CSL tennis vets champs once again
It was a long time coming, but local club wins its first Veterans title since 1981.
The last time the Côte St. Luc Tennis Club captured the Veteran’s League championship, Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister, the New York Islanders were Stanley Cup Champions, and MTV was just getting its feet wet on television.
The last time the CSL veterans were champions, Endless Love was the biggest hit on the radio and Björn Borg was the best tennis player on the planet.
The last time the CSL vets were champs, well, you get the point.
In fact, the last time the club won the Veterans League title, it was 1981. Scratch that —now it’s 2006.
“I’ve been a captain of this team for the last 10 years and I’ve been a member of this club for about 35 years, said team co-captain and former club president Norm Yudin.
“It’s amazing that we won because we really never expected this. We must have been 10-1 underdogs because the team we beat, Monkland, just killed us during the regular season.
“Our top guys, like Jack Rosenfield, really just came through in the playoffs. He, for example, had lost two sets to a Monkland player in the season, but reversed that and won 2-0 when it really counted. We had a few performances like that.
Côte St. Luc came out of the nine-week, 10-team regular season in third place with NDG’s Monkland Club taking first, Westmount’s Mount Royal taking second and the West Island Valois Club rounding out the top-four.
CSL took out Mount Royal in the first round, meeting arch-rival and perennial champion Monkland in the final.
“I’ve been with this club since 1998, and it’s a thrill to win in Côte St. Luc,‿ said the team’s other co-captain Michael Sheiner, a former champ as part of that same Monkland club.
“It’s been 25 years since this club has won and this is fantastic. Outside of myself and two other guys, no one from here has even been on a veterans’ championship team before this.
The key to CSL’s success this season, it would seem, is not only in the players’ skill, but also in the group’s camaraderie and enjoyment of each other.
“We meet up here and have a lot of fun. There’s always a game going on, there’s always someone to hang out with and we all just have a great time. Yudin said.
“This club is really a gem and we’re ecstatic to have won this championship for it.
The 2006 Côte St. Luc Tennis Club Veteran’s League champions are Norm Yudin, Michael Sheiner, Sydney Azancot, Jeff Nashen, Jerry Brittan, Jack Rosenfield, Mikhail Kovarsky, Kenny Diamond, Jacob Sheps, Brian Wexler, Eric Steinberg and Gabriel Malka. The club is managed by Maher Diab.
Chronicle, Charles Montgomery They are the champions once again ... the 2006 Côte St. Luc Tennis Club Veteran’s League champions at their celebratory barbecue on Saturday