Memory Lane: My first year at Central

My strolls down Memory Lane have resulted in revisiting the stacks of photo albums and newspaper articles ... remember those ... that I have collected over the years. In one box, I found an old Central Beanie that I rescued from the garbage pile, just after I had started teaching there. The re-discovery pulled me back to the 1998-1999 school year.

1998-1999 was pretty abnormal, at least for me. That was when I decided to make the jump from the elementary panel to the secondary panel, joining the staff of Barrie Central, my alma mater. I was pretty charged about returning to my old stomping grounds but equally nervous about working along side some of the teachers who were still on staff that taught me ... weird feeling!

Unfortunately, the first semester included some political action, and I will admit that I was uneasy about whether or not I'd made a good decision. The silver lining ... there's always a silver lining ... was that I made some new friends, not the least of which was Ron Andrews, who would become one of my life's biggest influences.

The fall sport of choice was Jr Football, working along side BCC legends Tom Krawcyck and Timo Peltonen. I know that we worked really hard with the kids but we weren't very successful, exiting the playoffs pretty quickly. As I remember, it was pretty fun and I was like a kid in a candy store to be coaching older athletes. I also remember being in awe of Tom as he coached in late October wearing only a tight tee and shorts while the rest of us shivered our way through practice.

The basketball season in 1999 was super special because it was with a host of players that I had the honour of coaching in club basketball before arriving at Central, including a reunion with Joe Santoro from PVPS days when we won a Simcoe County Championship together. There were the ex-POW players Bryan Taylor, Derek Cool, and Taylor Armstrong, still chirping in my ear about that epic battle of PVPS vs POW in the area final that earned PVPS a trip to Counties. There was John Michael Irving who had won battles with me when he was at Codrington PS and I was at Maple Grove PS plus we shared some club basketball success. There was getting to know more about Ryan Edgar and how he earned the nickname of Junk Yard Dog. There were other former PVPS players like Rob Mallette, Justin Dyck, Matt Ferguson (the original Ferg), Steve Santoro (Joe's younger brother) and Ryan Griffiths that would play supporting roles. There were some new faces like JC Moore, Mark Huddleston, Ben Lee and Adam Moody. Most importantly, there was team manager, and number one fan, Johnny Cool who was Derek's younger brother, and owner of the greatest name on the planet.

It was all around epic and, as my "rookie" season, I was eager to prove myself! 

I can recall a solid regular season punctuated with a City of Barrie championship clash against St Joe’s and their tremendously gritty team, coached by Harold Regan. It turned out to be a long running rivalry between Regs and I that continued until I retired. 

The in-season successes were followed by a great GBSSA playoff run that eventually resulted in a somewhat easy win over North, played in Huntsville of all places. Winning GB's earned us a berth to OFSAA, being hosted by CCI and their coach Bob Hirst, another coach I would go on to have a great rivalry over the years.

We entered the OFSAA tournament seeded #8 (if I remember correctly) put together some pretty darn excellent basketball with comfortable wins over Simcoe, Sir Robert Borden and Burlington Central in the opening games before matching up with #1 seeded Peterborough CVS in the semis. They had beaten us soundly earlier in the season when we hosted them for a game day and my boys were chomping at the chance for a rematch. As the game began, it quickly became apparent that the game would go down to the wire as each team’s starter matched up almost equally with their opponent. As time on the scoreboard clicked down, with PCVS up 3 with seconds remaining, Joe Santoro put up a long 3-ball that took what felt like 10 seconds to stop rolling around the rim before falling out. It was an incredible game and one of what would turn out to be many in my career where, despite coming out on the short end, we walked away knowing that we played the best we could. As the saying goes, we got beat ... we didn't lose. We would play for the Bronze the next day vs Chatham Kent and rebounded superbly from the loss to win the school's, and my, first ever OFSAA Basketball medal.

SIDENOTE A: 
The semis left such an impression on both BCC and PCVS that life-long friendships were established. I remember our whole team sitting behind PCVS’s bench during the Gold Medal game, cheering them on to the Gold. PCVS’s coach Dave Goulding and I enjoyed (and still enjoy) a great coaching friendship. Their best player, Jesse Young, and I became good friends.

SIDENOTE B:
One funny story that came out of the OFSAA in Collingwood centered around Jr guard Rob Mallette. To understand the story fully, you need to know two things:

1. Rob grew up on Scott Cr, just behind PVPS, the elementary school where we first met. Scott Cr had a reputation for being a tough place to live and Rob was never short of opinions about his childhood growing up there.
2. When we won GB's, I inquired about accommodations for the OFSAA tournament and, finding none, secured permission from Principal Mary Ellen Smith to use 2 chalets that were nearby. The Sr's were in one chalet with co-coach Wes Smith and I was in the other with the Jr's.

Back to the story ... I came down the stairs on the first morning to find Rob, awake and sitting up on the pull out couch he was sleeping on, looking around the living room. When I queried, he replied ... this is from memory and could be slightly altered ... "I'm memorizing this because it isn't going to get any better than right now." He quickly got up, went to the window, and pulled the drape aside, "Look ... there's no "deals" going down, or naked kids trying to beat each other sticks, or parents drinking in the garage." He smiled while I jiggled with a fully belly laugh. 

My first high school rugby coaching experience would turn out to be one of the most memorable. It began in the depths of a Barrie winter where we travelled up highway 11 to practice in a Chestnut's horse barn ... definitely a new experience for me! Having no point of reference, I had no idea how good these guys were. One of the funny sayings that came out of the experience was, "We practice in it so we don't play like it." High school kids can be pretty bright some times. There's even video proof on YouTube, but it's in two parts ... Click #1 ... Click #2 ... Thanks Justin! Looking at the footage now makes for some serious eyebrow raising because the game has changed so much since then.

The seasoned opened with another high school first for me as we boarded the bus for a trip to Washington for the annual Cherry Blossom Rugby Tournament that would be played in the shadow of the Washington Monument. We played some pretty impressive rugby, considering how early it was in the season, and we not only won, but endeared ourselves to the National Guard by both swimming in the reflecting pond and, once being asked to get out, singing O'Canada in celebration, much to the chagrin of the National Guard.

We would go on to run the table with an unblemished record, including a Red Hot Rugby Tournament title, all the way to the GBSSA Championship. My memory is a little hazy of that GB game, but I am pretty sure it was against Bradford and was a lopsided affair ... no offence Bradford.

My first OFSAA championship played out at Fletcher’s Fields in Markham in June of 1999. That particular team was loaded with elite talent, with many eventually representing Canada at various age levels, but more importantly, were an incredibly tough team, both mentally and physically. Leading the charge, arguably one of the best athletes I have ever coached, was co-captain and 8-man Bryan Taylor who, at 6’6” and 220 lbs was an imposing 18-year-old. BT, as he was affectionately called, would go on to quite the career internationally before injury forced an early retirement. Other players who would also wear the Maple Leaf were SH Dave Ashwood, FH Derek Cool, IC Kyle McCabe, and OC Chris Bowman, but there were a number of lads who easily COULD have played at that level but, for their own personal reasons, chose not to chase that dream. As I reflect on it now, we were blessed with some really big kids who were "tough as nails", as the saying goes. One player I am very proud of was FB Andrew McCutcheon who, following his own playing days, has become quite an accomplished coach in his own right leading Bill Crothers HS to many successes and their own OFSAA championship in 2014 and coaching my son Keaton in 7s rugby.

We would keep our undefeated record intact with resounding wins over Earl Haig, Lawrence Park, and Saltfleet, before facing Upper Canada College in the final. It became obvious to me, as we shook the opposing coach's hand before the game, that there was a little history between he and Ron. Riled up by Ron's pregame talk, the lads marched onto the pitch led by Sr prop Mike Lassiter's haunting bagpipes, and from the whistle it was obvious that Central was determined to win this championship. Treating the packed stadium to a brand of rugby rarely seen in high school, the end favoured the Red-Black-White as Central won going away, earning my first OFSAA Gold medal, and second OFSAA medal of the school year.

What a year! A harbinger of what was to be an incredible run until Central closed forever in 2016.

SIDENOTE C: 

1999 turned out to be a spectacular year! In the fall of 1999 ... the 1999-2000 school year ... Central would win yet another GBSSA Football Championship with an upset wins over North in the semis and then Innisdale in the final.

Ahhhh, hindsight is always 20/20. Looking back, all of those fears I had the previous fall about making the correct choice, they were pretty unfounded, now that I look back on it.