Sunday’s Super Bowl, which saw Tampa Bay defeat Kansas City 31-9, was one of the least exciting in recent memory.
Most North American experts got the outcome all wrong, and that included our annual Super Bowl poll. Local experts Shane Dowling and Souris native Roger Outhouse called it correctly, as did yours truly, the Sports Prophet.
In fact, I even called out Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh as dominant players that could tip the scales in Tampa Bay’s favour.
On Monday, a Charlottetown lady presented the Prophet with a beautiful walking staff that I can use on my walks on the Kingston and Colville roads and her parting words to me were, “All great prophets have a proper staff.”
There are a number of takeaways from the Super Bowl and most important of all is the realization that Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in NFL history. If someone tries to tell you different, just walk away – the same people would want to tell you that Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau did a bang-up job securing the COVID-19 vaccines.
And finally, for the second time in six years, CBC’s Tracy Lightfoot captured the fantasy football pool among players from British Columbia, P.E.I. and many spots in between. Tracy won by 50 points and her key down-the-stretch acquisition of Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs provided the margin of victory. I always said she knew more about sports than Bruce Rainnie.
Simmons
If you’ve been around Charlottetown in recent weeks, you may have noticed the large number of Save Simmons posters and signs dotting lawns and businesses. Organizers of the campaign suggest that lack of public input about the potential closure of the rink and pool and the lack of transparency had forced this move. Regardless, the enormous public backlash is not a healthy sign for the city, and I guess, it’s back to the drawing boards and likely back to Simmons.
Hockey
It was great to see the Charlottetown Islanders in action last Saturday even though they were upset 5-4 by the Cape Breton Eagles. China Point defenceman Logan Kelly-Murphy, who played for Luke Beck’s Charlottetown major under-18 squad three years ago, played well for the Eagles as did Jacob Squires, who had an assist in what was a surprisingly good Cape Breton club.
The Islanders are the best in this division and one of their hardest-working and impressive forwards on this occasion, other than the usual suspects Thomas Casey and Cédric Desruisseaux, was Covehead’s Keiran Gallant, who hustled every shift and engaged in a spirited fight against a much bigger opponent. He’s a gamer.
Liz Casey, who had been playing all along with the Hockey Mommas, blocked a shot recently and suffered a severe ankle injury, possibly a broken ankle. She will be on the shelf for a while, but at least she still gets to watch her son Thomas play with the Islanders.
Condolences
Gerry (Soupy) Campbell has been a colourful and entertaining figure on the local sports scene for 50 years, but the longtime Art’s taxi driver will drive a cab no more. Campbell passed away suddenly early this week, bringing to an end a long association with the sports community.
In the 1970s, Soupy organized his P.E.I. softball tournament, which brought something like 60 mainland teams from senior to intermediate A and B to Charlottetown. For at least 10 years, it was the softball tournament of the summer drawing huge off-Island crowds not just to Charlottetown, but all across the Island.
He was an avid golfer and curler. In fact, he was a curling broadcaster and writer. In addition, he spent a couple winters teaching and coaching curling in Slovakia. In recent years, he worked at Art’s Taxi and enjoyed his summer golf and as recently as last week talked about rebuilding local curling. Everybody has a Soupy story, but bottom line is he was a good guy and entertaining. So long, old friend.
Harness racing
The great harness racing news out of Ontario this week was the announcement that racing resumes with a card Tuesday at Western Fair. What harness racing in Ontario will experience during the next few months and maybe this summer is a lack of horses to fill race cards. Many of the bigger stables in Ontario, anticipating a long closure, have sold or shipped a lot of B class track horses desperately needed to fill classes. I will watch this closely.
Some familiar faces were in action this past week south of the border. Lisburn was fifth in 1:55:2 in a $14,000 overnight race at Yonkers. At the same track, Gettin Messi, the ex-Maritime champion, was sixth in 1:58 in a conditioned trot.
At Miami Valley in southern Ohio, Do Over Hanover won in 1:53:2 (purse $6,000), and, at the same track, The Amazingsando was bet down to 4-5 but parked every step of the way, finishing fourth in 1:53:2 in a $10,800 late-closing stake.
In the most recent card at Pompano, David Miller had four wins while Wally Hennessey and Kevin Wallis provided driving doubles. Little Wally had a double the next night too, winning a pair with Mark Beckwith-owned horses.
Also at Pompano, John MacDonald won a $10,000 open pace and has been knocking at the door in the high-end conditioned trots. At Northfield Ohio, Patrick Shepherd, Brett MacDonald, Mitch Tierney and Teesha Symes have been winning and picking up money but word is they’re all heading back to Ontario with racing set to resume there.
Fred MacDonald's column appears every Saturday in The Guardian. He can be reached at [email protected].
