Jack Elliott
On April 29, at St. Clair College in Windsor, Stratton native Angela Lee was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association.
Lee was honoured along with 88 other athletes, coaches, and builders from colleges across Ontario for distinguishing themselves through demonstrated leadership and high standards.
During her years at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, first as a third and then as skip, Lee won three-consecutive gold medals at the OCAA provincials and silver at the Northern Ontario mixed provincials.
Lee also was awarded female athlete of the year twice at Confederation College.
In all three years there, her scholastic achievement earned her the OCAA all-academic award.
“I started curling at seven or eight, and then competitively at 13,” recalled Lee, who, like most great curlers, started at an early age.
Stratton’s reputation for promoting participation in curling has produced a clutch of outstanding contemporaries, including Lee’s sister, Andrea, Jackie McCormick (nee Bonot), Danielle Shrumm, Trevor Bonot, and Lisa Bolen.
Lee credited much of her early interest, encouragement, and curling lessons to community-minded mentors like her father, Terry Lee, Bryan Bonot, and the late Dan Shrumm—all noted curlers in their own right.
The Township of Morley, of which Stratton is a village, is only comprised of a few hundred citizens, but curling enthusiasm there stretches back many decades.
In the 1970s, Stratton replaced its old rink with a state-of-the-art curling arena featuring three sheets of artificial ice. The facility was built with the assistance of monies from senior levels of government and a mountain of donated materials and labour.
Today it remains a hotbed of curling in the west end of the
district.
Prior to college, Lee’s team of Lisa Bolen, Danielle Shrumm, and Sarah Boily represented Northern Ontario at the Jr. Nationals in Kelowna, B.C. in 1998-99. Then later, representing Rainy River High School, she won gold at the OFSAA championship.
Following graduation from Confederation College, Lee kept those rocks hot once as skip and twice as third for Ashley Miharija at the Ontario Scotties playdowns.
She also has won the Northern Ontario provincial mixed championship and competed at the mixed nationals in 2006.
This coming year, Lee again will be holding the broom, skipping her rink of Alissa Begin (third), Jenna Enge (second), and Danielle Miron (lead).
Although it’s one stone, one end, one game, and one bonspiel at a time, there’s no doubt about Lee’s next curling goal: the Scott Tournament of Hearts.
When Lee is not curling, she holds down the position of senior accountant at Grant Thornton LLP in Thunder Bay.
Not bad for a kid who still considers home the little village of Stratton and fondly refers to it as “Hooterville.”
