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Times & Transcript Staff

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OTTAWA - Wendy Dealy of Miramichi and Kris Gillis of Salisbury are headed to the Softball Canada Hall of fame.

The national body made the announcement this week that Dealy, Gillis, Jody Hennigar of Halifax, Ivan Mader of Halifax and Walter (Butch) Ryan, an umpire from Fredericton, will be inducted into the Softball Canada Hall of Fame in recognition for their contribution and excellence in the sport of softball across the country.

Dealy had a 19-year softball career in New Brunswick, and represented her home province in 14 Canadian championships (2 junior, 12 senior), often leading the charge for her team in the pitcher's circle. She is already recognized as Softball New Brunswick Inc.'s premiere female softball pitcher, and was inducted to the Softball New Brunswick Inc.'s Hall of Fame in 1994, the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Miramichi Wall of Fame in 2007.

Gillis was a significant contributor of the Gold-medal winning Canadian National Team at the 1993 ISF Junior Men's World Championships, which happens to be the last time Canada won the gold medal at the tournament. Gillis was named Most Valuable Player of Canada's semi-final win over Japan, hitting two home runs and driving in all three runs in a 3-2 win to lead Canada to the final. He also crossed the plate for the winning run in the eighth inning of the Championship game, a 4-3 win against New Zealand.

The Salisbury native led Team Canada with five home runs in the event, and also ranked second with 14 runs batted in.

Mader began his involvement in softball back in 1967, when he volunteered as an umpire and coach in New Brunswick, moved on to Ontario and finally arrived in Nova Scotia in 1977, where he has lived and been involved ever since. Ivan also dedicated a lot of time to the administration side of officiating, serving as a regional umpire-in-chief, deputy umpire-in-chief and Provincial umpire-in-chief from 1991 to 2003.

He has been a registered umpire for over 30 years, and was inducted in the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.

Ryan was a pioneer in Softball Canada's officiating program.

He began umpiring in the 1950s and his involvement was tremendous all the way up to the year 2000.

He umpired in or supervised six Canadian Championships (1978, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1994), often working the plate in Championship games.

He was also a Softball Canada National Deputy Umpire in Chief for three years and a leading instructor and mentor for Softball New Brunswick for 30 years, conducting many clinics to help develop local umpires.

The five Atlantic Canadians will join the select group of Canadians who have had this honour bestowed upon them at the Induction ceremony which will be held Saturday, Nov. 8.

The ceremony will be held in conjunction with Softball Canada's annual meeting in Fredericton.