The Barons were also the Burnaby men’s open league A-division playoff champions, as well as winners at the Al Sorenson Memorial 30-and-under tournament in Abbotsford and a 40-and-under invitational competition at South Memorial Park in Vancouver.

Stan Stewardson built Simon Fraser University men’s basketball into a winning program in two separate decades. Stewardson guided the Burnaby Mountain squad to successful seasons — once in in the 1970s and again in the 1980s — on both occasions taking the team from single-digit victories to 20-win seasons.

He coached at SFU for a combined nine seasons. His 1986/87 team recorded a 24-10 season, the best-ever season for a Clan men’s basketball team.

Stewardson coached 11 national team players and 16 went on to professional careers, including B.C. hall of fame player and NBA coach Jay Triano.

Stewardson passed away in October 2017, a day short of his 79th birthday.

THE FOLLOWING IS A STORY THAT APPEARED IN THE BURNABY/NEW WESTMINSTER NEWSLEADER IN APRIL 2005 WRITTEN ABOUT STAN STEWARDSON’S INDUCTION INTO THE BC BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME

Photo: Mario Bartel

By Grant Granger

NewsLeader Staff

Stan Stewardson said he is humbled to be going into the Basketball BC Hall of Fame.

He shouldn’t be because to everyone else his induction is a no-brainer. Stewardson will be honoured along with eight other individuals and a team at a dinner in Richmond tonight (Saturday). He’ll be going in as a coach, and a darn good one at that.

“Eventually maybe I thought I would get in,” said Stewardson modestly while taking a break from shovelling top soil at his home in New West.

Although he was on the old Lester Pearson team that won the 1956 provincial high school boys championship, Stewardson wasn’t one of the stars. He was a better baseball and football player.

But his calling was coaching. He even passed up the opportunity to try pro baseball to finish his degree at UBC and the sport he wanted to coach wasn’t on the diamond or gridiron. It was hoop on the hardwood.

“I knew if I was going to be in high school, it was going to be basketball. I wanted to coach a sport that had the best challenge,” said Stewardson.

After a year in Rossland, Stewardson took over an ailing North Delta Huskies hoop squad that had been beaten twice by 100 points by different teams. Talk about being humbled. But Stewardson made his team of Huskies a top dog during what has been described as “the golden years of high school hoops” in B.C.

“We had a tournament in North Delta that if you weren’t in the gym an hour before the game, you didn’t get in. That’s the way high school basketball was back then,” Stewardson said. “It was great atmosphere.”

They won the provincial title in 1971, finished second in ’72 and third in ’73.

“It took us awhile, but we became an elite team,” said Stewardson. “It was a pretty good run.”

That’s when Simon Fraser University came calling. In two stints over nine seasons he was 149-131 against almost exclusively American competition. From 1975-79 he was 63-54. After taking five years off to do home renovations he returned to take over a team that had won just four games the previous season to produce a five-year run of 86-77, including going 24-10 in 1986-87 which is SFU’s best season ever.

He’s coached some of Burnaby Mountain’s best like Jay Triano (Toronto Raptors assistant coach and former Canadian national team head coach) and Mike Jackel.

“I’ve had 11 players that have been Canada’s national team and 16 players that have gone on to play professional basketball,” Stewardson proudly pronounces.

One of his SFU squads, he said, had six of the 12 national team members that were supposed to have played at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow but didn’t get to go because of the Western boycott.

“It was nice that the national team coach at that time, Jack Donohue, recognized that our program produced players that could play on the national team,” said Stewardson.

In his mind, his best accomplishment has very little to do with winning. Stewardson said it was making better people, making the players team oriented and helping them become excellent citizens.

“I guess one of the legacies I have had is I’m basically their coach for life,” he said. “I’ve made very, very good friends. A lot of the players I’ve had, I’ve remained friends with and do things together.”

As for the state of basketball in B.C. today, Stewardson is disappointed that in the next few years there will be eight B.C. universities playing hoop in the CIS. “It’s going to make that into an intramural league,” said Stewardson of the inevitable dilution of talent.

As for high school, he worries about basketball not being able to attract the province’s best athletes.

“There’s a pull for so many other sports,” said Stewardson. “Lots of players are being pulled in a lot of directions and they’re getting asked to concentrate on one sport and play it all year long at a very early age.”

In retirement Stewardson has still been a very busy boy. He helped coach the New Westminster Salmonbellies to a Minto Cup junior lacrosse championship in 1994. He still helps his son Kevin coach as well as be a minor official at WLA games and an assistant to WLA commissioner Sohen Gill. Stewardson also helps organize two golf tournaments a year, one for the Salmonbellies and the other for North Delta alumni.

Right now, however, his biggest challenge is the one in his head and it has nothing to do with Xs and Os strategies in a basketball playbook. He had a “tennis-ball sized” brain tumour removed last year. But it has returned and he’ll be taking radiation for five weeks beginning in June.

“I’m very positive. That’s not going to be a problem,” insisted Stewardson. “I feel fine. I feel a lot better than I did a couple of years ago. I had to go through two and three years of headaches and hearing problems. I haven’t had any headaches since.”

Certainly being honoured many of his former players, colleagues and foes will make him feel good too.

THIS STORY ON STEWARDSON APPEARED IN THE NEWSLEADER IN FEBRUARY 2009. It was also written by Grant Granger

It was the summer of 1962 and Stan Stewardson was tearing the cover off the ball for the Bellingham Bells. The New York Mets had come calling offering him $500 to attend training camp the following February.

Stan ached to play pro baseball, but he realized climbing the minor league ladder was going to be an arduous ordeal with no guarantee. He just needed his final year of teacher training to get certified and that would be a lost year if he went south and didn’t make it.

Sometimes Stan, 70, wonders how he would have made out on the fields of dreams, but to him it doesn’t matter because it was just another part of his life that fell into place. That’s why he titled his book Lucky Me.

Stan grew up near Queen’s Park where he and his friends built forts no one could find. Baseball was his game, but also basketball and lacrosse. When he was in Grade 11, his Lester Pearson team won the provincial high school hoops championship, but he wasn’t a star on the squad.

Inspired by legendary New West football/basketball coaching icon Bill Kushnir, Stan became a teacher so he could coach.

“Coaching was more important than the basketball,” says Stan during a chat in the basement of his Massey Heights home that is bursting at the seams with memorabilia.

After a year in Rossland, Stan and his wife, who was also a physical education teacher, were recruited by North Delta in 1964.

He coached the Huskies to the 1971 B.C. championship and they came third the year after. In 1973, Simon Fraser men’s basketball coach John Kootnekoff asked Stan to assist him. Stan jumped on the opportunity because he’d already achieved his goal of winning a provincial title. A year later, Kootnekoff left and Stan took over the 3-21 team.

“It was huge challenge, a bigger challenge than I ever expected,” Stan says.

To turn things around, Stan hit the road to recruit. He went to Ontario to first of all pick up Tom Skerlak, and then a real jewel, Jay Triano, now head coach of the Toronto Raptors.

“I went after him hard. He had a number of offers to go to the States,” recalls Stan.

Stan took the prodigy out for pizza in Niagara Falls where Triano said to Stan “I’m coming to Simon Fraser.”

“Shivers went up and down my spine,” says Stan. “I knew how good he was. He was the best player in Canada. He was my type of player.”

Stan is always in front of the television when the Raptors play. “I live and die every game they play.”

During two stints with the Clan, Stan had a 149-131 record, coaching 11 national team players and 16 that went on to play professional basketball. Both times he left because the job was too time consuming. Both times he didn’t go back to teaching, but to renovating and selling homes.

Stan is so revered by his players, 70 of them showed up for a surprise 70th birthday party for him a few months ago.

These days he’ll often go out to watch one of his ex-players, Stu Graham, coach the Elgin Park Orcas senior girls team, ranked second in the province.

“I love going to see Stu’s girls team play. It’s a thrill.”

Lucky him.

A true ambassador for the sport and an inspiration to all, Agatha Van Der Starre held four International masters speed skating world records for women 75 and older, including the 500-, 1,000- and 1,500-metre distances.

Van Der Starre took over as president of the tiny Burnaby Speed Skating Club in 1981 holding the position for 11 years. She helped grow the club from just five members, putting in countless hours at the community and provincial levels, to a thriving club with champion skaters young and old. She was part of the club for more than 30 years.

One of Van Der Starre legacies was her daughter Ariana who skated with the club before becoming its coach and also on the provincial and national level. Ariana is also an honoured member of the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame (2025).

Van Der Starre’s efforts with the club earned her the Investors Group Community Sport Achievement Award for outstanding involvement in community sport in 1993.

The native of Schipluiden, Netherlands passed away in March 2021 at the age of 90.

Jean Peters co-founded the Caprice Artistic Swimming Club in 1972 with just seven swimmers and learned on the job, being solely responsible for all coaching, financial management and administrative duties. She was the club’s president and coach for more than 25 years.

When numbers grew for Burnaby’s only synchronized swimming club, Peters hired coaches and organized volunteers, while earning her level one coaching certificate.

Peters received a Burnaby Chamber of Commerce award for dedication to sport in 1987. Two years later, Caprice sent a masters team to compete internationally in Denmark. By 1990, she had a Caprice team competing in Calgary.

The club honoured her by creating the Jean Peters Memorial Award for persistent work ethic, dedication and attitude.

Photo: Mario Bartel

Dante Maglio refereed more than 20 international soccer matches, including World Cup elimination matches. After receiving official FIFA referee status in 1971, Maglio spent 10 years officiating for the professional international association, including refereeing such teams as Juventus, Roma, Manchester United, Liverpool and Glasgow Rangers.

Maglio also refereed for 10 years in the North American Soccer League, including the Soccer Bowl final in Toronto in 1983. He was the official ref at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, the 1975 Pan American Games and International Challenge Cup in New York in 1978. In total, he refereed 21 international matches.

Maglio, who resided in near Robert Burnaby Park, was awarded the best referee in Canada award in 1975. He officiated the opening game at BC Place between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Seattle Sounders. He was also made a life member by the BC Soccer and Vancouver referees associations.

THE FOLLOWING IS A STORY THAT APPEARED IN THE BURNABY NEWSLEADER PRIOR TO MAGLIO’S INDUCTION

By Grant Granger

NewsLeader

It was the early 1960s and a young Dante Maglio was watching a soccer game. He’d played the sport growing up in Bari, a town on the east coast of southern Italy before coming to Canada to spread his wings.

Maglio wasn’t too impressed with the referee. Like many, he complained about it. He ranted to a B.C. Soccer Association official, who said to Maglio, “Why don’t you become a referee.”

“You know something, I’m going to do that,” he replied.

A week later he was refereeing in the Mainland league. They liked him and he liked the job. From there the resident of the Robert Burnaby Park area never looked back. He was one of those rare know-it-all fans who said “I can do better than what they’re doing” and then proved it. “Nobody’s going to stop me,” he said. “I’m going to go to the top.” And he did.

Maglio eventually became a FIFA official as well as a North American Soccer League referee. He officiated many of the game’s legendary players and teams. It’s a career that has earned him a spot in the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame. He will be inducted along with eight other individuals and one team Feb. 15 at the Metrotown Burnaby Firefighters’ Hall.

He refereed at the junior CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) championship in Toronto in 1971, the 1975 Pan-American Games in Mexico, the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and the International Challenge Cup in New York in 1978.

Maglio was the man with the whistle for 21 international matches. Some of them were quite the adventure. One time in Costa Rica, the wrong anthem was played first, touching off an international incident of sorts. “This is not right,” the offended team yelled at Maglio. “Hey, I’ve got nothing to do with it,” he replied. “Let’s concentrate on the game.” That, however, didn’t stop the fans from going wild.

He’s done games in Mexico where there were more than 130,000 people in the stands. But the most memorable matches in that country came in Toluca. Any time Mexico would be the host for an important international game it would be an afternoon affair there.

It was not only stifling hot at that time of day, but Toluca is nearly 9,000 feet above sea level leaving opponents gasping for air. The 30,000 screaming fans are right on top of the field. Their whistling drove Maglio nuts. His linesman was scared he was going to be attacked, but Maglio said, “Don’t worry about it, keep your eyes on the field. They’ve got cops all over the field. They shoot first and then they ask questions.”

The Mexican players were afraid of Maglio because he was tough. They said, “This guy is mean. Off the field he’s a super guy, but on the field he is mean.”

But Maglio had to be tough otherwise they’d walk all over him. He tell them, “This is the game I’m going to referee and if you don’t like it, too bad.”

The one big disappointment of his international career was never making it to a World Cup. Prior to the 1982 Cup in Spain, the FIFA official in charge of picking referees and linesmen told him, “Get your bags ready because you’re going to the World Cup.” But just before the last cuts were made the official had a heart attack and his replacement made him one of the final five eliminated. 

“I was hurt, no two ways about it because I thought I was good enough to go there,” said Maglio.

He speculates he wasn’t chosen because Italy—which won the 1982 World Cup—already had an official going, and an Italian from New York was also making the trip.

Maglio, however, did get to do a lot of big games involving renowned teams like Manchester United, Milan, Napoli, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Glasgow Celtic, Glasgow Rangers and his favourite team growing up Juventus.

He did a match in New York between Manchester City and Roma with more than 70,000 in the stands. In the tunnel before the kickoff the teams started yelling at each other. “Hey,” he shouted at them, “we haven’t even gone on the field yet.”

The NASL imported many of soccer’s superstars like Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, George Best and Johan Cruyff. Maglio first did a game involving Pele, considered by many to be the best to ever play the sport, when the Brazilian national team played in Mexico.

“You referee the game, but at the same time you watch his style, the way he moves and the way he conducts himself,” said Maglio. “Everything is good, the control the dribbling.

“When he went for a high kick, he extended himself so high, it was just incredible.”

After international friendlies both teams and game officials have a party. He got to know Pele that night and then met up with him a few times when Pele joined the New York Cosmos. Officials aren’t allowed to have their picture taken with active players, but after Pele retired he was at a game Maglio did in Denver and he said, “Dante, I have to have a picture with you.” The photo hangs proudly in Maglio’s basement entertainment room.

One memorable NASL game for Maglio was between the Cosmos—with German super sweeper Franz Beckenbauer and striker Giorgio Chinaglia—taking on the Los Angeles Aztecs and Dutch legend Johan Cruyff.

“It was unbelievable to watch those two teams play,” said Maglio.

The NASL provided some unusual moments, like the time in San Jose when the Earthquake wanted him to take the game ball from a tiger. “You guys are nuts,” he said. “Get the tiger out of here.” But it also gave him some special moments. He refereed Soccer Bowl in Toronto in 1981, in which the Chicago Sting defeated the Cosmos 1-0 in a shootout.

The biggest honour the league’s head office in New York gave him, though, was doing the first sporting event at BC Place in 1983, a game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Seattle Sounders. Maglio was ecstatic about being able to officiate before family and friends.

Refs aren’t supposed to do games in their hometown, but the Sounders said OK, which shocked Maglio because Sounders coach Alan Hinton usually had issues with Maglio. Hinton would tell Maglio, “I have to go watch the game up in the press box otherwise I’ll get a yellow card.”

In between assignments, Maglio worked as a machinist at Domtar. Canada Customs people at the airport knew him by sight and were always asking him about his travels. Even his granddaughter Dakota says “Grandpa, everybody knows you.”

Instead of returning to Italy, Maglio stayed here because he had a good job and fell in love with Irene, who put up with him being away so much.

“My wife was just wonderful for me, she backed me up all the way,” said Maglio. “Without her no way would I have got anywhere without her.”

Their only child Derek played basketball at St. Thomas More and is now in the construction business.

Maglio will have plenty of stories to tell family, friends and many more in February at the induction dinner.

Ron Crosato holds the Western Lacrosse Association record for most games refereed with 581, including 146 playoff games and 27 Mann Cup appearances.

Crosato has refereed 11 senior A Mann Cup finals and eight Minto Cup junior A national championships. He officiated the world box lacrosse championship game and was selected to referee the game as a demonstration sport in 1978 at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton.

Crosato was a referee for six seasons with the pro National Lacrosse League. He also refereed exhibition games with Team Canada during a 1982 field lacrosse tour. He was named senior box referee of the year five times in his 31-year WLA career.

Photo: Mario Bartel

Crosato was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame as a builder in 2013.

In high school football, Crosato also helped coach the St. Thomas More Knights to 10 Quadra Cup championships in 11 seasons, including nine in a row up until 2006. He is also an honoured member of the school’s sports hall of fame (2007).

THE FOLLOWING IS A STORY THAT APPEARED IN THE BURNABY NEWSLEADER PRIOR TO CROSATO’S INDUCTION:

Grant Granger

Burnaby NewsLeader

Blame Sal.

The Western Lacrosse Association lost one of its best officials. They could blame Sal. St. Thomas More was deprived of a valuable football coach who had been with the Knights for 18 years, helping the Grade 8 team win 10 provincial titles in 11 years, including nine consecutive. Blame Sal.

Sal is Salvatore Rocco Piccolo, and he’s the 2 1/2 year old grandson of Ron Crosato. Spending time with Sal is why Ron, 60, decided two years ago to put his whistle in his pocket for good and pass his playbook on to someone else.

Ron grew up in Vancouver playing junior football with the Vancouver Blue Bombers, eventually helping to coach their juvenile team including Darrell Hall. By 1991, Ron and his wife Chris had been in their home next to Robert Burnaby Park for 16 years and his son was about to go into Grade 8 when he ran into Hall, who is now STM’s principal but was a teacher at the time.

“Your son is coming to Thomas More,” Hall said to Ron, who replied, “No, I don’t think so. He’s going to Cariboo Hill.” 

“No, you’re going to help me coach just like the old days and Brent is coming to Thomas More.”

Ron told Hall, “I’ll come and coach with you, but when you leave, I’ll leave.” And that’s what happened following the 2006 season.

Hall was the brains, Ron provided the technical expertise to the greener than grass gridiron babies. 

“The kids are so wide-eyed,” says Ron of the first day of practice in August.

Putting on equipment was an adventure.

“Hey coach, what’s this?” “Swing that around, that’s a tail pad” was Ron’s reply.

“You go through all that in August, and by November they’re a championship team,” says Ron. “It is such a rush to bring them along that far.”

Ron didn’t play lacrosse growing up, but in 1974 someone asked him to run the pass gate at the Minto Cup. Too many people were getting in for free. One of those without a pass was Wally Donaldson.

“But I’m the commissioner,” said Donaldson.

“Well, then you must have a pass,” said Ron.

“It’s out in the car.”

“Well then, you’re going to have to go back and get it or else I won’t let you in.”

“Way to go! Way to go! I love it!”

And another friendship was born. Two years later Ron was officiating in the WLA. He went on to referee in 11 Mann Cups and eight Minto Cups as well as six seasons in the professional National Lacrosse League.

Crosato had the respect of the players, partially because of what one of the game’s best snipers, Kevin Alexander of the Victoria Shamrocks told him. “Ron,” Alexander said, “If you make mistake say so. We’re not going to kill you.”

He took a lot of guff on the floor, both from players and spectators.

“There’s been some nights I’ve wished my wife wasn’t in the stands,” says Ron. “You know they’re there, but you try not to pay attention.”

His affable attitude stood him in good stead on the lacrosse floor, as well as doing his job in TransLink’s purchasing department where he wheels and deals trying to get the best price.

He plans to retire in a couple of years. TransLink can blame Sal for that, too.

Glen Johnson, a graduate of Burnaby North Secondary and the Norburn Club program, was the first Canadian-born player to ever play in the English soccer league’s first division.

Considered one of the finest strikers ever developed in Canada, Johnson played with West Bromwich Albion from 1969 to 1971, making his English league debut Aug. 22, 1970 against Blackpool as an 18-year-old. But, an injury cut short his football career in Europe.

Johnson was the first player to sign with the Vancouver Whitecaps when they entered the North American Soccer League. He played three seasons with the ’Caps and scored 14 goals. 

Johnson went on to play for Canada nine times, captaining the national team in his debut in 1972. He was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2007.

Hugh Fisher began serious kayak training on Burnaby Lake, near his home, in 1974.

Fisher parlayed that into an Olympic gold medal with partner Alwyn Morris at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in a world record time of 3:24.22 in the K-2 1,000 metres. The pair also teamed up to win the bronze medal in the 500-m kayak final. Earlier,

Fisher and Morris won a silver medal in the 1,000 metres at the 1982 world championships and a bronze at the worlds in the 500 metres in 1983.

He was a Canadian champion 22 times and also a four-time world outrigger canoe racing champion.

Fisher remained active in racing and coaching. He won 10 gold medals and four silvers at the 2005 World Masters Games. He was fourth in solo kayak at the 2007 world masters championships. In 1985. he was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.

Fisher became a medical doctor based in Pemberton and Whistler.

Neil Ellett made 22 appearances for Canada’s national soccer team at the Pan American and Olympic Games and the World Cup. Although known as “a steady defender,” Ellett is also known for scoring the game-winning goal against Mexico in an Olympic qualifying game at the old Empire Stadium on the PNE grounds in 1971.

A graduate of Burnaby North Secondary, Ellett played for the Vancouver Whitecaps in 1974 and 1975 and scored that team’s first-ever goal in his debut.

He was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2009. Following his playing days, Ellett became a top-flight referee.

Alex Devlin was an All-American and NAIA all-star during his basketball playing days at Simon Fraser University. He went on to play on the Canadian national team for four years.

Devlin was a member of Canada’s fourth-place finishing team at the 1976 Olympics Games. A graduate of Burnaby Central Secondary, Devlin also coached at SFU from 1976 to 1978. He helped Canada to fourth place at the World Student Games in 1973 and eighth at the world championships a year later.

Devlin also received an invitation to the NBA Portland Trailblazers rookie camp in 1973. Devlin became an active and successful high school basketball coach in Port Moody. In 2007, he was inducted into the B.C. and Canada basketball halls of fame.