A little more than one year ago the West Vancouver Highlanders senior football team suffered a 57-0 loss to their North Shore rivals Carson Graham that was painful in many ways.
Firstly, the scoreboard certainly was painful to look at. Beyond that, though, the Highlanders themselves were hurting. Starting the game with only 18 players, the undermanned Highlanders saw the injuries pile up - a concussion, a torn bicep, a dislocated thumb - as they chased Carson around the field with no substitutes to spell them off. By the end of the game there were only 12 healthy Highlanders, barely enough to fill each position on the field.
After the game came the most painful outcome of all. With his numbers dangerously low, head coach Shawn Anderson - who only took over the team that summer as an emergency fill-in - pulled the plug on the rest of their season.
"It was devastating," said Anderson.
The season may have died that day but the program didn't. Anderson got to work rebuilding the team for the 2011 season and the Highlanders who stuck with the program used that loss to Carson as motivation.
"That pain was their constant reminder," said Anderson. "They took that pain and they remembered it all winter and all summer when I was telling them you've got to be in the weight room, you've got to be in the weight room. And they started to do it and they believed in it. They knew they were good enough but they hadn't done the work that other teams had done."
By the start of this season the Highlanders were back on the field, even winning their opening exhibition game against Handsworth.
The Highlanders, however, lost their first two regular season games against powerful Vancouver College and Mount Douglas teams, leading West Van into their matchup last Friday needing a win and facing an appropriate opponent: the Carson Graham Eagles.
Anderson said he didn't dwell on last year's loss too much as he prepared his team for the game but his players, including 11 who were on the field for last year's blowout, spoke about it time and again.
"It was a personal game for the players," said Anderson. "They really brought it up. They talked about all the guys who were in the game and having to go to the hospital . . . and having Carson Graham throwing the ball up by 40 points on them in the fourth quarter. They took it personally."
On a muddy West Van field the Highlanders ran away from last year's pain, pounding the ball on the ground to score a 21-0 win over Carson Graham with Grade 12 running backs Owen Perley, a 260-pound converted tackle, and Damien Dorn doing the damage. Dorn ended the game with 22 carries for 136 yards while powerful linebacker Graeme Tod-Tims lead the way on defence with 10 tackles.s
"It was a very big win," said Anderson, who is now getting his team ready for a crucial matchup at Notre Dame on Friday. A win would put the Highlanders into great shape for a playoff spot while a loss would make it very hard for them to make the postseason. Whatever happens, Anderson said he is now happy to be talking about a hopeful future rather than a painful past or uncertain present.
"It's a nice change - instead of trying to figure out how you're going to put a team on the field the next day," he said. "It's nice to have that culture of talking about what does the future hold and what are we working towards instead of what are we trying to protect against."
It's an old sports cliché but it seems to apply here: nothing eases pain better than winning does.
aprest@nsnews.com
