When 19-year-old George Short sprinted alongside sa国际传媒 great Harry Jerome in the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics, the experience became imprinted on his soul.
Short runs a series of Future Stars camps across the country, in both summer and winter sports, in which Olympians are the instructors. The latest were the girls鈥� ice hockey sessions in Parksville over the weekend and at Pearkes Arena in Saanich on Monday and Tuesday, with three-time Winter Olympics gold-medallist Gillian Apps instructing. The two-day camps total eight hours of on-ice instruction, two hours with a fitness specialist and two hours of lectures.
鈥淭he kids learn that the Olympians were just the same as they are. When the Olympians were young, they had an idea and a dream and they pursued it,鈥� said Short, president of Future Stars, which has also put on camps with Olympians instructing in field hockey, rowing, swimming, mountain biking, soccer, volleyball and figure skating.
With Apps 鈥� gold medallist at Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 鈥� comes a multi-generational Olympic odyssey. Cousin Darren Barber of Victoria won gold with the Elk Lake-based Canadian rowing eight at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics. Their grandfather, Syl Apps, is a Canadian sporting great who was gold medallist in the pole vault at the 1934 London Commonwealth Games and sixth at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He also captained the Toronto Maple Leafs and won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1937 and the Lady Byng in 1942 as most gentlemanly player.
鈥淕rowing up, I would take any advice my cousin Darren offered,鈥� said Gillian Apps, who was eight when Barber won gold in Barcelona.
Gillian was 16 when her grandfather, also an MLA in the Ontario legislature from 1963 to 1975, passed away.
鈥淢y grandfather told me to enjoy sports but to keep a balance and get an education,鈥� said Gillian, whose dad Syl Apps Jr., played 727 games in the NHL for the Pittsburgh Penguins and L.A. Kings from 1980 to 1990.
Both Gillian and brother Syl Apps III took that advice to heart and attended Ivy League schools, with her sibling playing for Princeton before minor-pro stints in the AHL and ECHL while Gillian graduated with a degree in psychology and brain science from Dartmouth.
This week on the Island, Gillian Apps was the one imparting the advice.
鈥淭hese players bring so much enthusiasm and energy,鈥� said the 31-year-old, who moves on from Pearkes Arena to Future Stars camps in Kamloops this weekend and Ontario next week.
鈥淚 hope our success as a national team at the Olympics has inspired young girls across the country. They have some great opportunities. When I was their age, there were only boys鈥� hockey camps. So I didn鈥檛 attend camps, except for one I participated in with the boys.鈥�
Among the camp participants at Pearkes were 13-year-old twin sisters Sarah and Elizabeth Mulroney.
鈥淸Apps] is so good at explaining things,鈥� said Elizabeth.
Apps had seven goals and seven assists for 14 points in five games at Turin 2006 and three goals and four assists in five games at Vancouver 2010 before being held point-less at Sochi 2014. The native of Unionville, Ont., took the post-Sochi year off and said it鈥檚 a good time to reassess during what at the moment is the summer sports cycle. She said she won鈥檛 make a determination about going for a fourth Olympic gold medal at Pyeongchang 2018 until later.
鈥淚 cheered on our Canadian summer athletes at the Pan Am Games in Toronto, and will do the same next year for Rio, and then make any decisions about my future,鈥� said Apps, whose club team is the Brampton Thunder.
Apps said she loves the Island, even beyond getting to have dinner with the Barber side of the family.
鈥淪ince I鈥檝e been on the national team, we have played two events in Victoria, and the people here are always so supportive,鈥� she said.
