SPORTS FLASHBACK 1970: Ploen joins stellar guest list for first Sportsman’s dinner

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This article was published 26/02/2024 (342 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Blue Bomber greats Henry Janzen and Ken Ploen, world curling champion Don Duguid, Olympic diver Beverly Boys, and MAHA executive George Allard joined guest speaker Ed Mazur at the head table for Steinbach’s Centennial Sports Dinner

“Coaches and other people of a community involved in minor hockey should realize the great service they’re doing by keeping their children out of trouble.”

This is the message Mazur, a former National Hockey League star, delivered to some 200 people attending the Southeast’s first Sportsman’s dinner to raise money for the Steinbach Minor Hockey Association at the Friedensfeld Community Centre, Tuesday.

Mazur said some parents could not understand what sports means to their children, so they did them a great disservice by not getting actively involved by going to watch them play.

“When I was back in Montreal playing for the Canadians, I learned the three D’s to success in a hockey player’s life. They are desire, determination and discipline.”

The most important one of the three D’s is discipline, Mazur said. You must be able to control yourself and take orders from the ones instructing you or you will never become a good hockey player.

Mazur warned some of the younger people at the dinner that when they would go out and play with much tougher competition, they may be tempted to quit altogether. A person can defeat this problem only by staying in hockey and fighting the temptation to quit, he said.

Commenting briefly on the role of parents in hockey, Mazur said every time they encourage their youngsters to go out and participate in sports, they are doing them a service.

George Allard, secretary-manager of the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association also spoke at the dinner and said many people had been suggesting recently that minor hockey in Canada was in serious trouble.

Allard strongly disbelieved this assumption and said if minor hockey is in serious trouble, “Why do we have one-half million people involved in minor hockey in Canada?”

Allard said a person would only have to come to communities such as Steinbach, where there was so much enthusiasm in minor hockey, to see that this sport is not in a sad state.