We spent the weekend at Silver Star in BC’s amazing interior.
If you’ve never been, go. It’s beautiful. For families it’s amazing. Skating ponds, tube town, all levels of boarding and skiing…the works.
Silver Star village centre
Max, his girlfriend Kiera and me spent the day boarding and skiing. After lunch Kiera and Ingrid relaxed at the condo while Max and I explored the mountain.
We went up a lift we loved skiing in the past with Grandpa (my Dad), Chris and Max.
As we sat down, it was just the two of us on a 4 seater chair. I’m not sure why, but I looked up at the chair number. 32.
The numbers 2, 32 and 41 are hugely significant for us.
They are all displayed on his jerseys at home. The number 2 from Langley, 32 from BMS and 41 from the National Team.
Max and I rode that chair 4 more times and the numbers weren’t even close to any of the above.
Fluke? Chance? Just circumstance?
It could be, but these kinds of things happen with the most interesting of timing…and this isn’t the first time.
We ask fewer questions and just accept that in those moments we connect with Chris in a special way.
In this case, I couldn’t help but shoot some video.
Christian, we loved boarding and skiing with you yesterday, even if it was a bit different than before!
Once you get involved with any kind of serious lacrosse in the Valley, you’ll soon learn that the Bull family is very well represented and have deep roots in the community and a passion and skill for the game that is in the blood.
Chris played with Brandon Bull, Ashley’s brother, Riley Brown, Ashley’s cousin, and was coached by Dennis Bull (dad) and Harvey Bull (grandpa). See what I mean? We saw Ashley at the rink all the time with stick in hand.
To be named to the National Team for Canada at the U19 level is unbelievable enough. To do it when you’re two and three years younger than most of the players is simply incredible.
It’s completely BE THE BEST!!!
There is a great story about Ashley in the Langley Times which is worth the read.
Here’s an excerpt:
The characteristics some of her coaches used to describe her — tenacious, fearless, determined and not afraid to mix it up — are fitting of her surname.
Coaches were describing Ashley Bull, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Walnut Grove Secondary.
“She is best described as fearless,” said former coach Sean Beasley. “Not too many girls find themselves on the lacrosse floor with male players, but she had no fear.”
I love the passion, dedication and focus that Ashley embodied as she pushed towards her dreams.
The Team Canada coaches called her a sponge.
They weren’t saying that because she’s soft…she’s one of the toughest players around and played with all-boys teams for many years holding her own and more often than not being one of the top players on the floor regardless of gender.
No, the coaches called her a sponge because of her desire and willingness to soak up information, to get better, to continually learn to BE THE BEST.
Congrats Ashley.
You’ve made your family, your town, your province and the lacrosse community very proud. We know you’ll make Canada proud too. Go get em!
AC (Auntie Cathy, aka Cathy AJ Hardy) was in the remote Mission studio of Philip Janz doing some vocal tracks for her upcoming release.
She invited me to drop by and Philip was gracious to let me take a few pics and shoot a little vid.
Philip is a very accomplished musician and producer in the gospel genre and beyond with awards he probably won’t tell you about, but you can read about them on the web!
I love music and the process of creating.
What makes Philip so unique is the ability to really understand music from a musical perspective and also be a technical master. Watching him work was very interesting. He was a blend of technician, music coach, manager and orchestra leader. He knew what small part he wanted recorded and/or changed and then had a vision of how that would affect the whole piece. You need a lot of vision and skill to do that as well as get the best from the musician or vocalist you are working with.
It was as if Philip was seeing everything through his ears if that makes any sense. The part I like most in the vid is seeing him twirl his pen as he listens to Cathy lay down a vocal track. He’s feeling every note and nuance making decisions on timing, pitch and understanding of how he’ll use that piece of the puzzle to help Cathy tell her story. Very cool.
Talk about Be The Best.
Oh yah…AC is coming out with a new album. That is VERY COOL too. There are some fun songs. There are some DEEP songs. There are some songs sung with Chris is mind.
I loved what I heard…and I can’t wait.
Here’s a very little sneak peek inside the work of a master producer and a pretty cool musician…(yah, that’s high praise coming from an older brother…)
The other thing to watch for in the vid is the emotion that comes through music. Is it possible to be happy and sad at the same time? Is it possible to be feeling the deepest emotions of loss yet feel the powerful strength of hope for the future? Yup.
All day long the texts, emails and comments kept rolling in.
We appreciate everything and all of those thoughts and prayers!
The Brookswood gang dropped by in the late afternoon and we had a very unique opportunity to toast Chris.
As I’ve mentioned before, Chris had the ability to eat yogurt without a spoon. He would sort of squish the bottom of the yogurt cup and slurp and drink the yogurt, usually in one ‘fluid’ motion.
We know there are young readers of this blog and as parents we’re not endorsing this form of yogurt consumption! We were just happy Chris and Max would pound back yogurt instead of cake.
In this picture you can see the toast just getting underway. Including yours truly taking the picture, that was an even dozen toasting Chris with a yogurt salute and down the hatch it went.
Ingrid was left wondering how it could be done as she ended up with yogurt in a few places on her face. I know Chris had a laugh at (or with) all of us!
What an amazing day it was.
I’ve got a few more stories to tell you so tune in tomorrow!
We ended the day knowing that Chris would be very, very happy…and we were too. As tough as the day was, it was really incredible.
So many people have told us or emailed us about how they thought of us over Christmas.
I know so many more think of us often and are thinking of us now as we mark what would have been Chris’ 18th birthday tomorrow even if they don’t or can’t tell us.
We are exactly the same way.
We’ve been following the story of the Berg family in Mission and Gillian Berg’s amazing strength and very real highs and lows as she takes care of her family and slowly moves forward with each day.
The reason I say we are the same is that our hearts go out to Gillian and her family, but we don’t know them personally. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, but we haven’t verbalized that to them. For now we will support by reading, caring and praying. Just as we’ve done, she can see by the blog views how so many people are supporting them.
We know that’s what people do for us all the time.
As we approach Chris’ birthday tomorrow, we don’t have any big public events happening. A few of his school buds will drop by. As a family, we’ll head to our favourite steakhouse for a big steak dinner and piece of ice cream cake. Chris was a fitness and health food fanatic, but he would eat steak and ice cream cake…and we’ll have some in his honour tomorrow night.
So the question is always, what can I do? What should I do? I don’t know them very well, or even if I do, I’m not sure what to do.
Here’s the solution.
We’d ask everyone who reads this blog to do some little thing in honour of Chris tomorrow.
Here’s a few ideas.
1. push-ups – even doing one or two in his name would be cool
2. make a toast when you have dinner
3. hug your kids
4. hug your parents
5. eat some yogurt (he would eat probably 4-6 per day)
6. wish him a happy birthday verbally
7. cook some eggs (yep…he ate a LOT of eggs)
There’s a few ways.
I’m sure you can think of more.
Drop us a comment if you want to share.
If you don’t, we totally get it and we want to say thank you for the continued support.
18. Every moment we shared on this earth and our joint hope for the future
What would be Chris’ eighteenth birthday will be celebrated this Friday, January 14.
The grief rolls in like waves on a Hawaiian North Shore surf. It is fierce and beautiful at the same time. We know that the level of pain can only exist because of the depth of love.
I’ve asked my Dad if he wanted to jot a few thoughts down for the blog from time to time. I think it’s a beautiful tribute to his grandson and Faith in general. Keep rockin it Dad! Heavy…and good. Thanks.
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Unspeakable! This word occurs only three times in the New Testament, and could also be rendered as indescribable (NKJ), or inexpressible.
I was thinking of this word as I thought of Chris.
All of the words spoken or sung or written since that dark day of March 25, 2010 cannot adequately express what is in our hearts: there is something inexpressible here.
The raw emotions, the feelings, the conflicting thoughts cry out for resolution, but there is no resolution.
The thoughts of our hearts end with questions rather than periods; they are questions that have no answers.
The trauma of all that happened has left us dangling in space.
We are on the wrong side of the door of a mystery, of something inexpressible.
A human life is inexpressible.
Chris’s life was and is inexpressible.
The Christ-gift that came at Christmas is declared to be God’s unspeakable gift.
(2 Corinthians 9: 15)
This Christ, the ultimate Creator of life, declares all of our lives invaluable.
The Christ presides over Chris’ life even now, in a divine continuum, even while we mourn Chris’ departure from us.
The indescribable Christ weeps with us now in our pain, and desires to lead us through the valley of the shadow until we too shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Over Christmas I had a bit more time to look at some history and came across this article featuring a quote from Chris. I love the comments about team.
Funny story leading up to this tournie. The team was raising funds to go to Calgary and had received the ‘ok’ to stand in front of certain liquor stores with jerseys on and request donations via a donation bucket. (don’t ask why…it was easier than a car wash I guess…!)
Anyways, Chris and his buddy Brett Dobray were at a store and I noticed that they would get some people stopping and donating, but many would pass on by. That is to be expected. Lacrosse is a growing sport and people didn’t have an emotional connection as they might with hockey.
I had a marketing thought.
I made up some signs that said, ‘help us beat Calgary’ and ‘we’ll bodycheck an Albertan for $10’. You should have seen the difference! People were stopping….and donating and donating some more. It was incredible.
What was the difference?
All of a sudden there was an emotional connection. In BC, people love (usually in good nature) to bash Albertans! Hey, when we’re out of the country we’re all brothers and sisters! It’s like a brotherly competition…just watch the Canucks and Calgary or Edmonton and you get the rivalry. It was just amazing to see people engage emotionally and then with their wallets as they connected with the BC vs Alberta challenge. All of a sudden they felt like THEY were going to be playing simply by donating $10 or $20 bucks.
The boys loved that story and that experience…seeing how words and approach could make such a difference.
Secondly, those boys DID play for everyone of those donors and played their hearts out, winning gold, with 6 members of that team representing BC nationally later that summer.
Here’s the full story:
July 2007
The Langley Thunder Bantam A1’s traveled to Calgary over the Canada Day weekend. Forget bull riding at the Stampede, they were there for some hard hitting, fast paced box lacrosse action. Perhaps the actual thunder storm on Saturday night was a good omen for the Thunder, as the young men (just completed grade seven and eight) took on competition from all over Western Canada.
Saturday match-ups had the squad take on the Sabrecats from Calgary beating them 11-3 with Adam Gallen earning game MVP for a strong offensive performance. The Thunder continued by defeating Saskatchewan’s provincial team in the afternoon game by a score of 9-2 led by game MVP goaltender Ryley Brown who’s saves propelled the offensive charge and final decisive score.
Sunday’s games featured a strong Red Deer team with Langley prevailing by a score of 7-5. Game MVP Chris Friesen had a strong defensive showing against a physical opponent. In the afternoon game, Langley fell behind a skilled Calgary Axeman team, but rallied from a 3 goal deficit to chop the tournament defending champion Axeman 10-7. A brilliant goal and full game hustle earned Will Vandenhooven the game MVP. Having gone 4-0 in tournament play, the Thunder headed into the gold medal game against an all-star team from Calgary called the Hornets.
The game lived up to the hype with the first period ending tied at zero. The Hornets came out stinging in the 2nd period and opened up a 2-1 lead with two Langley players in the sin bin with the period ending. The Hornets capitalized on the 2-man advantage at the beginning of the 3rd by netting a goal and opening a two-goal lead. If it were not for the heroics of Ryley Brown, the Thunder goalie, the score may have been much higher. Instead of folding their tents however, the Thunder rallied led by team wide explosive defensive performance leading to goals by Brett Dobray and Michael Messenger. With the game tied Adam Gallen scored a timely goal with 1 second left on the shot clock. Langley then iced the cake with a massive defensive effort during pure pandemonium breaking in the Thunder zone. With the Hornet goalie pulled for an extra attacker Brett Dobray flew down the floor with two Hornets all over him and scored a diving empty netter for a final score of 5-3 for the Thunder.
Chris Friesen, the team captain stated, “We have been working hard at team play. Working for each other and working together. I think we did that throughout this tournament and the results we achieved were excellent”.
“I’m proud of each member of this squad. Everyone played hard and played together”, added Coach Sean Beasley.
Next up for the team is the Provincial Championships hosted in Langley this year which will be held July 18-22.
Six members of the Langley Thunder Bantam A1 team will also be representing BC in the National Tournament in August in Ontario.
I talked to the crew and they mentioned they were having a Christmas Tree chipping event this weekend at Langley’s Willowbrook Mall. (Jan 8 and 9, 9am-3pm)
As much as we look ahead and live for tomorrow, there are still times to reflect on history.
I stumbled across some pictures from Chris and the Bantam Box Lacrosse squad from BC as they represented the Province so admirably in August of 2007.
I had written updates for the BC Lacrosse magazine and this was my final piece summarizing the tournament.
In that final game Chris played the game of his life to that point, being a physical presence that helped BC clinch the Bronze medal in a heavyweight showdown with Alberta. (ok, as heavyweight as 14 year olds can be…which is actually quite heavy…!)
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Chris with good bud Brett Dobray
The journey for the Bantam BC boys began months ago. There were regional selection camps. There was the Team BC final selection camp. For those chosen to represent BC, a number of weekends were spent training for the national championships.
The 22 lacrosse players, along with coaches and entourage, jetted out of Vancouver on Thursday, August 2. After spending 2 days in Peterborough, Ontario for a conditioning camp, the team traveled to the dorms at Durham College in Oshawa, which would be home for the next week.
On Sunday, August 5th, the highlight of the day was the opening ceremonies at the Iroquois Park Sports Centre, touted as Canada’s largest municipal sports centre.
The teams were cheered on by enthusiastic supporters as they entered the arena. Team BC looked strongly West Coast in their multi-blue and gold jerseys proudly showing the mountains and a west coast ‘feel’.
Chris with Mr. Will VH
It felt like every team would be immediately ready to set up the nets and get playing, but there was one more night to go.
On Monday morning, seeing the Team BC players hit the floor in the warm-up of game one against Manitoba produced chills. “Those jerseys look awesome”, whispered one onlooker from an opposing team to his buddy. His friend couldn’t say anything. They were. And as good as the uniforms looked, Bantam Team BC looked even better in them. This was the first official game they had played together and the game ended with a score of 16-1 for the BC crew.
Team BC played Saskatchewan Monday afternoon which was a hard hitting matinee with both teams making their opponents pay the price to get to the net. Team BC finished the game strong with a final score of 10-2.
With two solid first-day games under their collective belts, rest was the top priority post-game, with a major test against Ontario on Tuesday.
Monday’s muggy weather made the arenas the equivalent of being in a steam room with a parka on and you could add an additional 10 degrees on the floor itself. The event staff could not operate the exhaust fans either, explaining that by doing so the draw of air into the building would produce dangerous slippery floor conditions because of the moist, humid conditions outside.
Tuesday’s conditions improved somewhat in the morning with overcast skies and less humidity allowing the exhaust fans to run.
Team Ontario plays big and they came out hitting and highly aggressive. Team BC took the first period to adjust and came back hard in the second with an exceptional effort but the spirited affair ended with a 5-2 loss for BC.
Team Ontario looked strong, but Team BC was immediately hungry to play again. They didn’t have long to wait as Nova Scotia was the challenger in the 6:30pm game. Team BC jumped to an early lead and dominated the run of the play. The final score was BC 10 and Nova Scotia 2.
Wednesday was a rest day.
Thursday’s results were not what Team BC would have wanted. The morning affair featured a game against a rough and tumble brand of lacrosse from Alberta. The Bantams got behind early and could never completely recover. The game ended in an all-out frenzy with Team BC running out of time to mount a full comeback.
Following a brief lunch break, it was ‘game-on’ with Iroquois Nation. A win in this game meant advancing to the 2 vs. 3 playoff game on Friday with a chance to proceed to the gold medal game on Saturday. A loss in the game would mean a bittersweet day off on Friday with a run at the bronze medal.
Chris gets ready to take on all comers in that familiar defensive stance.
The Iroquois Bantams showed BC and every fan in attendance a little thing or two about lacrosse on Thursday evening. Their passing was quick and rhythmic; almost mesmerizing. Their shooting was beautifully wicked. It was as if the Iroquois were stating, “Don’t forget who invented this game.” The symphony of drive, desire, and stick skills mixed with quiet aggression and flawless execution culminated in a 9-1 win for the Iroquois.
This is not to say that Team BC didn’t show up. They did. They worked hard and at times their hard work was misinterpreted into penalty minutes that ended up putting them in multiple odd man situations.
Following the unexpected day off on Friday, the Bantam squad had one thing and one thing only in their sites on Saturday. The Bronze Medal.
They hit. They ran. They shot. They never gave up. If they wanted to have an excuse to fold their tents, they had one in the first period after out-chancing Alberta but finding themselves down by a couple of goals.
In a battle against a team that plays a mean and physical brand of lacrosse you have to play hard and you have to play smart. Team BC executed their game plan perfectly.
Building on a 2nd period attack that just wouldn’t quit, goals were scored by Wesley Berg, Drew Millikin, Mason Pynn, Steve Ferdinandi and Michael Henry. The final score was Team BC 8 and Alberta 4.
The boy’s elation was palatable. Parents and supporters hugged in the stands. The coaches high-fived each other as the players swarmed their goalie, Ryley Brown, in an embrace of champions.
“I’m glad we got things done”, said a proud Coach Sean Beasley. Getting things done was not an easy task. This team could have easily been very down after losing to Alberta and Team Iroquois on Thursday, but they rallied and came to work on Saturday like a team possessed.
With the Bronze Medals proudly around their necks, the players traded gear with new friends who had been foes and looked forward to the next time they could play for their Province in a National Championship.
The Bantam squad from BC did their province proud and they will inevitably bring back experiences, emotions and skill that will build their club teams and ultimately continue to build the beautiful game of lacrosse.
Be The Best. 