The BIll Whitbread Memorial Tournament starts this weekend, April 4-6, 2025 at Caledon East Arena. The tournament committee is excited to welcome 30+ teams and their families to beautify Caledon for our annual tournament. Please see the tournament website for all details.
https://caledonminorhockey.ca/Tournaments/2749/Bill_Whitbread_Tournament/
ABOUT BILL WHITBREAD
Bill
Whitbread was born and raised in Bolton where he worked for the local
newspaper, Caledon Enterprise for over 60 years. Bill was the editor of
the newspaper and a well-respected journalist until he retired.
His passion for writing continued after retirement as Bill stayed on part time
with the newspaper to write his weekly Sports and Days of Yore columns.
Bill Whitbread
loved watching all sports, whether it be professional sports on television or a
local Bolton team competing at the community parks and arenas. Whitbread
was one of the organizers of Bolton Minor Hockey in 1959 and was the first
President. He started a house league for boys aged 6-12 years and had four
teams during the first year. He also coached and refereed during that
time. He later served as Treasurer and Registrar on the Executive.
Whitbread was the recipient of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA)
George H Carver Media award for in-depth reporting over the years.
Bill
and his wife Amelia had three children who were involved in sports. Bill
remained involved in youth sports coaching his children's rep softball teams
for several years. Bill's passion was writing sports and he had a way with
words like no other. He would carefully digest the results of a game sheet and
then articulate that same game sheet into a story. When reading the article,
you would have thought he was at the game. He had nicknames for all the
kids around town and enjoyed giving those kids their time to shine with a
headline or two in the newspaper. Bill also known by many as Scoop received
several awards over the years for journalism, particularly for his efforts
covering community sports at schools and organizations.
Sadly,
Bill passed away on April 13, 2014, doing what he loved, writing his column in
the office. His legacy lives on in his family.
Thank you for supporting our tournament and Caledon Minor Hockey!!