Horst, on behalf of all your gymnastic friends in the East, may I wish you success in you r new venture and happiness to you and your fam ily. We will miss you here but our loss is British Columbia's gain. Good luck.
CANADIAN REPORT bv Johnnv Nooney 18 Lavine:ton Dr. Weston. Ontario THE NATIONAL CHAIRMAN Mr. Raymond Gagnier, our National Chairman of Gymnastics for A.A.U. of Can· ada has been associated with gym nastics in i 'l ontreal for at least fourteen years. Hi s early gymnastic experience was !?ained while a high school student at RIchard Academy. After grad uating from the Uni· versity of Mon treal he spent 9 years as a teacher of physical educati on in the Catholic Schools of Verdun during which time he coached and promoted gymnastics. One of his outstanding contributions to the sport was discovering and developing Richard Montpetit so that Richard was able to attend the University of Michigan on one of the first gymnastic scholarships awarded to a student from the Province of Quebec. Montpetit became Canada's Nati onal Champion and an all round winner of the U.S. "big ten", In 1956, Raymond was" a member of Lew Wall er's Westmount YMCA gym team which won the Quebec-Montreal inter YMCA gymnastic meet. Ray was elected chairman of the Quebec Gymnastic Associati on in 1958-59, served as French secretary 1962-63, and was again elected to the chairm anship in 1963-64. He withdrew from this office on the Quebec Committee in order to devote his full attention to the office of National Chairman of the Canadian Gymnastic Committee of the A.A.U. in 1964. The Quebec Branch of the AAU hon ored Raymond in 1961 by the presentation to him of their Annual Award and Ci tation for ou tstanding leadership in gym nastics. Mr. Gagnier is now director of physical education for Commission Scolaire Regionale Le Royer, Montreal. He has held the position of Provincial Chairman of L'Associa tion des Diplomes en Education Phy· sique et Recreation for two years. Besides his work as an active committee member, judge and dedicated promoter of gymnasti cs, Ray is a keen follower of track and field sports and holds a black belt in judo. CONGRATULA nONS Miss Monica Lindeman, th e chairman of the National Women's Jud ging Commi ttee was awarded the C.A.P.H.E.R. prize, at the University of British Columbia this month. Miss Lindeman was first in her class. Congratulations. GOOD FRIENDS DEPARTMENT Mr. Horst Wilhelm recently left Ontario to settle in British Columbia. Horst was a dedicated worker here in the East for the Sport and being connected with eq uipment companies he was always assistin g someone, by lendi ng equipm ent or assisting in the lay-ou t of eq uipment at Meets. o
HERE AND THERE It is now finalized th e Athletic scholarship granted to Sid Jensen, Montreal, by the University of Michigan. Gary Balcombe of Saskatoon, is also being considered and according to the University of Michi gan coach, Newt Loken, everything is being arranged. Steve Mi truk, our grea t prospect from Hamilton, is considering attending the Universi ty of Michigan as well. Three of Canada's great juniors co uld-next year, be attending the Univers ity of Michi gan and don ' t let us forget Fred Romney, Montreal who is already in this University. Another excellent gym nast, Miss Diane Masse, Montreal (Palestre Nationale Club) is go in g down to Centenery College and will join Susan Mc Donnell; both are members of our Na ti onal team. Mr. Dezo Kiefer, her coach, and Sid J ensens and Fred Rodneys coach, can be justly proud of his boys and girls. This Palestre National e Club is doing tremendous work producing excellent juniors. I hope in the n ext issue to have the story of this Club. Al Pawlak, :me of our previous Canadian Junior Champions has just grad uated from Teachers College and will teach in one of Toronto's public schools. It is pretty exciting to watch our young gymnasts mature into excellent teachers and coaches. Mrs. Jan et Armstrong has been appointed to teach at 0.c.E. this summer and maybe in the fall. Janet has had a fine year with her own high school team, winning the S.O.S.S.A. championships and she gave many clinics to her fellow teachers and took time to write th e Simple High School judging procedure. Congratulations Janet. Mr. Doug Kerr, O.S.G.C.A. Presiden t, will attend the University of Oslo, Norway this summer. I know Doug will take his camera and will attend a goo d many of Europe's gymnastic camps, so come fall we can again look forward to many enjoyable evenings watching Doug's home movies. CANADIAN WINTER GAMES To date, seven provinces have informed the Corporation of their intention to participate in all the competi tions listed for the First Canadian Winter Games. British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island will send athletes to com pete in the 13 sports forming the Games. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are taking part in 12 of the ~ 3 sports while Newfoundland has decided on 10 and North-West Territories on 9. Yukon , it seems, will try to participate as fully as possible in the Games, and plans to enter teams in more than one competition . As of now, a total of 1,851 athletes is anticipated for the Games, pending the elimination of Handball and the final acceptance of "Wrestling. Air transpor tation will be provided by the Corporation for all these athletes; pick-up points to be chosen for each province and territory.
TORONTO DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIPS Recently a superb Meet was convened by Mr. Hugh Rodgers of T. L. K ennedy ColI. This was a well run meet, much above the average. I\'l any of Hugh's innovations have been adopted and will be used in n ext year's meets. This year for the first time, all competitors competed All Round and they were also area winners having won the right to compete. This improved the standard and made the meet a high calibre one, although it cut down en tries, the twenty boys com· peting should give some indication. of !he improved standard in our Ontano hI gh schools. The Individual All Round was won by B. McVey, Cedarbrae ColI. and the Team Trophy was won by the David and Mary Tompson Coli. This team was coached by Bill Symons who has been active in high school gymnastics for many years. Congratulation s, Bill. All Round: McVey, Cedarbrae 42.75; Veno David and Mary Thompson 39.85; Cam~bell, Central Peel 38.85; Arturs, Vic· toria Park 38.60. ONTARIO PROVINCIAL HIGH SCHOOL TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS Before the largest crowd to ever witness a High School meet Bawating High School, Soo Ste. Marie, superbly coached by Ed. Boutiller, cap tured the team trophy by edgin g out Glebe Collegiate, Ottawa and Trinity College of Port Hope. In true championship style Bawating won first place, on all apparatus, thus picking up 15 gold medals. Mike Zuke was the big scorer for Bawating winning the All Round, winning first in vaulting, free cal and high bar. David Russel, his team mate, had a first on pommels and finally Roger Dorion of the Bawating team made his presence felt. This is an excellent team. In compari· son to last year's winners Sir J ames Dunne also of the Soo Ste. Marie, I would consider this team having more depth and bal· ance. Over 20 school teams competed, far more than ever before and a much higher standard wh en you consider the difficult req uirements set up to eliminate the frin ge gymnast, also a separate competition for the Individual champion, thus a real team effort was necessary to win this trophy. It was obvious to all coaches and offi cials connected with high school gymnastics in Ontario that this meet is becoming the high· light of the year. Ralph Thornton's Glebe Collegiate team had a fine day as the runner up and Had· ley Armstrong Trinity College coach again demonstrated his ability to come up year after year, with a conten"der. The present hold that the Soo Ste. Marie schools have on the team trophy is, I feel, partly due to the fine competition to get from the Michigan High Schools and from attending the Summ er Clinics. It was obvious a great deal of hard work went into their perform· ances. Bawating High School were worthy cham pions. The judging was oIle aspect as laid down by the O.S.G.C.A. officials. ONTARIO INDIVIDUAL HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIPS This meet was convened this year by Mr. Jim Mc Pherson of Port Col borne and it reflected the dedication that this man has for gymnastics. This year's e n try was doubled and the representation was pro· vincial, north, south , east and west. Run· ning this meet in conjunction with O.E.A. week is in itself a feat but great credit must also go to the Phy. Ed. Dept. of Bath·