At the 40th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner, the following were inducted into the North Bay Sports Hall of Fame:
- Susan Fisher was born in Kapuskasing and her early sports were hockey and curling. In 1970 she arrived in North Bay and 8 years later joined the North Bay Figure Skating Club executive and she did executive and organizational work as well as being a judge, evaluator, referee, trainer and technical representative for some 45 years. She spent a decade on the local executive and played a role in the 1986 Canadians held at the Gardens. In the eighties she trained as a Skate Canada Judge and Evaluator and through training and upgrading was able to evaluate skaters, judge competitions, referee and train judges. She was Technical Representative for over 35 high level events since 2007, judged some 90 competitions, including 6 Skate Ontario Championships in the same time period and played an active role in both North Bay’s Make it a Date to Skate and Huntsville’s Skokie Skate for almost 40 years. She was Chair of Skate Ontario and coordinated the Super Series 3 times each, was the provincial events coordinator for several years and worked on event restructuring. A member of Skate Canada since 1978 she was awarded their Award of Excellence in 2015 and won a pair of Northern Ontario Volunteer awards. She taught at Chippewa and coached Raiders to individual and team success at both the NDA and NOSSA badminton tournaments.
- Arriving in North Bay in 1984, Manitoba born Claude Peloquin began officiating and instructing curling after an injury temporarily forced him out of on ice activities. He obtained level 3 Official and level 2 Instructor certification through the Ontario Curling Association and became NOCA northeastern region chief official. Over a period of some 30 years he played roles in 46 Regional, Provincial, National and International Curling events, being Chief Official in 30 such competitions and Deputy Chief Official in 5 others as of 2022. He was Chief Official at the 2014 Canadian Mixed, the 2015 National Mixed Doubles and Canadian Travellers and Deputy Chief at the 2022 National Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s, 2020 Canadian Under 18, the Canadian Junior in 2016 and the 2014 National Mixed Doubles. He was an on ice official at the 2018 Ford Women’s World’s Curling Championships held here in North Bay as well as at the Tim Hortons Brier in 2016, the 2011 and 1988 Canadian Mixed, the 1992, 2013, 2014 and 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, and the 2022 National U21 Men’s and Women’s. Provincially he was Chief Official at 3 OFSAA’s and the 2015 Special Olympics; Regionally he was Chief Official for 23 championships in ten different divisions from Bantam through Senior for the Northern Ontario Curling Association. When he was able to return to curling as an active participant, the prominent curling builder skipped rinks to the Granite Club’s Mazda Masters event 8 times between 2010 and 2018.
- North Bay born Damon Topolie played football for Chippewa and had extensive local baseball experience including being named MVP in the MCTV Northern Select League in both 1993 and 1994 before making the Stratford Intercounty squad. He attended Division Two Tusculum University in Tennesee where he graduated in 1999 after being named to the small college all state All Star team. That same year he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the famed Intercounty Baseball circuit and remained with that organization as a player, field manager and general manager for more than two decades. As a player he was an eight time IBL All Star; helped the Leafs win league championships in 1999, 2002 and 2007; was playoff MVP in 2002; was one of only four players to surpass 700 hits; was named to the IBL All Time Top 100 list and leads the Leafs career list in hits, rbi’s and games played. For a decade and a half he was the lead catcher – instructor with the Ontario Blue Jay elite baseball camp and had extensive coaching experience at other camps and academies. In 2002 he coached a Team Canada Women’s baseball squad to a silver medal in an International tournament in Australia. The Intercounty Baseball league has long been one of Canada’s top semi-pro baseball organizations and Damon Topolie made an indelible mark in the IBL and on Canadian baseball.
- Stephanie Topolie made her mark in baseball, softball, basketball and volleyball. The North Bay native started playing baseball here and won 5 OBA titles, later winning 5 more for Mississauga while chalking up four championships in the Central Ontario League. In 2001 she was an All Star outfielder for Team Canada in a Women’s four country World series played at Skydome. She also played for the silver medal winning Team Canada at an International tournament in Australia in 2002 and played outfield for Team Canada in the IABF World Championships in Edmonton in 2004 – winning bronze. Stephanie had not played softball until she attended Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware but she played four seasons of varsity there, had 212 hits, 108 rbi’s and 123 runs scored. During that time she was named an NAIA scholar-athlete and was a Central Conference and All Tournament All Star and in 2000 was a 1st Team Academic All American. She played college volleyball for three seasons and was a Central Conference and Tourney All Star in that sport as well. Topolie was also part of her college’s first basketball team and in 2001 was listed on the NCAA’s student-athlete who’s who. She has been enshrined in the Goldey-Beacom Athletic Hall of Fame. While at Widdifield S.S. she won OFSAA gold in volleyball; while attending Chippewa she reached the OFSAA level in basketball and competed in track at NOSSA.
The gallery of photographs were taken by Al Orlando
