graeme hyde-lay
multi-sport school: St. Michaels University School
(Victoria)
freshman’s future:
Victoria
Graeme Hyde-Lay long ago defined his athletic identity through an ability to specialize in being versatile.
Yet it’s foolhardy to reference the adage “Jock of all trades, master of none” when speaking about the triple-sport star from Victoria’s St. Michaels University School, because over a glorious senior season of competition that stretched from September to June, he was golden at every turn.
In the fall season, as centre back on the soccer team. In the winter season, as point guard on the basketball team. In the spring season, as fly half on the rugby team. Three seasons. Three sports. Three B.C. Double A high school championships won in the same school year.
“It was definitely amazing,” reflects Hyde-Lay, who along with teammates Matt McColl, Max Pollen and Jake Wilmott were members of all three teams. “I think the main factor was that so many of us have been playing sports together the last four years.”
But just in case you think that he’s 24/7 sports to the exclusion of all else, think again.
Hyde-Lay, in fact, was interviewed for this story on a Sundayafternoon break from his weekend job manning a streetside lemonade stand in the provincial capital.
If your jazz quartet is in need of a bottom end, he can pluck a mean acoustic bass.
And he’s volunteered his summers teaching children with disabilities how to ride a bicycle.
But now, his high school experience is set to give way to a university athletic career, one which will finally see Hyde-Lay pick one sport.
In the fall, he becomes a rookie on the Victoria Vikes basketball team. And it’s a program with deep family roots. Some 35 years after his dad Ian, The Province’s 2014 HOC Coach of the Year and Graeme’s basketball and rugby coach at SMUS, finished his university basketball career with a national title in 1980 under the legendary Victoria coach Ken Shields, the son will follow in his footsteps.
It goes without saying that has been a journey current Vikes head coach Craig Beaucamp has delighted in watching.
“I’m old school and I really like the kids that have played multiple sports,” Beaucamp says. “Because if there is one thing that tells me, it’s that the kid likes to play. There is so much carry-over through all sports, and the fact that they are all different, you become heady enough to find the nuances in each and the ways to become excellent.
“But he is so aware of our history, of what it means to be a Vike,” Beaucamp continues. “When a player has links to the past, it just makes it all the more special.”