Message from Dr. Bob Rosehart

Congratulations on the initia-tive to form the “Hawkey Alumni Club”. Under the leadership of Mark French, the Men’s Hockey Hawks had a

great season and 2004/2005 looks to be a promising year. All of our teams need that “little” extra sup-port and a core group of Men’s Hockey Hawks have worked hard to establish an alumni group. I am most pleased to see the work of this group continue and I will support this initiative in any way that I can.

Dr. Bob RosehartPresident

Support for the Golden Hawks

You may already know that ebay is the world’s most successful online marketplace; eBay offers an efficient and cost-effective way for people to buy and sell just about anything. You can find buyers and sellers for items such as sporting goods, computers, fur-niture, out-of-date equipment or collectibles. What you may not have known is that beginning in the summer of 2003, signing up with ebay can help you support your Hawks. If you sign up with ebay.ca through www.laurierathletics.com men's hockey page, $5 will be donated to the team -- as long as your account remains active for 3 months. Go to laurierathletics.com or contact Roly Webster at rweb-ster@wlu.ca for details.

Wilfrid Laurier UniversityHawkey Alumni Club

From the Home of Golden Hawk Hockey

Another Step On the Journey

For more information please visit our website atwww.laurierathletics.com

Volume 2, Issue 1 Pre-Season 2004

The 2003 - 2004 Men’s hockey season saw the Golden Hawks again take another step forward, posting the programs best over-all result in more than 5 seasons. Though the hockey team experi-enced success, the team was still disappointed in the end result, failing to qualify for Ontario Championships. The Golden Hawks begin the season with great deal of hope with the team jumping out to an undefeated start through its first five regular season games. The Hawks found out early that the OUA’s Mid West division would again be the most com-petitive in the league with both York and Brock also jumping out of the gate with quick starts. By Christmas time, the race for top spot remained tight, and all though the Hawks had only lost 3 games up until that point, they sat third in their division. During the teams Christ-mas Break, the Golden Hawks participated in the Western Classic Hockey Tournament in London. The Hawks played their divisional rivals York Lions in game one, and defeated the 10th ranked team in the nation 3 - 1 and would face the West-ern Mustangs in the tournament final. In a great contest, the Hawks defeated the 4th ranked team in the nation by a score of 3 - 1, winning the Western Classic. Hawk goaltender Justin Day was named the tournament MVP. The second half the season saw the Golden Hawks con-tinuing to battle both York and Brock for divisional position. The Hawks participated in a number of tight games, with 5 of resulting in ties and 3 times the Hawks were defeated in over-time. The Hawks finished the

regular season with a record of 10 wins 8 losses and 6 ties, good for third place in the OUA Mid-West division. Finishing third in the divi-sion meant, the Hawks would have to face the Brock Badgers in the first round on the playoffs in a best 2 out of 3 series. The well-prepared Hawks defeated the Badgers in their home build-ing 4 - 3 in game one. In game two at home the Hawks domi-nated the Badgers and ended their season with a 6 - 3 defeat. This series win would mean the Hawks would again face the York Lions for the divisional title. In game one, the well-rested Lions were able to defeat the Hawks. Game two, with the season in the balance the Hawks the Lions played a tightly contested game that came right down to the wire and saw York score late and then add an empty netted to seal the series and end the Golden Hawks season. Though a disappointing end to the season the 2003-2004 hockey season produced a number of outstanding indi-vidual performances. Third year player Nick Gibson from

Newton, Ontario produced a breakout season tallying 14 goals and 19 assists for 33 points lead-ing the Hawks offense. Between the pipes, 2nd year goaltender Justin Day, came up with some outstanding performances, high-lighted by being named Athlete of the Week following a 45 save performance in the Hawks 2 -1 victory versus the Lakehead Thunderwolves. Finally, the Hawks had two players named to the OUA select team that played Canada’s World Junior team this past December. The Hawks named to the team were third year defenseman Nick Vukovic and 2nd year forward Richard Colwill. Looking forward to the 2004-2005 hockey season, the Golden Hawks are well posi-tioned to challenge again for the OUA championship. The 2003 - 2004 edition of the Hawks was a young team with nine first year player playing significant roles. With a very good returning class and some exciting recruiting addition the 2004 - 2005 Golden Hawk Hockey season should be a memorable one.

Hard work, sweat and determination is the theme of the summer with the Hawks preparing for a winning season!

Adopt A Golden Hawk Program

The Golden Hawks invite everyone to play a role in the student-athlete experience by "adopting" an athlete. The Adopt-A-Golden Hawk pro-gram is more than a fundraiser; it is an opportunity for the com-munity, alumni and corporate sector to support a specific team, while at the same time becoming involved with a spe-cific student-athlete. Each year support from the Adopt-A-Golden Hawk program gives teams the resources they need to expand and improve. This year our goal is to see all Hockey players adopted at a rate of $25/month. For more information on partic-ipating in the Adopt-A-Golden Hawk program, please contact Roland Webster at rwebster@wlu.ca

Coach’s Corner

Golden Hawk Coach Represents Canada at the Under 18 World Hockey Championships

In late March Hockey Canada and the Cana-dian Hockey League named Mark French to join Dean Chynoweth (Head Coach) and his coaching staff of Canada’s World Champion-ship Under-18 Team 2004 IIHF World Under-18 Hockey Champion-ship, which took place from April 8-18, 2004 in Minsk, Belarus. Canada’s 2004 World Championship Under-18 Team was be comprised of play-ers under 18 years old (born in 1986 or later) whose teams are not playing in either the CHL, Junior A or colle-giate playoffs. Canada’s entry at the tournament fin-ished second in their pool to the United States, losing a 2 - 1 to the American’s in the final game of round robin play. In the medal

round Canada defeated a tough team from Slovaki 3-1 and advanced to the semi-finals to face the tournament favorite Russian team. The Russians were to much for the Canada’s to

handle, defeating the Candian’s 5-2. Finally, in the bronze medal game Canada faced the Czech Republic. In tightly contested game the Czech’s defeated Canada by a score of 3-2. Canada finished the tournament in fourth place.

“It was quite an honour for me to repre-sent Canada at the World Under-18 Cham-pionship,” said French. “ It was a great experience for myself in terms my develop-ment as a coach, but it was disappointing for the team not have brought home the tourna-ment chamionship.”

The 2003 -2004 hockey season was another step forward in building toward being a pro-gram that can compete nationally. Through the regular season the team went through some growing pains, being able to beat the top teams in the league in Western , Lake-head and 2003 National Championships UQTR but struggling with some of the lesser teams. Finishing with a record of 10-8-6 was symbolic of team that was learning what it takes to be successful from game to game. In playoffs, we played our best hockey of the year in our first round versus a very tough Brock Badgers squad. In that series, we were able to sweep the Badgers in two straight games, due to large part to the contributions we received from our whole lineup. In the divisional final we played a very seasoned York Lions squad that elimi-nated us in two straight games. This defeat had fall short of our season goal, which was to qualify for the OUA championships. In analysis, the 2003 - 2004 Hawk team was a squad that was always on the brink of becoming a top teams in the OUA. For the coaching staff and the players, we were disappointed with our inability to reach the heights we had envisioned for this team. Though we did not reach our ultimate goal, the alumni should be proud of the level of commitment put forward by this group. Following the season the Hawks will graduate four key members of the Golden Hawk hockey program. Up front, forwards, Pat Mcoubrey, Rob Grant and Kevin Corso

and defenseman and assistant captain Bill Duncan. I would like to thank these players’ personnel for their dedication and commit-ment to Laurier Hockey program. Looking forward to the 2004/2005 cam-paign, I feel we have the foundation that will allow the Hawks to come into next season as one of the top teams in the league. Only grad-uating four players from last year’s roster and having solid crew veterans returning. We feel that with another solid recruiting class we will field a more mature and deeper squad. One of our biggest successes this year increased involvement from our hockey alumni. Through the help of the Hawkey Alumni committee and the Alumni weekend committee we had a very successful alumni weekend. I would like to thank Martin Kearns and his committee (Mark Pedersen, David Aitcheson) for all their hard work in putting together this very successful event. I look forward to seeing many of you on June 5th at our alumni golf tournament and continuing to develop our relationship with our hockey alumni.

Yours truly,

Mark FrenchHockey Coach

Wilfird Laurier University

Creation of Hockey Alumni Golf

Scholarship Golden Hawks Men’s hockey team is proud to announce the creation of the Men’s Hockey Alumni Golf Tournament Scholarship. This award will be handed out annually starting during the 2004-2005 season. The funds for this endowed scholarship were generated from the pro-ceeds generated from hockey alumni golf tournament. This scholarship will be a $1000.00 award given to the Golden Hawk hockey player who dis-plays excellence both on the ice as well as meets the educa-tional requirements set up by the CIS. Thanks to all hockey alumni and friends who par-ticipated in this event of the past number of years.

Message from the president of the WLU Hawkey Alumni Club

The WLU Athletic Department with the full support of the university’s president, Dr. Bob Rosehart and the encouragement of its hockey alumni made a decision to hire a full-time coach for the Men’s hockey program. The hiring of a full-time coach was an abso-lute necessity if WLU was to regain its status as a serious competitor on the national level. The school was successful in attracting Mark French who accepted the position commenc-ing with the 2002-2003 season. Mark had a successful year last year in making the play-offs and experienced even greater success in his player recruiting for the upcoming season. Mark has set lofty goals for the team and hopes to bring a national hockey cham-pionship to WLU. He needs the full support of the WLU hockey alumni in accomplishing his goals. He has taken the initiative of meet-ing with several of the alumni to encourage them to pledge their support for the team and to ask their assistance in spreading the word to their former team-mates. These meet-ings evolved into the formation of the WLU Hawkey Alumni club. The main purpose of the WLU Hawkey Alumni Club was to form a vehicle through which alumni and friends can support the Men’s Hockey program at WLU. An executive committee for the club was formed that met on several occasions to

establish the perimeters of the club and to commence the planning for alumni events. The first order of business was to establish a constitution for the club. In addition to the drafting of the con-stitution and the setting of the course for the Club the executive also established dates for the alumni events for 2004 and created com-mittees to plan those events. The first such event will be the alumni weekend on January 31 - February 1, 2004 and the second event being the annual golf tournament to be held on Saturday June 12, 2004. The reports from the committees for both of these events sug-gests that these will be well-planned and fun events. I would encourage each of you to set aside those dates and plan to attend. Our playing years may well be behind us, however as alumni we represent a very important component of today’s team. Mark and the team need our support if we have any expectations of meeting the goal of bringing a National Hockey championship to WLU. I encourage you to be part of WLU Men’s hockey by supporting our Club, attending the home games and most importantly attending the alumni events.

Sonny KumpfWLU Grad ‘72

Hawk Post Season 2003-2004Award Winners

On April 1st Laurier’s athletic commu-nity came together to recognize its best from the 2003-2004 school year. The golden hawks men’s hockey was well represented on this night. Receiving the teams rookie of the year award was Dryden, Ontario native Matt Grennier. Matt the 1st year science student lead the Hawks in rookie scoring a massing 22 points during his freshman campaign. Winning the teams MVP award, an award voted on by his teammates was Rich-ard Colwill. The second year, Arthur native finished second in team scoring producing 9

goals and 15 assists. Richard is also known for his tremendous work ethic and his com-petitivness. Finally, the Athetic Achievement Award is one of the most prestigious awards handed out by Laurier was Golden Hawk hockey player Nick Gibson. This award is handed out to the Laurier Athlete who best combines high athletic achievement and high academic achievement. The 3rd year Kineslogy student has carried a “A” average through out his three years. As a Hawk, the Newton native lead the team in scoring

2004 Hockey Alumni Golf Tournament2004-2005 Golden Hawk Schedule

23/10/2004 @ Toronto 7:30 PM24/10/2004 @ Ryerson 3:00 PM30/10/2004 vs. RMC 7:00 PM

31/10/2004 vs. Queen’s 5:00 PM05/11/2004 @ Lakehead 7:30 PM06/11/2004 @ Lakehead 7:30 PM12/11/2004 @ Western 7:35 PM

19/11/2004 vs. Concordia 7:30 PM20/11/2004 vs. UQTR 7:00 PM27/11/2004 @ McGill 7:00 PM28/11/2004 @ Ottawa 2:00 PM07/01/2005 @ Brock 7:30 PM

09/01/2005 @ Guelph 2:00 PM13/01/2005 @ York 7:30 PM

15/01/2005 vs. Brock 7:30 PM21/01/2005 vs. Guelph 7:30 PM28/01/2005 vs. Brock 7:30 PM29/01/2005 vs. York 7:00 PM

04/02/2005 vs. Windsor 7:30 PM05/02/2005 vs. Windsor 7:00 PM11/02/2005 vs. Western 7:30 PM12/02/2005 @ Waterloo 7:30 PM17/02/2005 vs. Brock 7:30 PM

19/02/2005 @ York 2:00 PM

OUA Mid-West Division Semi-Finals

OUA Mid-West Division Finals

OUA Finals Queen's Cup @

CIS Championship

University Cup @

On Saturday June 12th the Laurier Hockey program hosted their annual golf tourna-ment at Rockway Golf Course in Kitchener. This year’s event was host to over 75 golf-ers, along with 11 members of the present hockey team in attendance. It was great to see the interaction between the former and current day Golden Hawk hockey players. Following 18 holes of scramble format, this year’s winners were Bob Dean, Rob Holoday, Paul Smith and Shaun Reagan.

After a great day of golf, story telling, and reminiscing about the old days, over $6000 was raised to help provide enhance-ments to the present day hockey program. On behalf of Mark French and the hockey program we would like to thank all those who attended to help make this event successful. A special thanks goes out to the members of the Golf Tournament Committee which included Bob Zarzycki, Joe McKrea, Wayne Gowing and John Baker.

2004 Hockey Alumni Weekend

The Men’s hockey alumni weekend in 2004 will go down as of the most successful in Hawk history. The event drew a great turn out with 60 participates for the alumni games and over 90 people to the dinner and reception that followed the games. With the number of Hawk alumni that came back to participate the alumni games had to be broken up into two separate games, with an Over 35 game as well as an Under 35 game. Both games saw many former Hawks don the purple and gold once again and

Many thanks again should go out to Martin Kearns and his Alumni Committee for the great leadership they provided in making this event such a success. In 2005, we will look to again grow this event and would like to announce that the 2005 Men’s HOCKEY ALUMNI WEEKEND will be hosted on Saturday, February 5th 2005. Details will be posted on www.laurier-athletics.com/HAC as they become available. Make sure you do not miss out on this won-derful event!