Up front: Explosion on Shawnigan Lake injures four boaters On stage: SunFest rises large on Cowichan country
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Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Pulled hamstring pulls Zurrer from Olympic tourney Taking a kick: Soccer star keeping chin up despite injury bug Don Bodger
News leader Pictorial
E Andrew Leong
Pippa Kindersley gives Charles Rowley rowing navagation in a paper bag dinghy race during the 27th Cowichan Bay Boat Festival, hosted by the Cowichan Bay Wooden Boat Society, Saturday.
Enter Cowichan’s Olympic Games factory Brentwood College: School has sent athletes to the past 10 Olympics
Don Bodger
News Leader Pictorial
B
rentwood College has become known as Canada’s rowing factory for its impressive track record of grooming Olympic athletes. “This is 10 Olympics in a row that Brentwood kids have been on the Olympic team,’’ said current Head of Rowing Brian Carr. It all began at the Montreal Olympics of 1976 when Jim Henniger blazed the trail. The amazing streak continues to this day with Scott Frandsen, Dave Calder and Malcolm Howard currently on the Canadian rowing team competing at London 2012. “You talk about being part of a legacy,’’ said Carr. “To me, it’s really special.
Brentwood students wish Olympic alumni luck in June. “I’d love to know an institution in North America or the world that can boast 10 Olympics from one high school. Rowing is one of our Àagships of the school just by that lone statistic.’’ Staff members and students at the school get charged up during Olympic years with such a
personal connection to the action. Brentwood still has Olympic stalwarts like Harold Backer and Marius Felix on staff. Backer rowed in three Olympics during the 1984, ‘88 and ‘92 games and still coaches rowers at the school while Felix was destined for the 1980 Moscow Olympics as part of the national rowing team but didn’t get to compete due to a 61-nation boycott that included Canada as a protest for the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Over the years, the Brentwood athletes have captured three gold medals, three silver and a couple of bronze. While 21 rowers make up the bulk of the 23 athletes from Brentwood who’ve gone on to the Olympics, there are two others who made their claim to fame in other sports. Ian Roberts, a 1977 grad, represented Canada in equestrian in 2004 at Athens, Greece and valley product Connor Grimes went to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a member of the Canadian men’s ¿eld hockey team. more on page 7
mily Zurrer’s participation in her second Summer Olympic Games is over before it started. You may have noticed the valley soccer star’s absence from the Canadian women’s soccer team lineup for the ¿rst two games in the London 2012 games. Zurrer, 25, tore a hamstring in a pre-Olympic camp in Switzerland before leaving for London. She was out of action during the tournament opener, a 2-1 loss to Japan. “After rehabbing Emily Zurrer: religiously for two weeks sidelined straight, I tested it out right before our second game versus South Africa to see if I was able to play, and I ended up re-tearing it in a different location,’’ explained Zurrer in an email to the News Leader Pictorial from London. With a recovery time of at least three weeks, she’s de¿nitely out for the rest of the tournament. Zurrer gave up her accreditation Monday to a teammate who will take her spot on the roster. “It is awful timing for my ¿rst serious injury, but I’ve accepted it and am ready to represent the Cowichan Valley and my country off the pitch this time,’’ she noted. “The support as always has been incredible and I also want to thank those who offered me their hamstrings. If I tear it one more time, I will be taking someone up on at least one of those offers.’’ Coming off a 3-0 win over South Africa, Canada went against Sweden Tuesday morning “feeling con¿dent going into this game against an opponent that we have met twice already this year,’’ Zurrer offered. “A 2-2 tie sent Canada to the quarter ¿nals. Zurrer’s injury is ironic since she worked so hard to get back on the roster after being left off it by coach John Herdman during the Olympic qualifying tournament in Vancouver.