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Local minor hockey associations agree to merge By Fred Groves
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Stella Maris principal Marisa Wismer (right) captured the J.F. Johnston Outstanding Catholic Educator Award. She was nominated by vice principal Cailin Bosnyak (left).
Local principal deemed award-winning educator By Ron Giofu A local principal has been honoured with the J.F. Johnston Outstanding Catholic Educator Award. Marisa Wismer, principal at Stella Maris Catholic Elementary School, was honoured at the school recently with news of the award and received it officially as part of a banquet last Wednesday in Windsor. The J.F. Johnston Outstanding Catholic Educator Award is awarded annually to one educator “who best exemplifies system leadership while maintaining the vision and mission of the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB).”
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The Stars and the Storm are aligning. The Amherstburg Minor Hockey Association Stars and the Erie North Shore Storm minor hockey organizations agreed to move ahead with a merger after a vote last Tuesday night. While the name of the new partnership, along with a logo and team colours is not yet decided, what is for certain is that they will come together under one banner to start the 20252026 season. According to Stars’ president Wes Ewer and Gary Toupin, who leads the Storm, the benefits are numerous. “We perfectly compliment each other,” explained Toupin. “Where they are strong, we are struggling and where they are struggling, we are strong.” Toupin noted that there were 488 registered players at Erie North Shore last season and on Tuesday 126 votes were cast with 81.7 percent agreeing to merge with Amherstburg. “At the end of the day, if they voted no, that’s their choice,” added Toupin. In Amherstburg, which according to Ewer had 407 players in 2023-24, 130 votes were made of which only 12 said no. “We viewed this from a different perspective. Our registration numbers, while consistent, retention is the issue,” said Ewer. A former junior player and owner of the Amherstburg Admirals Junior ‘C’ Hockey Club, Ewer said that the biggest reason for the merger is to
House league players from the Amherstburg Minor Hockey Association (AMHA) battle in the recent Day of Champions. AMHA and Erie North Shore had a vote among their respective memberships last week with both agreeing to merge starting in the 2025-26 minor hockey season, pending OMHA approval.
be competitive with other centres and “to put wins in the book.” Both Ewer and Toupin said that the Ontario Minor Hockey Association is pushing for a regionalized competitive approach to the game. What this means for both organizations now is that they will have more players available to roster in the travel divisions. It is hoped, come 2025-26, that the new association will be able to have teams in major, midget and what is referred to as a ‘C’ group as well as house league. “It (merger talks) started because we needed to. Regionalized zone hockey is what the OMHA has been talking about for years,” said Ewer. Amherstburg had been in discussion with LaSalle Minor Hockey in the past to merge but that did not happen. Erie North Shore had looked at joining the Essex-Southpoint partnership.
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