FE ATURE ◗ MARC COUSINEAU
Mentor Memories CGSA Superintendent of the Year winners talk about those who helped them along the way ◗ Not many people can say they’ve had a mentor since birth, but Brian Youell can. The veteran superintendent and 2012 CGSA Superintendent of Year points to his grandfather as the first and most influential mentor he had growing up. “Because I grew up on a dairy farm, I got to work with my grandfather just about every day,” says Youell, the superintendent at Uplands Golf Club in Victoria, BC. “He worked very, very hard and he was a big proponent of the help-thy-neighbour mentality. He worked seven days a week for his entire life until the day he died so he had an amazing work ethic and the rest of us on the farm had that same work ethic. He also treated his family and friends with great pride and respect and was a great role model.” While Youell’s grandfather helped instill some important life lessons in his grandson, when it came to a career managing turfgrass, Youell looked to his predecessor at Uplands, Bill Shvetz, for a role model. “Bill worked hard and stood up for what he believed in when maintaining his golf course,” says Youell. Mentors don’t need to be older, however, and Youell counts Dean Piller, superintendent at Cordova Bay and 2010 Superintendent of the Year, as a turf care professional he strives to emulate. “If I could use one word to describe Dean, it’s passion!” says Youell. “He steps on the course every day like it’s his first day on the job. He’s always trying new practices to make his course better.” Piller didn’t reach the pinnacle of the industry alone. He’s had handfuls of mentors over his 24 years at Cordova Bay, he says. “You just have to look at the list of the John B
“Phil [Currie] was the first guy who really made me enthused about the industry and made me start to realize I had a career in it.” Jim McGarvey
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“ Bill [Shvetz] worked hard and stood up for what he believed in when maintaining his golf course.” Brian Youell
Steele Award winners,” says Piller about his mentors. “These are all people who I felt carried themselves very professionally and were very active in the industry through association work. I’m probably who I am today as a result of these superintendents.” Piller also mentions Dennis McKernan as his mentor. McKernan was an instructor and ran the maintenance department at Olds College. Piller still uses many of the lessons McKernan taught him when he worked under the instructor at Olds, one of them being how to network, learn and find ways to improve his course at a trade show. Jim McGarvey’s mentors helped show him the ropes of the industry and planted the seeds for what has grown into a long and storied career as a superintendent. McGarvey was heavily influenced by the superintendent, Ken Johnson, and assistant, Phil Currie, at the Bend Golf and Country Club in Bend, Oregon, the first course he worked at. “Phil was the first guy who really made me enthused about the industry and made me start to realize I had a career in it,” says the 2013 CGSA Superintendent of the Year. McGarvey’s next mentor, Jack Archambault, came at a crucial moment in his life, a moment when he had started to commit to a career in golf course management. “This was a critical period for me because by then I had decided to take (golf course management) seriously,” says McGarvey. “Jack became almost like a father figure to me in many ways. He spent hours and hours answering all the questions I had about turfgrass and the business. He always had time for me and