Play ball in Connell park

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

Phil Vogler remembers the days of being a “rink rat” with Peter Connell, playing on the same hockey, baseball and other community sports teams in their youth.

Now an adult and sports volunteer, Vogler is leading a project to honour Connell, who died in 2004.

Connell played hockey, ball and golf; but turned to coaching when his three children joined local sports, particularly ball and hockey. In female sport, he made an impact: co-founding the Kings County Royals PeeWee fast-pitch team and taking it to a provincial championship two seasons later. he also helped form the first female Bantam hockey team in Berwick, also a provincial winner in its first season. he continued to form hockey teams, including a Valley Midget team and then the Valley High School Female Hockey League while a coach at Central Kings. A C.K.-hosted Christmas tournament is now named in his honour. “We’d like to rename the Brown Street Ballfield the Peter Connell Memorial Park in recognition of Peter’s efforts for baseball and other minor sports,” Vogler told Berwick councillors in a May presentation asking for approval for the change in name of the town-owned facility. “I can’t think of any more reasons he deserves the honour – he was just a very deserving person.”

Plans are in place for a June 6 announcement of the renaming ceremony, coinciding with the Berwick Sports Hall of Fame 2009 induction, in which Connell will be included as both an athlete and builder. The public park dedication and unveiling of a new sign will be held at 2 p.m. at the Brown Street field June 7. Berwick Minor Ball is spearheading the project, paying for the new sign and organizing the ceremony and some ball action on the field to showcase up-and-coming local talent.

Deputy Mayor Don Clarke said the ballfield is “sitting there waiting for a more appropriate name. “It was named ‘Brown Street Ballfield’ for no other reason than it was on Brown Street.”

Mayor John Prall remembered Connell as a “pretty slick second baseman, and several other councillors described volunteering with him or having him coach their own children. “I think it’s a wonderful idea, and Peter is very deserving for all the things he did for the young people of the town in his short life,” Councillor Gary Whittier said.