SPORTS | 11
THE OBSERVER | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2016
GALEA: Staying sharp is usually a good idea, but sometimes requires caution ... and band-aids FROM | 9
Even now I shudder at the thought. As I said, I got off relatively unscathed though. In fact, I only had one wound that would have been considered mortal before the advent of modern medical practices – I cut my ring finger just a little. To be clear, when I say just a little what I mean to
say is this year, Jenn didn’t ask me if I arrowed a deer in the house. Last year, was much worse. I had matching band-aids on all five fingers of my right hand – and two on my left – and it got even worse after I finished sharpening the knives. And therein lies the problem. You see, the hunter who wishes to butcher his own deer doesn’t do it to save
money. He or she does it to justify money spent on sharp knives, sharpening apparatus, butcher paper, a grinder, sausage maker and a state-of-the-art firstaid kit. My sharpening process goes something like this. I begin with a scary sharp knife. I know it is scary sharp because I typically cut myself with it after checking it for scary sharpness.
After I have returned from Emerg., I realize that the act of me cutting myself might have done something to deteriorate that knife’s keen edge. So, I get my electric knife sharpener going and sharpen the blade with a coarse, medium and fine belt. This is followed by a few passes on the strop. Then, after shaving the hair off of my arm to ensure the knife is sharp, I go
to the drug store to buy additional medical supplies so I can staunch the bleeding and some Rogaine, so I can try to grow that hair back before Jenn gets home. This is the standard procedure I go through for my skinning, boning, and slicing knives, before, during and after the butchering process. But, as I said, this year was a miraculous year in
that no blood transfusions were required. I did my butchering without any lasting physical harm. I might have to deal with a little post traumatic stress disorder, however – but only because I forgot to clean the blood from my cut out of the bathroom sink before Jenn got home. Also, the UPS lady will not be coming back any time soon.
Flat play, penalty woes put damper on Jacks’ weekend After winning just one of three, Wellesley now looking to step things up against divisional leaders LIZ BEVAN IT WAS A ROUGH-ANDTUMBLE weekend for the Wellesley Applejacks, who paid the price for all of the whistles and penalties en route to taking just two points from three games. After losses to New Hamburg (5-2) and Norwich (54), the Jacks finally broke out to romp over Burford by a score of 8-1. Starting out the weekend, trips to the box set the pace in New Hamburg on Friday night, as the Jacks were unable to get much going while playing shorthanded much of the evening. “We just have to stay away from that stuff. We spent a lot of energy killing penalties that night, and we never really recuperated from that,” explained head coach Brad Gerber. “Things just didn’t really go. We made it 3-2 midway through the third, but we just didn’t seem to have the energy that night to pull it off.” The boys spent a combined total of 18 minutes out of the first period in the
penalty box on calls like roughing, crosschecking, interference and fighting. The Firebirds were able to capitalize. The Jacks hosted the Norwich Merchants the following night, and once again, Gerber says the guys just couldn’t get it right. “It was the same kind of thing. We just didn’t come out on the ice with the work ethic that we need,” he said, adding that he knows the team is capable of more. “We didn’t create the chances, Norwich outworked us. I thought we played only about 10 minutes that night, and we lost 5-4. It just goes to show, that if we play the way we talked about, and how I know we can play, we will be fine, but we have to bring that ethic every night or you aren’t going to win in this league.” Sunday afternoon’s matinee game was a completely different story. The Jacks turned it around and managed to salvage two points from their three-game run last weekend. Gerber says he was pleasantly surprised by the work
The Wellesley Applejacks lost the first two games of the weekend before bouncing back in a big way on Sunday afternoon to defeat the Burford Bulldogs 8-1. [LIZ BEVAN / THE OBSERVER] the team put in against the Burford Bulldogs on home ice. The final score was 8-1 in favour of the Jacks. “When you have a threegame weekend, sometimes you worry about the third game a little bit with energy levels and guys getting tired, but we played with a
lot of energy,” he said. “It was a nice surprise, and we finally got rewarded with some pucks going into the net for us. We were happy to get at least two points out of the weekend.” Sunday’s afternoon game was the last home game for the Jacks for a little while,
with the Wellesley arena hosting the International Silver Stick tournament this coming weekend. But, soon the Applejacks will be back on home ice for nearly the rest of the regular season. “It is a long time on the road. We have played a
lot of road games already, and after this little stretch here, we only have two or three more road games to go, compared to 10 or 11 at home,” said Gerber. “We are looking forward to getting through this part of the schedule. We had a really busy November. We played lots of hockey in lots of three-game weekends. Then hopefully, we can get some good home wins going there.” During their weekend on the road, the Jacks will be visiting the top two teams in the division, Ayr and Paris. Gerber says the team is prepped for the upcoming challenge. “Ayr are in first place, and we are finally starting to get healthy and getting guys back from suspensions. It is a good challenge for the guys, it really is,” said Gerber. “We talked to them a bit about it after the game on Sunday and more at practice on Wednesday. I think the guys are excited. We have the two teams that are ahead of us, and hopefully we can make up some ground.”
WOOLWICH SEES PLENTY OF HOCKEY AS WILDCATS HOST BIG TOURNAMENT
More than 40 peewee and bantam hockey teams were in Woolwich Township last weekend for the annual Woolwich Wildcats Weekend tournament. Teams from across the province played games at the WMC and the St. Jacobs arena. [LIZ BEVAN / THE OBSERVER]