NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. — Three athletes, two teams and one builder will be inducted into the Northside Sports Hall of Fame this weekend.
Matt Batherson, Barry Harrietha, Keith Harrietha, Walter Stewart, the Mary Naddaf curling rink, and the 1973 Sydney Mines Colts bantam baseball team will be honoured during a ceremony at the Emera Centre Northside in North Sydney on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the committee for the 2019 Canadian Senior Little League Championship, an event which was held at the Nicole Meaney Memorial Ball Park in Sydney Mines in July, will be honoured with the Joe Scott Award. The award is given to the individual and/or group who made a significant contribution to sports in the community.
MATT BATHERSON (ATHLETE)
Batherson was born in Moncton and moved to North Sydney with his family at a young age.
Growing up on the Northside, Batherson participated in many sports including hockey, baseball, track and field and golf, however it was hockey and golf that would define his career as a hall of fame athlete.
In hockey, Batherson captained the Sydney Mines Ten Pennies to a Maritime Intermediate championship in 1967-68, and was also the captain of the then University College of Cape Breton Capers, who won a Maritime championship in 1976-77. He was also a key player in the Capers’ national championship victory in 1977-78.
Batherson also played several seasons in the Cape Breton Senior Hockey League, winning a number of scoring titles.
As a golfer, Batherson is a 10-time Seaview Golf Club men’s club champion, including a run of nine consecutive titles. Notable golf championships include Highlands Links champion in 1974, Homer Richardson champion at Lingan, and inter-club champion for Seaview and Lingan.
Batherson is a two-time inductee to the Cape Breton Sports Hall of Fame and the Northside Sports Hall of Fame. Last year, he was inducted into the Cape Breton University Sports Hall of Fame with the 1977-78 Capers hockey team.
BARRY HARRIETHA (ATHLETE)
Harrietha grew up in Bras d’Or and played minor baseball, tennis and hockey, but it wouldn’t be long before hockey became his passion.
He played minor hockey and high school hockey in Sydney Mines and North Sydney, before being invited to try out for the Cole Harbour Scotia Colts of the Metro/Valley junior ‘A’ hockey league in 1984.
Harrietha would make the Cole Harbour team and helped the club advance to the Centennial Cup national junior ‘A’ championship tournament in Orillia, Ont. The team would not make it past the round robin.
Harrietha and the Scotia Colts would return to the Centennial Cup in 1986 as the host team and made it to the tournament final before losing to the Penticton Knights of British Columbia. Harrietha would have a strong tournament for the Colts and was named the tournament’s top defenceman.
With a full-time job and a young family, Harrietha stayed in the Halifax area and enjoyed several successful seasons in the Maritime Senior Hockey League, the first with the Dartmouth Moosehead Mounties and then with the Truro TSN Bearcats.
Harrietha would participate in a number of Allan Cups – the national senior men’s hockey championship – with the Bearcats, winning the title with the club in 1998.
KEITH HARRIETHA (ATHLETE)
Harrietha, a Bras d’Or product, excelled in both tennis and hockey throughout his sports career.
He captured numerous junior provincial and Atlantic tennis championships during his time in Nova Scotia.
He won his first Nova Scotia Open Doubles title in 1988, before being awarded a bronze medal at the Canada Summer Games in Saskatoon, Sask, with mixed doubles partner Susan Hepburn of Truro, N.S.
One of his prized victories was winning the Cape Breton Open championship in 1990. To top off the 1990 tennis season, Harrietha also won both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles titles with Jamie Ferguson and Lisa Ritcey both from Cape Breton.
Harrietha’s tennis career took him to the United States where he played at Middle Tennessee State University, a Division 1 school, playing No. 1 for the university’s singles and doubles program and was named the conference player of the year in 1993.
In hockey, Harrietha was called up by the Cape Breton Oilers of the American Hockey League in 1990 while playing with the Dartmouth Moosehead Mounties of the senior hockey league. He also played in the 1987 Centennial Cup with the Dartmouth Fuel Kids.
Harrietha currently resides in Nashville with his two daughters Emma and Lizzie. He is currently the head tennis professional at Richland Country Club, where he has coached and trained numerous NCAA players over the past 12 years.
WALTER STEWART (BUILDER)
Stewart was born and raised in Sydney Mines.
He started boxing at a young age and was a boxing professional by the time he was 15-years-old. As a pro, he went undefeated with a record of three wins and one draw and earned the reputation as a fighter who always gave the fans their monies worth.
In 1955, Walter was accepted in the Royal Canadian Navy at the age of 18. While in the Navy, he had a number of amateur fights in which he also went undefeated.
He returned to Sydney Mines in 1960 and worked in Princess Colliery and during that time he became involved in the Northside Amateur Boxing Club as a coach, official and volunteer.
Over his career, Stewart has been involved in close to 200 matches and has officiated at four Canada Games and 12 national championships. He was twice the Boxing Nova Scotia official of the year in 1999 and 2016, and received the Cape Breton Sport Heritage Award as official of the year in 2006.
He sat on the Nova Scotia Boxing Authority for eight years and is a life member of Boxing Nova Scotia and Boxing Canada. Today, at the age of 81, he’s still registered as an official and coach for Boxing Nova Scotia.
MARY NADDAF RINK (TEAM)
The 1968-69 curling season was one to remember for the Mary Naddaf rink of North Sydney.
The team started out by winning the local Northside championship and then went on to capture the Nova Scotia women’s curling championship from a field of 25 rinks in Halifax, becoming the first Cape Breton rink to ever win the honour.
As the winner of the provincial tournament, the team went on to represent Nova Scotia at the Canadian Women’s Curling Championship, today known as the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, in Fort William, Ont.
The team featured skip Mary Naddaf, third Alice Quirk, second Helen Douglas and lead Cecelia Andrea.
1973 SYDNEY MINES COLTS (TEAM)
The Sydney Mines Colts had a year to remember in 1973.
The local bantam baseball team captured the Cape Breton and Nova Scotia championships, before being crowned the Maritime championships in September of that season.
Under the guidance of manager Hughie MacDonald, senior coach Lew Matheson and co-coaches Robin MacDonald and Donald MacPherson, the team enjoyed success that had not been seen in the community for quite some time.
The team won the Cape Breton title, besting teams from North Sydney, Sydney, New Waterford and Glace Bay. Sydney Mines would win the Cape Breton championship, defeating Glace Bay 12-7.
The next week, the team would win the Nova Scotia title, beating the Woodlawn Raiders 5-3 in the deciding game of the best-of-three provincial championship series.
In the Maritime championship, the team went undefeated beating teams from Charlottetown and Fredericton on their way to winning another title.
The team featured Donald Clark, Kim Jenkins, Kenny MacRae, Brian Maxwell, Brian MacKinnon, Terry Romeo, Howie Pye, Sandy MacNeil, Archie Nicholson, Kevin Julien, Jimmy Foster, Harry Blinkhorn, Blair Julian, Hughie MacDonald (manager), Lew Matthews (coach), Robin MacDonald (coach) and Donald MacPherson (coach).
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