By Ed O’Leary, BRANTFORD EXPOSITOR

BRANTFORD – Jordan Szoke is the biggest star in the Parts Canada Superbike Championship. The 29-year-old from Brantford is a four-time Canadian champion and heavily favoured to capture his fifth crown this summer.

However, Szoke, who is also a two-time Pro 600 Series champion, doesn’t consider himself a celebrity from the world of sports when he’s walking or cruising around his hometown streets.

“It’s an honour to be celebrated in the community as a celebrity,” Szoke said at the Brantford Golf and Country Club where he played as a celebrity in the annual Walter Gretzky/CNIB Charity Celebrity Auction and Golf Classic.

“That’s a cool thing. I love supporting Wally and it’s a great cause. It reminds me of my father (Bob). He (Walter) is a big supporter for Wayne and my father has been just as big a supporter for me.”

The tournament committee voted Szoke as the winner of this year’s Award of Merit for his contributions to success of the tournament.

Szoke couldn’t play in the tournament last year because he’d suffered an injury racing and his arm was in a sling but he still showed up and rode around the course in a cart with a foursome

“It’s such a good run event,” Szoke said. “I’ve been to a few of these (charity tournaments) and the staff they have here is fantastic.”

Szoke noted that he was in “shock” to receive such a prestigious award.

“It’s an honour and I’m in good company,” said Szoke, noting that previous winners include the Gretzkys (Walter and Wayne), Olympian Kevin Sullivan and former NHLers Doug Jarvis and Chris Gratton.

“When you receive things like that it’s a bit of a weird feeling. I’m just trying to go out and win races and do my job so when you receive awards like that outside of racing, it’s shocking because you don’t expect it.”

Szoke is on the verge of setting several Canadian records in his own sport but trying not to pay attention to all the hype surrounding him at upcoming events such as this weekend’s doubleheader at Mosport near Bowmanville.

“All I’m trying to do is win races and as soon as I win a race I want to win another race,” said the Canadian Kawasaki Motors factory rider, who leads the Superbike and Pro 600 standings into the races Saturday and Sunday.

“Mosport is my favourite track,” Szoke said. “It’s my home race and I’m definitely the fan favourite. It (being the fan favourite) gives you a boost of confidence and you want to win for your fans.”

Wrigley Field is a great venue for Winter Classic II

Last year I was fortunate to be able to be a part of the NBC broadcast in Buffalo and the NHL’s 1st outdoor game in the United States.

Working alongside Ed Olczyk, Mike Emrick, Mike Milbury and Bob Costas , I was doing what I enjoy doing the most. I was rinkside. I put skates on between the benches and I believe for the 1st time ever in broadcasting, I was able to skate on the ice and do interviews, picked up the snow on the ice when there was some build up, and had the chance to be close to the players and the coaches during the heat of battle, in the cold!

It ended up being perfect. A close game, not a perfectly played game, and why would it be? It really didn’t matter. It was perfect and fans wanted to be a part of it, both at the venue and watching on TV.

It had all the elements. It had sun, snow, close to rain for awhile, clouds, and Sidney Crosby scores the GWG in the shoot out.

Now we move forward.

Chicago is hosting Detroit.

And it will be at venerable Wrigley Field.

When I played for the Blackhawks in the mid to late 80’s, one of the 1st things all of us players wanted to do in training camp was go to a Cubs game. It is no different today.

NHL players will often head to Chicago in the summer and hang out. They take in Lake Shore Drive and the beaches along the Gold Coast. They play golf some of the great golf courses in the world, tracks like Medinah, Butler National, Chicago Golf Club and Shoreacres, just to name a few.

And they all end up seeing the Cubs play. They go to Wrigley. They hang out in the neighborhood and take it all in. It is a special place to see a game. It is a destination. It is something they never forget.

It wasn’t much different than the ball players heading to old Chicago Stadium and seeing the Hawks play in front of a rowdy, energetic and sold out building that was also the place to be.The Bears, Cubs,

The Blackhawks may have earned the Comeback Franchise of the Decade with all of the smart moves they made this past season.

It has forever been a challenge for the NHL to get the Hawks late owner, Bill Wirtz to put home games on TV. I had many interviews and conversations with Mr. Wirtz while I was beginning my broadcast career in Chicago. I was the analyst on pre, during and post game shows before I left full time for ESPN.

There were many nights I listened to ticked off Hawk fans because there was no TV for the local fans when the Hawks played at home. Mr. Wirtz was consistent at all times with his response. It was always about preserving the season ticket “subscribers” and making the home games the place to be. He was right. It did make it special to be there. It could hold around 19,500 and I bet there were 16,000 season ticket holders.

They made sure they got there for the National Anthem, sang by Wayne Messmer, and had a couple of cold beers right with them.

But when the team moved across the Street and popular players were moved with regularity, the fans failed to show up, with regularity. And then they just stopped caring about this once beloved franchise.

Now he has passed and Rocky Wirtz is in charge. Years ago I was told by one of the Wirtz family members that either they get “into the race” or step aside with dignity and pride, and “get out of the race.” There was clearly no effort to improve the fan base, the team nor the chance to compete for the Cup, which they have not won since the glory days of Hull, Mikita, and Hall in 1961. That has now changed. Rocky Wirtz is a good man and he cares about winning and he cares about the game. His son Danny grew up playing hockey, in fact he was a goalie. Pretty sharp kid, no doubt.

With some shrewd moves by Dale Tallon and the green light to go spend from Rocky Wirtz, the Hawks are a team and a franchise back on the rise.

Because of all the positive moves, home games on TV, a great young team led by Calder Trophy winner Pat Kane and finalist Jonathon Toews, this was an easy decision for the NHL to have the Hawks host the Wings at Wrigley Field. There was no resistance to help out this once very proud franchise, instead it was the opportunity by the NHL to help out this market and rivalry with the Wings.

The NHL had many choices and clearly Yankee Stadium would have been great. There is no denying that, especially after watching the recent MLB All star game that was there.

I am looking forward to experiencing the walk into Wrigley. I just want to see the boards and the ice and the look on the faces of the players as they step onto the ice. It won’t be the 24 steps it once took to reach the ice surface from the locker room at the Stadium, but it is going to be darn close, I’m sure.

I am looking forward to seeing the Blackhawk Alumni, one of the best in all of sports. The Hawks will make sure they are a part of the festivities and the old players have been looking forward to being a part of a special hockey event in Chicago for some time. After all, for years they were the ones that had to answer all the negative questions and criticism from the dwindling fan base. They lived there and stayed during the off season, when most of the players were all long gone, taking the lost season elsewhere.

It is certainly going to change for the better and the Winter Classic II will be a defining moment for the organization and the City of Chicago.

They have high expectations after the Sabres and Penguins show last year. It may not have the same ending, the same timing for snow and 71,000 fans,that never left their seats, but it will have plenty of history, ambience and that grid iron feel that you can’t manufacture. It will be Chicago and Detroit.

I can’t wait.

Panger

The Great One Wants To Coach For Years To Come

By Terry Jones, SUN MEDIA

PHOENIX — Coach Wayne Gretzky. Get used to it. Not just for now, but for far into the future. He has decided that’s who he is. “My forte is coaching. I’m in it for the long run, for a long time. Hopefully, I’ll spend another 10 or 15 years coaching. I just want to be a coach,” he said.

His dad Walter displayed an animated combination of expressions at that revelation.

“He does? He said that? He told you that? That would sure be shocking to his mother. He always said he’d never, ever coach. He said as a coach, you can’t keep everybody happy. Wayne has always tried to keep everybody happy. “It’s like when he told his mom he was going to coach the Coyotes three years ago. She said ‘Pardon?’ ”

But Walter Gretzky said he can see it.

“He loves it that much. He really does. When he quit playing, despite everything he had, he had nothing after hockey. Coaching filled a void. It’s just stunning how much he loves it. He thinks coaching all day long.”

His brother Glen sees it, too. “It’s remarkable how seriously he takes coaching. He just cares so much.”

While his motivations were questioned for becoming coach when he was already a minority owner and managing partner of the Coyotes, Gretzky admits he came to realize there was something major missing in his life.

“I was no different than any other retired player. I definitely felt I was missing out on something. I didn’t see the same challenge.

“It was my wife who sat me down and told me ‘you should coach.’ She convinced me I should try it. It’s the next best thing to being a player.”

Many predicted that Gretzky would fail as a coach. And going into this season, most of the so-called experts who make pre-season predictions had his Phoenix Coyotes picked to finish dead last.

Gretzky had survived the purge that cleaned out most of the organization — including former agent and friend Mike Barnett, who was replaced by Don Maloney as general manager — but hockey people questioned what he had done here to coach and, indeed, if he could survive behind the bench much longer.

Now, with the Coyotes in hot pursuit of a playoff position, they’re suggesting Gretzky could win the coach-of-the-year award.

“Right from the start of the year, you could see he was much more relaxed and in his element and really enjoying it,” Oilers GM Kevin Lowe said of his former teammate.

Ex-Oilers goalie and current Coyotes assistant Grant Fuhr said you could see right from training camp that he was in control.

“The first two years there was more feeling out by him as a head coach. He was coaching and learning. Now he’s totally coaching and doing it with the same competitive fire with which he played.”

Darren Pang, who has spent the past three years as a colour commentator on Coyotes broadcasts, said now there’s no doubt.

“He’s engaged. It’s his team,” Pang said. “The organization went and got him the kind of players he can play exciting hockey with, his kind of players, guys who are young, hungry and self-motivated.”

Gretzky said it takes time.

“You have to learn what’s going on,” the Great One said. “My first year or two coaching I was really less in charge in the sense that I really delegated a lot more of everything. There is a much bigger comfort zone in what I want to get across now and the style I want our team to play. We’re less complicated as a team.

“Going into this year I knew the system and the style we want to play. We just said ‘look, here’s how we’re going to play, this is how we want to play. We’re going to forecheck, we’re going to go north, we’re going to attack, we’re not going to turn the puck back, we’re not going to trap.’ These guys have bought into exactly the way I want them to play.

“We’re fast, we play hard and our kids are playing really well. When your top guys like Shane Doan, Ed Jovanovski and Derek Morris buy in, it makes it so much easier as a coach to get everyone else to buy into it. And the other thing is that our younger guys played better than we anticipated. We knew they were going to be good. We knew Martin Hanzel was going to be good. We knew Peter Mueller was going to be good. Mueller is 19 years old and he’s playing the point on the power play and doing a pretty good job. And Hanzel is 20 and he’s out killing penalties and taking faceoffs, so it has been really interesting.

“We just weren’t good enough to be successful before. Now we have younger guys playing more my style and more of what I believe in. It’s really fun and exciting for me. After all the tough things we went through, the positives started to outweigh the negatives.

“Now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel that this organization didn’t see until now.”

Previous: Wayne’s New World
Next: The Business Of Being Gretzky