“Chez Koop” Colisseum Gala Opening Night

Ice making weather has arrived and with that we’ve finally been able to celebrate the grand opening of our community hockey rink. It was a memorable night, as the dad who volunteered to house the rink on his lot(hence the naming rights) really got behind promoting the evening. His day job involves advertising and marketing, and if the vision he cast for the grand opening ceremony is any indication, I gather he’s pretty good at making humble things seem special! The gala event included a speech and ribbon cutting by  the Steinbach mayor, appearances by some of the Jr. A Steinbach Piston coach and players, a scrimmage between kids and players, a shootout against the goalie, local media coverage and a fireworks display to cap it all off. It was fun, and the kids had a blast enjoying the spectacle. To a kid like Jakob, those Piston players were on par with the Winnipeg Jets!

 

 

Here’s an article from Steinbachonline.com …

‘Koop’s Coliseum’ Opens To Neighborhood

Written by Jeremy St. Louis

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 04:58

Members of the Pistons enjoy a skate with local kids As far as the opening of backyard hockey rinks go, this was a pretty big one for Steinbach. It’s not every day you get the Mayor cutting the ribbon to kick-off play at a frozen water and plywood facility complete with a parental firepit and industrial lighting.  But, not everyone is Chris Koop of Chez Koop Design House.  Anyone who knows Chris knows nothing is too small for a big grand opening.  Not only was the Mayor on hand, Koop also convinced his high school friend Paul Dyck to bring over a few of his Steinbach Pistons to play some of the local kids.  He also convinced his wife, Michelle Sawatzky, to sing the national anthem before the game got underway. To say this was a postcard Canadian winter moment would be an understatement. When asked how it all came together, Koop was very quick to point out this was a community team effort. “This is not just one person.  This is about my friends in the neighborhood who thought this was a great idea.  It just so happened we had the space and it was on our yard, but it’s a team effort here.  Guys are out here flooding and when we’re not home, people are shoveling it off or flooding it themselves.  It’s really been maybe 10-12 couples that have banded together and that’s fantastic.” Mayor Chris Goertzen, who lives in the neighborhood and was there with his young son, says Steinbach needs more of this. “We want to encourage as many of our neighborhoods as possible to get together and create these backyard community connecting places.  We think it is great for the kids, great for the parents and it definitely creates a connection between neighborhoods.” The ice surface itself is about a third of the size of what the Steinbach Pistons are used to wheeling around on.  Still, defenceman Matt Franczyk says they know how important it is for the kids to be able to skate with players they idolize and admire.  He reflects on a similar experience from his childhood which has provided him with great perspective. “I remember skating with some guys who were triple-A guys and I was just awestruck, so I have to take every moment with these guys and just play along and have fun with them.” His coach Paul Dyck was also feeling a little nostalgic. “I tell the guys all the time – it’s a great game and you have to have fun when you’re practicing it and when you’re playing it, and this takes you right back to how when you first started, you loved it.  That’s why you gravitate towards it and start playing it at higher levels.” Dyck adds close ties to Chris Koop or not, they are just honored to be asked to come and skate. “It’s great that we can participate.  I know for all these players, this is getting back to their roots too.  Guys talk about doing this kind of thing on their own sometimes, so for this to be out here in our town is awesome.  I know there are a few others in town but Chris (Koop) and the community around here has done a great job with this.” Koop and Co. shy away from the kudos, preferring to simply say that this is what makes Steinbach, and Canada, a special place. “The camaraderie of kind of building it together and then the parents sitting around on a Sunday afternoon watching the kids skate while the fire’s going, as a father playing with your kids in the evening….I know we’re a city but I still think of us as a town and that’s what we’re about, so to kind of get an opportunity to make this happen is pretty exciting.” As he chases down his son, who is too young to skate but isn’t shy about going on the ice, Goertzen wholeheartedly agrees with that sentiment. “It’s fantastic.  The kids are having fun, the parents are having fun, it’s really a great way to have neighborhood spirit and community spirit.”

Zaatar Managheesh

Baggie of the green Zaatar - a mix of sesame seeds, sumac and other stuff.

While we were living in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, our family discovered a delicious flatbread at the local Star Market Bakery. It was so tasty that it became the only foolproof food that could overcome Jakob’s intense, terrible two refusal to eat ANYTHING. On leaving Saudi, we loaded up on the Zaatar spice mix and I approached the baker to see if he’d be willing to share his recipe with me. Since he knew we were leaving the Kingdom, he agreed to share his secret. This was my second stab at making our very own “Star Market Bread,” and they turned out nearly as good as the original.

Despite the unenthusiastic expression, Jakob thought this was one of the highlights of his Christmas holidays.

Final product. I think the proper name for these is zaatar managheesh. It's an imported dish from Lebanon, if I'm not mistaken.

Warm Winter Weather

Well, the warm winter weather has put a damper on having fun on the backyard rink. It just hasn’t been cold enough to get the ice finished, but I reckon it’s only one or two floods away from being ready. So, instead of skating in the backyard, I gave Jakob the option of going to the aquatic centre, or riding his bike this afternoon. He chose bike riding. That’s m’boy!

Riding on a balmy December day.

Good Old Fashioned Amish Rink Raising

As a young boy growing up, I often dreamed of how awesome it would be to have my very own backyard hockey rink. I’d heard plenty of stories of NHLer’s who honed their skills as youngsters playing into the wee hours of the prairie evening on the farmyard dugout, or backyard rink. My youth is long gone, but I can finally say that my childhood dream has materialized. A few of the neighbourhood dads, all of whom are Amish Mennonite, got together and put up a community hockey rink in the backyard that backs up to our house. So once the snow flies and ice is ready, I can lace up the skates in our breezeway and just walk the 50 metres to the rink and start shooting. Awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I did it all for the kids…;-)  The beauty part is that our workload is cut in half since city has offered to flood it for us, seeing as it’s a community rink. Steinbach rules.

Build it and they will come...

Putting the side boards into position.

It's about 30X60 feet. Not a bad little rink, eh? I can almost hear strains of Van Halen's JUMP with "Here come your Winnipeg Jets" echoing in my mind.

 

Who Knew the Blue Would Squash the Ticats?

Leah knew the Bombers would SQUASH the TiCats! This dress was a nice 1.00$ find at a friends garage sale.

Bomber Playoff Final (here’s a quick video of what it was like being in the raucous East Granstand towards the end of the game when the Blue defence was riling up the crowd. The vid was shot with a still camera, so the footage is grainy…)

Playoff football in Winnipeg. Brisk, cold air, biting wind and the season on the line against a former castoff quarterback. What could be better? Yesterday’s East Division Final marked my last chance to bid adieu to venerable (re; old and tired) Winnipeg Stadium. What a great way to cap off 32 years worth of football memories at the old barn. I can vaguely recall my first game as a 6 year old. It was a match against the Calgary Stampeders and I got a gut ache from the cigarette smoke in the stands and spent the majority of the game with my head on my dad’s lap. Ah yes, going to Bomber games was an eye opening education for me. Drunkeness, cigarette smoke and blue collar ‘Loogins swearing about everything from coach Jauch, to lame calls and the immobility of Dieter Brock. Y’know, that aspect of a Bomber game has changed a lot, what with the smoking ban and seemingly more restraint when it comes to swearing. I guess there’s always S section…

Fortunately, the good memories far outweigh the negative (somehow the Reinebold era has largely been expunged from my memory bank…) Who could forget the day defensive back James Jefferson scored 4 touchdowns on a rainy day against Hamilton? Or the time my dad and I (for some reason, my twin brothers weren’t along) went to a regular season game against the Ottawa Roughriders. The game was memorable because with 6 minutes left, lightning struck the corner of the West grandstand and refs and everyone else at field level scurried for the dressing room! Being witness to Milt Stegall’s record breaking 138th touchdown was awesome.  Characters of teams gone by loom large in my memory. I still recall being impressed as a small boy by the towering presence of  6’6″ Bobby Thompson on the O-line, the rifle arm of Dieter Brock, and the miniature RB Willy Miller and PK Trevor Kennard. The Canadian slotback duo of sure handed Joe Pop and the “lay out and dive, even if it’s not necessary” Rick House were names my cousin Tim and I often adopted during the many times we played football at the lake. A walk down Blue Bomber memory lane could go on and on , but I couldn’t leave out the brash linebacking duo of Tyrone Jones and James “Wild” West from the list. Man, those guys could play!

Going to Bomber games has had a way of creating shared experiences with my dad, brothers, and cousin Tim. I’ll never forget going to a BC Lions playoff game with my brothers when I was about 8 years old. I can still almost hear the echoing chants of “BC Sucks” ringing through the circular ramp as we descended from the upper deck on our way to catch a city bus for the 35 minute ride across town because my brothers didn’t have their licences yet. Sunday’s pre-game show on CJOB noted how Bomber Nation (along with Rider Nation) is unique in the way that it hands down passion for the home team from generation to generation. Hopefully the new stadium will be a place where I’ll have the chance to build new memories over the next 34 years with my kids…somehow, I don’t think there’s much doubt that it will.

How Cold are Your Halloween Memories?

October 31 seemed to arrive quickly this year and Elisha and I hadn’t really thought through how we were going to spend the evening. Neither of us are really gung-ho about the whole Halloween concept, and with both Elisha and the kids feeling under the weather with a cold, we figured we’d just stay home and ignore the whole thing. Then, at about 6:15pm, the doorbell rang and a 3 year old from down the street came trick or treating with her daddy. The weather was unseasonably warm** and she looked like she was having fun, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take the kids around to a few of the neighbourhood houses. Fortunately, we had 2 costumes that would do the trick and off we trundled to get our free loot. Here’s a video recap of the evening….

 

**The weather on the evening of Halloween was about 8C (46F for our American friends). This is pretty warm for a Manitoba Halloween. When I was a kid in the early 80′s halloween costumes were big and baggy to allow for the parkas, boots, mitts and in some years, a toque and scarf to fit underneath. I distinctly remember one year walking down Paufeld Dr. and seeing the first snow of the year whipping in to little snowdrifts as I made my way home under the yellow light of the streetlamps. With a little help from wunderground and Google, I managed to find which year that was. On Halloween day in 1984, the low was -12C (10F), winds maxed out at 50k/hr (31mph) and there was snow. For the full details, or to search the weather for other dates and locales, click here. Interestingly*, it turns out my memory of Halloween weather gone by is pretty selective as the years surrounding 1984 had highs similar to this year and so maybe this year was the norm and wintry cold is not!

*ok, maybe it’s only interesting to me…