SUBJECT:CNSL (S Ontario) 1995 Awards Reception                     
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer

Here are the highlights of the awards reception to honour the
participants  of the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL) 1995 season
held Friday  November 17th at the City of North York council chambers
starting at  8:30pm.

North York council chamber is the usual home of Mayor Mel Lastman (co
star of  his son's Bad Boy Appliances tv ads with hockey Maple Leaf
coach Pat Burns and  a Bill Clinton impersonator...'who's better for
low prices?...Nobody!"). 
The chambers were reserved by Coucillor Pete LiPreti who I've seen at
quite a  few games and also had a good story about his brief career
with Toronto  Italia. 

The master of ceremonies Cary Kaplan (secretary of the league) opened
with a  speech summarizing the year.  The League started in 1921 in a
bar in Toronto Next year will be the 75th year of operation.  This is
the oldest professional  soccer League in North America (for more years
than all other North American  pro soccer leagues put together!).

A graph was shown of the four links to the leagues image.      
 -----------------------
       Fans         Media
	 -----------
 	]  Image   [
 Sponsors       Youth 

The highlight of the year was the CNSL allstars game vs Parma of Italy
at  Varsity Stadium in Toronto August 13, 1995. (Attendance was over
17,000). Parma won 5-0 but many of the Parma's frontline players stayed
on the field  until the very end (too make sure they won?!).  

A fan (George Carvalo) won a trip to Italy for picking the most
winners in a  pools contest.

About 13 players from the St Catharines Wolves made the trip here to
pick up  their prizes:  League Pennant (finished 1st in League)
Umbro Cup Champions (won the cup competition)
Playoff Shield (won a top four team knock out competition)
Good move to give them all the prizes at once so they only had to
thunder down  the aisle the one time.

Other prizes:   Most Disciplined Team        London City
Coach of the Year      Mark Konert (Wolves)
Most Valuable Player     Chris Handsor (Wolves)
Goalie of the Year     Joe Ciaravino (Toronto Jets)
Top Goal Scorer (12)        Laszlo Martonfi (Scarborough Astros)
Rookie of the Year      John Bottineau (London City)
Referee of the Year     Les Wilcox

The 1995 CNSL All Stars
Goalie  Dino Perri (St Catharines Wolves)

Defenders   Rene Martin (Scarborough Astros)
		Jeff Brown  (London City)
		Shawn Taggart (London City)
		Tom Perks  (Toronto Jets)

Midfielder Chris Handsor (St Catharines Wolves)
		Jack Zomparelli (Toronto Jets)
		Orlando Rizzo (Toronto Jets)
		Lucio Ianiero (St Catharines Wolves)

Forward  John Bottineau (London City)
		Gary Deleon (Scarborough Astros)

awards were medals (for all stars and champs) and plaques and
sculptures etc.  plus wrapped packages and prize bags etc.

At the end, owners for two new franchises were announced.
Carl Grant will operate 'The Talons'.
Raymond Lewis will operate 'Select Stars'.
(that will make seven teams as unannounced was the collapse of the
Hamilton  White Eagles).
I asked Cary Kaplan later where would these teams play. Somewhere in
the  Toronto area...either at somewhere like York University or
groundsharing at  Birchmount Stadium but nothing's been decided yet.

The ceremonies were almost kept on time because no players got to
speak.  The  league brass and politicians got to do all the talking. 
Attendance was about  150 to 200 including players which I've got to
say was a better crowd than any  I'd seen at an actual game in the last
3 months! 
In the closing remarks the keyword was 'SURVIVAL' as the league gets
ready for  its 75th year.

After that was a wine and cheese reception with entertainment by a
Chilean  Folk group and Proyeccion Folklorica Kapary.  I was
concentrating on the  league yearbook by Adrian MacNair which I still
argue my league tables are  more accurate than those he compiled.  

So I figured I caught CNSL 27 games this year plus went to a stadium
at least  four times for games that were either rained out or not
played. See ya next year...maybe with a web page!


Bye for now
Rocket Robin
robin.glover@canrem.com 

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