EvanL
01-04-2004, 06:52 PM
Watch for this kid and another kid named sydney crosby in the next few years. They will be pretty big players in the future.
http://www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/040104_stewart_norman_250.jpg
Norman Stewart, right, taught son Anthony to emulate Habs greats like Guy Lafleur and Bob Gainey and hopes he gets a gold medal for his 19th birthday tomorrow.
In Scarborough, all eyes on Stewart
Forward's family riveted by tourney
Hope performance brings an NHL deal
KERRY GILLESPIE
STAFF REPORTER
Hockey is a team game, but at one crowded townhouse in Scarborough yesterday, you wouldn't have known it.
For the Stewart clan, mesmerized by images of the world junior championships being played a world away in Helsinki, there was only one player on the ice, the family's hope and pride, 18-year-old Team Canada forward Anthony.
"We're just a boring family who is so proud of their son," says mother Sue, before being caught by a TV announcer's call — "Oh my gosh, they just said his name!"
Every time Stewart's name was mentioned during Canada's 7-1 win over the Czech Republic in yesterday's semifinal, the Morningside and Sheppard Aves. townhouse, filled with parents, six siblings and family friends, shook with claps and cheers, punctuated by an eclectic mix of hockey lingo and Jamaican expressions like, "Yah, mon."
Anthony's father, Norman Stewart, predicts a 10-0 win over the U.S. in the championship game at noon tomorrow — which happens to be Anthony's birthday.
Like the rest of the Stewarts, Norman is crazy for his son, whose bruising play has made him Canada's Number Two scorer in the tournament, with eight points. The adoration goes both ways.
During the second period, the announcer recounted an interview with Stewart in which he was asked who he admired most. Stewart said his mother.
But that went unheard by 49-year-old Sue Stewart. She stayed in the kitchen, too nervous to watch.
"Did you hear that?" friend Janice Flowers shouts from the living room. "They asked who he admired the most and he said his mother."
"He said moi?" says Sue, a smile spreading over her face.
"I have a feeling I'm bad luck so I don't watch. When he scores I watch the replay."
Norman Stewart, on the other hand, follows the action intently, perched on the arm of a couch, chin resting on his right hand. The 51-one-year-old's eye for the game was refined when he lived in Montreal, watching the great Canadiens teams of the 1970s.
"He doesn't have to score to have a good game in my eyes. It's the little things. On (forward Nigel) Dawes' goal, he separated the man from the puck and got back on side. To me that was the play of the game."
Stewart moved to Montreal about 15 years before Anthony, the eldest of the Stewarts' seven children, was born. By the time his son arrived, Norman had the hockey bug and when Anthony was three, the two started skating twice a day every Saturday.
"When I introduced my son to the game I wanted speed, knowledge and tenacity," he says.
Has he come through?
"Yeah. He has the speed of Guy Lafleur, the knowledge of Jacques Lemaire and the tenacity of Bob Gainey."
Together, those three Montreal Canadiens legends have 19 NHL titles under their belts and Norman Stewart has Stanley Cup hopes for his son.
Anthony's off to a good start.
The 6-foot-1, 230-pound teen was drafted by the Florida Panthers this past summer and he's currently a top player for the OHL's Kingston Frontenacs.
His family will be picking him up from the airport on Tuesday — hopefully with a gold medal in his pocket — and his dad already knows what he'll say.
"`Congrats man, job well done.'"
Love of the game in this family — or love of the brother in the case of 10-year-old Julie, "I don't like hockey but I like watching my brother play" — is also about hope for a more financially secure future.
Norman Stewart builds pools for a living. In the small Stewart home, several children sleep on couches.
"When he makes it he'll get us a big house, finally the girls can get their own rooms," Sue Stewart says.
As for her husband's pool building, she has just one thing to say, "He's going to be building mine soon, indoor and outdoor."
For now, their townhouse is an overflowing shrine to their son. Four hockey jerseys hang over the patio window.
There are pictures on the fridge and above the TV taken at the NHL draft in Nashville this summer.
"We went down; it was the most exciting day of my life, we flew there," Sue Stewart says.
Stewart and his agent couldn't come to a financial agreement with Florida — they felt the Panthers' offer of $1 million over three years wasn't good enough — so he chose to keep playing in the OHL for now. It wasn't an easy decision.
"When he got drafted by Florida he said, `Mom, you won't have to worry about any more Christmases,'" Sue Stewart says.
She hopes Anthony's strong showing in the world juniors will help Florida come to its senses about her son's worth.
"Every day, he's been in the paper this week," she says, pulling a saved pile out from under a table. "It's going to be nice for a scrapbook."
Anthony Stewart, who has been in newspapers since he was a 9-year-old, hasn't let the fame go to his head, his family says. He still has the same girlfriend he's had since grade 6 and he told his mom that before he leaves Helsinki, he wants to make sure to get an autography from his 16-year-old teammate, Sidney Crosby.
http://www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/040104_stewart_norman_250.jpg
Norman Stewart, right, taught son Anthony to emulate Habs greats like Guy Lafleur and Bob Gainey and hopes he gets a gold medal for his 19th birthday tomorrow.
In Scarborough, all eyes on Stewart
Forward's family riveted by tourney
Hope performance brings an NHL deal
KERRY GILLESPIE
STAFF REPORTER
Hockey is a team game, but at one crowded townhouse in Scarborough yesterday, you wouldn't have known it.
For the Stewart clan, mesmerized by images of the world junior championships being played a world away in Helsinki, there was only one player on the ice, the family's hope and pride, 18-year-old Team Canada forward Anthony.
"We're just a boring family who is so proud of their son," says mother Sue, before being caught by a TV announcer's call — "Oh my gosh, they just said his name!"
Every time Stewart's name was mentioned during Canada's 7-1 win over the Czech Republic in yesterday's semifinal, the Morningside and Sheppard Aves. townhouse, filled with parents, six siblings and family friends, shook with claps and cheers, punctuated by an eclectic mix of hockey lingo and Jamaican expressions like, "Yah, mon."
Anthony's father, Norman Stewart, predicts a 10-0 win over the U.S. in the championship game at noon tomorrow — which happens to be Anthony's birthday.
Like the rest of the Stewarts, Norman is crazy for his son, whose bruising play has made him Canada's Number Two scorer in the tournament, with eight points. The adoration goes both ways.
During the second period, the announcer recounted an interview with Stewart in which he was asked who he admired most. Stewart said his mother.
But that went unheard by 49-year-old Sue Stewart. She stayed in the kitchen, too nervous to watch.
"Did you hear that?" friend Janice Flowers shouts from the living room. "They asked who he admired the most and he said his mother."
"He said moi?" says Sue, a smile spreading over her face.
"I have a feeling I'm bad luck so I don't watch. When he scores I watch the replay."
Norman Stewart, on the other hand, follows the action intently, perched on the arm of a couch, chin resting on his right hand. The 51-one-year-old's eye for the game was refined when he lived in Montreal, watching the great Canadiens teams of the 1970s.
"He doesn't have to score to have a good game in my eyes. It's the little things. On (forward Nigel) Dawes' goal, he separated the man from the puck and got back on side. To me that was the play of the game."
Stewart moved to Montreal about 15 years before Anthony, the eldest of the Stewarts' seven children, was born. By the time his son arrived, Norman had the hockey bug and when Anthony was three, the two started skating twice a day every Saturday.
"When I introduced my son to the game I wanted speed, knowledge and tenacity," he says.
Has he come through?
"Yeah. He has the speed of Guy Lafleur, the knowledge of Jacques Lemaire and the tenacity of Bob Gainey."
Together, those three Montreal Canadiens legends have 19 NHL titles under their belts and Norman Stewart has Stanley Cup hopes for his son.
Anthony's off to a good start.
The 6-foot-1, 230-pound teen was drafted by the Florida Panthers this past summer and he's currently a top player for the OHL's Kingston Frontenacs.
His family will be picking him up from the airport on Tuesday — hopefully with a gold medal in his pocket — and his dad already knows what he'll say.
"`Congrats man, job well done.'"
Love of the game in this family — or love of the brother in the case of 10-year-old Julie, "I don't like hockey but I like watching my brother play" — is also about hope for a more financially secure future.
Norman Stewart builds pools for a living. In the small Stewart home, several children sleep on couches.
"When he makes it he'll get us a big house, finally the girls can get their own rooms," Sue Stewart says.
As for her husband's pool building, she has just one thing to say, "He's going to be building mine soon, indoor and outdoor."
For now, their townhouse is an overflowing shrine to their son. Four hockey jerseys hang over the patio window.
There are pictures on the fridge and above the TV taken at the NHL draft in Nashville this summer.
"We went down; it was the most exciting day of my life, we flew there," Sue Stewart says.
Stewart and his agent couldn't come to a financial agreement with Florida — they felt the Panthers' offer of $1 million over three years wasn't good enough — so he chose to keep playing in the OHL for now. It wasn't an easy decision.
"When he got drafted by Florida he said, `Mom, you won't have to worry about any more Christmases,'" Sue Stewart says.
She hopes Anthony's strong showing in the world juniors will help Florida come to its senses about her son's worth.
"Every day, he's been in the paper this week," she says, pulling a saved pile out from under a table. "It's going to be nice for a scrapbook."
Anthony Stewart, who has been in newspapers since he was a 9-year-old, hasn't let the fame go to his head, his family says. He still has the same girlfriend he's had since grade 6 and he told his mom that before he leaves Helsinki, he wants to make sure to get an autography from his 16-year-old teammate, Sidney Crosby.