Veteran Dave St Amour offered a few moments of positivity on an otherwise dreary night for the Sudbury Spartans. Beaten 35-8 on the road by the Oakville Longhorns on Saturday, the local NFC (Northern Football Conference) had little to cheer about.

St Amour provided a momentary highlight, hauling in four catches for the game, the third of which moved him to a career total of 258, one better than former league record holder Jamie Wooten of the Longhorns.

St Amour also carried the ball 26 times for 123 yards, while quarterback Alain Gauthier was 6/23 (64 yards) passing, with two interceptions and one touchdown.

With several big wins already under his belt, 17 year-old Espanola native and pugilistic prospect Kyle Gauthier is thrilled for a chance to showcase his skills in front of the hometown crowd. Gauthier is set to headline an Olympic Style Boxing Card - Ontario vs Michigan - Friday night in Espanola.

"A lot of my friends will be at this bout to cheer me on and that will definitely pump me up for this event," noted the young men in a Sudbury Star interview, having recently recorded a big 2-1 decision win over 6'4" 290 American Lorenzo Davis.

"Everyone was telling me, you are going to get killed," said Gauthier. "This guy is going to hurt you. I just concentrated on what I was doing. I listened to my coach."

Wolves teammates Derek Mackenzie, Taylor Pyatt and Jason Jaspers have been invited to attend the junior summer evaluation camp in early August in Calgary. "I think I know what to expect going in this time," said Mackenzie to the Star, preparing for his second tryout with the national team.

"There's a few things I'll do differently, but it's a tough camp. It's tough to prepare, because there are always some surprises, but I'm going in shape and hope for the best." In other Wolves news, a pair of players were recognized for their outstanding 1999-2000 campaigns, with 52 goal scorer Norm Milley named to the CHL first all-star team, while Pyatt received the nod as the third team left winger.

Both Mackenzie and Jaspers cracked the Team Canada roster that also included the likes of Dany Heatley, Mike Cammalleri, Jason Spezza, Dan Hamhuis and Jay Bouwmeester. Pyatt, meanwhile, dressed in 78 games for the New York Islanders that season, and was not made available to the squad.

The Sudbury Canadians U15 Girls took a nice step towards maintaining their spot in the OYSL (Ontario Youth Soccer League) over the weekend, sweeping a pair of games from Burlington.

Katie Johnston scored the only goal as Sudbury eked out a 1-0 win in the opener, while Tessa Bonhomme, Megan Schutt and Melinda Roach handled the scoring the next day, as the Canadians closed out the visitors, 3-1.

"It was two big victories for us to move up in the standings, after we had a slow start to our season," suggested Schutt to the Sudbury Star. The local girls bumped their season record to 3-2 on the same day that coach Frank Malvaso celebrated his 49th birthday.

Nearly two straight weeks of high winds subsided just in the nick of time for the participants in the 2000 Sudbury Fitness Challenge Canoe Marathon. "We were worried because the waves were up to two feet high over the last two weeks," said Rob Gregoris, who partnered with his 14 year old son Jonathon to capture the men's 8km race.

"When we saw the nice calm water in the morning, it was heaven. The conditions were ideal."

Nearing the completion of her first year of high school studies at Lasalle Secondary School, 14 year old Tessa Bonhomme is already drawing plenty of attention. The daughter of long-time OHL scout Doug Bonhomme has already received letters of interest from women's hockey coaches at Princeton, Ohio State, Cornell and Niagara.

"I was shocked. I wasn't expecting it at all," she said. "I think it's pretty early to be sending letters, but I guess they're trying to get people into it." A smooth skater with exceptional puckhandling skills, Bonhomme plays both forward and defence as a member of the Sudbury Skeeters Midget "AA" team.

Bonhomme would eventually commit to the Ohio State Buckeyes, enjoying an outsanding career that including cracking the final ten to be considered for the Patti Kazmeier Award, emblamatic of the top women's hockey player in the NCAA.

Bonhomme would also earn an Olympic gold medal as a member of the 2010 Canadian team in Vancouver, joining fellow Sudbury native Rebecca Johnston.