In its first year playing out of Burnaby’s Bill Copeland Arena after the franchise’s first four years in Coquitlam, the Express went from a team that had never won a first-round playoff series to being crowned the Canadian junior A champions.

The culmination was a resounding 8-2 win over the Saskatchewan champions, the Yorkton Terriers, at the Royal Bank Centennial Cup in Brampton, Ont. 

In its playoff journey, the Express under the guidance of head coach Rick Lanz, a former Vancouver Canucks defenceman, won the Fred Page Cup, emblematic of BC Hockey League supremacy, in six games over the Penticton Vees.

They then won the Doyle Cup over the Alberta champion Fort McMurray Oil Barons four games to two, including the final game 6-0 at home. At the Royal Bank Cup, Burnaby posted a record of 4-1 to become the 10th BCHL team to win a national junior A title.

Burnaby, which featured a 16-year-old Kyle Turris who went on to a 15-year NHL career, began its playoff march as the fourth-placed team in the BCHL’s Coastal Conference. The Express swept Langley in straight games for its first ever playoff series win. They then defeated their playoff nemesis Chilliwack Chiefs in five games for the Mainland Division title before knocking off Coastal champions Victoria Salsa in five games to win their first-ever conference banner.

Photos: Mario Bartel

Right: Burnaby Express general manager Darcy Rota eyes a trophy won by the 2005-06 Burnaby Express Jr. A hockey club.

Team members including players, coaches, front office and owners:

Front row (L-R) Bryce Luker, Karen Ditchburn, Rob Lambie, Tim Delesalle, Dave Simoes, Pat Delesalle, Brady Cook, Darcy Rota, Peter Merth, Ian Mansfield, Brian Hannigan, John Bellefeuille, Matthew Gordon. Middle (L-R) Tyler McNeely, Steve Cunningham, Mark Santorelli, Billy Reimer, Paul Ng, Kolin Kritmaa, Dave McLellan, Rick Lanz, Ron Viet, Barry Jeboult, Mischa Polzin, Kyle Turris, Jovan Matic, Keith Seabrook, Mark Soares. Back (L-R) Brad Hunt, Jeff Orban , Mike Rempel, Anthony Wild, Mark Currie, Paul Crowder, Max Grassi, Jake Areshenko, Carlo Finucci.

Burnaby’s ‘Boxing Mountie,’ Harry Twist, staged a one-man war against juvenile delinquency over his long career as coach of the South Burnaby Boxing Club.

A talented tutor and friend of the young, Twist trained scores of young men, including the late, former Commonwealth Games bantamweight Frankie Scott, two-time Emerald boy finalist Freddy Fuller, silver boy and Olympic hopeful Johnny Phillips and 1954 Canadian welterweight champion Des Archer, who later joined the RCMP.

Twist operated his boxing gym for more than 30 years in a former church on Kingsway, between Nelson and Royal Oak. He also held boxing shows in Central Park, where the baseball diamond now stands. In the winter, he held shows in the gym at Burnaby South senior secondary.

Twist was inducted into the BC Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015.

At the time of his induction, Michael Lonergan had coached 16 individual Canadian champions in track and field and five more in cross-country, including Olympian Leah Pells and the late Emily Mondor, a former world outdoor 5,000-metre finalist.

Lonergan has coached athletes at nine world track and field championships, three Commonwealth Games, two Pan American Games and 10 world cross-country championships.

He has coached more than 25 champions or medallists at national championships and more than 40 All-American athletes while with Simon Fraser University. Lonergan has been named a NAIA national coach of the year and B.C. Athletics high performance coach of the year.

While at SFU, Lonergan led the men’s and women’s cross-country teams to runner-up finishes in 1994 and the women to second again in 1995. He has also been the head coach for numerous national teams, including the world cross-country team in England in 1995.

Lonergan has been connected with the Royal City Track and Field Club for more than 30 years and remains on the club’s executive.

Richard Smith served the South Burnaby Men’s Club (now called South Burnaby Metro Club) for 23 years.

The 1949 Burnaby South grad played senior men’s fastball and rugby, before turning his hand to coaching that lasted well into the 1980s. Smith joined the SBMC in 1969 where he chaired boys baseball in 1972 before entering a long involvement in the community, including two six-year terms on the Burnaby Parks commission.

He was chair and general contractor of the volunteer-driven committee that brought outdoor lighting to Bonsor Park in 1974. He also brought in the first electronic timing equipment in Canada for the 1971 Canada Winter Games (Saskatoon) and 1973 Canada Games in Burnaby-New Westminster.

Smith represented the Parks Board on a committee that also started floodlight projects at Wesburn, Norburn and East Burnaby parks.

Helga Ovington brought fun to the sport of freestyle gymnastics to thousands of children over a period of 25 years as the founder of the Wings Gymnastic Society.

Ovington brought a philosophy of caring for kids first to the Cameron Recreation Centre club. There, she mentored many of the present coaches over the years, most of whom took their first tumble in gymnastics at Wings.

The non-profit society was all about inclusion and Ovington was always front and centre in making sure recreation was stressed as much as competitiveness in dance, ballet, trampoline, as well as gymnastics.

Ovington was made a life member of Gymnastics BC in 2012 for her efforts in building the Wings program.

Larry Hayes has dedicated over his half his life to the game of hockey in the community.

An honourary life member with the Burnaby Minor Hockey Association, Hayes has also coached and managed numerous youth hockey teams to provincial and regional titles, including a trip to the Air Canada Cup in 1985 with Joe Sakic and the BMHA midget AAA Hawks.

Hayes also shared a Lower Mainland championship with the junior B Burnaby Bluehawks and was instrumental in the establishment of a junior A hockey franchise group for Burnaby in 1998 at the new Bill Copeland Sports Centre, he had long advocated for.

Hayes has served Burnaby Minor in various capacities since 1977, while also holding executive positions with the Pacific Coast and B.C. Amateur Hockey Associations, as well as with elite hockey programs. Hayes is also well known for his capacity as chair of BMHA’s annual bantam AAA international hockey tournament during the Christmas school break that has in recent years become the Pat Quinn Classic with expanded categories.

He has also been a valued member of the Burnaby Sports Hall Of Fame committee since the early 2000s serving at various times as vice-president and secretary.

Known as one of Canada’s hardest-working players ever, Audrey Vandervelden fashioned a career on the Canadian national women’s volleyball team that spanned more than a decade between 1973 and 1984.

Vandervelden captained the national team at the ’84 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She also earned numerous MVP and all-star awards while playing internationally. 

In her competitive career, Vandervelden played for Canada at three world championships, three Pan American Games and at two Olympics, including the 1976 Games in Montreal where she was considered Canada’s top player.

The six-foot-two Vandervelden was inducted into the Canadian volleyball hall of fame in July 2006. Volleyball Canada’s website lauded her contributions to the national team this way: “Audrey became possibly the best player Canada has ever produced. She was powerful, incredibly quick for a very tall player and was equally good at defence as she was at offence.”

The Burnaby Central grad led her school to third place at the B.C. high school championships in 1972. A year later, Vandervelden went on to represent her country at the World Student Games.

Burnaby South grad Dave Milne was Mr. Everything in his long rugby career. From vice-captaining Canada against the British Lions to coaching his alma mater to three New Zealand Shields in the 1980s, Milne continued to be an icon for the game into his 70s.

Milne was a two-time big block winner in both rugby and baseball at the University of B.C., before beginning a long career in club rugby. As a member of the Trojan Rugby Club, Milne won numerous, local, district, provincial and national team honours. At the same time, he began coaching high school teams in Burnaby, including Royal Oak Junior High and Burnaby South, over his 34-year tenure, making eight provincial championships appearances, including titles in 1982, ’83 and ’85.

In 1965, he was the recipient of the Howie McPhee Trophy awarded for leadership, sportsmanship and playing ability. He was also the winner of the Jack Patterson Trophy for service and administration with the B.C. Rugby Union.

Milne continued to play rugby and shared a silver medal on two occasions at the world masters championships, including one with Canada’s first over-65 team in 1998. He passed away in March 2016. He was 80.

Burnaby’s Frank Fillinger was truly a bowler for all seasons. A nine-time Western Canadian triallist, Fillinger was also twice named bowler of the year and is a member of the B.C. Bowling Hall of Fame. Known for his consistency over decades of competitive bowling, Fillinger set records or maintained near-record averages for almost 30 years.

In the 1950s, Dillinger rolled the first-ever 260 average in five pins in the city posting a 267. Following an industrial accident to his throwing hand in 1958, Fillinger came back as good as ever, winning the high average three out of four years in the early 1960s. During that time, he also led his Western Canadian mixed team to a Canadian title.

In 1967, Fillinger was the Western Canadian trials champion, while also sharing the major B men’s 10-pin team championship with a high 657 triple. In the late ’60s, Fillinger posted the all-time, all-star league high average for a second consecutive year, with a 276 average. He also bowled a perfect 435 game in five pins in 1967.

Fillinger passed away in May 2014. He was 91.

Bill Bradley began his box career playing juvenile lacrosse in North Burnaby. In 1961, with a big hand from Burnaby Sports Hall of Famer Bill Dickinson, Bradley formed and played on a Burnaby junior team that went on to win the provincial title and the right to represent the West in the Minto Cup Canadian junior championship.

The following year, the entire team moved up to the senior ranks as the Norburns — Burnaby’s first senior A lacrosse team. Bradley went on to an accomplished playing career in Coquitlam and Victoria, garnering seven first team all-star selections in the Western Lacrosse Association and one in the Ontario league. He also played for Montreal and Maryland of the original professional National Lacrosse League.

The defensive specialists career lacrosse statistics included 376 goals and 937 points in 498 games, earning Bradley an induction into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1987. He was also inducted into the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 for his years playing for the Coquitlam Adanacs.

He passed away at the age of 90 in July 2023.