There are a lot of sporty families on the North Shore, but there probably aren't too many father-daughter teams who can match the year put together by North Vancouver's Cary and Kaila Manns.
Both Cary and Kaila will walk away from 2014 as national champions in their chosen sports.
Kaila was the first to strike gold as a member of the BCO Volley Club's U18 team that won the Div. 1, Tier 2 title at the Volleyball Canada indoor nationals held in Edmonton in May. The team showed determination in getting the win as several players finished out the tournament while battling the Norwalk virus.
"Everyone was super sick," Kaila says. "Basically my friend was throwing up in garbage cans and then going back out on the court."
The team held it down long enough to claim a 2-1 win over Winnipeg's Shock Volleyball Club in the championship final. "We pulled through," Kaila says of beating the virus as well as their on-court opponents. "It was awesome to celebrate with my team."
Not to be outdone, Cary claimed his own national crown three months later as a member of B.C.'s provincial fours team at the Canadian Lawn Bowling Championships held in Winnipeg. As Cary and his teammate prepared to hit the lane for the championship final against Alberta, he had it in the back of his mind that a win would complete a neat little double for him and his daughter. "That was a little incentive going in there," Cary says. "Before I walked out there I thought it'd be pretty cool to have two gold medalists in the same household."
With Cary playing skip alongside teammates Vince Mai, Kin On Lau and Clement Law, Team B.C. came through in the final with an 18-9 win over Alberta.
As satisfying as that championship was, Cary says he took more pleasure from his daughter's victory.
"Seeing them come off the airplane with gold medals, knowing what they'd gone through, was probably one of the biggest highlights of my sports career," he says. "It was the best."
The matching national championships weren't the only big victories for the pair this year.
Cary followed up his win by joining several other Canadian bowlers as they took on all-stars from the United States in the biannual North American Challenge. Cary and the rest of the Canadians rolled their way to a 57-39 win in this year's event held in October in Sun City, Arizona.
Kaila rounded out her year by helping the Argyle Pipers senior girls team win the AAAA high school provincial championships held last month in Cranbrook.
All that on-court glory is nice, but the biggest win may have come off the field of play. Cary, a member of West Vancouver Fire and Rescue, punctuated his national championship win by jumping into a pool. It wasn't a celebration though - it was to save a drowning five-year-old girl as well as her seven-year-old brother who dove in to try to help. Cary heard cries for help as he arrived at the hotel he was staying at during the championships.
"I could actually see the grandmother yelling and calling for help," Cary recalls. "I ran through the door, jumped in the pool and grabbed the little girl.. .. Little did I know that her brother was also in the pool. He tried to save her, and he grabbed on to me. I hauled both the kids out."
Kaila says that's one feat she hopefully won't have to match any time soon.
"Jumping in pools, saving people - I don't know," she says with a laugh. "That was pretty insane. Classic firefighter."
She may not be risking her life to save drowning children, but Kaila says she is proud to follow in her father's athletic footsteps. On top of his recent spin as a top lawn bowler, Cary also has high-level hockey and fastpitch on his resumé.
"It's super important to me," says Kaila. "Having a parent that is such a role model in that way is pretty awesome, something to look up to."
