Class of 2010 Inductees
The board of directors of the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the names of five builders, five athletes and one team, all of whom will be inducted into the hall during the induction ceremonies at TCU Place on Saturday, Nov. 6.
BUILDERS
Terry Forbes has played or lent organizational skills to bowling, fastball, baseball and soccer but his most outstanding leadership skills in building a provincial and national image for broomball. He was a member of the board which established the Saskatchewan Broomball Association in 1976 and the Canadian Broomball Federation in 1977. He has been president of the Saskatoon Broomball League and longtime committee member of the annual Gold Broom tournament. He has been president, tournament chair and workshop instructor with the provincial association. Terry has been a director and secretary of the national association. In 1994, he formed a Team Canada entry to travel to Japan’s national championship and the Canadians went undefeated. He was honoured with the Sask Sport Volunteer Recognition award in 1992, and induction into the Canadian Broomball Hall of Fame in 2004.
Blaine Knoll often did double duty in sports. As an athlete, he played baseball or fastball for 16 years, football for seven, hockey for 22 years and golfed for 25 years. Equally significant were achievements as a builder. He coached high school football at Evan Hardy Collegiate where his teams won five provincial championships – 1967, 1968, 1977, 1978 and 1979. He coached wrestling at Evan Hardy for 11 years and one athlete, Bob Molle, became an Olympian. Blaine coached track and field for three years and midget, juvenile and junior hockey teams over a four-year stretch. He was an assistant coach for one year and head coach for four years with the Saskatoon Hilltops. He helped launch the Merchants softball tournament, which still exists, and the Nu-Central Oldtimers hockey tournament which ran 15 years. He has been honoured with a lifetime merit award by the Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic directorate.
Klaas Post arrived in Canada from The Netherlands in 1968 and made an impact on soccer, as an athlete, coach, administrator and official, and was also heavily involved with the Saskatoon Lions Speed Skating Club. After playing with University of Guelph Gryphons, he came to the University of Saskatchewan where he was soccer team captain in 1978, its coach from 1979 until 1981, and later an assistant coach. Klaas was active with Saskatoon United as a player and coach and was instrumental in building minor programs with the Lakewood boys’ teams from 1990 until 2001. He has been an executive with the Saskatchewan Soccer Association and committee member on national events held in Saskatoon. He has been recognized for volunteerism by Saskatchewan Sport, youth coach of the year by the Saskatchewan Association and holds an award of merit from the Canadian association.
Ron Walsh has long been active in officiating, first serving in football in 1960 and starting in athletics in 1970. In football, he officiated in all field positions in Saskatoon, was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Amateur Football Officials Association in 1975 and was executive secretary until 2005. He was assigned to the Cam-Am Bowl in Tampa Bay in 1978 and 1979, and was one of the first two Western Canadian officials to work a Vanier Cup in 1980. He was part of Canadian junior crews until 2004. Ron was honoured with the G. Sydney Halter award presented by the Canadian Football League in 2006. In athletics, he has been a starter at the Saskatoon and Saskatchewan levels, often at the Knights of Columbus Indoor Games, and named to five national championships. He was on the vertical jumps team at the 1983 World University Games and a starter at the 2001 world track and field championships at Edmonton.
Randy Warick began a career as a football official in 1976, working at all local and regional levels, growing into major roles in Canadian university and junior playoff games. He officiated in three Canadian university semifinal playoffs and the 1984 Vanier Cup game in Toronto. He officiated in two Canadian junior semifinals as well as the 1985 Canadian championship game at Ottawa. Randy was the first Saskatoon official to work full-time in the Canadian Football League, serving 1993 through 1995. He has demonstrated much versatility as a builder in sports. He coached junior football, cross-country running and curling at Saskatoon high school levels and he won an athletic directorate service award in 2004. He served on organizing committees for national track and field, junior baseball, softball and hockey championships. He has also coached minor soccer and was an organizer and official in broomball.
ATHLETES
Brian Gavlas played five seasons with the University of Saskatchewan volleyball program, capping his career in 1988 with his team winning by the Canadian men’s championship. He added to his personal laurels as CIAU First Team All-Canadian and the CIAU tournament most valuable player award. As a player at the Canada West level, he shared in three championship seasons and was twice a first team all-star. At the nationals, the Huskies gained a silver medal in 1984-85, a bronze medal in 1985-86, a silver medal in 1986-87, and then beat Manitoba, three games to one, in the 1987-88 finals. For his leadership, Brian also won the E. Kent Phillips trophy as Huskie male athlete of the year in 1988. After graduation, he taught and coached in Prince Albert before taking over the Huskie men’s volleyball program from Tom Graham, his former coach. He has led the Huskies to four Canada West titles and 10 appearances in the Canadian championship tournament, twice winning gold and twice winning silver.
Riley Janes was a dominant age-class swimmer while growing up in Saskatoon, where he started to compete with coach Harry Bailey and the Saskatoon Goldfins. He still holds 14 Goldfin club records. He also holds eight provincial records, one of them, the 100 backstroke for boys 13 and 14, also achieving Canadian record status. He joined the national team at the age of 15. After graduating from Mount Royal Collegiate, he won a scholarship at Texas A & M University where he was a champion. He competed for Canada at the 2002 world short course championships in Moscow, the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England and the Pan Pacific Games in Japan. Riley qualified for Canada’s team at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. At the Olympics, he swam on the men’s 4x100metre freestyle relay team which was ninth and the 4x100metre medley relay team which was 10th.
Melanie Sanford was an impact player with the University of Saskatchewan women’s volleyball teams, helping the Huskies to Canadian championships in three straight seasons, 1978-79, 1979-1980 and 1980-1981. She also achieved personal success, twice being named CIAU All-Canadian and being selected the first team all-star at the 1981 championships, along with three selections as a Canada West first te4am all-star. Melanie started playing volleyball at Caswell school and attended Bedford Road Collegiate, where she won a provincial championship in her Grade 12 season. She was chosen to play on Canada’s national junior team, where she had a first sample of international competition in Mexico in 1976. She played for the national senior team for three seasons. She played professional volleyball in Tokyo, Japan in 1982 and in Genoa, Italy, in 1983 and 1984. She has been head coach at the University of Regina since 2002 and has also taken national teams to Turkey, Mexico and Thailand.
Allan Semeniuk has helped lift wheelchair rugby into international prominence and enjoyed the magic time when the sport was introduced at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta. He played at the Saskatoon and Saskatchewan levels from 1987 until 2005. He was a member of Canada’s national team from 1991 until 2005. He also played a major role as Saskatchewan won gold medals at the nationals in powerhouse years from 1987 until 1993. He has won individual honours at four national playoffs. Allan first played in the world championships in Switzerland in 1995, with the Canadians taking silver. In Atlanta, they won silver in 1996 with Allan getting the winning point. The Canadians were fourth in the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney and took silver in the 2004 Paralympics at Athens, Greece. Two other memorable triumphs were gold medals at the world championships in Sweden in 2002 and at the Canada Cup in 2004.
Gil Wist achieved medal success in both Canadian university and Canadian Open wrestling circles while competing mostly in the 126-pound class during the 1970s. He joined the Huskies in 1972, after winning high school championships in Moose Jaw. He was twice the WCIAA champion and a medallist two other times. At the CIAU, he won silver in 1972-73 and bronze in 1975-76. He missed one season at the U of S with an injury. He won eight Saskatchewan Open titles, won gold at the Canadian Junior Open in 1973-74, and won silver and bronze at the Canadian Senior Open. Gil took his keen interest into wrestling programs, notably at Regina Miller and two Saskatoon schools, Bedford Road and Walter Murray. In 2008, he received the Saskatoon Secondary athletic merit award and the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association’s service award.
TEAM
The 2001-2002 University of Saskatchewan Men’s Track and Field team put together convincing displays during the 2001-2002 season, winning the Canada West championship easily and then capping the season with the Canadian championship. In the Canada West finals held in Saskatoon, the Huskies scored 143 points, more than double the total of their nearest rivals, University of Calgary. They finished off the meet with victories in the 4x200 metre relay and the 4x800 metre relay. Then at the Canadians at Sherbrooke, the Huskies scored 68 points to beat University of Windsor by 12 points. They shone in the relays again, with Tim Bailey, Garry Drake, Chris Kleiter and Preston Wilkins winning the 4x200 metres in 1:27.94 and with Emery Tuplin, Lindsay Tallon, Matt Johnson and Garry Drake winning the 4x400 metres in 3:18.02. Other Canadian gold medallists were Jamie Epp and Emery Tuplin. The team was coached by Lyle Sanderson.
SPORTS ORGANIZATION
Saskatoon Amateur Softball Association
A variety of softball leagues have existed in Saskatoon over the past eighty years, but for the past fifty of those, the premier fast pitch league has been the Saskatoon Amateur Softball Association (SASA).
Beginning in the early 1960’s with the reorganization of Softball Saskatchewan and construction of Gordon Howe Park, the SASA has focused on three programs.
In the first instance, the SASA has provided an umbrella organization for junior and senior, male and female competition. Today this includes the scheduling and administration of six divisions, as well as the operation of Gordon Howe Park, Bob Van Impe Stadium and several adjacent diamonds in Glenn Reeve Field.
As a second initiative, the SASA nurtures and supports the competitive teams that participate in provincial and national competitions. Over the years SASA representatives have won over 100 provincial championships, over seventeen national titles and a large number of Western Canadian titles.
While these are notable achievements, it is in the SASA’s third area of endeavour that it’s most notable contributions have been made. Since 1975, the SASA has hosted ten national championships and within the last eight years two International Softball Federation world championships. These events have been financial and organizational successes with three observable results. In the first place great entertainment was provided for the entire community. Secondly, Saskatoon was promoted at the national and international level. As a final outcome, these events have helped add to the pool of experienced event volunteers in Saskatoon who willingly step forward to make the next event possible.
The softball community and the citizens of Saskatoon have been well served by the hundreds of individuals that make up the Saskatoon Amateur Softball Association.