“Losing that floor surface [at Don Lough Arena] to year-round ice would be an absolute low blow to the sport this town is known for, lacrosse. Every person out there who has been a Hawk knows. We need to keep the Hawk tradition. We need floor time on the Don.”
—Jamie Lockwood
A member of Huntsville Council has raised the possibility of having year-round ice in the Don Lough Arena at the Canada Summit Centre and, probably unwittingly, opened up a can of worms. Councillor Monty Clouthier, a dedicated hockey enthusiast, recently noted that the Northern Ontario Junior A Hockey Association had approached him for ice time. It didn’t help when council decided to test the waters by asking folks to complete a survey on the issue.
I am a great believer in effective communication, but sometimes you have to think before you leap. I know that some people at the Town believe that if a public consultation is requested concerning a particular issue it must be granted, but I respectfully disagree.
If that were the case we would have half a dozen public surveys a month. If one were to request that all public parking on Main Street in Huntsville be removed or that we limit the use of our Town facilities to permanent residents only, would council automatically say, “Let’s do a survey”, especially without consulting the stakeholders involved? I don’t think so. Sometimes council has to make the hard decisions.
Lacrosse in Huntsville is a sacred cow. It is part of the fabric of this community, and you don’t mess with it without consequences. Sure, hockey is important and the last thing we need here is to pit one against the other. As Lacrosse advocate Marcia Mackesy said in a recent tweet, “This needs to stop being a lacrosse vs. hockey fight and be factually acknowledged as an equity issue.”
In Huntsville, hockey is a fall and winter sport, and Lacrosse is a spring and summer sport. To dilute one at the expense of the other, especially to accommodate out of Town users, just won’t hack it here.
Huntsville is known nationally, if not internationally, for its leadership in Lacrosse. Jack Bionda, a Huntsville native will always be known as one of the all-time greatest players in that sport’s history. His children and grandchildren are still actively involved in the sport, several internationally.
Jack Bionda, Jim Higgs, Ivan Thompson, Brian Thompson, Jim Merideth, and Don Stinson are all in the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Other notable lacrosse players from Huntsville include Don and Ken Thompson, Tom Conlin, Jamie Lockwood, Gail Cummings, Colin Boucher, and Jason and Riley Knox among many others.
All of these people and others like them from Huntsville have made an invaluable contribution to Canada’s official summer national sport. Box lacrosse is a worldwide sport today, played competitively in every province in Canada, and in more than 75 countries including those in Europe, Africa and South America. Canada, and players and coaches from communities like Huntsville, can take a good deal of credit for this.
Jocelyn Knox, (Jack Bionda’s daughter) told me that when the Summit Centre was completed, the Huntsville Lacrosse Clubs were asked to increase their numbers in order to justify keeping a second pad free of ice in the summer. They exceeded that challenge to the point where lacrosse in Huntsville now requires more than one pad to function and that is why the Don Lough Arena has been outfitted for lacrosse.
I can’t help but wonder what Brian Thompson’s reaction would have been if he were still on council when the suggestion was made to dedicate the Don Lough Arena to year-round ice in order to accommodate the Northern Ontario Junior A Hockey Association. I am sure he would have brought some context to the discussion that may have been otherwise missing. I am also pretty sure he wouldn’t have promoted a survey that could only result in controversy.
To some degree, I believe the manner in which this issue was handled was a rookie mistake. Early in this term, half the councillors are new. Rookie mistakes happen, I know. I’ve been there and I’ve made them. But I think this could have been handled differently. Given the history and the importance of lacrosse to Huntsville, council could have nipped this in the bud, or at least required serious consultations with lacrosse groups and other sports stakeholders before conducting a survey with almost no background information.
In Fact, there were two surveys. One for Huntsville residents, simply asking a yes or no question about year-round ice in the Don Lough Arena. There was no context, no history, and no comment about the negative effect this would have on lacrosse in Huntsville. The second was almost an application process for users who might like to use year-round ice.
No one would (or should) disagree that times change and that diversity is important. However, remembering our roots, who we are, and where our community comes from, is important too, and I think it is very necessary for our elected representatives to have a sense of that heritage.
My sense is that council could have dealt with this without a controversial and divisive survey. With nearly a thousand comments I am sure they will get a pretty clear message they should have known without creating all the fuss.
Lacrosse is part of Huntsville’s DNA. Don’t mess with a sacred cow.
Hugh Mackenzie
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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I played back in the day when we had an outdoor box. By the road up from where the boat launch and the entrance to the camp kitchen is/was. When we had a tournament or needed a practice, we would all troop over to that clay-floored oven. Most coaches would keep it late on hot afternoon, but sometimes you got a mean one. The least sprinkle of rain and that surface was snail-snot slippery. But we were playing lacrosse!
Back then, everybody carried a stick and ball and most everything in the town had had balls bounced off it, or driven through it. When Bishop came to town, it was considered an honor to chase the ball into the hinterland, when he was holding practice outdoors; when someone such as Tom Conlin or Stu Wieler missed a pass (it happened) and the ball just kept on going. It taught us to never give up on the ball.
The new arena in ’55 meant everyone had a vast expanse of block wall to fire balls off. we got pretty good at firing and catching, but every once in a while you missed, and it was off on the run, to catch up to a ball that was making a roll for it! But you never gave up on the ball. It was likely yours.
Once everyone had cars, the equipment went into the trunk and remained there, sometimes for days! On warm days, pop that trunk, gag, grab your stick and ball, and run.
It was understood that you would help with the younger teams and many of us spent time coaching and refereeing house league. You were always appreciated and thanked by Joe Cherrier (?). We expected nothing more.
There were lots of inconvenient times to work around, but it was Huntsville, and we got it done. An inconvenience we never had during lacrosse season, was somebody wanting our floor for hockey. That’s the way it’s been through a lot of our lives.
Summer is lacrosse. Winter is hockey. Seems okay to me.
Dear Hugh: As you predicted, we finally agree on something!
While I totally agree that Lacrosse needs 2 pads in Huntsville, the fact that there is a request to rent more ice in the summer should not be ignored. Add to this the lack of public skating time in the winter months. I repeat the justification of an outdoor box with a roof over it. That is a solution to both issues. Having been involved in management of both hockey and lacrosse in the past, I feel strongly about this.
In the 80’s, I helped ( with others) apply for, and host the Ontario Provincial Tyke Lacrosse Championships in Huntsville. We had to temporarily outfit the Baysville Arena in order to have the necessary 2 pads. This was not ideal, but necessary. It was definitely a financial boon for the town of Huntsville as accommodation in town became totally booked and we had to branch out to Bracebridge, Gravenhurst and even campgrounds to accommodate all the visiting teams and families.
I also felt, having had 2 kids in lacrosse, that in the heat of the summer, it would have have been a great relief to play outdoors especially because of the equipment needed to be worn in an unairconditioned arena. The outdoor solution would only be reliable for scheduling if the pad had a roof for shade ( and rain or snow)
I also, as ice scheduler for minor hockey, scheduled practices for all teams on a rotating basis, outdoors at the old Brunel outdoor pad. This was necessary but inconvenient and unreliable because of no roof. Add to this, the gradual shrinkage of public skating time in Huntsville since we moved here in 1979.
Dead On Hugh !