The Osoyoos Secondary School senior boys’ Rattlers basketball team was joined by schoolmates in a cheer at a pep rally in March just prior to the team heading off to the provincial championships. (Richard McGuire photo)
The retirement of the co-owners of a longtime Osoyoos grocery store, the huge success of local minor hockey and basketball teams and sudden end to a historic hockey season by the Osoyoos Coyotes made headlines in March.
As business partners for 34 years, Keith Sheardown and Ken Naylor survived two devastating fires, more than one recession, high interest rates and many long winters in Osoyoos when their grocery store was not exactly booming with customers.
In March, Sheardown and Naylor walked out of the Osoyoos Family Foods grocery store they’ve worked at together for more than three decades after announcing they had sold their store.
Naylor was store manager for many years before joining Sheardown as a full partner 15 years ago.
The new store would be known as AG (Associated Grocers) Foods, which is part of the Buy-Low Foods group of stores.
It has been a fantastic partnership and both men are ready and looking forward to retirement – although Naylor admits he’s likely to continue working part-time as a consultant to the grocery store and food industries.
“I don’t think we had a serious argument in just short of 34 years in running this store,” said Naylor proudly. “I don’t know of many marriages or friendships that last 34 years without a single serious argument or dispute, but we managed to pull it off.”
Sheardown had been working in the grocery business for 49 years after he started working at the small grocery store his father owned in Osoyoos at age 16.
Naylor had worked in the industry three months short of 48 years.
“After 49 years of having the honour and privilege of serving the needs of our many wonderful and loyal customers, Ken and I are ready to enjoy a slower pace of life,” said Sheardown. “We feel really good about the new ownership. It seemed like a natural fit to pass the baton to the people who, through their existing location, both know and understand the unique needs of the town already.”
Buy-Low management agreed to keep the friendly and qualified current staff, who will continue to provide exceptional customer service as they have for many years, said Naylor.
“Many of our staff have been here more than 20 years and our longest-serving employee has been here 37 years,” he said. “Without quality staff, you can’t succeed in this business.”
Both men teared up a bit when asked what it was going to be like closing the doors for the final time.
“It’s going to be a tough one,” he said shaking his head. “This place has been a big part of my life for 49 years. I will still be the landlord, but that won’t be the same as coming to work every day. I’m sure I’ll miss it a lot.”
Naylor agreed.
“There will be a few tears and a few smiles,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Osoyoos Secondary School Rattlers senior boys basketball team continued a dream season by qualifying for the provincial championship tournament.
The Rattlers qualified after finishing third out of 12 teams in the Okanagan Zone Valley championships in Lumby.
“It’s not that we don’t deserve to go to provincials,” said Brouwer. “But, I was very confident in our skill and talent and knew that the team would do great this weekend.
“We orked hard all season and played with heart and hustle and it would be great to be able to see this dream come true and find ourselves stepping onto the court representing Osoyoos at the BC Boys provincial Championship.”
The Rattlers ended up finishing 11th overall at the provincial championships.
Also in early March, it was announced the peewee, bantam and midget rep teams from the South Okanagan Minor Hockey Association (SOMHA) had all won their regional championships and had qualified for provincial championship tournaments.
Members of the SOMHA Junior Coyotes Peewee Rep team, South Okanagan Thunder Bantam rep squad and SOMHA Midget Rep team all headed to their respective provincial championship tournaments over the March Break.
“All of the kids are very excited to be headed to provincials and they should be because it’s exceptional for three teams from the same association to qualify for provincials,” said Brianne Hillson, the SOMHA’s registrar and the Junior Coyotes’ Peewee team manager. “It’s been an amazing year for our entire association.”
The SOMHA held a board meeting and it was announced all three teams would be given $5,000 each to help pay much of the costs of travelling to their respective provincial championship tournaments.
The majority of players on all three teams come from Osoyoos, but there are also several players from Oliver and others from places such as Grand Forks, Princeton, Okanagan Falls and Keremeos.
A fundraising dance was held at the Sonora Community Centre and a special pub night was held at the Sage Pub in Osoyoos to generate additional revenue to pay for the trip to provincials. There had never been three SOMHA teams qualify for provincials during the same season, she said.
After an amazing regular season, where they lost less than 10 times in 52 games, the Osoyoos Coyotes couldn’t score goals when it counted the most and it cost them a berth in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) championship series.
After easily winning game one in the KIJHL conference finals 7-2, the Coyotes lost four-consecutive games, including a heartbreaking 2-1 decision to the Storm on home ice, to see their promising season come to an abrupt end.
After one of the best regular seasons in league history – where they lost only nine out of 52 games – the Coyotes lost in the conference finals for the third-consecutive season.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
Osoyoos Indian Band Chief Clarence Louie stirred controversy after a candid speech to the Rotary Club of Osoyoos. If people didn’t like the fact that local provincial parks were being renamed to Sylix names, they can “suck it up,” he said. (Richard McGuire photo)
The Kamloops Storm and Osoyoos Coyotes meet at centre ice to offer each other congratulations on a well-played series as the Coyotes once again were eliminated from the playoffs in the conference finals. (Richard McGuire photo)
