forest hill today - spring 2011

Another MulticomMedia PublicationAnother MulticomMedia Publication

Foxy LADIESColourful duo among local business folks finding wide success

HARMoNy IN tHE ’HooD From cantors to cowgirl choirs

tHEy SHoot, tHEy ScoRE!

The people behind our hockey greats

SPRING 2011SPRING 2011

FOREST HILLFOREST HILLToday

� FOREST HILL TODAY Town Crier 2011

PK TO GRADE 12 CO-ED SCHOOL

DEDICATED TO DEVELOPING THE WHOLE CHILD

Hudson T Crier F Hill Jun 11 8-5 x 10-5.indd 1 06/05/2011 1:33:10 PM

2011 FOREST HILL TODAY Town Crier �

4ENTREPRENEURS EXTRAORDINAIRE: Two local businesses that take their good ideas beyond our borders

8A TRIM AND A CHAT: Conversation is as much of a draw at Forest Hill Barber Shop as the haircuts

18THEY SCORE: The story of St. Mike’s place in hockey lore

Plus lots more...

14SINGING COWGIRL:

Rebecca Daniels and her buckaroo babes warble a

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On the cover: Foxy Originals’ founders Suzie Chemel, left, and Jennifer Ger.

(Photo Francis Crescia)

Contents Dear Town Crier Reader,Lori Abittan Publisher

Joe Mastrogiacomo Vice President of finance

Doreen Iannuzzi Vice President of

new Media

editorial

Eric McMillan editor-in-chief

Gordon Cameron ManaGinG editor

Kelly Gadzala sPecial Projects editor

Shadi Raoufi

editorial art director

Production serVices

Tony Lomuto suPerVisor

Dino DiMaria Production

adVertisinG & salesDon Bettger

director, GrouP sales

Jennifer Gardiner director, corPorate sales

Kathy Kerluke business ManaGer

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tel: 416 785-4300 fax: 416 785-7350

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It is with great pride and satisfaction that I announce the fifth anniversary of the Town Crier’s annual Forest Hill Today publication.

To mark this special occasion, we have changed things up, moving to a savvier maga-zine-style format with glossier pages that we are certain you will enjoy.

As our cover indicates, this year we have taken a look at 30-something entrepreneurs living in the Forest Hill area who, with their emphasis on the local in spite of developing global brands, could very well represent the new face of business in the area.

As special projects editor Kelly Gadzala writes, the young women behind the successful Foxy Originals brand count local manufactur-ing and selling through non-traditional chan-nels as their governing ethic. Meanwhile newer ventures such as Homesav found its inspiration in Forest Hill and, in spite of its online reach, is also looking towards the future through a distinctive local lens.

Closer to the heart of the community, Shawn Star explores how the Forest Hill Barber Shop, now in its 80th year, is something its patrons cannot live without.

On the educational and sports front, Brian Baker looks at the relationship between St. Mike’s College School and the Toronto Maple Leafs, teasing out the school’s continual dedica-tion to producing top-notch NHL players.

Of course, it would not be Forest Hill Today if we did not profile people like you who work tirelessly in shaping our community through your hard work and dedication.

We trust you and yours will read this edi-tion of Forest Hill Today cover to cover, and as always, we welcome your feedback.

Here is to another five years.

Lori AbittanPublisher


It’s not just doctors, lawyers and bankers that inhabit Forest Hill.

There’s a new generation in the area that’s dusting off its entrepreneurial skills and devising innovative ventures — and interestingly, the brains behind the brands have paired an expansive online presence with a distinctly local philosophy.

• Foxy in Forest HillTake Foxy Originals founders Jennifer

Ger and Suzie Chemel, who, at 19, started selling handmade jewellery out of their knapsacks to fellow university students.

Twelve years later and their locally-

made metal jewellery is sold both online and in stores across North America, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Malaysia.

Best known for their reversible pendant necklaces, Chemel and Ger have designed customized collections for the likes of Hello Kitty and Umbra and even Barbie. Their innovative ideas have been featured in several business case studies.

Ger, who lives on Davenport Road, and Chemel, a Cedarvale resident, say it was always their goal to make stylish, multi-functional and affordable jewellery (price points are $24–40) that was locally made.

“We wanted things that were fashion-

able yet accessible,” Ger says.Traditional bricks and mortar retail

was a costly investment, so the two grew their business in a different way, first through outdoor festivals and then at trade shows. Gradually they developed other sales channels like a network of online sellers and retail distributors, in addition to selling on their own website.

It’s a strategy that’s paid off as their wholesale business is booming.

As Ger puts it, if you go to a trade show and have 70 orders, then you’re in 70 stores — a very different proposition than opening 70 stores.

Though they admit they face stiff com-

• BY KELLY GADzALA

Mon

ey m

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Pair of Forest Hill area businesses make the most of their good ideas


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Go global, stay local

francis crescia/town crier

BLING BIZ: Suzie Chemel, left, and Jennifer Ger have built a global jew-ellery brand by making locally and selling in non-traditional ways.

petition from jewellery made offshore, the biz partners say the advantage of producing locally is that it allows them to respond quicker to trends and customer requests.

“Within two weeks we can create a design and bring it to mar-ket,” Ger says.

Controlling production ensures they don’t get stuck with a bunch of inventory they can’t sell. Every time they release a new collec-tion, they retire an equal amount of existing pieces.

“It’s really hard for us to do,” says Chemel, who in her younger days designed a teen jewellery line for her family’s jewellery manu-facturing business.

Still, in spite of their global reach, selling to local boutiques is important to their vision. They’re in every major neighbourhood in Toronto, Ger says, including Yorkville’s Over the Rainbow, where the line has been sold since the very beginning, and at Playful Minds on St. Clair Avenue West at Bathurst Street.

That willingness to embrace the local has led Chemel and Ger to produce Love Local, a June 4 show at the Evergreen Brick Works

Continued Page 6

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featuring goods made and designed by Toronto producers.“There’s an appetite to support locally-made products,”

Ger says.It’s a misnomer, she adds, that businesses are amateurs if

they focus on local.“What would we all be as places if we didn’t have anything

local to call our own?”

• Savvy Forest Hill homes inspire HomesavWhile they may not have started their venture as students,

Allan Fisch, Alex Norman and Aliza Pulver were all seasoned business vets when they launched their latest venture — Home-sav.com.

It’s only been operating for six months but already the home décor shopping site has 50,000 members across Canada and the United States, with the majority in Toronto.

The friends — Fisch and Pulver are brother and sister and Norman is a friend of Fisch’s from business school — devised a members-only shopping site that gives users up to 70 percent off home décor products from a network of 700 North American manufacturers. New sales launch every day and are available for a limited time and in a limited quantity.

Though they developed the site for busy professionals look-ing for quality home décor products, Pulver says the idea came in part from growing up around Bathurst Street and Eglinton Avenue West, where she and her brother lived in 13 different houses.

The lovely homes of Forest Hill set the standard, she says, for fashion-conscious décor choices. And in a karmic nod, per-

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haps, their first sale actually came from Forest Hill.Though the business partners have picked up on an online trend

called flash sales, where highly discounted items are sold for a limited time, their model is different from sites that require a certain amount of people to buy-in to the product before it’s a legit deal. Plus, they say, there’s no one in the country doing flash sales in home décor.

As Norman says, because they sell products their buyers have carefully selected as opposed to entertainment-related services like restaurant dinners and yoga classes, they can better guarantee the quality of their wares.

“It gets out stamp of approval,” he says.But what really makes them different, Norman says, are the things

customers never see.“What’s extremely innovative and sophisticated for us is the

logistics,” he says.They work with 20 or so partners and have three warehouses

across North America to ensure items are shipped within the desired time.

And just six months in, the partners say they’ve learned a 100 little things from constant contact with customers via Twitter, Face-book and the website — a strategy the Foxy girls also say is crucial to their success.

Based on feedback, the Homesav founders are already planning to re-launch the website at end of June to make it easier for customer to use, and to expand their product offerings.

Local retail partnerships, where a particular buy is available at a specific store, are also in the works, while an artisanal arm of com-pany selling locally-made products is well established.

As with the Foxy model, supporting the local economy is part of the plan.

“It’s really the next step for us,” Pulver says.As Fisch puts it, they’d like to support the retailers where they

shop regularly.“We’d really love to contribute to areas where we grew up.”

Kelly Gadzala/town crier

TRIPLE A BUSINESS: Allan Fisch, left, with Aliza Pulver and Alex Norman, have introduced décor to the online flash sales market.

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• BY ShAwn STAR

It’s a dreary Friday morning, with the kind of rain that keeps people away from the golf course. But at Forest Hill Barber Shop, it’s busi-ness as usual.

When you walk in, it’s all smiles and greetings from the four men with the scissors. They gel together well, and along with cutting hair, the quartet of barbers are often seen cutting jokes.

Nick Vitantonio is the owner, and beside his chair is Nicola Pera-gine. Next down the line is Mario Smeriglio, who says he remembers everyone’s name. And last but not least is the latest edition, Terry Caris, who’s been there for only 16 years.

“We have many customers who are fourth generation,” says Vitantonio, who has run the shop since coming to Canada 48 years ago. “It makes you feel good.”

Not a single person who walks in isn’t known to at least one of the four barbers. Among the clientele on the rainy Friday morning is Toronto Maple Leafs’ legend Red Kelly. Asked how long he’s been a patron at Forest Hill Barber Shop, Kelly laughs.

“Too long,” he says before admitting he first visited in 1973. “They’re not all good Toronto Maple Leafs’ fans, though.”

What Kelly is hinting at is how Vitantonio, Peragine and Smeri-glio are all Leafs fans but Caris is a lifelong Habs fan.

“We have fun with it,” Caris says of the in-store rivalry. “There are a lot of Montrealers around here, so it helps.”

This sort of banter is something many patrons recall about the place, including Gabe Desjardins, a former customer who now lives in California. Reached by phone, he said even after the move out west, he still came back for a cut about every four months.

“I’ve probably been to 25 or 30 different places in the interim without finding anything satisfactory,” he said. “They do a great job cutting hair, that’s the key thing.”

Desjardins’ experience isn’t unique either. Take 21-year-old Alex Wakeam. He’s been coming to the shop since he was 10 for one important reason.

“They know my head,” he says in mid-cut. “I’ve got a weird head of hair, but they do a good job.”

While Desjardins and Wakeam rave about the cuts, many other

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customers think one of the best features of the barbershop is the commu-nity atmosphere. Michael Grafstein started coming about 20 years ago, and now comes daily but not always for a haircut.

“It’s very personal,” he says of the shop that opened its doors back in 1931. “A very tight-knit social club.”

A patron, Paul, a retired teacher now living in Port Hope, walks into the shop. He’s been coming to Forest Hill Barber Shop since 1940. He says it might even be his earliest childhood memory — walking to the barbershop with his grandfather.

For Vitantonio, there’s a simple way to keep people coming back.“You just have to be nice,” he said. “As long as you’re nice as a per-

son, that’s the main thing. And plus a haircut.”Though Vitantonio says the neighbourhood has changed over the years

— there was only one bank when he took over and haircuts cost two dol-lars — the friendliness has remained constant.

A woman stops by with her son, who is confined to a wheelchair. Only stopping by to say hi, she says it’s been years since she’s brought him in for a cut, and asks if they remember him. Smeriglio pipes up.

“Of course,” he says. “You’re David.”

Social business

shawn star/town crier

QUARTET: Barbers Nick Vitantonio, left, Nicola Peragine, Mario Smeri-glio and Terry Caris keep the Forest Hill Barber shop alive and lively.

shawn star/town crier

OLD MONEY: The shop’s original till is still in use.

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It’s 10:01 a.m. on a Saturday morning at the end of April, and the doors have just opened on the Grace Church on-the-Hill’s annual rummage sale.

Hundreds of people who have lined up down the sidewalk and around the corner slowly snake inside. Once in, they split off in the church’s maze-like interior in search of treasures: jewellery and furniture in the base-ment; silver and crystal in the upper chamber; fine linens in the foyer.

No one really knows how long the sale has been going on, but it’s an annual tradition for many in the community.

One thing is for sure: the deals and the pick-ings are heavenly.

A mob surrounds the jewellery table, which is pretty much picked clean within the hour by dealers and bling lovers alike. Nearby, a woman scores a huge blue Persian area rug for $50. Another one for the same price with “Eaton” marked on it is said to have come from a house across the street.

Meanwhile, a huge 1970s glass base lamp that’s quite on-trend these days — and would sell at chi-chi décor places for a couple hundred new — goes for 10 bucks.

“People can set up an apartment,” says

church member and sale organizer Diana Wat-son, who has been heading up the event for the past four years.

And clearly, people do. A woman leaves the building with brocade drapes and a lamp in tow. A local interior designer who’s into sustainabil-ity snatches up an authentic 1970s shag carpet that looks as though it morphed from the pages of a design magazine.

The savvier shoppers have already hit the sale at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church on St. Clair Avenue West, which opened an hour earlier, before hightailing it to Grace Church in time for doors open.

Church sales help the community and beyond

Rummaging around

• BY KELLY GADzALAKelly Gadzala/town crier

TREASURES: Hans Kotiesen hugs his haul after shopping the church sales.

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2011 FOREST HILL TODAY Town Crier 11

Take Shirley Granick. Though she lives in New York she’s staying in the Forest Hill area temporarily. At Timothy Eaton, she amassed a hoard of embroidered Irish linens, vintage crystal and hankies for about $60.

Holding what looks like a Chippendale table in the basement of Grace Church on-the-Hill, Granick says she’ll make the trek from New York to attend the area church sales again.

“Next year I’ll be here,” she says. “This is amazing.”

Her friend, Stacey Richards, has worked at Timothy Eaton doing weekly luncheons for seniors. She says she’s never been to the church’s sale but attended this year for the first time with Granick, who is well-versed in antiques.

And though the deals are great, there’s so much more to be had at these sales. Treasure hunters come from across the city, true, but a lot of local people attend the Grace sale, according to Watson. Members of the parish volunteer not just the day of but year-round as they collect, sort and store items.

“The thing I love about this sale is that it brings together the community,” says Watson.

Of course, locals contribute items to the sale, the proceeds of which go back into the church.

Many in the area are downsizing or, sadly, passing away, she says. An Avenue Road and St. Clair Avenue West resident, Watson has a back-ground in antiques and interior design and has helped with many local estate sales. Whatever is

not sold is donated to the church. Leftovers from Grace Church on-the-Hill’s

sale in turn go back into helping not just the immediate community but also less well-off areas. Much is donated to a church in the west end for its rummage sale. Health care items go to nursing homes; electronics go to city recycling depots; even unsold suitcases find a home.

“I try to recycle everything,” says Watson. “I grew up waste not, want not.”

Meanwhile at Timothy Eaton, that waste-not mentality is kicking in about 11:45 a.m. That’s when sale goers can grab a box and stuff it full for $5.

The Salvation Army is picking up what it can after the sale. Church member Jean Kreyssig, who is one of 120-plus volunteers pitching in at the sale, is collecting unsold stuffed animals that will be shipped to Africa with other kids’ supplies through an initiative for Bell Canada retirees.

Organizer Nancy Thornton has been coordi-nating the Eaton sale for at least a decade and says it has grown over the years.

“They start lining up at seven in the morn-ing.”

The sale typically generates about $15,000 a year, she says, with half the proceeds going towards the church’s operating budget and the other half earmarked for four main organizations the church supports.

Outside, area residents Carole Lowes and Hans Kotiesen sun themselves on the bench at

the front of the church, with piles of blue reus-able bags around them packed full with their findings.

They go to the Grace and Eaton sales every year, they say, and have learned to take a divide-and-conquer approach.

“You can only do one church,” says Kotiesen. “This maximizes our effort.”

Squinting in the blinding spring sun, Kotiesen holds up a Sony compact stereo system he paid $20 that he guesses is as many years old.

“I have no idea how it works.”But back into his bag it goes.


ORGANIZER Diana Watson helps Grace Church on-the-Hill’s sale hum.

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1� FOREST HILL TODAY Town Crier 2011


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It’s hard to sum up Aliza and Simon Spiro in a sentence. They’ve been in Canada only six years, but the husband and

wife duo has transformed their synagogue community through musical theatre.

Members of the Beth Tzedec Congregation, where Simon works as senior cantor, the couple are responsible for the syna-gogue’s popular annual Purim Family Musical.

Together, they write an original show and stage it. Over 100 members of congregation are involved, they say, from 75-year-olds to their grandsons.

The show is so professional that Simon says his musical pals who typically perform in shows like Jersey Boys always reserve a few days so they can participate in the production.

“It’s like Stratford,” he says.In March they staged “The Roaring Twenties Megillah”, the

story of Esther told in the days of prohibition“It’s telling history like Mel Brooks,” says Simon.“People come from all over Toronto to see this.”The Spiros have a wealth of international experience they bring

to their work.Simon, a world-renowned cantor born in London, England,

is known not just for his cantorial skills but also for his career in popular music.

Trained as a cantor at London’s Jews’ College in the late 1970s, he’s done everything from BBC jingles and K-tel recordings where he’d impersonate the likes Elton John (a huge irony given he’d sing back up for the artist years later in Toronto) to perform-ing the lead in Phantom of the Opera. He also owned a successful production company, which explains his talent for staging shows.

Aliza, a singer and award-winning songwriter from New Eng-land, worked on Broadway for 18 years coaching cabaret signers on staging techniques. She’s known for her hilarious lyrics, most notably her composition, “The Announcement Song,” which

aliza & simon spiro

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pokes fun at post-prayer service announcements.The two met at a cantor’s convention in California just over a

decade ago. The story goes that Simon saw Aliza performing and fell in love instantly. He compares her genius to American composer and songwriter Cole Porter.

The couple has worked together ever since, and their mutual adoration and respect is apparent. Sitting in their living room practi-cally next door to the synagogue, they speak enthusiastically about their projects, including the inaugural Jewish Music Week in Toronto festival running at the end of May.

For the annual synagogue concert, they’ll write the script togeth-er, then Aliza will write lyrics, choreograph and direct while Simon does the orchestration and stages the entire show.

Their efforts have earned the synagogue the unofficial name of The Music Synagogue of Toronto, true — but the heart of their success is how they use music and their faith to forge community.

“Our whole model is based on the tradi-tional 16th century synagogue in a village,” says Simon. The temple, he says, should be a place to help people and its doors should always be open.

People who are alone in congregation get involved.

“Instantly, in four to five days, they have family,” says Simon.

“We’ve created our own family of this larger congregation,” says Aliza. “People are part of something they never thought they could do.”

Simon says they’re trying to shake up the Jewish community in the synagogue. Beth Tzedec has a great history, he says, but it’s a bit stuffy.

“I came in with Aliza and we shook it by the throat.”

“We’ve created our own family

of this larger congregation.”

Always on key


PITCH PERFECT: Simon & Aliza Spiro bring music to Beth Tzedec.


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“It’s entirely unique.”

She’s an urban cowgirl of sorts, zipping around her Hill-crest Village stomping ground on her bike, sporting a retro 1980s floral mini dress and her favourite pair of thrifted cowboy boots.

Rebecca Daniels is co-founder of The Cowgirl Choir, a local band comprised of 20 and 30-something singers and musicians.

She and a couple friends had been talking about forming a band for two years before they started the group. Her friend Megan Flynn, who conceived of the idea, had trouble con-vincing Daniels that country could be, well, cool. But once Daniels got a feel for the type of music — namely old songs the band reworked — she changed her tune.

The choir is what’s known as a mash-up band, which entails their mixing old country tunes with newer recordings. One example is an old song called “Single Girl,” which they mixed with Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.”

“It’s entirely unique,” says Daniels.Though Daniels and the other members of the band

— eight young women and guitarist Scott Maynard — have played at such downtown trendy locales as The Drake Hotel and The Silver Dollar since forming in late 2010, the band’s first performance was at the Wychwood Barns annual fund-raiser last spring.

They were invited back for this year’s event in March and also per-formed at Hillcrest Public School’s fundraiser last summer.

“There were some little kids who were really into it,” she says.

It’s delightful to be known and recognized by the community, she says, something that happened to her recently while doing takeout on St. Clair West and a gentle-man asked her if she was one of the Cowgirls.

“There are people in this neighbourhood who are really supportive.”

The band has a distinct chemistry and thrives on its col-laborative nature, she says.

“We manage to let each individual person shine.”Of course, dressing the part is part of the group’s reign-

ing ethic.“Everything we wear has a cowgirl flair,” she says.

“There’s a vintage vibe to it.”So far the band has a following on Facebook and

Myspace, and a goal for next summer is to do a European festival tour.

Though the performance opportunities in downtown hip-ster bars and festival tours in Europe beckon, the Hillcrest Village and Wychwood areas are part of the band’s DNA.

“We did our first gig here,” she says. “We have a special connection.”

Choir co-founder mixes classic country with pop hits

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coaching the women of the rink A quarter-century of

helping girls make their hockey dreams come true

• BY BRIAn BAKER

Ken Dufton is fully immersed in the Forest Hill hockey culture.

For the past five years, the Toronto Aeros coach has also been behind the bench for Bishop Strachan School, watching the school’s program, as well as the young ladies who don the maroon and cream jer-seys, grow.

It’s safe to say he’s absorbed the school spirit with every line he sends out onto the ice.

“I thought that (spirit) would be a part of it but I wasn’t aware how large it was going

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BENCH BOSS: Ken Dufton has been a driving force in women’s hockey since the beginning.

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coaching the women of the rink to be,” he said. “These young ladies get a chance to go to a wonderful school.”

With a roster with grade 9s through 12s, he sees the older players mentor the rookies.

Coaching Bishop Strachan has also given Dufton the opportunity to see another level of hockey. He admits working with high school players reminds him of the humble beginnings of women’s hockey.

Dufton has been a big part in the sport at the national level since 1984.

Originally coaching AAA boys hockey, the bench boss made the jump to the fledging girls league at the request of a friend.

“Initially I said yes and then next thing I know it’s been ... 25 plus years involved in the female game,” he said.

And Dufton has had a direct influ-ence on some of the best in the game

including Angela James, Geraldine Heaney, Cassie Campbell, Cheryl Pounder, Becky Kellar, Cherie Piper, Gillian Apps, Gillian Ferrari and Mar-got Page.

Though he has been a coach at the national level, it was with Toronto Aeros he saw most young talent blos-som. It was there he history in the making.

Taking a trip down memory lane, Ken Dufton narrows his big three moments in women’s hockey as being the first IIHF World Championship in 1990, the introduction of women’s hockey at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and the opening up of the female game at the collegiate level.

Dufton credits a change in US law for an explosion of universities offering female hockey in both United States and Canada.

Plenty of Bishop Strachan Bobcats

have moved on to NCAA or CIS hock-ey, including Shannon Doyle at Colgate in Hamilton, New York and Adrian Crampton, a CIS champion with McGill Martlets.

The game continues to grow, as does Dufton’s passion for women’s hockey.

And whether it’s 1984 or 2011, coaching ama-teur hockey is ground zero for seeing Canada’s next superstars before they win gold.

“For me it’s been a lot of fun because I’ve gotten to see the development of the game,” he said.

“We really didn’t have a lot of things in the way of resources in the mid-’80s, and I’m talking about ice time, the num-ber of games, equipment.”

Dufton was there for the

game’s big moments

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LSt. Mike’s has produced lots of NHL talent

History on ice• BY BRIAn BAKER

ook above the ice surface at St. Michael’s College School arena, and you’ll see what fills Father Michael Lehman with a sense of pride.

It’s late afternoon, and the team’s chaplain is more than happy to dis-cuss all things Buzzers at the private school founded in 1917.

“Every time I look up into the rafters of the arena you see all those fine names of those gentlemen who played for either the Buzzers or the Majors,” he said.

Not every hockey team has a chaplain but it’s as much a part of St. Mike’s tradition as producing such NHL talents as Eric Lindros, Dave Maloney, Frank Mahovlich and Gerry Cheevers.

If one retraces the history of St. Mike’s, it would not be surprising to learn the Majors, once playing out of the school’s rink, were one step below the NHL, according to Buzzers president Michael McCarron.

“St. Mike’s ... was very much a farm team of the Toronto Maple Leafs,” he said. “What happened back in the old days (was) the Catholic kids went to St. Mike’s and the Protestants went to the Marlies.”

Currently St. Mike’s can claim New York Ranger Wojtek Wolski, Ottawa Senator Jason Spezza, Edmonton Oiler Andrew Cogliano, Bos-ton Bruin Tyler Seguin and Tampa Bay Lightning’s Dominic Moore among their alumni.

These days, the emphasis is on getting players not just to the NHL but also into strong academic institutions or the Ontario Hockey League.

“The commitment to being a leader in junior hockey and get kids to the next level certainly has never been stronger,” he said.

A little help from above is always handy, and that’s where Lehman’s expertise comes in.

“I’m there as a sense of support for the players, for the team and the family,” he said. “If there are any issues, difficulties or problems you just become a listening post alongside of other members of the team.”

That spiritual guidance helps develop the whole player.“We’re not just talking hockey, we’re talking about how to find one’s

place in society and make a contribution to the community,” Lehman said. “I think that’s part of the St. Michael’s tradition: good strong aca-demics and athletics.”

Still there have been some obstacles. The progression of sports into a business meant that St. Michael’s

lost its OHL franchise in 1962. After a three-decade long hiatus, the team returned in 1996, but only to eventually move to Mississauga.

The loss was bittersweet.“It wasn’t a good situation but it really was a necessary evil based on

the reality of current times,” McCarron said. “There were very few kids that went to school.

“It wasn’t really a school team anymore and frankly that arena is a great arena, but it’s not up to the standards of the OHL.”

Still, the Buzzers keep the school busy and this June at the 2011 NHL draft, another St. Michael’s Buzzer will have the opportunity to make it to the big leagues. This time it’s Lucas Lessio, and for Lehman and company, it’s another great moment.

“We’re of course very proud of their accomplishment and we’re also very aware of whatever contribution we could make to the development of that particular person as a skilled hockey player but also as an indi-vidual,” said Lehman. “When they leave us, they leave us as a different and better person.”

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TRADITION: St. Mike’s Buzzers president Mike McCarron says that playing for St. Michael’s College School is more than just a pipeline to the NHL.


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