Lance Watson described it as the “ultimate high-five.” The members of the Class of 2022 reflected on their various journeys to the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame during an emotional induction ceremony in a packed Delta Ocean Pointe ballroom on Saturday night.
“You don’t start out in sports thinking you are going into a Hall of Fame,” said Watson.
“All careers are a series of chapters. Then some people decide there are enough good stories in there to give you that ultimate high-five.”
Watson coached several athletes, including Simon Whitfield at Sydney 2000, to gold medals in the Olympics, Commonwealth and Pan Am Games and Ironman world championships in a 35-year career.
“You don’t realize what you’ve been through until it’s done, and before you know it, it’s over,” said golfer Jim Rutledge.
“Then you pass those skills on to others,” added the former European, Asian, PGA and PGA Champions tour player, who now helps coach in the UVic Vikes youth program.
Former Canadian track record holder Gary Reed used his graceful stride to win the 800-metre silver medal at the 2007 IAAF world track and field championships before placing fourth in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in an event considered the deepest in any Games discipline in any sport.
The Nicola Valley native described his running years in Victoria, from 2002 to 2010, as “vital in my life.”
“This is a huge, meaningful honour because my Victoria days represented the apex of my career,” Reed said.
“To reach global finals was incredible during that stretch. And now to share this honour tonight with my family [wife Caitlin and daughters Sophie, 11 and Anna, nine] is a tremendous and emotional honour.”
Patricia Obee and Lindsay Bergen won the Olympic silver medal at Rio 2016 and two world championship silver medals in the women’s rowing lightweight double.
“You have your own awareness of what you’ve achieved, and your family is proud of you, and I’m proud of Obee and she of me,” said Bergen [nee Jennerich].
“But to have a whole community make a statement such as this, and say what we have done is important, means a lot.”
Dave Kirzinger won two sa国际传媒 high school basketball championships with the Oak Bay Bays, in 1973 and 1974. But football was his original sport on the Island and he became the first overall selection in the 1979 CFL draft and that led to an outstanding career with the Calgary Stampeders in which he was three-time Western Conference all-star and three-time Schenley Awards nominee as best CFL offensive lineman.
“This is all a bit overhwhelming and emotional, but in a good way,” said Kirzinger.
Local speed-skating legend Brenda Shields Hennigar developed a culture for a winter sport in the Canadian city with the mildest weather. She won 11 Canadian women’s singles championships, two in short track and nine in long track, three national all-round championships and brought home 33 Canadian and North American championship medals and set several Canadian and North American records. Shields Hennigar later became a coach and builder in keeping speed-skating alive on the Island.
“This is an overwhelming honour and shows if you have the dream to do something, there is always a way to make it happen,” she said.
Gerry Poulton was inducted with the Class of 2022 for his 50-year squash career as an athlete and official and Richard Way as a multi-sports builder.
The Victoria Sports Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1991. Plaques honouring the Class of 2022 will join those of the 251 previous inductees on the concourse walls of Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
