achievement represented by banners and pennants won. While camaraderie, sportsmanship, and team play are the backbone of all hockey, focused coaching, scores of games, and innumerable practices are geared to making elite players and teams capable of competing at a high level.
If it's spring break and your team has qualified through six months of hard-fought zone competition it's time for “The Provincials.” Teams qualify geographically, by age, tier and skill level. This year Fort St. John is hosting the U13 Tier 2 Provincial Championship.
Two weeks ago, the West Vancouver Thunder and the Hollyburn Huskies played for the Pacific Coast Tier 2 zone pennant. In a hard-fought game, the Huskies eked out a 5-4 win with the Thunder and nearly tied the match as they swarmed the net for the last minute.
There is a Lions Bay connection here as both teams qualified for the Provincial Championship. Playing right wing and centre respectively for the Thunder are Ethan Pappas and Zack Vassilev, while Jonathan McLaughlin is a right winger for Hollyburn. On Sunday both teams played and won to start the tournament. Monday morning, they played against each other. While outshot by the Huskies, the Thunder won 4-1 with Ethan scoring the first goal for the Thunder and Zack the third. The Huskies took the loss out against another team in the evening game, winning 13-1 with Jonathan scoring.
Round robin competition continues with the Championship game to be held Wednesday night.
Welcomes
There are several new Villagers since I last wrote. Welcome to Chris Stevens and Barb Parry, seen here on Christmas Day. They and their cat Murphy will be moving to Isleview shortly. They lived in the Dollarton area for over thirty years but density and traffic has taken a toll and Lions Bay provides a smaller and quieter place to enjoy their retirement. They are excited about the move and look forward to greeting family members at their new home.
New to Crosscreek Road are William Yang and his family. They moved here because they considered us a small, quiet, and friendly community.
A few new arrivals have chosen not to share personal details but passed along how everyone has been extremely welcoming and how much they love their new neighbourhood.
Updates
Last week another Village office member left our employment, bringing the total to 11 departures during this Council’s time in office.
In an earlier article, I noted that former Public Works Manager Nai Jaffer now supervises 75 staff and manages operations and maintenance for 206 parks in the District of North Vancouver (DNV), trails, community plazas, and the Deep Cove anchorage area. I can advise that former Chief Financial Officer Pamela Rooke is now the Manager of Finance for North Vancouver Recreation and Culture which services the operations of 13 recreation centres.
Former Chief Administrative Officer Peter DeJong has been the Corporate Officer for the City of New Westminster for the past year, but at the start of the month Peter joined the City of North Vancouver as their Corporate Officer. A move closer to home for him.
Wishing everyone a happy arrival of spring.
Wow, by our former staff member's new employment, it's obvious they were all highly qualified individuals. Our village's loss.
Lions Bay had such talented, educated, and dedicated staff. Then Council fired our CAO. Our long time CFO, WM, works staff and office staff left. I'm glad our previous amazing staff are finding the success they deserve but I wish they were still working for us. They were all high caliber and committed to Lions Bay long term.