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Posted on May 15, 2013 - Bryan Boyes finds home in hall of fame


Oshawa Generals' Equipment Manager Bryan Boyes is being inducted into the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame this year. He is seen here with his son by his side. His son has recently graduated and is hoping to follow in his father's footsteps of becoming an equipment manager for a hockey team.

The Oshawa Express will feature a different Hall of Fame inductee each week leading up to the dinner ceremony on May 29. This is the third of a five-part series and highlights Bryan Boyes.

By Katie Richard/The Oshawa Express

For more than 30 years, Bryan Boyes has taken care of all of the behind-the-scenes action for the Oshawa Generals hockey team.

From sharpening skates to equipment repairs to setting up the dressing room and laundry, Boyes is the team’s go-to guy.

Now his hard work is paying off.

Boyes is one of this year’s Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame inductees.

“It’s very humbling. It’s something you really don’t expect when you are involved in a game like hockey,” he says. “Something you love doing….you don’t look at it as a job.”

Boyes wasn’t always behind the scenes though; he took to the ice for years too.

Born in Oshawa, Boyes grew up in Pickering.

“I played hockey in the Town of Pickering in the early ‘70s before I moved on to rep,” he says, where he played for Pickering Village.

His career with the Generals began in the ‘70s too, where he started out as a stick boy.

“I was introduced to Sherry Bassin when he was with the Pickering Panthers Junior B Team, and when he came to be the coach of the Generals he brought me along to help out with the training staff in 1976.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

He took over as the team’s head athletic therapist and equipment manager in the ‘80s. It’s a position he still holds today.

“My first year as the head trainer was in 1982 when we went to the Memorial Cup in Portland,” Boyes explains. “I just finished 31 years. It’s a long time.”

But Boyes has ties to hockey through more than the Generals alone.

Hockey Canada selected him as equipment manager for Canada’s National Junior team for five IIHF World Junior Championships, winning gold in 1996, 2005, 2006 and 2008 and silver in 1999.

Noted as a “contributing force to the success of the Oshawa Generals, Canada’s National Junior Team program and our league” by CHL Commissioner Dave Branch, Boyes was also equipment manager for Canada’s entry at the 2012 IIHF World Hockey Championship in Germany.

“I get to come to work everyday and work in the hockey rink,” he says. “Everyday is fun and a new challenge.”

In his role with the Generals, Boyes has been a part of four Ontario Hockey League championships – 1983, 1987, 1990 and 1997 – and one Memorial Cup in 1990.

Outside of the rink, Boyes says family is number one.

“Work consumes a lot of time,” he says laughing. “My daughter rides and shows horses so I enjoy having the summers off to spend time with her. And my son helps me here (at the arena) in the winter.”

Following in his father’s footsteps his son recently graduated and has hopes of becoming an equipment manager as well. This is such an honour, says Boyes.

“He was named equipment manager for Team Ontario Under 17,” the proud father boasts. “He’s heading to the World Under 17 Championships in Cape Breton next Christmas.”

Boyes also finds himself on the golf course in his off time.

He now lives in Whitby with his wife, son and daughter.





Source: Oshawa Express

Posted on May 15, 2013 - Passion for sport still shines years later


By Katie Richard/The Oshawa Express

The Oshawa Express will feature a different Hall of Fame inductee each week leading up to the dinner ceremony on May 29. This is the first of a five-part series and highlights Barb Loreno.

The water still feels like home to Oshawa’s First Lady of Swimming, even into her 80’s.

Barb Loreno is one of this year’s inductees into Oshawa’s Sports Hall of Fame and her dedication and passion for the sport is what put her there.

Born in Oshawa in 1930, Loreno first showed off her skills competing at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in 1949. She finished fifth in the World Five Mile Marathon Swim.

“I swam consistently throughout my life from the time I was a child,” she says from her home in Napanee. “My favourite was the 200-metre butterfly because it was hard and challenging, but that is what I liked. I was in the first World Games at the CNE in Toronto.”

From there, Loreno continued to put Oshawa on the swimming map attempting to cross the frigid waters of Lake Ontario twice in 1975 and 1976. Then, Loreno was the oldest woman ever to swim the 32-mile wide lake, according to an article from August 5, 1976 in the Beaver County Times.

In 1975, the grandmother came within four miles of completing the swim before being pushed back by strong winds.

She fell victim to a similar fate when she attempted the swim again in 1976, at the age of 46. This time, she was in the water for 19 hours and 20 minutes, the archived article states.

“The lake swim was my ultimate challenge and although I swam it twice, more than the distance both times, I got pushed off course by the strong wind, current and cold water conditions,” she explains. “My coaching team pulled me from the water before I could touch down on the Canadian side. Two attempts were enough for me. Unless you have the right weather conditions it is a difficult swim. Unfortunately, it was not the distance that defeated me but the current, weather and temperature that worked against me.”

For many the cold rough waters would be a deterrent, but for Loreno they were what drew her to the water.

“I enjoyed training in the rough cold water at the family cottage on Hay Bay. The harder and choppier the better,” she says. “My husband Jimmy hooked me up to a swim harness and attached it to the raft made of oil drums and plywood. I pulled it and six or more people across the bay and back when I was training for the lake swim across Lake Ontario.”

After the lake attempts, Loreno went on to win hundreds of medals and ribbons competing in Masters Games from 1978 to 1992.

She also earned two silver medals and three bronze medals at the First World Masters Games in 1985.

Fitness and sport was not only a passion for Loreno, but for her late husband Jimmy (James Roy) as well.

“Jimmy and I always enjoyed sports activities together. Cycling, swimming, horseshoes at the cottage and working out at the gym,” she explains. “We both entered the Kingston Triathlon - we were in our 60’s - near our family cottage, just for fun. It was how we enjoyed our time together. I spent time training, Jimmy hardly trained at all and he still beat my time by 10 minutes.”

Loreno also helped her husband with the annual Jim’s Swim, which raised more than $220,000 for leukemia research from 1977 to 1992.

She says she was thrilled to learn she was being recognized in the city’s Sports Hall of Fame, an honour Jimmy already holds.

“I was surprised and elated that I would be going into the Sports Hall of Fame with
my late husband,” she says proudly. “I think we are the only married couple to both be inducted.”

Mr. Loreno was inducted in 1994 for athletic career. He took part in softball, boxing and most famously, football.

Even today, all these years later, Loreno says the water still holds a familiar place in her heart.

“Now in my golden years I may not walk so well but when the conditions are right
I can still swim in the bay.”




Source: Oshawa Express

Posted on Feb 27, 2013 - Durham Region News announces 2013 Inductees to the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame
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Source: Durham News

Posted on Dec 21, 2011 - The Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame wishes everyone a very happy and joyous holiday season!!

Posted on Dec 21, 2011 - The Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame was saddened by the passing of one of our members of the Board of Governors - Bill Kellington. Bill joined the Hall of Fame in 2005. He worked tirelessly in the collection, cataloguing and display of sports memorabilia in the Hall. Bill's contributions and ever positive attitude will be sorely missed by everyone associated with the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame.