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Rangers celebrate 50th anniversary
BY SEAN DURACK
FEBRUARY 6, 2008 04:51 PM
The Greater Toronto Hockey League's (GTHL) Goulding Park Rangers Hockey Association is celebrating a monumental milestone this 2007-'08 season.
The Rangers, who use Goulding Park Community Centre for home ice and take in House League, Select and GTHL rep players, have laid claim over the years to the likes of Stephen Weiss and David Nemirovsky (Florida Panthers), Paul Coffey and Peter Sarno (Edmonton Oilers), Greg Koehler (Carolina Hurricanes), Bujar Amidovski (Philadelphia Flyers), and Bernie Nicholls (L.A. Kings), among many, many others that have gone on to further successes after laying their hockey footings in the community.
The Rangers, which also provide summer baseball programming, added a triple-A side to its banner in 1995 and have, with some reliability, iced some tough representation into the system. There are just 12 organizations with triple-A status within the GTHL right now.
The Rangers, under the headship of president Brant Snow, vice-president Wally Turner and GM Byron Waldon, include roughly 1,000 skaters currently, and boast more Carnation Cup titles (league championships) at the Juvenile level than any other minor hockey outfit in the GTHL.
Turner, a part of the community and the 1,000-member Goulding Park Rangers for two decades, confesses he'd much prefer sitting in on a minor hockey game over watching the often disgraceful Toronto Maple Leafs. His children have long grown and moved on, and he now calls all skaters within the Goulding Park association "my kids."
Turner, who regularly played pick-up as a kid with former Montreal Canadiens goaltender and local native Ken Dryden and his brother Doug, is yet another working example of someone who was drawn to the league in a bid to make an impact and never looked back.
The Toronto-born and Manitoba-raised father of two sons was introduced to the association through a neighbour, and has at one time or another coached both his boys at numerous levels.
"I'd rather be involved than stand around and watch," he says from the bustling Goulding Park Community Centre, the Rangers' home rink.
"I believe when you have kids you should make sure to be involved. I don't believe that you should look at it (minor hockey) as a baby-sitting enterprise," he said, adding many people see it that way.
Though tending to the association has had its personal burdens, the financial advisor-by-day wouldn't change a thing. Putting in 25 hours a week, 52 weeks a year has been well worth its tolls. "I love the kids, I love hockey and I love being involved...somebody has to do it."
The west-end Toronto association, he said, has had its troubles in recent years recruiting volunteers, something that continues to weigh down the program and other non-profit minor hockey operations in the city - particularly when others are recruiting by offering attractive incentives such as waived registration fees.
"We just can't compete with that," Snow said.
The demographics from where the association draws its representation from is always changing, Snow explained, which is another factor the executive, parents and players continue to adjust to.
"But we're alive and well, that's for sure," Turner interjected.
Both Turner and Snow, who is another long-standing volunteer, talk about the constructive influence the sport instills in young minds. The pair talks about the overwhelming sense of fulfillment when a former player goes on to other successes - usually outside of the hockey arena - and then returns to help others within the association.
"It's a big thrill when they don't forget where they come from...it's really a sign of success (for the association) and it makes it all worthwhile," Snow said.
Snow, who was also recognized with the George Chamandy Memorial Trophy back in 1985 for his efforts in promoting and fostering minor hockey in Toronto, said Turner is a model for other volunteers to look to.
"He's one of those people whose kids went through the system, like so many parents, but he's still here...He has never lost interest and it is all for the kids.
"People like Wally are a dying breed around here, and he is a big reason why the organization is as good as it is."
On the subject of new volunteering trends within the Toronto association and the Toronto minor hockey league, Snow said the City of Toronto imposes too many expectations on volunteers now.
"They (the volunteers) give a lot more to the city than the city gives to them, that's for sure. The city just needs to be more a part of all of this," he said.
There is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3,500 volunteers - from team coaches to snack bar staff - overseeing about 43,000 kids within the Greater Toronto Hockey League, ranging from house league, select, single-A, double-A and triple-A.
League president John Gardner, who has been at the helm of the GTHL minor hockey system since 1975, said administering the GTHL becomes more difficult every year, particularly in the way of signing on personnel for the inglorious behind-the-curtain roles.
And as seasons pass, according to Gardner, a trend is slowly taking shape: fewer and fewer volunteers are taking up more and more responsibility. And some jobs are easier to fill than others.
"I suppose getting a coach (to volunteer) is a bit easier, because they get to work directly with the kids. But when you get into a general manager job, or some of these other positions that involve a lot of problem-solving, it gets tough. It's definitely a thankless job."
The Goulding Park Rangers Association is ringing in its 50th year with a celebration at Renaissance Parque Banquet Hall at Hwy. 7 and Jane Street. For more info, visit www.gouldingparkrangers.com.
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