This is the story of my life so far: 69 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 113
Syrille played 3 team sports for McRoberts high school: soccer, basketball, and rugby (rugby union).
He played soccer, but that was not his favorite sport, and the team was not very good, as I remember.
In grade 9 (1995-1996), Syrille went to the basketball practice sessions before the tryouts, but he did not go to the tryouts! I asked him why, and he told me that he would not have been chosen. I replied that he was sure not to be chosen because he did not go to the tryouts. Later, I learned that the coach was surprised that he did not try for the team in grade 9 because he was sure that Syrille would have been selected.
In grade 10, Syrille went to the tryouts and was a starter for 3 years in the school basketball team.
But his preferred team sport was rugby. His position in the team was fullback, which is the last defender of the team. He was very good at that position because he was able to accelerate and sprint many times during a game. The team was reasonably successful for a small school like McRoberts.
At one point, a selection of high school players from Australia came to British Columbia and played several matches with different teams of the province. One of these teams was made of some of the best players in Lower Mainland, and Syrille was selected to be the fullback for this team.
As expected, the Australians won easily with a score of 45-5. The 5 points scored by the British Columbians were a try by Syrille, who had intercepted the ball, penetrated the Australian defense and run for 45 meters to score. I was there and I was very proud of my son!
In 1995, I was told by Sylvie, the wife of Philippe Kruchten, that a friend of them who had been an Olympian had noticed that Gaëlle was an excellent runner. When I told this to Roseline, she was surprised that I had not noticed that already.
This was several weeks before the BC Elementary Track and Field Championships that were to take place in Richmond, where we were living.
Gaëlle competed in several events, but the one where she was the best was the 800m.
She easily qualified for the final.
After the first 400m, she was leading in front of the girl who had won the event the year before. She was passed by that girl, but she passed her again during the last 200m, and she won the event. This was her first competition in the 800m and she had won it!
Of course, having not trained for long, it took her a long time to recover after the race.
Soon after that, she joined the local Track and Field Club, the Kajaks, that just happened to be the best club of the province for middle-distance runners, mostly thanks to Mike O'Connor who became Gaëlle's coach for many years.
Continue to Part 115
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Summary
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14
Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21
Part 22 - Part 23 - Part 24 - Part 25 - Part 26 - Part 27 - Part 28
Part 29 - Part 30 - Part 31 - Part 32 - Part 33 - Part 34 - Part 35
Part 36 - Part 37 - Part 38 - Part 39 - Part 40 - Part 41 - Part 42
Part 43 - Part 44 - Part 45 - Part 46 - Part 47 - Part 48 - Part 49
Part 50 - Part 51 - Part 52 - Part 53 - Part 54 - Part 55 - Part 56
Part 57 - Part 58 - Part 59 - Part 60 - Part 61 - Part 62 - Part 63
Part 64 - Part 65 - Part 66 - Part 67 - Part 68 - Part 69 - Part 70
Part 71 - Part 72 - Part 73 - Part 74 - Part 75 - Part 76 - Part 77
Part 78 - Part 79 - Part 80 - Part 81 - Part 82 - Part 83 - Part 84
Part 85 - Part 86 - Part 87 - Part 88 - Part 89 - Part 90 - Part 91
Part 92 - Part 93 - Part 94 - Part 95 - Part 96 - Part 97 - Part 98
Part 99 - Part 100 - Part 101 - Part 102 - Part 103 - Part 104
Part 105 - Part 106 - Part 107 - Part 108 - Part 109 - Part 110
Part 111 - Part 112 - Part 113