Heart and soul takes centre stage
Terry Fox Most Inspirational Player Award holds plenty of value to former recipients
If there is one trophy in B.C. high school sports that has a name that speaks for itself, it’s the Terry Fox Most Inspirational Player Award.
There is not a lot to get lost in translation when you’re talking about the final piece of hardware that will be presented Saturday in the Canadian icon’s hometown of Port Coquitlam following play at the 28th annual Terry Fox Secondary Legal Beagle boys basketball tournament.
And to those who have won it over the past quarter-century plus, its meaning endures long past their high school days.
“When I think about Terry Fox, it always gives you tingles up and down my spine,” says Jason McIvor, 40, of being honoured with the award in 1993 while a member of the host Ravens. “My son (Kai) is seven now and he is fascinated by Terry Fox, this guy who ran across Canada on one leg.
“How did he do it? He had cancer. So we’ve talked about it together, about what it must have taken to just get up every day and run a marathon.”
The 10 teams taking part in this weekend’s Legal Beagle invitational are among B.C.’s best quad-A teams — and within those rosters reside some of the most gifted high school players in the country.
Yet the Beagle tournament organizers have never lost sight of the fact that blue-collar effort and dedication to a common goal have always been the hallmarks of the Terry Fox’s legacy.
“The player that wins this award is very rarely the best player or even an all-star kid,” says longtime Terry Fox and national team coach Rich Chambers. “But he’s always a glue kid, a character kid who makes his team good.”
Adds Ravens senior boys head coach Brad Petersen: “To us, this award stands apart from anything else because it’s an award about Terry Fox’s values, work ethic and character, the same things we preach every day not only to our players, but to our school in general.”
This year’s winner will be determined by the play on the court as the tourney opens its three-day run Thursday in advance of Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. championship final.
But as a sort of primer, we’ve got a candidate to consider from each of the 10 teams, players whom Fox would have been proud to call a teammate.
For starters, what about Vancouver College guard Jack Cruz-Dumont? A heart-and-soul player, he has been stoic on the court following the recent passing of his father, former Irish and UBC star John Dumont.
Surrey’s Tamanawis Wildcats get so much energy from senior forward Raymon Sangha, who spent his entire summer working to make the team and now starts in the front court.
Guard Prav Gill of Abbotsford’s W.J. Mouat Hawks may well lead the tourney in charges taken and 50-50 loose balls won. Then there’s Kelowna forward Spencer Braam, a glue-guy presence who not only keeps the mood light, but is so dedicated to the team dynamic that he’ll grab a broom and sweep the court for his teammates.
Michael Risi of Surrey’s Holy Cross Crusaders is only in Grade 10, but the guard is all hustle and positivity in addition to playing multiple positions.
Few are more dedicated to team and school than Oak Bay’s Jack Mulcahy, a forward who is also the Bays’ student body president and a tireless fundraising machine with humanitarian and community outreach groups.
Walnut Grove’s Grade 11 Alasdair Coyle has exemplified toughness and grit, giving the Gators key depth within its guard rotation.
Semiahmoo’s Aassem Abdel Aziz has the never-quit mantra down pat. He was the final player selected to his Surrey school’s Grade 8 ‘B’ team five seasons ago and now is one of the captains on the senior varsity squad.
Kitsilano’s 6-foot-7 Diallo Oballa inspires his Blue Demons through defence, altering and blocking shots while protecting the rim. And then there is Terry Fox’s undersized senior forward Keanan Sem, a long shot to wear a Ravens’ jersey as a raw ninth grader, but who now starts with the senior varsity team.
“Today, kids shoot three-point bombs like there is no tomorrow,” adds McIvor, these days the vice-president of business development with Cryopeak, a company providing natural gas to remote communities across Canada.
“But if things fall apart for a half and everyone gets cold, they need the intangibles. They need to have a heart-and-soul team and I worked hard to help bring that. To me, it was all very meaningful.”
On Saturday, before they turn off the lights and lock the gym, the last order of business will be to make sure those tenets continue to be recognized through the Terry Fox Most Inspirational Player Award.