MAYOR ROB ADAMS congratulates team members earlier this week at town hall. Head coach Lindsay White is emphatic that it takes six to take care of a team.

“Without Jackie and Rhonda off the ice to do the organizing, it doesn’t work; without Mark and Jeff, as assistant coaches, and Heike, as goalie coach, on the ice, it doesn’t work,” he declared. “I just want to show up and have fun.”

While this is undoubtedly an understatement of his importance to the team, there is no question that the whole team of adults have trained and organized a winning female hockey team – the Orangeville Tigers.

The proof of this is the Trophy Bowl they brought home from San Jose, California, for winning Gold at the Lower Lakes Female Hockey League tournament earlier this month.

As Mr. White says of himself, he is “born and bred in Montreal,” where he lived close to an outdoor rink. “We could hear the pucks hitting the poles from our house,” he recalls nostalgically, “we’d race out in our skates, tip toeing across the roads to get there.”

Coming to Ontario and as a policeman, he was playing hockey with the Peel Regional Police when he “blew [his] shoulder.” The doctors assured him that he could continue to play and would continue to blow his shoulder. It seemed that coaching was a better way to stay involved in hockey.

Ten years ago, he started with the girls’ peewee team in Orangeville, from which he moved to Bantams for two years and then, took over the Midgets, the team he coaches now.

The girls come from as far as Owen Sound, Flesherton and Dundalk to play with the team. They practice from 9 to 11 p.m., meaning some of them have not returned home until midnight or well after on practice days.

A couple of years ago, it was suggested they take the team to Sweden to see the Women’s World Hockey Championships. It was a tremendous opportunity for the girls to see a different lifestyle, become somewhat acquainted with the standards and priorities of a different culture. They had the chance to play a Swedish team.

They were invited to visit a school in Sweden. When they arrived at the school the Canadian flag was flying overhead. It was a wonderful experience.

The recent trip to San Jose came about like this: last year in February, they were playing in Sarnia at a “Silver Stick San Jose” game against the Lady Sharks, who had yet to be beaten. The Tigers did not beat them either, but the Sharks invited them to come to California to play.

At the end of the season last year, when they were forming this year’s team, Mark Sheedy and Jeff Bond, whose daughters are in the team, knew about the invitation to California. Naturally, the parents were consulted first and they all said: “Yes, we’re in.”

There ensued a time of energetic fund raising.

“The point was to cover SPO RTS the a irf are for the girls,” Mr. White said. “We thought if we could organize the trip without that expense, it would make it easier for everyone.

“They washed cars, sold chocolate, worked with others – everything they could think of,” and his pride in them was evident as he talked about their efforts.

It never would have happened without the organizational skills and endless hours of work on the part of Jackie Swayze and Rhonda Bond, who figured out all the details about the trip itself – the flights, the hotels and the itinerary. There were 16 players travelling but a total of 41 people went, including the parents who accompanied them as chaperones (and cheer leaders).

Heike Bronson, the goalie coach, has her PhD in Phys-Ed and is an elementary school principal. Her daughter is a team member, but Ms Bronson monitors the girls in a way the men cannot, being a female. So, she has the last say on the fitness of any team member – her degree of focus, her well-being.

“If Heike says a girl is off the ice for the day or the game, she’s off,” is the simple way in which Mr. White put it.

It was a great trip, taking place between January 14th and 19th. They flew to San Francisco. They visited the Golden Gate Bridge, Pier 39 and Pebble Beach, places out of movies.

On to San Jose, where Jackie and Rhonda had organized the chance to go to another school: Willow Glen Public School, where their mascot is a tiger. For this visit, there was time to prepare, so they made a power point presentation and had questions and answers.

Mr. White laughed when he told me: “The grades four and five asked about house prices and taxes!”

On to the hockey! The rematch, as it were, with the Lady Sharks went well: the Tigers beat them 4-0. However, there was a team from Minnesota, the Selects, who “were a very good team” and with whom the Tigers tied 2-2.

The Alberni team was from British Columbia and the first round with them was a tie as well, 2-2.

Back and forth, the games went until the final game for the Bowl was between Alberni and the Tigers, which the Tigers won with a blistering 4-1 effort.

They filled the Bowl with Sprite and everybody drank from it. A great moment. A great memory.

Next, they are back to Sarnia, and then the Provincial playdowns and the League playdowns.

There are no specific plans for another trip admitted at this moment, but with a head coach who is so willing, chances are there will be. As long as there is a great team, on and off the ice.