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Fredericton wins over hockey players Big welcome erases Montreal memories
RICHARD FOOT CanWest News Service
Thursday, March 25, 2004
John Reilly, a Massachusetts state trooper, is not a man accustomed to
crying.
Yet Reilly shed tears of joy when he and a dozen other hockey parents, plus a team of 12-year-old U.S. boys riding a bus north from Boston,
arrived in New Brunswick on Tuesday to a welcome fit for royalty: Three hundred young Canadian hockey players lined the main street of St. Stephen, N.B., tapping their sticks on the pavement and chanting "U.S.A., U.S.A.," as the bus rolled into Canada.
"All these kids in hockey uniforms, from little tykes to teenagers,
cheering us into their town - it was unbelievable," Reilly said
yesterday. "Everybody on the bus was in shock, and many of us
were in tears."
So began the closing chapter to an extraordinary, cross-border
hockey saga that started a year ago in Montreal on the volatile
opening week of the Iraq War.
Reilly, his son John, and the rest of the Brockton Boxers - a
pee-wee team from Brockton, Mass., a working-class suburb of
Boston - arrived by bus in Montreal last March Break for a much-anticipated week of happy revelry in the hockey mecca of
North America.
U.S. bombs had recently started falling on Iraq, and as the
Brockton players and their chaperones were unloading their luggage
outside a Montreal hotel, they were caught in the midst of a large
anti-war protest. Their "Coach USA" bus, emblazoned with a Stars
and Stripes logo, caught the attention of the protesters who
swarmed past the terrified American kids, cursing and yelling at
them, and hammering on the side of their bus.
The next day at an NHL game in the Bell Centre, the Brockton
Boxers heard Montreal fans boo the U.S. anthem and heckle their
presence at the game. The group left the arena in the second
period and drove back to the U.S., where some parents and players
vowed never to return to Canada.
Word of the group's ugly experience reached the media in Brockton
and soon made headlines across North America.
Brian Johnson, a hockey parent in Fredericton, was so upset at the
events he started mulling ways to make it up to the Brockton
players.
In January, he went to Brockton to invite the Boxers to New
Brunswick for a friendly tournament. Johnson was nervous about
has since mushroomed into a $60,000 teenage hockey
extravaganza complete with celebrity guests, gala dinners and the
Stanley Cup.
The fun started last week, when New Brunswick Premier Bernard
Lord travelled to the Massachusetts State House in Boston to
personally hand out glossy invitations for the trip, plus personalized
track suits, to each of the Boxers who had come under fire in
Montreal.
On Tuesday, the Boxers and their families - 50 Americans plus a
U.S. television crew along for the ride - left Brockton bound for
New Brunswick, a place many of them had never even heard of
before.
At the border post in St. Stephen, they were met by two Mounties
in scarlet tunics and a police cruiser that escorted them through
the cheering throng on main street to a reception at the town's
information centre, where a giant welcome cake was devoured.
In Fredericton, where Canada's university hockey championships
are underway, the Boxers are now lodged at the same hotel as the
visiting varsity teams, but the pee-wee players are by far the
bigger attraction.
"Everybody we bump into here knows our story and wants to say
hello to us," Reilly said.
Yesterday at the 4,000-seat Aitken Centre, the Brockton players
and a Fredericton pee-wee team were mixed together for the main
event - the Friendship game - each player wearing a specially
designed hockey sweater with the Canadian and U.S. Olympic
hockey logos stitched together, and the flag of each nation on the
shoulders.
Hundreds of Fredericton minor hockey players were pulled from
school to watch the game, which was opened by an RCMP honour
guard and hockey legend Senator Frank Mahovalich.
The Brockton and Fredericton players will also find time tomorrow to
play another game on a frozen pond at a nearby golf course - the
first time the American teenagers will ever skate outdoors. They'll
actually be playing for the Stanley Cup, which will sit beside the
pond, awaiting a winner.
"Our young people here are walking on air," said Brockton Mayor
Jack Yunnits from Fredericton yesterday.
"They're having a ball," added Johnson, the event's chair-person.
"It doesn't matter whether you believe in the Iraq war or not, these
kids didn't have anything to do with it. So on behalf of the country,
we're apologizing to them, trying to repaint their picture of
Canada."
© Copyright 2004 Montreal Gazette
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Copyright © 2004 CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.
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Copyright & Permission Rules
RICHARD FOOT CanWest News Service
Thursday, March 25, 2004
John Reilly, a Massachusetts state trooper, is not a man accustomed to
crying.
Yet Reilly shed tears of joy when he and a dozen other hockey parents, plus a team of 12-year-old U.S. boys riding a bus north from Boston,
arrived in New Brunswick on Tuesday to a welcome fit for royalty: Three hundred young Canadian hockey players lined the main street of St. Stephen, N.B., tapping their sticks on the pavement and chanting "U.S.A., U.S.A.," as the bus rolled into Canada.
"All these kids in hockey uniforms, from little tykes to teenagers,
cheering us into their town - it was unbelievable," Reilly said
yesterday. "Everybody on the bus was in shock, and many of us
were in tears."
So began the closing chapter to an extraordinary, cross-border
hockey saga that started a year ago in Montreal on the volatile
opening week of the Iraq War.
Reilly, his son John, and the rest of the Brockton Boxers - a
pee-wee team from Brockton, Mass., a working-class suburb of
Boston - arrived by bus in Montreal last March Break for a much-anticipated week of happy revelry in the hockey mecca of
North America.
U.S. bombs had recently started falling on Iraq, and as the
Brockton players and their chaperones were unloading their luggage
outside a Montreal hotel, they were caught in the midst of a large
anti-war protest. Their "Coach USA" bus, emblazoned with a Stars
and Stripes logo, caught the attention of the protesters who
swarmed past the terrified American kids, cursing and yelling at
them, and hammering on the side of their bus.
The next day at an NHL game in the Bell Centre, the Brockton
Boxers heard Montreal fans boo the U.S. anthem and heckle their
presence at the game. The group left the arena in the second
period and drove back to the U.S., where some parents and players
vowed never to return to Canada.
Word of the group's ugly experience reached the media in Brockton
and soon made headlines across North America.
Brian Johnson, a hockey parent in Fredericton, was so upset at the
events he started mulling ways to make it up to the Brockton
players.
In January, he went to Brockton to invite the Boxers to New
Brunswick for a friendly tournament. Johnson was nervous about
has since mushroomed into a $60,000 teenage hockey
extravaganza complete with celebrity guests, gala dinners and the
Stanley Cup.
The fun started last week, when New Brunswick Premier Bernard
Lord travelled to the Massachusetts State House in Boston to
personally hand out glossy invitations for the trip, plus personalized
track suits, to each of the Boxers who had come under fire in
Montreal.
On Tuesday, the Boxers and their families - 50 Americans plus a
U.S. television crew along for the ride - left Brockton bound for
New Brunswick, a place many of them had never even heard of
before.
At the border post in St. Stephen, they were met by two Mounties
in scarlet tunics and a police cruiser that escorted them through
the cheering throng on main street to a reception at the town's
information centre, where a giant welcome cake was devoured.
In Fredericton, where Canada's university hockey championships
are underway, the Boxers are now lodged at the same hotel as the
visiting varsity teams, but the pee-wee players are by far the
bigger attraction.
"Everybody we bump into here knows our story and wants to say
hello to us," Reilly said.
Yesterday at the 4,000-seat Aitken Centre, the Brockton players
and a Fredericton pee-wee team were mixed together for the main
event - the Friendship game - each player wearing a specially
designed hockey sweater with the Canadian and U.S. Olympic
hockey logos stitched together, and the flag of each nation on the
shoulders.
Hundreds of Fredericton minor hockey players were pulled from
school to watch the game, which was opened by an RCMP honour
guard and hockey legend Senator Frank Mahovalich.
The Brockton and Fredericton players will also find time tomorrow to
play another game on a frozen pond at a nearby golf course - the
first time the American teenagers will ever skate outdoors. They'll
actually be playing for the Stanley Cup, which will sit beside the
pond, awaiting a winner.
"Our young people here are walking on air," said Brockton Mayor
Jack Yunnits from Fredericton yesterday.
"They're having a ball," added Johnson, the event's chair-person.
"It doesn't matter whether you believe in the Iraq war or not, these
kids didn't have anything to do with it. So on behalf of the country,
we're apologizing to them, trying to repaint their picture of
Canada."
© Copyright 2004 Montreal Gazette
Search | About Us | Contact Us | Advertising | Privacy | Terms | FAQ | Site Map | Our Cities | U.S. Cities
Copyright © 2004 CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.
CanWest Interactive Inc. is an affiliate of CanWest Global Communications Corp.
Copyright & Permission Rules
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