Future ball in Connell park

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

Untying the cover on the new Peter Connell Memorial Park sign was the toughest part of a renaming ceremony June 7 in Berwick.

The minor ball association approached the town earlier this spring about naming the Brown Street ballfield in Connell’s honour, “and there was nothing easier,” Councillor Mike Trinacty said as he emceed the dedication in front of a small crowd of Connell’s family and friends.

Berwick Mayor John Prall said, when Berwick Minor ball president Phil Vogler came to council to present his case and “said we had to do it,” it was a “great opportunity for us to show our civic pride and honour a family - and Peter. “If you look around and see what’s happening in his name today, you know what kind of man he was.”

Connell was an avid hockey and ball player as a youth, but turned to coaching as his own children grew up in the area. He was a strong supporter particularly of female sport, founding the Valley High School Girls’ Hockey League and Bantam and Midget girls’ hockey teams, along with a youth female ball team that won provincial championships from 1999 to 2003. He died unexpectedly in 2004. “Peter was the real deal,” said Colin Best, who coached with Connell the Kings County Royals girls’ ball team. “I played hockey - unfortunately against him - and liked Peter from the start, his ability and the way he handled himself on the ice. “Peter had amazing coaching ability: he knew the game and how to get the most out of every player.”

Best said Connell had a huge impact on minor sports in the Berwick area: “and more than being competitive, he led by example - and he was fun to be with. “He was surrounded by good people, and not by coincidence. He made the people around him better people.”

Berwick itself inducted Connell into the Sports Hall of Fame as an athlete and builder just the evening before.

Susan Connell, Peter’s widow, thanked minor ball, the town and everyone involved in this project. “I know Peter would have been overwhelmed by this. Renaming the park is one of the highest honours he could have,” she said.

She added, having been one of the main fundraising volunteers behind the park’s construction a decade ago, seeing it being used today - and in the future - by ball players is a “wonderful way” to be recognized.