‘This is what we’ve been working for’: Tremont man helps make Canada Games possible
When the first athlete walked into the Canada Games sites wearing a provincial team jacket last week, it was a moment 10 months in the making for one Annapolis Valley man.
“It was surreal,” Adam Spurrell said Feb. 13. “We were at one of the athlete hotels and the first athlete showed up and I couldn’t believe that they were here.
“Once that happened, all the worry turned into excitement: we’re here, we’re doing this!”
The Tremont, Kings County, man is the services co-ordinator for the athletes’ village at the Feb. 13 to March 1 multi-sport, youth games.
Two-and-a-half hours before the opening ceremonies, Spurrell found a quiet corner to talk about the experience so far. There were still a few worries – temperatures were at 6 C instead of the customary sub-zero for the British Columbia community – but he sounded revved up for the event to get going. “I’m excited,” he said. “Today’s the day. This is what we’ve been working for. All the athletes are here, the VIPS are here, everyone is here,” Spurrell said in the hours leading up to the official beginning of the two-week event.
“As soon as they light that cauldron … the games are underway.”
More than 3,000 participants will be in Prince George for the Canada Games -1,700 athletes, coaches and managers in Week 1, and another 1,600 in Week 2 – and Spurrell’s job is to keep them happy.
With every decision as accommodations and athletes’ services co-ordinator, he says he has tried to keep one thing in mind: “I’m always remembering the ath- lete experience.”
Whether it’s rooms, food or the athletes’ lounge, he wants everyone to have a great time.
“We want to make sure they don’t have to do a lot besides focusing on competing and living it up,” Spurrell said of the attention to the athletes’ wellbeing. “For most, it’s once in a lifetime.” He had his own chance at the Canada Games experience six years ago, when he was chosen as an alternate for Team Nova Scotia volleyball ahead of the 2009 Canada Games in Prince Edward Island.
While he didn’t get to play, he did attend the event and credits his former West Kings Regional High School coach Morgan Snow and his teammates there and on the provincial team.
“He helped me get here,” Spurrell says of the veteran volleyball coach
Working for the athletes instead of being one is “totally, totally different,” the 26-year-old says, “but it has been incredible. This is what I wanted to do.”
The 26-year-old studied recreation and sport studies at University of New Brunswick and then worked for Disney Cruise Lines and as an educational assis- tant in the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board. He spent a year in Australia before taking on the Canada Games challenge.
Almost a year has flown by, he says, because of the people he has been working with and experiencing the geography of the Prince George area – just four hours from Jasper, Alberta.
He started the job in April 2014 and finishes in mid-March, two weeks after the competition is over.
“At the end of the games, I’ll have been out here almost a year,” Spurrell said. “It feels like I’ve been here shorter. We’ve been so busy that days evaporate: you look up from your desk for a second and you realize it’s already 4 o’clock. It feels like I just got here.”
Ten months down, but there’s still work to do.
As participants were lining up for the opening ceremonies, Spurrell and his volunteer team were thinking about their comfort.
“Do they have water? Do they have food? The athlete is number one.”
Follow KingsCountyNews.ca to see updates on how local athletes are doing at the Canada Games.