The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page
MEN'S FASTBALL STILL POPULAR
By the time this issue hits the street, the Princeton Merchants Men's Fastball team will have completed seven games in this season's schedule.
The team, the only Similkameen Valley entry in the South Okanagan Similkameen Men's Fastball League, will have no less than 13 more games to play before playoffs begin in early July.
Games of note in the Princeton schedule are double-headers hosted at Memorial Park.
The first series is between Kal Tire, Penticton on Sunday, May 28th with game 1 at 11:00 AM and game 2 at 1:00 PM.
Sunday, June 4th will see Princeton host another double header against Interior Roofing of Penticton. Games are at 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM.
Berry & Smith Trucking will travel to Princeton for a double header on Sunday, June 11th. Games are at 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM.
The final double header at home for Princeton will be on Sunday, June 25th when the Merchants play host to Gabriel Fastball Extreme (GFX) of Penticton.
Game times are set for 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM.
The Princeton Merchants team has a long history of action in Princeton and invite all interested sports fans to watch them play during these home games.
THIS CLOWN REALLY GETS AROUND
If you attended Princeton's Pro Rodeo on the weekend of May 12-14, you would have seen the funny antics of Rodeo Clown Dennis Halstead.Halstead is a lot more than a just a guy wearing make-up and doing goofy stunts during the rodeo. Halstead is the #1 Rodeo Clown and Barrel Man in Canada, #4 in the World and three-time Rodeo Entertainer of the Year.
The Princeton Rodeo Club has been fortunate to have someone of his skill and ability at their event.
The News Leader spoke briefly with Halstead just before he went out into the Rodeo Arena for the Saturday performance.
"Do you ever get nervous anymore?" We asked.
"I do about 170 shows a year and I still get nervous before each one," he said as he stepped through the gate next to bucking chute #1 and out to start another show.
A feature in the Spring 2006 issue of Strada, a Dodge product catalogue, on Halstead gives a little more insight into the man.
The 24-year veteran of the Calgary Fire Department started his rodeo career quite by accident. It started 12-years ago at a charity rodeo when the professional rodeo clown scheduled to perform that day cancelled at the last minute.
Organizers for the event scrambled for a volunteer replacement and Halstead offered to participate. The rest - as they say - is history.
Halstead - who somehow finds time to respond to between 2,000 and 3,000 calls a year as part of his firefighter duties - also performs his popular rodeo clown act in-hospital for physically challenged and terminally ill children.
In fact, when Halstead visits a community to perform at their local rodeo, he also tries to visit area schools with a performance.
The last two years he's been in Princeton he's visited local elementary schools.
Halstead is also known to be quite a prankster. When visiting casually with the News Leader after last year's rodeo, Halstead told a story we're still chuckling at.
Apparently at a rodeo somewhere in a small town on the Prairies, Halstead rushed to the side of a rider that had just been tossed off an animal.
By the time the cowboy had regained his bearings he told Halstead he was doing fine and asked, "What rodeo am I at?"
Halstead, who knew paramedics were on their way to aid the cowboy, gave him the name of a town in a different province.
By the time the paramedics arrived they asked the cowboy where he was and he gave them the answer provided by Halstead, which earned the cowboy an instant ambulance ride to the nearest hospital for a battery of tests.
Joking aside, Halstead switches from joker to lifesaver in an instant when required in the rodeo arena. The average rodeo spectator may think the action ends once a cowboy is tossed from an animal - whether he rides for 8-seconds or not - but that's when the real action, as well and the dangerous part of the job, starts.
Halstead will do whatever it takes at that moment to distract an animal's attention away from the cowboy until he is safely out of reach.
However, this usually puts a big target onto Halstead who has broken an arm, elbow, ribs, lost teeth and injured his spleen in his years as Rodeo Clown.
Remember, he does this at over 170 shows a year!
Halstead puts in about 100,000-kilometres a year in a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 Dually (Dodge is his major sponsor) towing a 30-foot fifth wheel that contains all the props and tricks of his trade.
The Ram - his office on wheels - includes a satellite radio, colour television, GPS and laptop computer. To find out more about this real-life hero visit Halstead's website at www.dennytherodeoclown.com
