Silver medalists grace the podium in BC
By Ryan Rogers
Sports Editor
November 21, 2007
 The Lancers men’s cross country team carried on their tradition of success at the CIS National Championships earlier this month, returning with a silver medal led by the individual achievements of Andrew Coates.
Coates finished fifth overall and secured himself a berth into the FISU Championships to be held in France next April. Three Lancers finished in the top 10, securing a second-place finish. The Lancers women’s cross country team finished very strong with a hard-fought fourth-place finish, just missing the podium.
Said Coates, “This is my fifth (year racing). I had tough season this year because of my injuries and whatnot, and I’m happy with how it went in a sense that I overcame the big problems I had and was still able to run well and contribute to the team aspect.”
He continued, “Victoria was beautiful, it was 15 degrees and sunny on our race day. You can’t ask for a better venue than that. You can’t beat sunny weather and U of Victoria really put on a good event. A good way to end my career and a good way to show the rookies how CIs are done well.”
Coates’s achievement has qualified him for the FISU world university games, and this is the second time in his varsity career to have accomplished that feat. Cross-country head coach Dennis Fairall said, “He made the World University Games, so he’ll represent Canada in France.” With Coates graduating this year, these are his final competitions as a Lancer. Coach Fairall said, “He leaves our track program as a three-time first team all Canadian, which is phenomenal.”
Fairall continued, “Both teams ran very well, that was our best women’s finish at a national championships since we won in 1995 so we were real ecstatic. We’re really good at the top end, and I think we’re going to get better. We were without one of our best girls, Beth McChesney, because of a stress fracture.”
“To finish fourth in that field was very good, there was 16 teams there from across the country … our men went five, eight and nine, so we had three runners in the top ten which would normally win you a championship,” said Fairall.
But one of the traditions that has emerged along with the success of the program over the last several years has been a pep-talk visit from the Athletics Director Gord Grace prior to each of the national competitions.
Coates said, “He usually gives us a historical significance of the location we’re going to. When we went to Quebec City he gave us the history of the Plains of Abraham. He sets the tones for our trips. Since the cross country team gets to travel more than other varsity teams, he wants us to know that we have a unique opportunity, and to take advantage of the significance of the place that we go see. He talked about Victoria and some neat facts about Victoria,” said Coates.
Lancer women’s runner Lindsay Manning has been on the team for five years, as well, as she’s pursued teacher’s college. She said, “(Grace) just talked to us about the history of the park, and he always gives us a background record of where we’re going so we appreciate everything about it. And he also sets bets with us, on like how we’re going to do, it’s something that we can hopefully attain. If we finished top five, he’d buy us lunch at training camp in Florida this year. And for the boys I think it was the same thing. If they were top three,” said Manning.
She continued, “I don’t know if he’s ever lost both of the bets before, so this may be the first.”
Coates corroborated that story, saying “He’s a pretty funny guy and he likes to derive some incentives to bring back some medals – he said if we come top two he’d buy us lunch, or something, he’s kind of funny in that way.”
The pep-talk tradition began around 2004 when Grace learned that the cross-country team would be competing near Moncton – coincidentally where he’d be stationed as the Football coach for the University of Mount Allison earlier in his career. Grace saw an opportunity to do so much more with the competition than just racing – he saw a chance to learn about Canadian history.
Athletics Director Gord Grace explained, “We did the first one probably because I lived on the east coast before I came here and I think the first one, how we did it, was at Moncton, and I knew all my history around the Moncton area and we took a tour to the ocean and some of the historical sites and stuff like that because we were in my old stomping grounds, I guess. I was the football coach at Mount Allison University. So having young kids, we visited all the tourist stops out there and it’s not often that kids from Ontario get to go out there, so I wanted to make sure they saw it all. So we saw the giant lobster we saw a few of the forts out there, some of the kids hadn’t seen that part of the province before and that part of the country before.”
Coach Fairall said, “Gord used to be from Mount Allison and it’s right beside Moncton, and he knew the area. So this is a great opportunity. So we went out there and we saw the big lobster, and he gave a bit of a speech of the history of the area. And the next year it was in Halifax at Point Pleasant Park so that was another unique opportunity. So Gord did a little presentation, and we did well there, so we built on it. And I think we look forward to it, he gives out gag gifts if kids get right answers of the questions. He has a lot of historical perspective.”
The talk itself is a mix of a pep-rally, a history lesson, a trivia challenge, and a charge-up for everyone involved. Grace said, “It’s a little bit of everything, a pep-talk, trivia quiz, just let them know that we’re behind them for the championship. It started back a few years ago, maybe three or four years ago, and I’ve been fortunate enough go with them a few different times and I got to know them pretty good and so I think Dennis wanted to do it back then and we’ve kind of just kept it up over the years.”
While this year’s competition was held at the historical Beacon’s Hill Park in Victoria, B.C., the cross-country team has also run on the Plains of Abraham where British commander General James Wolfe fought French Commander Louis-Joseph Marquis de Montcalm in the deciding battle of the Seven Years’ War. The runner’s literally competed on the same fields that Wolfe lost his life, and Montcalm sustained his life-ending injuries.
Fairall quotes Grace to put it as succinctly as possible, “As Gord Grace said in his little presentation to the team, you would usually see the inside of a football stadium or the inside of a gym but our kids have the unique experience of not just seeing a place, but actually running on the site. So it’s great that they are preserved and that they are able to host the national championships in these very unique places.”
Fairall continued, “Our (athletes) not only get to see these great unique places, but get to compete in them. It’s as much of a cultural thing as much as an athletic thing. And that’s what we’re all about; we’re about education through sport or sport through education, whichever way you want to say it, and that’s what we’re about. So it’s great to combine the opportunity to learn about the country we live in, and also compete right on the site, we compete right in the historical origins of the country.”
Grace explains, “I guess I wanted (our students) to appreciate the history of Canada, appreciate the fact they’re visiting a part of Canada that they may not get another opportunity to do. And to get more from the experience than just running a race. And I think we accomplished a lot of that. I get feedback from the kids that they really enjoyed that part. So much of what we do is we rush to a city and play the game and then hop back on the bus and get back, but sometimes there’s a downtime where you can actually go and visit. I’d like to think that’s part of the educational experience.”
Fairall vouches for Grace’s support to the team. “He’s a former football coach so he’s good for pump-ups, and he always adds something ... And I think to have Gord come in as Athletic Director and he’s got a really good rapport with the youngsters and I think with his background … he comes in and gives some information, and he doesn’t get them over-pumped, either,” said Fairall.
And Fairall says that when he’s got a big competition, he calls in the big gun. “You can’t go to the well too often, you can’t do it for every meet, but you can do it for a big game. And for us our big game is our conference and our nationals. So we invite Gord in just to speak to the team and he speaks about motivation and how the team’s doing and also gives a historical perspective, and sometimes that’s good to get their mind off of the competition,” said Fairall.
As Andrew Coates approaches the end of his varsity career with the Windsor Lancers, he reflects back on his years here and said that he’s appreciative to have had such an involved and interested athletic director in Grace. “He’s always very supportive, so it’s always good to have an Athletic Director like that. Gives support to the team… over my five years I was very fortunate to have such a supportive Athletic Director.”
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