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Nanaimo Sports Hall of Fame adds four members in 2017

May 25, 2017 | 12:25 PM

NANAIMO — Four more inductees will enter the Nanaimo Sports Hall of Fame in June.
 
Richie Nicol, Aaron Guiel, Steve Smith, and the 2009 VI Raiders will go into the Hall on June 17.
 
Guiel and Smith will be inducted in the athlete section with Nicol going in as a builder and the VI Raiders in the team category. 
 
The Nanaimo Sports Hall of Fame was started in 2008 with a few years of annual inductions.
 
Now the hall has settled on a schedule of adding members every second year.
 
Nanaimo Museum general manager Debbie Trueman said she is pleased to see outstanding athletes from the community get this recognition.
 
“They represent local achievement in all levels of sport and many are strong contributors to community athletics in Nanaimo.”
 
Aaron Guiel played baseball as a child in Nanaimo at both Gyro Park and Serauxmen Stadium.
 
He went on to play for the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees in a career than spanned from 2002 to 2006.
 
Guiel had a career batting average of .246 with 35 home runs.
 
Steve Smith was one of the best mountain bikers in the world before he passed away last year at the age of 26.
 
He grew up in Cassidy and won multiple national downhill titles as well as the 2013 World Cup.
 
Not many people know the story of Richie Nicol, according to Deryck Cowling from the Hall of Fame committee.
 
Nicol’s dad was one of the mining inspectors in the early days of Nanaimo and Richie was a very good soccer, lacrosse and baseball player.
 
But Cowling said the sport Nicol really excelled in was basketball.  
 
“The Harlem Globetrotters at that time (the 1930’s) used to do regular tours through the island and he got picked up for a game when one of their stars got injured,” Cowling said.
 
The 2009 VI Raiders went 10-0, won a BC Championship and the Canadian Bowl.
 
They were led by current CFLer Andrew Harris at running back.
 
That 2009 national title was the third in four years for the Raiders, who moved from Victoria in 2005 and quickly became one of the flagship franchises in the Canadian Junior Football League.
 
The induction ceremony will take place at the Nanaimo Museum inside the Vancouver Island Conference Centre and is by invitation only.
 

dan.marshall@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @danmarshall77