No Short-Age Of Local Sports Legacy:

This was in yesterdays Morning Star Newspaper:

No Short-age of local sports legacy

By Graeme Corbett - Vernon Morning Star

Published: December 30, 2010

Robbie Short didn’t realize he had won the Thompson Okanagan Junior Lacrosse League’s Most Valuable Player Award until The Morning Star contacted him for an interview days before the Christmas holidays.

The Lavington product, who was named for the award in late November, has slipped off the North Okanagan sports radar the last few months as he tries to launch his pro hockey career with the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

The Flyers were tied with the Huntsville Havoc for first in the league heading into the holiday break. Short, a 21-year-old right winger, has two goals for eight points in 16 games.

This is Short’s second league MVP honour (he won it the first time in 2008), and considering he missed the first four of a 14-game season, it makes the award all the more impressive. He was busy helping the Vernon Vipers claim their second-straight Royal Bank Cup national Junior A hockey title in Dauphin, Man.

In just nine games with the Tigers, the athletic 6-foot, 210-pounder racked up a dozen goals and 17 assists for 29 points.

“It’s a pretty big honour, and aside from winning a (TOJLL) championship I would say it is the best way to end my career in that league,” said Short, who captained the Tigers to provincial silver two years ago in Esquimalt.

If Short isn’t the most decorated multi-sport athlete to come out of the North Okanagan, he is certainly close to the top. In addition to the RBC titles, MVP awards and provincial lacrosse silver, he also holds the honour of playing the most games in a Viper uniform and is the first member of that organization to have his jersey (No. 20) retired to the rafters at Wesbild Centre.

Tigers’ general manager Rich Zecchel has been high on Short’s play since he joined the club from North Okanagan minor lacrosse.

“He has been our franchise player since he’s been here. He’s a do-it-all kind of player. He was gifted with tremendous ability, strength and stamina, all wrapped into one.”

Regarding Short’s captaincy, Zecchel said he was a quiet leader who preferred to lead by example.

“Players looked up to him because of his stature. He treated everyone with respect, and in turn everyone paid respect to him.”

Short had equally high praise for Zecchel and head coach Bryan Klein, who provided a creative environment in which the Tigers’ offence could flourish.

“Rich and Bryan made the big differences with the team. They both sacrificed a lot of time, and were always understanding and willing to work with us, and (listen to) any ideas we had with regards to offensive plays and systems.

“(It) made it a lot of fun for us because we had a creative say in a lot of things, especially our powerplay,” he said.

Short started the 2010-11 season with the Allen Americans of the Central Hockey League (CHL), but was released early on. A fellow Americans’ teammate who was also let go, Mark Hinz, now captain of the Ice Flyers, talked him into coming to Pensacola.

The Ice Flyers didn’t get time off for Christmas so Short won’t be coming home until after the season ends. Not that he really minds. It just means he will continue to enjoy the country-club lifestyle down on Florida’s north coast.

“That’s OK with me. I live right on the whitest beach in the Gulf of Mexico,” grinned Short, who has been sightseeing all over Alabama and northern Florida, and visited New Orleans before Christmas.

“I have a house with two other guys right on the beach, and the rest of the team lives no more than five minutes away. We practise at 10 a.m. so we have the rest of the day to go to the beach or go golfing.”

Former Viper captain Kevin Kraus joined him for a short stint in Pensacola, but recently decided to step away from hockey to enroll in a heavy machinery operations course with scholarship money he earned during his Western Hockey League days.