Breadcrumb Trail Links
Published Dec 01, 2025 • 3 minute read
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OPENING LINES
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The Blue Jays recently shelled out $210 million over seven years to free agent pitcher Dylan Cease, formerly of the San Diego Padres. To be sure, Cease has been a consistent Major League Baseball hurler over the past five years. He may not be an elite flame thrower but he is in the upper echelon category in many areas. But he is also a contradiction of sorts. In his five years as an MLB starter, Cease just about leads all of baseball in strikeouts but, at the same time, he leads the majors in batters walked. Cease is also very dependable in that he has never missed a single start. But then there is the undependable side when it comes to the four playoff starts that Cease has made for San Diego. In fact, those numbers are really ugly — as in an earned run average of 8.74 to go with the Padres’ record in his playoff starts, which is 0-4 …
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They have a record of 7-5 and currently sit outside a wild card playoff spot in the National Football League. But I am not giving up hope or belief that the Detroit Lions are going to go on a run and sneak into the playoffs …
A lot of Lions fans are upset with quarterback Jared Goff. But if the Lions are going to make the playoffs, their defence really needs to step up. I was in Detroit for the Lions Thanksgiving Day loss to the Green Bay Packers. And the Lions defence failed to come up with a single stop when they needed one …
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SAME RULES FOR VOLUNTEERS
Being a volunteer coach doesn’t mean that he or she gets to ignore the rules, policies and procedures of a given team, league, or association. Yet, there are some volunteer coaches out there who think that they can break or ignore rules and procedures because they aren’t being paid.
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In other words, they play the volunteer card, as in, “I am not being paid so why should I follow the rules or have to answer to any one?”
In Sault Ste. Marie, there is a minor hockey coach who is under investigation for allegedly not following rules set forth by various associations. And in a terse message sent to executive members of the Soo Pee Wee Hockey League and the Northern Ontario Hockey Association, the volunteer coach in question went on and on about his years and years of volunteer service — as if, somehow, that entitled him not to be held accountable.
Personally, I know all about being a volunteer coach. I coached elementary and high school basketball in Sault Ste. Marie for 20 years as a volunteer who was never paid a penny. I coached because I loved it and never once used my volunteer status to ignore the policies and procedures of whatever school I happened to be coaching at.
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At any rate, being a volunteer coach — regardless of the sport — does not give one the right to break the rules. A volunteer coach is just as accountable as those receiving an honorarium or any sort of reimbursement.
No excuses. No exceptions.
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AROUND THE RINKS
There are five teams in a frantic race for first place in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League between the two time reigning champion Sudbury Cubs, the Timmins Rock, the Espanola Paper Kings, the Hearst Lumberjacks and the Soo Thunderbirds. And it is the small market Paper Kings and Lumberjacks who have been rather impressive in competing with the bigger market likes of Sudbury, the Soo and Timmins…
Meanwhile, there is an amazing race for first place in the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League featuring the Windsor Spitfires, the surprising Flint Firebirds, the surprising Owen Sound Attack, usual contenders in the London Knights and the Kitchener Rangers — and the on again, off again, Soo Greyhounds …
Among the elite goalies in the Western Conference of the OHL there are Joey Costanzo of Windsor, Carter George of Owen Sound and Mason Vaccari of Flint. And when he is on his game, Landon Miller of the Greyhounds is as good as anyone in the OHL … Most dominant players I have seen on the Western side of the OHL this season include a pair of forwards — Ethan Belchetz of Windsor and Alex Kostov of Flint, formerly of the Greyhounds …
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