{"id":22202,"date":"2018-11-15T11:37:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T16:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22202"},"modified":"2018-11-22T10:23:43","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T15:23:43","slug":"family-charity-the-focus-in-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame-induction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/family-charity-the-focus-in-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame-induction\/","title":{"rendered":"Family, charity the focus in Aurora Sports Hall of Fame induction"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Add four more names to the growing list of Aurora sporting icons.
\nPaolina Allan, David Morland IV, Loring Doolittle, and Robert Bain were welcomed into the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday as this year\u2019s inductees, a pair of athletes and a coach and a builder who reached the pinnacle of their sports.
\nSt. Andrew\u2019s College was the host venue for the fourth year in a row, where close to 300 guests packed into Cole Hall to see the class don the traditional green sweater now worn by a total of 29 members.
\n\u201cNights like this prove how rich the sports heritage is of this community,\u201d said founding Chair of Sport Aurora Ron Weese. \u201cAnd how much it\u2019s valued. There are so many people that helped put this together over the past year.\u201d
\nCalling himself \u201cJames Duthie\u2019s replacement,\u201d it was TSN personality Rod Black that got the crowd roaring in a similar style to the usual host Duthie, after his daughter Sienna opened the festivities with the national anthem.
\n\u201cJames is doing hockey tonight, and if I was doing basketball, (fellow TSN personality) Jennifer Hedger would have been your host\u2026so you guys really missed out.\u201d
\nGuests were also treated to a live fantasy auction after dinner, where bidders competed for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities like a round of golf in Muskoka with Mr. Black: a top prize garnering over a thousand dollars more after Mr. Morland IV decided to join the round.
\n\u201cI probably should have told you I\u2019ll be flying the plane myself,\u201d joked Mr. Black when the pro golfer joined in the fun.
\nMr. Morland, whose fantasy donations did not end there in also auctioning out a local round with himself, is well-versed in the courses of the area. He recounted his days between 1987 and 1994 spending his summers back home in Aurora between college semesters, working the grounds of the local courses.
\nNow, a quarter century later, he\u2019s working to earn his card to the PGA\u2019s Champions Tour.
\n\u201cQualifying school is literally in five days,\u201d said Mr. Morland in his speech. \u201cSo we\u2019ve got an early flight out back to Florida tomorrow morning to prepare for that, but right now I\u2019m very happy to be standing where I am here.\u201d
\nThe ex-PGA pro said it was his \u201cbig heart\u201d, despite his size, that got him to that podium.
\n\u201cAt five-six, you never know how big someone\u2019s heart is,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you set goals, set them high, and then break them down. It comes down to how much you want it\u2026it\u2019s a mental game, as I\u2019m sure my fellow inductee Ms. Allan can attest to.\u201d
\nWith a nod of approval, Ms. Allan brought up the mental aspect in her acceptance, something she said is made much simpler with the help of her husband and coach, Stephen.
\n\u201cTriathlon is an individual sport, but along the way, I\u2019ve had the most incredible help,\u201d said Ms. Allan, who pointed to her table, who she refers to as her \u201ctribe.\u201d \u201cMy mom came over from Scotland to share this with me, and it was Stephen who helped me to be the athlete I was, he saw potential in me.
\nYet despite her dozens of accolades in the sport of triathlon, she was still humbled by the honour.
\n\u201cI kind of laughed when I got off the phone,\u201d said Ms. Allan. \u201cI thought, \u2018I don\u2019t really know if that was real. But here I am today, and it is very real.\u201d
\nThis year\u2019s inductees will see their photos and bios brandished on the walls of the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame at the SARC for a full calendar year, where the public is also free to see their collections of equipment, medals, and other memorabilia.
\nAlso inducted into the Hall were a pair of rising stars in Holly Biasi and Andrew Nembhard, part of Sport Aurora\u2019s Future Hall of Famers initiative. Biasi\u2019s commitment to the volleyball court has earned her numerous provincial and national titles over the last year, while also owning nine provincial medals in the swimming pool.
\nNembhard, a University of Florida basketball player, has been tagged as a prominent up-and-comer in the Canadian national basketball team as a point guard. While unable to make the long trip himself, his parents were on hand to accept the honour.
\nNext week, The Auroran will focus on the induction of Mr. Bain and Mr. Doolittle.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Add four more names to the growing list of Aurora sporting icons.
\nPaolina Allan, David Morland IV, Loring Doolittle, and Robert Bain were welcomed into the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2018-11-15-08.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5M6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 07:13:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}