Rhonda Dubois

Second, our gym, the “Main Gym.” I really loved that gym (we spent enough time in it, poured enough sweat on that floor, and probably left some tears and skin as well), and when it came to home game time, I swear we had the best gym in Canada West. I can still feel the atmosphere and the bounce of that sweet springy wood floor, and who wouldn’t want to stride and slide across it to save that point?! I laugh, I would never have expected to cherish that gym as much as I do. And in that gym, all the life lessons—adversity, hard work and going beyond what you think you can do—is what happened there. Our coach, Suzi (Smith) Cooke, was a young coach, so we had the opportunity to really grow together. I sometimes forget that I was on the younger side as well since I only 17 for most of that first season. The Pandas hadn’t found a way to be competitive in the years before we started, so when Coach Suzi took over, there was a lot of work to be done! But I’d like to think we laid some pretty decent groundwork for the future success of the Panda program (and what a success it has become!!! I sincerely congratulate all the players, coaches and staff along the way for their contributions). Starting off unranked in 1986, I remember some of our highlights as beating the Dinnies in pre-season and then working our butts off to reach our highest ranking of 6th in Canada during my third year… and we all know how tough the Canada West conference was…is (something I often remind them out East here)! Calgary and Saskatchewan were tough too—in my rookie year, we had to play against the wily veterans Laurie (Baber) Eisler and Colleen Venn who were in their fifth year with the Huskies. I still remember pounding a beautiful set from Pistawka down the open line, only to see Venn fly over and pop it up! We got redemption on UofS later (although only after they left ha ha).

Something I did not cherish: the uniforms. They ranged from hideous to “seriously?” (They sound hilarious says Joanna… no Joanna, for this era of Pandas, this was no laughing matter)! We went through many years of jersey issues and I don’t think we ever got it right (soccer-style, shiny, sunshine yellow shorts just above the knee, parachute-type track suits… yeeeesh). Our first jerseys looked like relics to start (these are the ones Deb mentioned). They were thick, very fitting and had matching “bumhugger” shorts. They would get washed and be left on a bench in our team room, so it would end up being fist come; first pick for the sizes… and there were two pairs of shorts that were about the size of a postage stamp—most of us could probably only fit one leg into these. So if you had classes till the end of the day finishing across campus from the gym, guess which pair you’d get? Traumatizing. Though, not for me, I was in Sport Studies, nice and close, and usually excelled at masterminding ways to win these small life battles, out of sheer fear. Back to the jerseys, these things were “classic” since (so we were told) the letters and numbers were made from Hugh Hoyles’ wife’s yellow curtains. Can anyone verify this? (Side note: Hugh is a decorated alumnus who coached the Bears and the Pandas, among many other accomplishments for the UofA.) I would actually love to have kept that jersey. If they aren’t already, these jerseys should be archived and preserved for all time. No matter what we were wearing though, we always played Panda proud.

Life lessons:

Discipline and keeping your emotions in check. We learned well to be serious about our training and especially our matches. We learned to buckle down and do whatever it took to do what we were told (early stages of development – we got to think for ourselves later ha ha). Discipline was a foundation we needed to be able to excel going forward. However, once during a game timeout, Coach Suzi was providing guidance on what we could be doing better (i.e. reaming us out), and happened to be chewing on a pen. Unbeknownst to her, it had broken in her mouth. Since we had learned early that we were “limited” in the emotions we were allowed to display during timeouts, we were killing ourselves trying not to laugh. I think some of us had beads up sweat forming from the pressure. When Coach asked me what was so funny (I guess I wasn’t hiding my emotions very well), I ended up saying “uhhhh, your teeth are completely blue”… we all had a good laugh about it.

Sport psychology. We had the amazing Deb Covey, who was on the National field hockey team, as our sport psychologist. In our second year, we tried 6am practices… all year. Pros and cons, but for some reason, we would also do the sport psychology session first before some practices. You can probably guess what happened when at 6am, we’re sitting on the gym floor leaning against the wall doing relaxation training. I am sure that 80% of us fell asleep… nailed that technique! I did learn some great stuff, though, from Deb that I have used to this day and now pass on to my kids. My daughter does competitive show jumping and my boys are in tier 1 hockey, I have tried my best to impress upon them the skills of how to “park” negative emotions to be able to focus better and how to bring their heart rate down between shifts/rounds. We had so many incredible and amazing support people around us, including athletic trainers, physios and equipment staff.

Determination. We were provided with so many great opportunities to train and develop our skills. One time, we got to practice with the National team, then coached by Lorne Sawula. We were all pretty much intimidated, but got in there and did our best. Even Laura who had a broken arm in a cast was expected to play backcourt to pass and dig 100-mph hits from Erminia Russo with her good arm. That was funny.

Off-season health: In the summers, we would practice a few evenings per week and were instructed to watch how much we were in the sun during the day because it would affect how much energy we would have for practice. We totally understood and agreed with these principles (as well as proper footwear – no Keds); however, one summer, Colleen and I worked for College Pro Painters and for a week had to paint on a black roof all day. We showed up to practice straight from work blacker than molasses with Coach Suzi and assistant coach Steve Kentel staring at us. Suzi was miffed because we had obviously not adhered to the guidance provided and Steve was just jealous that we were more tanned than him. Steve was also a vet on the Bears when I was rookie and we ended up becoming very close friends. I coached with Steve for club (coaching some future Panda athletes including Christy (Halat/Jickling), Cheri (Lansdown/Wright), Karen (Shenkariuk/Pollock) and a few others) and with his summer volleyball company. He was the MC at our wedding.

Coaching: In addition to learning as much as I did as a player during my years as a Panda, I learned a ton of coaching skills and was then connected with many great coaches. I coached a lot during and after playing Pandas until my kids were born: high school with Gane Olsen at Harry Ainlay (those girls were gems), provincial team with Darryl Young, EVC and GMCC, as mentioned before, and SPVC with T and Oater (amazing boys). When I first moved to Ottawa in 1994, I coached with the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees for six years with Lionel Woods. He has now been coaching with that program for 30 years doing great things. I am truly grateful to have been connected to programs across the country.