Wallaceburg Sports Hall of Fame 2024 inductees

The Wallaceburg Sports Hall of Fame 2024 induction class will be honoured at their induction dinner being held on April 6 at the UAW Hall. Doors open at 5pm. Tickets are available at Kim Murray Desjardins Insurance for $70.

Here are the biographies of the inductees, male athlete, female athlete, builder, coach/official and team. CKSN will have the annual award winner biographies in the next couple of days.

Male athlete—Gord Lilley

For this year’s inductee in the Male Athlete category Gord Lilley, it all started on May 6, 1966.
Academically, he attended Central Public School from kindergarten to grade 5 followed by grades 6 – 8 at W.T. Laing and 9 through 12 at WDSS.

Upon graduation from high school, he was off to Georgian College in Barrie where he earned a diploma in graphic design and played for the Georgian Grizzlies hockey team in 1985 and 86.

Gord grew up playing hockey and lacrosse in Wallaceburg learning to skate at the age of three and playing in the WMHA until he was 16, making back-to-back trips to the OMHA Finals in 1980 and 81.

In 1983, Dick Todd, the coach of the Peterborough Petes OHL Junior A team, invited Gord to attend their training camp. Although he did not make the team, he made it until the last cut and had the privilege of skating with several future NHLers including Steve Yzerman.

Coming back home to Wallaceburg, he played for the Wallaceburg Lakers Jr. C team from 1983-87 before playing a year of Senior Hockey for the Wallaceburg Capitals in 1988.

As far as summer sports go, Gord started off playing baseball at age five until at the age of nine, he realized that the sport of lacrosse was the one he was passionate about and the one he would excel at. In 1975, he began playing in Novice. Moving to Pee Wee in 1977, they won the Dresden Invitational Tournament and followed that up in 1978 by winning the All Ontario C Championship and the Greater London tournament in 1979. As a Bantam in 1980, they won tournaments in Kincardine and Guelph and finished third in the Ontario Summer Games. At the Ontario Championships, they lost out to Six Nations in the finals.

After playing Midget lacrosse Gord was invited to try out for the Peterborough Junior A team
in 1983 but signed with the Sarnia Jr. B Pacers. It turned out to be a great decision as the Pacers won back-to-back Ontario Championships and Founders Cup Canadian championships in 1983 and 1984. Returning to Wallaceburg in 1986 to play for the Jr. B Wallaceburg Griffins, they won the Ontario C Division Championship and Gord finished in the Top 10 in scoring, made the All-Star team, and broke the single-season scoring record with 104 points. Returning to Sarnia in 1987 after Wallaceburg folded, he led the team in scoring and was in the top 10 in the league.

The year 2000 saw him play Senior B and he tied for the team lead in scoring as well as finishing in the top 10 in league scoring. They lost to Brooklyn in the finals.

Always wanting to give back to the game he loves, Gord began refereeing in 1979 and would go on to ref at every level including Minor, Jr. B, Jr. A and Major Sr. A.

He began coaching in 2000 and would go all through minor lacrosse as well as assisting in the
formation of the inaugural Wallaceburg Red Devils Jr. B team.

He lists Jeff Cole, Mike Dalton, Brian Landon, Mike Miles and Lance Phenix as mentors and
also has a long list of favorite coaches across all of the sports he played. They include Gord Webb, Norm Cole, Tom Ayres, Newt Richardson, Bill MacArthur Jr., Tom Wright, Gord Neely, Bob Ricciotti, Shawn Moynihan and Kim O’Neil.

Builder Inductee – Tom and Als

From the time they first opened in 1968, Tom and Al’s has taken great pride in giving back to
the community and supporting local minor sports such as minor baseball, minor hockey and
minor lacrosse.

A community-oriented company, they have always understood the significance of participating
in local events and initiatives and have been dedicated to the community for 56 years. Through their sponsorships, they hope to ensure that our local sports teams have access to the resources and facilities they need to excel. They understand that their support extends beyond sports, creating a lasting impact on the overall community experience.

The entire staff at Tom and Al’s would like to thank the community for the support they have
had, and the friends they’ve made because without all of you, they wouldn’t be here.

Tony Metayer—Coach/official

Born on June 28 1972 in Montreal Quebec, this year’s inductee in the Coach / Official category Anthony ( Tony ) Metayer began swimming at a very young age.

A long-distance swimmer whose best event was the 1500 M freestyle, he qualified for all national level swim meets as a Senior swimmer and by the age of 18 was ranked in the Top 10 in Canada.

Unfortunately, he would fall short of his goal of reaching the Olympic Games.

Tony began coaching in his early 20’s, enjoying the process of teaching, encouraging and
motivating swimmers to reach their goals. After attending college, he moved to Wallaceburg to begin his career and soon learned of the local swim team. After briefly volunteering with head coach Marilyn Pollard things got very busy with his own family and he stepped away.

In 2005 his kids were old enough to swim and he again volunteered with the club. Two years later in 2007, Marilyn Pollard retired from coaching and Tony Metayer took over the duties as head coach of the Wallaceburg Marlin Swim Club. He admits to being very nervous heading in but the nerves quickly went away when he realized the wealth of talent there was to work with.

From 2014 to 2017 he helped Nancy Shinkleshoek coach the WDSS swim team until he retired from coaching.

He says his greatest accomplishment as a coach will always be seeing the look of joy and happiness on the faces of athlete’s after they have pushed themselves harder and further than they thought possible in order to achieve their goals.

Some of Tony’s swimmers have gone to other schools to compete in national and international events. Others have moved on to high school competing at OFSAA and earning scholarships for post-secondary education . He states that regardless of the level of success, being involved in coaching an athlete to demonstrate heart, grit, determination and tenacity has and always will be an honour.

Allison Lee-Holloway—female athlete
As a Tartan, Lee played basketball all four years culminating in the Kent AAA Championship
in 2002, with Allison scoring 13 points in the victory. All through her high school years she played travel basketball for the Chatham-Kent Wildcats as well. There were other sports she played at WDSS such as badminton, volleyball and rugby playing with the boys until a girls team was started. She also qualified for the OFSSA West Regionals in shot put. During the summers she attended Camp Olympia where she had some great experiences.

At the athletic banquet in Grade 12 she was named Female Athlete of the Year and MVP for basketball, topping off a great career as a Tartan.

Graduation in 2002 led her to a basketball scholarship at Loyalist College in Belleville. She was now number 42 for the Lancers and would be named an OCAA all-star in each of her three years at Loyalist. In her rookie year she averaged over 13 points a game in her first five games, and they would finish with a record of 10-2. Year two would see a lot of the veterans graduate and Allison was named team captain and thrived in the role averaging 20 points a game and was the second leading scorer in the east and fifth overall in the OCAA.

In Lee’s third year she shined individually becoming the top scorer in the East and team MVP while leaving a lasting legacy at Loyalist.

Despite her college career being over it certainly was not the end of sports by a long shot.

She currently plays basketball in the men’s league at the Wish Center as well as beach volleyball and indoor volleyball weekly.

Team Inductee – 1983 Wallaceburg Tykes Baseball Team

In the late summer of 1983, the Knights of Pythias Tykes headed to Kingsville to compete in
the Ontario Minor Baseball Association championships, an eight-team elimination tournament.
They opened up the tournament against Tecumseh and behind hits from Ron Laprise, Murray Richardson, Jason Roe, Jim Stuart, Darcy Lunn, Ron Charron and Jeff Sterling, they pounded Tecumseh 10-1. Jason Roe was the winning pitcher.

Game two saw them match up against Kingsville with Jim Stuart getting the win on the
mound and contributing a hit. Marvin Lumley, Ron Laprise, Jason Roe, Darcy Lunn and Ron Charron also had hits in the 6-3 victory.

The next game vs Port Colborne would prove to be a thriller with Wallaceburg staging a dramatic 7-6 comeback win when Jeff Sterling’s base hit in the bottom of the seventh drove in the winning run. Other hits went to Lumley, Laprise, Roe, Stuart, Lunn and Darren Rose.

Roe and Stuart both pitched as the Tyke’s advanced to the final.

Kingsville again would be the opponent and after two innings they lead Wallaceburg 6-2.
Murray Richardson and Jason Roe each hit home runs in the fourth to close it to 6-4. The teams each scored a run in the sixth inning with Jim Stuart hitting a home run but Kingsville still had a two run lead. In the top of the seventh Wallaceburg erupted for five runs with Laprise hitting a single before back-to-back doubles by Richardson and Roe tied the score 7-7. Lunn then singled, scoring Roe and Sterling followed with another base hit before Rose’s triple scored them both and it was 10-7 heading to the bottom of the seventh. Jim Stuart struck out the side and Wallaceburg were Ontario champions.

The outstanding team support from all members including Ryan Masefield, Kevin Fast and
Allan Mc Callum as well as the coaches Charlie Masefield, Stu Lumley, Doug Mc Callum and Dave Sterling gave the team the edge needed to bring home the championship.