The past couple of years have been very exciting for our local university football team, the Mount Allison Mounties. After a fairly successful run in the late 1990s, the new millennium has not been kind. We are a small school, with a small football budget, in a small town and a have-not province, and although academically we are one of the very best of the best in Canada, our football programme has often struggled. In 2013, it looked like it was going to be another one of those years. Our team started out with a record of 1-4. However, something happened to our team. Our players met together to discuss their season and their goals, and at the end of the regular season, our record was 4-4, and we had earned a playoff spot in our conference.
I’m not sure I can describe how exciting the end of last season was. Those of you who aren’t sports fans probably can’t even identify with getting excited about a game. But for me, the end of last season will stand out as a highlight.
Let me go back a bit. My dad was a huge sports fan, and we always watched Hockey Night in Canada as a family. He also watched CFL football on television. I was a hockey fan, or maybe even a hockey fanatic. I knew who every player in the NHL was, and could give you statistics and information about them all. I used to listen to hockey games on my radio when I was supposed to be in bed sleeping. I absolutely loved hockey.
Then I got married and moved to southern Ontario, where the only game in town was the Toronto Maple Leafs. After growing up with successful and talented western teams (like the Gretzky-era Oilers), I just could not watch the Leafs, and my hockey fanaticism waned (sorry, Leafs fans... it’s the sad truth). Also, I was married, working full-time and eventually had children, so other things captured my attention.
I watched some football when I was a kid, but after seeing a CFL game on television where a player sustained a critical injury and died, I decided that this was not the game for me. I didn’t watch another game until I was in high school, and then only because I had to. I was part of the school newspaper and yearbook committee, and one of my assignments was to cover football.
After I was married, I worked in the office of a sports physician who counted among his many responsibilities caring for a CFL team. I got to know a few of the players (the injured ones), and my husband and I started attending some of the games. I enjoyed the game, and grew to respect the players I saw in the clinic, who overcame injuries, some of them devastating, to play the game they loved.
When we moved to Sackville, we were too busy settling in and growing our family to attend the local university games. But after a couple of years, everything changed. The Mounties and the university had attracted the attention of a young running back from Quebec named Eric Lapointe. Eric won the national Rookie of the Year award, and during his next season, we decided it was time to check out the hype around this young man and his teammates. We went to a game, and then to a post-game reception for players and fans. My young son, who was 6 at the time, met some of the players, including Eric, and in his eyes, a hero was born.
It was not smooth sailing from here though. A couple of weeks later, a Mountie player tested positive for using steroids. The player was suspended, the coach was fired, and several of the players quit in protest of how the university handled the situation. My son wrote a letter of support to some of the players he had met. To make a long story short, just before the very next game, every one of the players returned to the team, the Mounties finished the season with a 4-4 record, and Eric broke the national record for rushing yards, despite being injured for one game. He went on to have a very successful college career and in the CFL. More importantly, he became an inspiration and a friend to my son and indeed, to our whole family, the first of many Mounties to do so. Over the next 17 years, Mountie football was a way of life for our family, and especially for me and my son. It became the special “thing” that we did together for 8 weeks every autumn. He did not miss a game over those 17 years, and I only missed 3 games. My son went from being the Mounties’ #1 fan, drawing posters and offering encouragement, to being a ball boy, then a water boy, and then their equipment manager for about 7 years. His involvement with the Mounties led directly to his present job as an equipment manager for the CFL’s RedBlacks.
Fast forward to the end of last season, November 2013. Our team travelled to Halifax to play our nemesis Saint Mary’s Huskies in the conference championship game. Until last season, our team had not won a game in Halifax since the late 90s. The stands were filled with Mountie fans, who significantly outnumbered and out-cheered the Huskies fans. The atmosphere was electric, and our boys were bursting with confidence. We won that championship game on a last minute field goal, and the crowd erupted. That moment, the excitement, the joy, feeling of achievement, is a moment I won’t forget soon.
After the terrible and shocking shooting in Ottawa in October, James Duthie, a sportscaster for TSN, wrote an online article reflecting on the city where he grew up. http://www.tsn.ca/talent/duthie-a-great-city-with-great-people-will-persevere-1.113629 What particularly caught my eye was one of the comments underneath his article. Jamey Boudreau wrote: "It's nice that in spite of something so terrible we can sit back & take stock of our lives & appreciate things we might sometimes take for granted. That real life requires the same sort of perseverance as sports, yet a loss in sports could never equate to a loss of life. That the thrill of victory & glory of being a champion, as great as that is, will always be secondary to the triumph of the human spirit. For that is the one thing that could never truly be defeated."
This is why I like football. It is not the sum total of life, but it represents some of what life is about. Perseverance. Working together toward a common goal. Confidence. Sometimes wonderful examples of sportsmanship. Unbreakable bonds of friendship and family. The poetry of watching naturally gifted athletes in motion. The thrill of victory, especially measured against the agony of previous defeats. Unanticipated challenges and unexpected success. And yes, as clichéd as it is, the triumph of the human spirit, winning against the odds.
So this weekend, I will be in Hamilton, cheering on our boys as they play to advance to the national championship. It will be heart-breaking if they lose, and it will be amazing if they win. Nothing is certain, and that’s why the games are played. We don’t have the biggest budget, the best facilities or the best field, but as our head coach says, it isn’t the facilities that win the game, it’s the team. I’m excited about the weekend, reconnecting with players from past years, and family members and friends. And I feel good about our chances. GO MOUNTIES!
Note: I originally wrote this post in 2014, but now, on November 14, 2015, it seems appropriate to update it, especially after the recent events in Paris. Today, as people around the world grieve and are shocked at the events in Paris yesterday, it seemed a bit frivolous to be excited about a football game. But I think it's an important reminder that life is short and unpredictable. Even in the midst of tragedy and horror, there are values, people and experiences we can choose to find joy in. So I am able to wholeheartedly shout "Go Mounties", at the same time as my heart weeps for all the tragedies around the world. Unfortunately, my Mounties lost in the championship game, but that in no way changes the pride I feel for this team, and the lessons we can learn from football.
