For the time being, the Sudbury Community Arena sits idle, much to the dismay of the fans of the Sudbury Wolves and Sudbury Five.

And while mid-April usage of the facility, in recent years, has ranged from the annual Home Show to concerts and OHL playoff encounters (I consider 2008 as "recent" years), it was a far different scene in the decade that immediately following the opening of the downtown structure in 1952.

With legendary names like Eddie Palladino and Hans Wehrmann showing the way, it was the opening of the 1959 Indoor Soccer Season that greeted folks to the venue sixty years ago. A highly anticipated double-header kicked off the spring campaign, as Palladino and the Italia Flyers battled Sudbury Olympia, featuring Wehrmann, their playing coach, in the ice-breaker to the season.

The nightcap highlighted the gents representing the Polish White Eagles and Croatia Adria Rockets, as the Sudbury basin basked in arguably its greatest era of competitive soccer.

While hundreds have followed in their footsteps, the early classes that were inducted into the Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame represented some of the greatest names in the history of our city. In April of 1967, the eighth class to be enshrined at the annual Kinsmen Club Sports Celebrity Dinner was announced, a group that included Max Silverman, Dom Demarco, Jim Dewey, George Armstrong and Eddie Shack.

No single person was more synonymous with the early days of the Sudbury Wolves as was Silverman, an interesting character who was active in local hockey circles for more than three decades, and was still the mayor of Sudbury at the time of his passing in October of 1966. He is also the gentleman for whom the former Barrydowne Arena was named.

The guest list of invitees to the special event was equally was impressive, with Boston Bruins' sensation Bobby Orr, boxing champion Archie Moore, and colourful hockey referee Red Storey all scheduled to attend.

The fact is that Sudbury has always been a town that captures the entire spectrum of sporting activities. In fact, even as I perused the more recent past from a sport specific perspective, finding noteworthy stories in a variety of disciplines, dating back to April of previous years, was not all that difficult at all.

While boys club volleyball has re-emerged in a big way via the Northern Chill beginning two years ago, it was the Club de Volleyball Les Diables that was not only assembling competitive teams, but taking it one step further with the hosting of Division 2 provincial championships in 2005.

With the OVA (Ontario Volleyball Association) awarding an all-Ontario playdown to these parts for the first time in at least 15 years, the local U18 lads would take full advantage, avenging a silver medal performance a year earlier at the U16 level, besting West End of Mississauga this time around in the finals.

Led by coach Shane St Louis, that gold medal winning team boasted an impressive array of talent in the form of Bryan Davidson, Scott Holden, Neil Fletcher, Jamie Erven, Nick Vrbanac, Trevor Beange, Jeff McGarry, Paul Mathieu, Peter Luczak, Andrew Chiswell, Taylor Marshall and Philip Boivin.

More top-end competition three years later, this time at the Ben Avery Gym at Laurentian University, but with a sport that had seldom, if ever, graced the gymnasium floor of the local institution.

An Ontario Cup tumbling qualifier hosted by the Sudbury Laurels GymZone Gymnastics not only provided an opportunity to showcase the talents of locals Sylvain Bastien and Jason Pelletier, but was also the tumbling swan song for world-class athlete and Sudbury native Denis Vachon, taking part in his final event in the city where it all began.

"I'm a little bit overwhelmed," said Vachon. "I'm just so happy that I could finish at home."

Over the years, many a memorable Rainbow Elementary Basketball final has been staged in mid-April, with contests that came right down to the wire too numerous to remember. Going back in time certainly helped to remind your local scribe of just how multi-talented many of our young athletes are, especially at an age where they have not drifted off towards single-sport specialization.

The 2009 girls' final was tied at 29-29 when Jamie Marrs of R.L. Beattie calmly stepped to the line and sank a pair of free throws with but 18 seconds to play, lifting the Barons to a 31-29 victory over the Macdonald-Cartier Pantheres. Marrs would finish the contest with ten points, with teammate Cassia Michel adding nine, while twin sisters Marissa and Megan McGee answered with eight points apiece for the silver medal winners.

On the boys side, it would be a fourth quarter run that would propel the Northeastern Cougars to their second banner in three years, breaking loose from a 25-25 deadlock after three quarters of play, and pulling away from the Algonquin Hawks by a final score of 37-31.

The grand champions were paced by an 18-point performance from Malcolm Bilton, with Kyle Fransen (future Rayside-Balfour Canadians' defenceman) countering with 17 points of his own. The Cougars lineup also grade five sensation Noah LaPierre, the same young man who has just completed his third year of action with the Brock Badgers of the OUA.

Finishing with a sport that tends to fly under the radar locally, it wasn't all that long ago at all that the local squash community was home, April of every year, for a four to five year stretch, to some of the top professional players in the world. Not only was the Northern Ontario Squash Championship a wonderful point of entry for local star Mike McCue (currently ranked 83rd in the world), but it also provided an international flavour to the event seldom seen in these parts.

The 2016 tournament title was claimed by Mexican Arturo Salazar (#41), whose twin brother Cesar currently holds down the #25 slot on the planet. While the competition, that year, also included the likes of 2019 Canadian champion Nick Sachvie, current global top ten players Diego Elias (#6) and Miguel Rodriguez (#9) have also made their way to the Sudbury YMCA over the course of the past decade.