Four for 40 - aq November 2005

Athletics is often confined to individual moments
etched in memory: a raised fist, a sullen face,
tears of joy or pain, a magnanimous
victory, or a colossal defeat. And while these moments are vivid representations of
outstanding feats, they often only tell
a portion of the story.
That end performance didn’t occur overnight; it most likely took years of preparation and struggle.
It required two-a-days, training tables, ice bags, study hall, and weight room visits. But most of all it took perseverance to arrive at that moment.
For 40 years perseverance has defined Clan athletics:
perseverance to battle adversity, perseverance to fight naysayers and
self-doubt, and perseverance to achieve the impossible. Here are four stories picked from countless Clan examples to illustrate that perseverance....

Cutting down her piece of the net at the 2005 Women's Basketball National Championships was a fantastic basketball moment for Morgan McLaughlin, the perfect cap on a perfect season that featured 38 straight victories.

But for McLaughlin, that moment represented only part of the journey - from her tumultuous first year both on and off the court until walking across the stage at Convocation Mall to accept her diploma - that was anything but smooth.

"When I came to SFU, I didn't know anybody. I hadn't scrimmaged with the team in the summer, and I felt like I was a bit of an outcast at school," reflects McLaughlin. "During first year I became overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with my classes, with practice, with the schedule that you have to keep."

McLaughlin had initially chosen to study kinesiology at SFU, but found it difficult to manage a full course load and maintain her practice schedule.

"You come from being a straight A student in high school, to struggling to get C's at university, and coupled with everything that was going on I went through depression," says McLaughlin. "But I talked with the school psychologist, and we began talking about what I liked, and she saw a glow and energy come from me when I spoke about working with children."

McLaughlin subsequently switched majors, shifting to pursue a history degree with the goal of being accepted into SFU's Professional Development Program (PDP) and becoming a teacher.

"That was my goal after first year, and I improved my marks, became a member of the athletic council, and graduated with one of the higher averages on our team," says McLaughlin. "It took a lot of work, but I'm starting the PDP program in the fall."

She also developed from the ninth or tenth player off the bench into a consistent contributor on a national championship team.

"To be able to be a floor leader, to feel a part of the team, there is a payoff," says the former post player. "At the end of my university career, I feel good that I can look back and say 'I accomplished something great.'"

Successful athletes must push their minds and bodies beyond preconceived limitations but also must persevere through injury. Sometimes, those injuries are so severe that athletes are told words like “shouldn’t,” “never,” or even “impossible” by doctors and physicians. “Impossible” was told to wrestler Bob Molle before the 1984 Olympics.

Prior to the Los Angeles Games, Molle ruptured a disc in his back, requiring surgery just 18 days before the competition. As he lay on a training table, the head surgeon for the Canadian national team told Molle that it would be impossible for him to regain his form in time to compete. Molle was unfazed and pressed on, committed to competing and pushing himself beyond his limitations.

At just 21 years of age, Molle found an inner resolve and wrestled his way to a silver medal at those games. That put wrestling in Canada and SFU on the map, and it made Molle a national hero.
“That in itself really pushed the sport in Canada, and [Molle] is such a great competitor that he knew he could get himself through anything,” says Molle’s former coach and current SFU wrestling head coach Mike Jones.

The silver medal isn’t the only accomplishment that sets Molle apart. He also has two Grey Cup rings to his credit as a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He first won the championship as a Bombers team member in 1988 and then again as team captain in 1990.

“He could outwork anybody and he wouldn’t let anything stop him achieving his goals,” says Jones of his former pupil. “And that is how you succeed. The desire he demonstrated was unbelievable.”

Long before he became a national treasure and was nominated for CBC’s “The Greatest Canadian,” Terry Fox was a typical SFU student who wanted to be a part of the varsity men’s basketball team.

“My first impression of Terry was that he was too small and wasn’t going to be able to play guard at the university level,” says former SFU basketball coach Stan Stewardson. “But during the pre-season workouts he led everyone in the sprints, and he worked so hard that the only thing to do was to keep him on the team.”

The diminutive Fox earned his spot on the junior varsity team, but one day he came to coach Stewardson with bad news.

The “sore knee” was cancer, and Fox’s leg was subsequently amputated. Stewardson and Fox worked out a plan where Fox could stay with the Clan as team manager. But Fox had greater ambitions, and informed Stewardson that he would be unable to take that manager position as he had another goal in mind: the Marathon of Hope.

The idea initially was met with skepticism. When Fox first approached the Canadian Cancer Society, he wasn’t taken seriously. When he arrived in Quebec during the Marathon of Hope, cars would honk at him because he was slowing down traffic. But as with every adversity he had faced in his life, he forged on.

“When a person with an affliction is able to do something extraordinary, people will often look at that as superhuman,” says Stewardson. “And in this situation, [Fox] was superhuman. What he displayed was beyond comprehension, and he has been immortalized because of it.”

In 1994 Daniel Igali made a tough life decision. Having arrived in Canada to compete for his native Nigeria in the Commonwealth Games as a wrestler, Igali made a choice. Because of the dire political situation in his home country (Nigeria’s president had been ousted, an interim military government had been imposed, and the country was sliding into chaos), Igali chose to defect to Canada and become part of the Clan.

But as Igali’s lawyer would tell him, the process was anything but guaranteed. “I remember the uncertainty. It was a tough decision and my lawyer was very clear that a number of these cases failed to achieve refugee status, and that was always a concern,” Igali reflects. “To begin with, I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know the process of what was going to happen, [or] of how it was going to happen, but these are the decisions that you have to follow through to the end.”

And Igali did follow through to the end, being granted refugee status and eventually finding his way to SFU’s criminology program. Igali can remember when he first felt like a Canadian.

“In 1996, when I could finally compete at Nationals, it was a great feeling,” says Igali. “And then I can remember watching the Olympics with some Nigerian friends, and every time Canada competed I remember rooting for Canada and cheering on my country.”

But Igali hasn’t forgotten his roots, as he has been working diligently on a schoolhouse in the village of Eniwari, Nigeria. Named after Maureen Methany, the Richmond teacher who became Igali’s surrogate mother when he arrived in Canada, the project is soon to be completed, with the expected unveiling tentatively scheduled for November 26, 2005.

“There is always a pull [to Nigeria],” says the 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist and former World and NAIA Champion. “For the first 20 years of your life you learn everything through your home country. I remember being in grade five and thinking I wanted to build a school. Sometimes as kids we dream out loud.”

In our 40th year, SFU Recreation and Athletics celebrates all of our athletes and their achievements, but most importantly, we celebrate the mental and physical perseverance they have demonstrated along the way. aq