BY SCOTT
HADDOW
Laurentian University and Sudbury Canadians soccer player Sally
Parent has never questioned her desires to pursue sports to the
highest she can.
On Wednesday, she attended the Guts and Glory speaker luncheon,
hosted by Sudbury SportLink, and had her beliefs validated by
some of the biggest names in local and national sports.
The panel featured Canadian Women's Olympic gold
medal-winning coach Karen Hughes, four time Olympic
cross-country skier Sharon Firth, NHL hockey player Derek
MacKenzie, international figure skating star Meagan Duhamel and
two time Brier curler Tim Phillips.
All spoke of sacrifices made to achieve glory in sport and
what it truly meant to them to be at the top of the heap in
their respective sport.
Parent was just one of about 100 people to attend the event.
She said she came away feeling motivated, refreshed and
eager to bring back her new knowledge to her teammates.
"I whole heartily agree with what they all said," said
Parent. "In order to get to the top, one has to make a lot of
sacrifices, but it's worth it. Meagan said she didn't make it
to the Olympics, but she's not going to give up and keep going
after that dream...there's a lot to be learned from her words.
These people spoke the truth and from their hearts."
Coaches also benefitted from the wise words. Sudbury
Northerners head coach John Larsen wasn't going to miss his
opportunity to hear advice from Hughes, one of the top coaches
in sport today.
"The most important comments I got were from Karen Hughes,"
said Larsen. "She talked about what her team did to win gold,
and what really stood out was...How her team changed their
focus on outcomes to focusing on values. You always carry
values with you, no matter where you go in life. I will be
bring that back to the team."
Above all else, Firth wanted to stress the importance of
athletics to all, especially young people.
"I really wanted to encourage young people to get involved
and enjoy sports," said Firth.
"It can be a positive life-changing experience. Sports are
so important...exercise makes you feel good and stay positive.
Young athletes should set clear goals in their mind and follow
them. As long as you do the best you can, no one can take
anything away from you."
Firth is no stranger to the Nickel City. In preparing for
her successful international skiing career, Firth spent plenty
of time in Sudbury.
"It was wonderful to come back to Sudbury...I used to train
here in the 1970s," said Firth. "I was looking for rocks, but
there's a lot of trees now and it looks wonderful."
Ontario National Training Centre and Top Glove Boxing
Academy coach Gord Apolloni enjoyed the sports luncheon.
"It was a fantastic event and, I hope, the first of many
more to come," said Apolloni. "Once the fever catches on...it's
going to get more successful. It's nice to see SportLink is out
there supporting all the local groups."
Laurentian University women's basketball head coach Mike
Clarke gleaned plenty from the panel.
"I got to talk to Karen Hughes...I benefitted from her experiences about team building and confidence building," said Clarke.
"It's nice to get an international coach, that has won
something that big (Olympic gold medal) in Sudbury and hear her
words."
Hughes stressed the fact athletes need to fully utilize
local facilities to begin their quest to the top.
"It all starts somewhere...Athletes need to take full
advantage of all the things they have at home," said Hughes.
"You don't have to go away and do expensive training elsewhere.
There's always opportunities, especially if you want it bad
enough. It takes a long time and you go through a lot of
adversity before success happens. You need a plan and need to
stick to it."
MacKenzie was thrilled to give back to his community, and
had sage advice for young athletes chasing their own dreams.
"Support from your community is so important," said
MacKenzie. "You need that support to be successful. I wouldn't
have what I have today if it wasn't for this community
supporting me. I wasn't the biggest guy or the most talented.
But if you want something bad enough and work hard at it,
success will follow."
SportLink executive director Susan Levesque was delighted
with the response from the community.
"Hearing the passionate stories has made me want to work even harder to bring all kinds of other activities into fruition," said Levesque. "It was great to see all the people out here to support this cause."
