The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 13

Leavitt brings home Ontario crown .4 pionships, Leavitt said "we played extremely well and simply ran her (Darte) out of rocks in the last end. "Since we finished early, we just had to sit there and watch them (Greenwood and Ball) finish." "Greenwood was down three coming home, but was sitting three (counters In the rings)," Leavitt explained. "On her last rock, Ball made a difficult double takeout and it was over. "We went crazy then, jumping around and hugging each other," she said of her rink members and coach Alice Bell. And with rather good reason.

DRYDEN Essex County has struck the mother lode in curling. After years of drought at a national level, this year two rinks have qualified for Canadian championships. Monday, Pam Leavitt's Windsor Rose-land rink won the Ontario women's title and will play in the national final at Winnipeg, starting Feb. 23. Earlier, Garry Lumbard's Kingsville rink won the provincial crown in mixed competition and open a Canadian championship bid at Toronto, starting Feb.

10. LEAVITT, vice Sue Bell, second Bev Mainwaring and lead Debbie Brousseau, did it with a 9-4 breeze over St. Catharines' to earth," she joked, "then lots and lots of practice." She is hopeful that the two national championship-bound rinks may be able to get in a practice game or two. "They'll be looking for something and so will we, so maybe we can get together," she said of Lumbard rink, which includes Betty Pindera, Brian Sanger and Joan Harder. "THAT'S A real accomplishment for two rinks from one district, especially In southern Ontario, to make the national championships.

"It really shows that we have the curlers down in this area," she added. In the final draw of the provincial cham Marilyn Darte while defending champion Jill Greenwood of Toronto Humber Highland was lpsing 7-4 to Thunder Bay's Marion Ball. Leavitt finished with a 4-1 round-robin record in the six-rink provincial final. Greenwood dropped to 3-2, the other loss an opening-day Leavitt victory. Following an evening awards banquet and some hotel celebrating, Leavitt said the enormity of the rink's task "hasn't really hit us yet, but, boy, to win the province is really exciting." AND WHAT'S in store in the two weeks before the national final? "Well, first it's to try and come back down PhotoUPl turn tKHf 1 mjwswwiOTwy 7 Yiiv7 vl Bl FEBRUARYS 1985 ultord mew role seen as last iu tVr vh hx vv, ViW Vs 4 i -N -'V v'f -4 lkMlT 6 Ik PISTONS' TERRY TYLER (41) well By The Canadian Press Games aren't always won in the final minutes of overtime, Detroit Pistons centre Bill Laimbeersays.

"We came in and started rebounding in the third quarter," said Laimbe-er, who finished with 32 points and 17 rebounds in the 113-111 National Basketball Association' victory Monday night that snapped Milwaukee Bucks' 11 -game winning streak. "We felt that was the key to the game. "We weren't hitting the boards in the first half, and that was hurting us on offence. But we started getting more aggressive in the third quarter and that turned the game around for us." Coac By Jim Nelson Star Sports Reporter Ilario Bontorin has a three-year plan for Windsor Roma, the city's new entry in the National Soccer League. Bontorin, 46, one of the more illustrious names in Windsor soccer through the 1960s and mid-'70s, has been named coach of the club.

To the job he brings some obvious talent, having coached successfully at i 4vx, Mil v. 4 A'-'' LLOYD McLACHLAN Chicago accumulated 104 points two seasons ago but plummetted to 68 last year, good enough for only fourth place in the Porous Division. This season they are six wins under .500 and, count 'em, a mere seven points ahead of the Red Wings. It's as straightforward as a fist in the face that the jobs of Neale and Patrick were in jeopardy when each man went behind the bench. Both men could have promoted assistant coaches to the main job, but didn't.

The mercury is rising in Pulford's office too. When he took over he bypassed Roger Neilson, Tessier's chief spear carrier. "PULFORD isn't saying it, but he realizes (Chicago owner William) Wirtz feels it's his job to turn the team around," says Neil Mil-bert, who covers the team for the Chicago Tribune. "If they brought in Neilson, he wouldn't have an assistant and it -would just be another excuse if the team didn't win." Only in Minnesota has the general manager remained in the press box after putting a noose around his coach's neck. When the North Stars struggled early, Lou Nanne replaced Bill Mahoney with Glen Sonmor.

If anybody is under pressure to win, one presupposes it would be Nanne. Lister said the Bucks didn't feel the pressure of a winning streak. "I think you feel more confident when you're winning games," Moncrief said. "I just felt Detroit outplayed us and deserved to win." LAIMBEER SCORED the first, four points of overtime to give the Pistons a 107-103 lead. The Bucks rallied to tie the game, the last time at 111-111 on Moncrief 's basket with 55 seconds to go.

After Laimbeer scored the winnng basket 13 seconds later, the Bucks had a turnover and missed four shots in the final seconds. John Long had 22 points and Terry Tyler 17 for the Pistons. Pressey finished with 27 points for Milwaukee. resort HE HAS been general manager since 1978. His team reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1981, but has sagged every year in the playoffs since then.

At the moment it'is only two points ahead of Detroit. The North Stars have been the NHL's most noticeable underachieves for years. This is a team which is talent-laden on paper, but always lacking in one area or another on the ice. In Nanne's case, however, any pressure is self-induced. THERE IS virtually no gnashing of teeth in the media over a team which has seen its goals-against climb every year since 1981; the GM is chummy with the local press, genuinely well-liked in the community and acknowledged to be the fair-haired boy of the Gund brothers, who own the team and sign his paychecks.

Only recently have there been whispers about some of his moves: the drafting of Brian Lawton, who has been a bust, and the trade of a number-one pick for goaltender Roland Melanson, who is playing poorly. But sentiment persists in Minnesota that, as one pundit puts it, "Louie will turn it around." HE HAS coached the North Stars twice before and genuinely despises the task. In 1977-78, his final season as a player, he took over as player-coach until the end of the season, when he was appointed general manager. In the 1983 playoffs, he joined Murray Oliver as co-coach. Both times, the anxiety made his hair fall out and turned him into a baggy-eyed insomniac.

SONMOR, who has a long track record in the coaching racket, was the man he called on early this season when things went awry. There are reports it will be Herb Brooks next year. Unlike Pulford, Neale and Patrick, Nanne hasn't run out of excuses. He won't have to worry about his own neck, until he does. games at Windsor Stadium.

Currently the league, in addition to Windsor, has seven teams London Marconi, St. Catharines Roma and five Toronto entries, Dinamo Latino, Italia, Pan Hellenic, First Portuguese and Croatia. A Montreal entry, which has been inactive for two seasons, and Brant-ford Marshlanders, who operated last season, have yet to determine 1985 plans. ILARIO BONTORIN -coach V'-t(i -(-: i A A How much job security there is in the National Hockey League depends on the job. A coach, as everybody knows, has" none.

A general manager has some, but only because the coach is always the first to go. A GM's problems start when he runs out of coaches to hire and excuses to have them turfed out and start anew. There is no real mystery why three of the four NHL coaches torpedoed so far this season have been replaced by their general managers. THE REASON is self-preservation. A GM can insulate himself only so long.

When all else fails the least one can do, realizing the shadow following him isn't his own, is place his destiny in his own hands. This is why Harry Neale took over from Bill LaForge in Vancouver, why Craig Patrick stepped in to fill the sneakers of Herb Brooks in New York, why Bob Pul-ford, after harpooning Orval Tessi-er Monday, put himself on the ice floe in Chicago. It is not a coincidence that each of those teams is performing at a level far below expectations. JUST THREE years ago, remember, the towel-waving Canucks were four victories away from winning the Stanley Cup. This season, they went into hibernation under LaForge and are a weak and wobbly 20th in the league standings.

The Rangers, once the toasts of Broadway, are now its Caspar Milquetoasts. They've had their noses rubbed in it by the haughty Islanders for the past decade and haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1940, a fact leather-lunged partisans on Long Island won't let them forget. The general managei that year, by the way, was Craig Patrick's granddad-dy Lester. THE HAWKS haven't won the Cup since 1961, when Bobby Hull was a mere pup. Both Bontorin and Marrocco feel the entry into the NSL will spark a renewed interest at the senior level.

IN ADDITION to his practical coaching experience, Bontorin, a native of Italy, in 1983 also attended the world-renowned International Soccer School at Coverciano, an area of Florence. "There were people on the (school's) committee who had followed my career and they issued an invitation," Bontorin said of his attendance. Subsequently, he was also invited to be a Canadian representative, one of three from this country among 35 people from 29 nations at the school that year. "Every area of the game was discussed and all the latest soccer techniques covered," he said of the program. dead at 61 a native of nearby St.

Jacobs, died of heart failure. He had to be taken to hospital last October when he collapsed during a National Hockey League game at Maple Leaf Gardens between Toronto and the Red Wings. Rom a needs three years to grow guarded by Terry Cummings, Alton Milwaukee owned a 30-22 advantage on the boards in the first half, but the Pistons took a 43-37 edge the remainder of the game. "They started getting a lot of second shots in the third quarter," said Milwaukee centre Alton Lister. "Anytime a team gets second shots, it's going to hurt you." WITH THEIR third successive victory, the Pistons, 30-17, have inched to within three games of the Central Division-leading Bucks, 34-15.

"It was a big win for us," said Laim-beer. "We could have gone five games down. "Instead, it was a two-game swing for us." Milwaukee guard Sidney Moncrief minor age level since ending his senior career following a player-coach stint with Italo-Canadians in 1 977. He's a strong-willed individual with a coaching philosophy that he says demands "discipline and dedication." "THAT'S THE way I was as a player and that's my way of doing things," the former midfielder said Monday night following the announcement of" his appointment by club president Pat Marrocco. Bontorin makes no bones of the fact it will be extremely difficult for Roma, a club that plans to use area talent only, to be competitive at a playoff contending level in the NSL this season.

"Other teams are established and experienced, but when I decided to take this job (an unpaid one, as will be the case with all the players), I made it clear I wanted to work and develop the young players in this area. "IT WILL BE difficult at first, but it will be good experience," Bontorin said, "and you can learn through losing, too. "But two or three years from now, we'll be there (in the playoffs and championship contention)," says.the Chrysler Canada employee, emphasizing his belief that it is the proper decision to develop young, local play expects ers and avoid the pitfalls and heavy expense of player importation. And he's well acquainted with the young talent of this area, having coached in the Windsor and District League's Under 18 division last season. "SINCE THE Stars (Windsor's previous entry in the NSL) folded, there has been a big gap in soccer in this area," Bontorin claimed.

"There was no motivation for the younger players and there was a big letdown in the calibre of (senior) soccer. Many players, he said, just quit the game because there was really no focus beyond age-limit competition. Thus, while the game was flourishing at the lower age levels, it was withering at the top with only four teams playing in the top senior division last season. Sittler's father KITCHENER (CP) Ken Sittler, the father of Detroit Red Wings' centre Darryl Sittler, died Monday. He was 61.

A spokesman for Kitchener-Waterloo hospital said the elder Sittler, ROMA WILL open winter training at St. Clair College, Wednesday from 8 to 10 p.m. and Bontorin indicated it will be an open tryout for all players over the age of 17 years. He emphasized that despite his leaning to young legs, there must also be a blend of experience and that there has been no pre-selection of candidates. The ones who make his club will obviously be the ones who meet his standards of "discipline and dedication." Marrocco said that among players who had indicated an interest in the club are David Marazita, John Licata, Rob Colussi, Detroiters Matt Davis and Pete Stojanovich, Mike Vigh and David Thier, two Windsor players currently at Oakland University's soccer team, three others who played at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Fabbio Marras, Kris Geier and Sasho Cirovski, goaltender Rob Agos-tiniandSlavko Petrina.

MARROCCO said Colussi, a midfielder, is generally considered the player in Windsor with the best potential to move up in national competition. The NSL schedule will open May 1 2 and continue through mid-September, with Roma playing Sunday home PATMARROCCO.