By Evan Mathias, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter
Four local sports heroes were honoured as the first inductees into the newly established Lakeshore Sports Excellence Hall of Fame. The inaugural induction ceremony, held at the Urban Field House in Emeryville, celebrated these athletes across four different categories, marking a proud moment in local sports history.
David Tremblay (Modern Athlete – Wrestling), Jim Mahon (Legend Athlete – Hockey), Mary Ann Pinsonneault (Builder – Female Hockey), and Reg Chevalier (Open Category – Baseball) were officially inducted into the Lakeshore Sports Excellence Hall of Fame. The ceremony celebrated each inductee’s contributions to their sport and legacy in the community.
“Our board sat down and each submitted two or three in each category. We looked at all the nominations and broke it down and talked about them and we as a board voted and that’s the four that got selected,” said LSEHOF chair, Jim Rauth.
Getting the event and Hall of Fame going was a work in progress over the last year, brought on by several local sports enthusiasts and leaders who wanted to preserve the rich history of sports in the Lakeshore community.
“If you look at the size of Lakeshore now, we’re a large enough community and have enough sports celebrities that we as a community should honour them,” said Rauth. “Last year myself and one of the other directors were coming home from a sporting event in Ohio. We said, ‘why don’t we do our own sports Hall of Fame?’ We started having more discussions about it and it got more serious.”
Known for his years working in hockey, Rauth was approached with concerns that there would be only former hockey players selected. That however isn’t the case with a range of sports being included for the inaugural induction ceremony.
All of the inductees were quite easy choices according to Rauth – with Tremblay being a Canadian Olympian at the 2012 summer Olympics.
“For David Tremblay, he was an easy choice. He’s an Olympian,” said Rauth. “I’m not sure how many Olympians we have in Lakeshore, but to the board and for myself that was an easy choice to make.”
Jim Mahon was a superstar local hockey player in the 1970’s. A breakout junior hockey player for the Peterborough Petes, he had a promising future of professional hockey ahead of him. Unfortunately, he tragically passed away at the age of 19.
“Jim Mahon was projected to be a first-round pick in the NHL Draft,” said Rauth. “Jim was an easy pick. Again, outstanding athlete, had a book written about him. As a 13-and 14-year-old he played in the Essex Juvenile league. At 14 he won the scoring title, playing against guys 4 or 5 years older than him. At that age that is amazing.”
Similarly, the builder category was a no-brainer for the LSHOF board.
“In the builder category, another easy one. Mary Ann developed female hockey in our community with the Lakeshore Lightning. She’s the founder,” said Rauth. “Those three selections were really easy with their contributions.”
In the open category, the board selected Reg Chevalier, a baseball legend from Woodslee.
“If you go to Woodslee, the ball diamond is named after him. He did everything there. Reg got that ballpark up and running got volunteers, former players and did a great job,” said Rauth. “We wanted to have four categories and the open category can cover anything. Anyone that is heavily involved in sports. That’s who that is for.”
A smaller induction class hopes to make the selections that much more special for all of the inductees.
“We only created four. Some of the sports hall of fames have 5 or 6 different categories. We wanted to simplify it,” said Rauth. “Four basically really easy selections for the categories. There really wasn’t much debate for these choices… if you look at it, we have two inductees that are still living and two that have left us. It’s kind of a unique induction ceremony, but that’s what we came up with and we feel really strong about these four.”
Following the Nov. 7 induction ceremony, nominations have opened to the public for next year’s Lakeshore Sports Excellence Hall of Fame. Community members can submit nominations using the form available on the Hall of Fame website at www.lsehof.ca.
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