A Successful 2001 Once again we have come to the end of another year  in the life of the Bluewater Tug-of-War Club. We can look back on 2001 with  pride and joyous reflection on the events that we shared with each other as  well as our guests from the U.S.A. and Europe. There was excitement  for our club both on and off the field of play.  It was a very special year for two of the  longest serving members of our Ladies Team. On the 28th of July Jen Romphf  (Moxham) got married and on the 15th of December our Ladies Captain, Julia Tieman (Burton) . Both of these ladies  constantly demonstrate what it takes to be a  good athlete in our sport by their approach to fitness and  training. I am certain that one day they will get their just reward for the  effort given but for now the most important thing for us to do is to wish  Jen and Matt, Julia and Mike all the best in their new lives together.  On the pulling front we will have many fond  memories of our first ever held International Competition in June. The many months of preparation were nerve racking at times but to see it all come  together on the weekend of the competition made it all worth while. The  competition was of a good standard with teams from the U.S.A. and Europe taking  part. Personally I was pleased that our Bluewater teams were on the podium  in all weight categories. I see this as another step in our development on  the long road to where we want to go in this sport that we love. This tournament  is something we will do again bigger and better.  On behalf of  Bluewater I would like to express our gratitude to the officials from the Ontario Tug-of-War Association and the U.S.A. who officiated. There are many others  who helped by being sponsors and working for us in different ways. All of  us in our club know about the tremendous  work that Matt Metzger put into organizing this competition and his perfect  attention to every detail. Matty we are forever grateful to  you.   Without weight competitions in Ontario and the  light weight nature of our club most of our competitions this year were in the U.S.A.  Hopefully this will change as the sport progresses. During these visits to our  neighbors south we enjoyed good success and have built a good healthy  competitive spirit with their teams.  Looking at our Bluewater club over all, I can only  be pleased and proud of what I see. We continue to improve our organization  to meet the standards that are required to bring recognition to us and our sport.  Our work with youths in the sport and our activities in the community is to be  commended. At times we are severely stretched  finding time with our own ambition to be better as well as advancing the sport around us. However if  it was easy then it would not have the same reward. We have managed to give the sport publicity through the media and will continue to do this.  The participation of two television stations and one radio station at our  International Tournament was a major step forward. I am of the opinion that we can  moan and groan all we like at all levels about the lack of sufficient  interest in our sport but it is up to us all to sell this great product to the  public. Tug-of-War people need to demonstrate at all times that we are  legitimate athletes. Clubs will have to be more professional before  the sport will get rid of the "pulling over the mud hole" image. That is why  I believe the efforts of our club will help to improve the sport. In 2001  we incorporated our club and had Adam Bylsma joining us as our Marketing Manager with the intent of being more business like. One of the results of  this is that we have sustained a modest income to run our club. The  real gauge of our success may be measured in the legacy we leave for  others to carry on and our club to stand the test of time. It has been said that  we take our sport too serious without fun, well I can assure all that we have lots of fun doing what we do to the best of our ability.   I'm looking forward to working with all  the great people in our club both new and old again in 2002. We are always looking for new  members which help to give us a continuos freshness about what we do.   Thank you to everyone at the club for their work and participation in 2001 and a  "Happy New Year" to Tug-of-War people everywhere. Jim Connolly, Coach.      Back to Newsletter Index