Gold medal just part of the story
Eve Maxwell, a Grade 12 student at Salmon Arm Secondary (Sullivan) won a gold medal, Most Outstanding Match, and Most Outstanding Athlete at the BC High School Wrestling Championships on the weekend.
Pride and admiration beamed through in Wrestling Coach Ray Munsie’s voice as he talked about Eve’s accomplishments. “She won every single match and never had a point scored against her.”
Munsie, who is sidelined this season as he fights cancer, commented Eve’s wins were not an accident – it was a plan and she executed it beautifully. “She trained so hard and she dominated. I couldn’t be prouder.”
He said because of treatments and radiation he couldn’t coach much this year, so teacher and rugby coach Greg Seed stepped in to help and picked up running the wrestling practices. “Eve basically coached the team. This probably helped her get a more well-rounded understanding but as far as her own training it was a handicap,” he added. He said it didn’t slow her down though as she trained five or six times a week doing weightlifting and cardio as well as the practices.
Four members of the team qualified at the regional championships in Kamloops to go on to the B.C Championships. Eve, Andrei Dumitrache, Kale Goodman and Koda Beaton.
Because of COVID and the road washouts, the regional finals was the first tournament for the other three wrestlers, so the provincial finals was only their second wrestling tournament. SAS Grade 11 student Andrei Dumitrache had the unlucky draw of meeting the top-ranked wrestler in this first match and lost, but then went on to win two more to finish in 7th. “That’s a great result for a first year wrestler,” added Munsie.
The two Grade 10 wrestlers, Kale Goodman and Koda Beaton, from Jackson lost their first two matches and were out of the tourney but gained valuable experience for next season.
Although Seed could take the team to the provincials in order to compete they had to have a certified coach. “So my son, Mike, became their coach of record,” Munsie explained. “He was in their corner for every match.” Wrestling definitely runs in the Munsie blood as Ray’s son Mike is the vice-president of BC High School Wrestling as well as being the wrestling coach and a vice principal in Campbell River.
Munsie said he had to settle for watching the livestream of all the matches and then talking to Eve on the phone after each one.
The wins didn’t surprise Munsie as two years ago, as a Grade 10 student, and with what later turned out to be a broken bone in her hand, Eve finished fourth in the provincials. “She didn’t tell us that her hand was sore because she knew her mother and I wouldn’t let her wrestle. But it does show the grit and toughness she has as she made it all the way to fourth with a broken hand and wrestling girls two years older than her.”
Along with the other awards, Eve also earned a $1,000 scholarship. He added Eve has already been accepted to the University of Calgary where her ultimate goal is to be a lawyer in the field of environmental law. “She is an amazing academic student.”
Munsie is very pleased with the choice as U of C’s wrestling coaches includes two Olympians, Carol Huynh and Erica Wiebe, and he is also acquainted with the head coach. “I think it will be a great fit for Eve.”