Tennis 1971-75, Volleyball 1971-75, 76-77 Five Time OWIAA Volleyball Champions 1972-75 CIAU Volleyball Champions 1972-73, 1975-76, 1976-77 CIAU Volleyball Runner-Up 1972-73,1973-74, 1976-77 National Team Member 1973-75 World University Games (FISU) Volleyball Player 1973 Purple Blanket Award 1974-75 FWP Jones Award – Western’s Athlete of the Year 1974-75 |
On the most important lessons learn as an athlete
lot about dealing with um, with a lot of life issues. And one of the things is failure.
You know, we’re, and disappointment. I remember we went to the Churchill Bowl
and the team, we lost in the last play of the game, and the wife of the president was
saying to one of the guys, “It’s just a game. Don’t worry.” She had good intentions,
she just wanted to kind of put her arms around him, it’s just a game, don’t. And
afterwards I said don’t, you know, I said, “It’s better really not to say anything.” It’s a
little bit like when you’re at a funeral you know. If you don’t feel that there’s a right
thing to say it’s best maybe not to say anything. And I said this experience is not just
a game. I said in many ways you know, it’s defining who they are and it’s, they’ve
committed every day. Hours and hours in preparation for that event. I said that it would be like, you know, you’ve built this proposal that is going to set your career, you know, and uh, you lost. You lost the bid. Or you’ve been working in a career and you got fired. I mean, those are the kinds of emotions that, and I find that um, I was surprised as we dealt with a lot of things in life that, um, were tough, whether it was a death or a loss of, of, of a friend or a loss however, whatever you know, that’s life. I found that people who had a sporting experience had something to fall back on in some ways, because you know, dealing with loss is something that we learn through sport. Yeah, and, and learning to deal with it with dignity, learning to deal with it, um, with, with respect and integrity. is something that, um, what else in a young persons life really teaches them
about that.”