The Taste of Victory
This is a memory of a victory. Like all great memories, it's blurry, and beautiful, and will last a whole lot longer than the moment it recalls. And I want to savour the taste of this one, while it's still fresh.
The moment was yesterday. The setting was Doug Harvey arena in the neighbourhood known as NDG, Montreal. The scene was a championship ringette game between bitter rivals, the fierce and formidable Pointe Claire, and a ragtag bunch of lovable local girls. One of those local girls was my daughter. Like her team-mates, she's a good kid: smart, funny, pretty well-behaved, and really earnest on the ice. You wouldn't call her, or most of the girls natural athletes; rather, they're kids with big hearts and a whole lot of character who have doggedly tried to put the lessons of their parents and coaches into practice on the ice.
Those lessons - about effort, perseverance, patience, fair play - seldom pay off in ways that are obvious to eleven-year-olds, or even to grown-ups. How often does hard work go unrewarded? How frequently does fair play get short shrift? How many times have we seen nice guys finish last? Too many for my comfort, and like many parents, I pass along my lessons with my fingers crossed. Here's hoping it turns out the way we all wish it would be...
And yet yesterday, it really happened. Against a team with all the trappings of success - sharp uniforms, severe discipline, a squad of vocal and determined parents - somehow our girls managed to dig a little deeper. This NDG team that started their season in last place didn't think of themselves as a team of destiny. They just listened to their coaches, turned up for their practices, supported each other on the ice, kept having fun and refused to give up. All the losses they've suffered -and some of them were brutal- couldn't stop them. The stinging early goal by Pointe Claire in this final game wouldn't stop them. Being down by one with 27 seconds left to go didn't stop them.
They kept at it, doggedly refusing to give up the game, as they've consistently done. They potted one more; brought it to a tie; scored two against none in the shootout, and became a legend. A local legend, to be sure: no bigger than the banner that will be raised to the rafters of Doug Harvey arena. But that's pretty big. Big enough never to be forgotten, by anyone who was there to see it.
Let's face it: we grown-ups know that life is long, and hard, and championships are few and far between. Sadly, the rules of living rightly often fail to pay off in obvious ways. Not this time, and not for these girls. This team was coached and managed and mentored with strength, with humour, with commitment, with pride, and with faith. True, these qualities pay dividends -but they do not always produce medals and banners. Medals and banners are really rather rare.
But yesterday, there were medals for every girl on the team, and a banner to raise to the roof. It truly couldn't have happened to a nicer group. When these girls skated that banner around the rink, it might as well have been the Stanley Cup they were hoisting, and for this proud dad, it sure felt like it. Credit Pointe Claire and their coaches for being class acts in defeat: they made an arch of their ringette sticks for our girls to skate beneath as they left the ice victorious. But here's to the girls who won the game. No honour was ever more richly deserved.
There was chocolate cake and cream soda in the snack bar after the game, among the screams and the hugs and the handshakes of kids and adults alike. That was the taste of victory for the girls of the NDG Atom C Ringette Squad. May the memory of that victory always be as sweet!
The moment was yesterday. The setting was Doug Harvey arena in the neighbourhood known as NDG, Montreal. The scene was a championship ringette game between bitter rivals, the fierce and formidable Pointe Claire, and a ragtag bunch of lovable local girls. One of those local girls was my daughter. Like her team-mates, she's a good kid: smart, funny, pretty well-behaved, and really earnest on the ice. You wouldn't call her, or most of the girls natural athletes; rather, they're kids with big hearts and a whole lot of character who have doggedly tried to put the lessons of their parents and coaches into practice on the ice.
Those lessons - about effort, perseverance, patience, fair play - seldom pay off in ways that are obvious to eleven-year-olds, or even to grown-ups. How often does hard work go unrewarded? How frequently does fair play get short shrift? How many times have we seen nice guys finish last? Too many for my comfort, and like many parents, I pass along my lessons with my fingers crossed. Here's hoping it turns out the way we all wish it would be...
And yet yesterday, it really happened. Against a team with all the trappings of success - sharp uniforms, severe discipline, a squad of vocal and determined parents - somehow our girls managed to dig a little deeper. This NDG team that started their season in last place didn't think of themselves as a team of destiny. They just listened to their coaches, turned up for their practices, supported each other on the ice, kept having fun and refused to give up. All the losses they've suffered -and some of them were brutal- couldn't stop them. The stinging early goal by Pointe Claire in this final game wouldn't stop them. Being down by one with 27 seconds left to go didn't stop them.
They kept at it, doggedly refusing to give up the game, as they've consistently done. They potted one more; brought it to a tie; scored two against none in the shootout, and became a legend. A local legend, to be sure: no bigger than the banner that will be raised to the rafters of Doug Harvey arena. But that's pretty big. Big enough never to be forgotten, by anyone who was there to see it.
Let's face it: we grown-ups know that life is long, and hard, and championships are few and far between. Sadly, the rules of living rightly often fail to pay off in obvious ways. Not this time, and not for these girls. This team was coached and managed and mentored with strength, with humour, with commitment, with pride, and with faith. True, these qualities pay dividends -but they do not always produce medals and banners. Medals and banners are really rather rare.
But yesterday, there were medals for every girl on the team, and a banner to raise to the roof. It truly couldn't have happened to a nicer group. When these girls skated that banner around the rink, it might as well have been the Stanley Cup they were hoisting, and for this proud dad, it sure felt like it. Credit Pointe Claire and their coaches for being class acts in defeat: they made an arch of their ringette sticks for our girls to skate beneath as they left the ice victorious. But here's to the girls who won the game. No honour was ever more richly deserved.
There was chocolate cake and cream soda in the snack bar after the game, among the screams and the hugs and the handshakes of kids and adults alike. That was the taste of victory for the girls of the NDG Atom C Ringette Squad. May the memory of that victory always be as sweet!
posted by David Newland at 31.3.08
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