Hall welcomes Colchester sporting greats

TRURO - Six superstars have found a new home in the Colchester County Sport Hall of Fame.
Joyce Halverson, David Wilson, Jans (Wilson) Henderson, Gerry Hale, Jed Ritcey and Clobie Collins were inducted in front of about 180 people at a ceremony last night at the hall, located in the Marigold Cultural Centre.
"It's quite an honour," said Hale, who started baseball and rugby at a young age.
He went on to play football at Acadia University and came to Truro as a teacher in 1968. In 1974 he started coaching football and for the next 30 years he was instrumental in building the community's program.
"You coach to help kids along and learn a sport and at the end of the day if you can have success with a group of kids, then maybe success comes your way," he said.
But he is just as happy to speak about the players whom he had an opportunity to coach and follow their careers as they went through Cobequid Educational Centre and university programs. He is pleased to see some of those same people involved in teaching the next generation of stars.
The hall has been inducting the county's sporting greats since 1986 when the 1946 Truro Bearcats Baseball Club and Lyle Carter were inducted. Today, there are 78 athletes and 20 teams, which are honoured in the hall with a spot of the Wall of Fame.
"They've got some great people going in as they do every year," said Keith MacKenzie, who was inducted in the hall in 2004. "We have a great sport heritage in this community and it's great to see these people recognized."
Clobie Collins was posthumously inducted into the hall.
"He was a very good hockey player," said Bern Pollett, who played with Clobie in Cornerbrook, N.L. in the mid-1960s. "He was a hockey player that was very smooth ... he was always a good skater ... and a good teammate."
Pollett, who now lives in Truro, helped in the introduction for Clobie. "He was a guy that could have played in the NHL but they treated him so good in Newfoundland," he said before the ceremony. "He was treated like a king."
He said Collins was a great ambassador for Truro who would be pleased with the induction. "He'd be pretty proud," Pollett said.
The Truro Sport Heritage Society is preparing for its 25th annual sports awards dinner on Feb. 26.

jmalloy@trurodaily.com