In the pre-WWII years, Oyama boys were numerous enough to field a hockey team that played against Vernon and perhaps other teams. They practised and played on a community hockey rink on the flat land formerly occupied by the Sterling and Pitcairn Packing House (just north of the canal bridge on...
Oyama High School, under the leadership of coach Clause Bissell, had a great record on the soccer pitch. Their greatest rival was the Mackie Prep School in the Coldstream and in 1943 the Oyama team was victorious, winning the prestigious Silver Pheasants trophy for North Okanagan junior boys...
Soccer was a popular sport in the Central Okanagan while Claude Bissell was teacher and coach, first at Oyama High School and later in Rutland. This photograph of the Okanagan Zone Soccer Champions shows the Rutland team about to leave by bus for Penticton where they caught the overnight train to...