Fifteen minutes of fame comes up pretty quick

Reuben Villagracia
A Reuben With A View

You know what’s one of my guilty pleasures? I love the tell-tale signs when someone’s 15 minutes of fame is drawing to a close.

In the world of sports—where worth is determined, for the most part, by how much front page you’ve covered or if you’ve received an apt amount of television exposure to flash your Nike sweater, time moves forward for the “athlete of the moment” yet fame rarely does.

Enter Canada’s skating sweethearts—David Pelletier and Jamie Sale.

Once again, I have a pretty good idea of what you’re thinking now: A write-up on Olympic figure skating? That’s so three months ago. We want more of your NHL playoff insights (OK, I may be stretching that last part).

Last week, the couple announced they’d be leaving the amateur ranks of skating—and guess what? There was barely a blip on the 24-hour sports channel, hardly a mention in the major daily papers, at least compared to that juicy worldwide story about a corrupt judge and that “rightfully our gold medal was stolen” hoopla.

Tick, tick, tick.

I’m sure Pelletier and Sale would be the first to tell you they’re going to relish life away from the intense glare of the cameras and they would be 100 percent correct. Let’s leave them alone, already.

Ah, but fame is a two-way street.

“We’ve accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish and more and we’re proud of what we’ve done and we’re moving on to bigger and better things,” Sale explained in a recent Canadian Press story.

Correction: bigger and better things just passed. It was called “supposedly endless endorsement deals.”


Fort Frances native Rustyn Dolyny scored 11 points (four goals/seven assists) in 17 games to lead all rookies in playoff scoring as his Muskegon Fury won the United Hockey League’s Colonial Cup in six games over the Elmira Jackals last week. The Fury went 11-6 in three playoff rounds.

The Michigan State product had scored 55 points in 70 regular-season games—his first season as a professional.


Local soccer product Gord Keesic will suit up for a third year with the Thunder Bay Chill of the Premier Developmental League. Keesic, a 26-year-old defender/midfielder, will kick the season off with the Chill this weekend in Wisconsin.

The Chill went 11-13-1 overall last season.


In other soccer news, Matt Basaraba qualified for the Lakehead Express under-18 boys’ rep team last weekend. Currently a member of the Muskie boys’ team, Basaraba, 17, went province jumping between a high school tournament in Winnipeg and Thunder Bay for the Express tryouts.


Four local volleyball players finished up their club tournament season last weekend. Allison Hyatt, Kate Elliot, Melanie Pierce, and Mallory Chown helped lead their Kenora-based team to a fourth-place finish at a 12-team tournament in Brandon, Man.

The team, including three others from Kenora, had played in tournaments in Thunder Bay and Kenora.


Ian Lockman of the Borderland Thunder was the only local product selected in the Ontario Hockey League’s priority draft Saturday. Lockman was taken by the Ottawa 67’s with the 14th pick in the 14th round.

Lockman scored 16 goals and added 18 assists in 42 games with the Thunder this past season.
Ottawa also chose NorWOSSA standout Rob Lawrence of the Sioux Lookout Warriors in the fifth round.

The priority draft featured 15 rounds where OHL clubs were permitted to select players born in 1986 and players born in 1985 who were not drafted.


Bob and Mary-Beth Tkachuk took part in the 18th-annual Big Sur marathon in California on April 23. Both competed in the 21-mile power walk event.

He finished ninth overall with a time of 4:28 while she was 174th with a 5:17 mark.

The two were part of a tour group of runners from Thunder Bay and Peterborough. Tkachuk was especially impressed with the run’s surroundings near Carmel, Calif.

“It was very beautiful. Right on the ragged edge of the western world,” he noted.

“The neat thing was that about 10 or 11 miles in, [the competitive runners in the 26-mile marathon] caught up to us. And we actually ran side-by-side with these world-class runners for a while,” he added.

About 10,400 runners from across the world took part in the event, including 600 competing in the power walk event.


Local gymnast Sydney Boustead competed at the Wendy’s Invitational in Winnipeg over the weekend. She finished 11th overall in the Tyro 2 division.