Page 42 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 113

42 Issue #113 June 2022 www.sportsenergynews.com

Sports
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Sports Presents Jim Riddell’s Sports Talk
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Stories And More About The People In Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry with Area Senior : Kirk Shayler
not at the same level as college teams with Jr. A
caliber players.”
Kirk went on to say that he was just an average
player in all the different sports that he played
in. “In any one of the tournaments that my team
By Jim Riddell
entered, I was always one of the ten or so guys that
“I grew up on Elsie Street and we must have paid the entry fee - the players that we picked up,
had sixty kids in the neighborhood at the time. the ringers, they didn’t have to pay. One year, back
We played everything - ball, hockey, lacrosse… in the early 1980’s, I was playing for Cornwall
all sports. I started playing hockey in the Cornwall Overhead Door and we won the Glengarry Cup. It
Minor Hockey system at eight years of age, that’s was a 3-day tournament in Alexandria with about
how old you had to be to start. I can still remember 16 teams, so there was a lot of hockey to play to
the 7AM games at the Bob Turner. Ten teams in win it. We picked up former Cornwall Royals,
every division and every kid played. If you didn’t Dave Izard, Gerry Barden, and a couple of others
have a helmet, someone would lend you one. A - anytime we needed a goal, those guys went and
mouth guard was needed to play and if a kid forgot got it. I was one of the guys on the team, but they
theirs, someone would find them a mouth guard won the Cup. I was average at all sports. I even
- the equipment manager usually had a few lying entered one of the first strongman completions that
around. You could never do that today,” recalls was held in Cornwall and even at that, I finished in
Kirk Shayler. the middle of the pack.”

Kirk attended Sacred Heart School followed While Kirk may not have been an “impact Photo Submitted
by high school at General Vanier. He continued player” as an athlete, he has made his mark on the Kakawakne, Montreal, and Ottawa along with
playing City Junior B hockey and was a member local sports scene as a “referee for all seasons”, masters divisions. “I like to tell people that I wasn’t
of the General Vanier football team for four years. officiating hockey, ball hockey, football, and a very good lacrosse referee when I started, but I
It was then off to Sheridan College where Kirk lacrosse games across the region for the past 25+ could run like the wind. Now I have a lot more
decided to try out for the football team. “I was only years. Asked how he made the transition from knowledge and experience, but the running isn’t
a mediocre football player, and what I didn’t know playing to officiating, Kirk replied, “I got started what it once was - there are only two of us to cover
was that many of the players that failed to make the with refereeing at a bit of a later age. I picked up the whole floor and it’s a long way back when
Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger Cats would reffing hockey first and did that for about five years there’s a loose ball.”
then come to Sheridan - it didn’t take me very long and then my son and I decided to take the football
to realize that I wasn’t going to make that squad.” referee course. The CFL guys put the course on, we Kirk has also refereed a lot of hockey over
both passed it, but my son never refereed a single the years, locally in the minor system and all the
While at Sheridan, Kirk played for his campus in
the intramural league. “There were six campuses, game, I ended up with the uniform, loved it, and area high school hockey games and tournaments,
still do high school football.” including eight Bishop Cup Games between St.
we would play each other, and we would get a few Joe’s and Holy Trinity.
games against other college teams from Toronto Refereeing lacrosse has kept Kirk busy, as he has
and the surrounding area. It was good hockey but been officiating every division from paperweight Of all the sports that Kirk has officiated, he
to junior in Quebec and senior in Akwesasne, Continued on page 43

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