Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

1964 Innovations Mike Van der Toorn and The Sports Council
A young Mike Van der Toorn appeared on staff that year. He was to become an
institution at the school. After one year, he left for Lunenburg, his hometown, then
returned to become a long-term leader. In 1964 The Sports Council [sometimes
called The Student Leader Corps] was established to boost sports activities at school,
particularly to raise funds for team uniforms and transportation. It became a key
institution for many years, critical to the huge expansion of activities that was to come
in the late ‘60s and throughout the 1970s. Mr. Van der Toorn was its founder.
Cross-Country: A New Sport, 1963-4
That year, as well as teaching and being staff adviser to the Council, Mike
coached cross country [to a notable 5th place out of 17 schools at the Headmasters’,
as it was called then, Provincial Schools Championship in Dartmouth], boys soccer
[Mike was a keen player] and volleyball, senior girls basketball and boys and girls
junior basketball.
Soccer: Another New Sport
The School’s First Senior Boys Soccer Team
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In 1963-64 the school fielded both boys and girls senior soccer teams. The
girls had made a tentative start the year before. The problem was no proper field: most
games were played away because the school field was too uneven, rocky and bumpy.
By the end of the decade games were being played on the outfield at the ballpark.