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Christian Friesen

From Be The Worst, to Be The Best!

Chris’ buds were battling it out on the lacrosse floor this weekend.

Of course they were!  The first weekend of real summer weather and all the lacrosse guys are inside in a sweaty arena.  As soon as the rain starts to fall, they’ll be back outside for field lacrosse.  And that’s how it goes!

Langley has battled to become a member of the lacrosse elite and this weekend having their Intermediate A (ages 17-18) team challenging for a provincial medal was a very good thing.

Fast forward.  After an excellent tournament, the Thunder are in the Bronze medal game.  They lose, they get nothing.  Near the beginning of the game the Richmond team calls for an equipment check on one of Langley’s top players, James Rahe.  They toss him out of the game for illegal equipment.  Guess what was illegal?  He was wearing one of Chris’ memorial wristbands!!

I simply couldn’t write this blog yesterday.

The words would have been much sharper.

At this point I’m not going to spend too much time on the decision, who made it and what their motivation was.   That call took a star player off the floor and ruined his chance to play in this Provincial bronze medal final.

That’s a Be The Worst moment.

Now…this story has a Be The Best moment too.

Langley was down by a goal with 30 seconds to go in the game.

A certain Mr. Danny Spady, a defensive specialist and one year younger than Chris, had the ball.  Chris loved playing with Danny.  He is a tenacious, aggressive, hard-working, never-quit kid….and he doesn’t score that much!  As was relayed to me he drove down the floor with the passion and aggression that only comes from playing for a cause.

Yes…the decision by the opposing coaching staff and the officials gave the boys just the extra cause they needed yesterday.

You take a guy off the floor for wearing Chris’ wristband…look out…the motivation just got cranked.

Danny’s goal pushed the game into overtime and Brett Dobray displayed his amazing hands and touch with I believe both goals which pushed Langley into the overtime lead (2-1) and sealed the deal for the Bronze Medal.

What a story.

Now…for the boys on Richmond, it was obviously not their call.  That responsibility lies directly with their coach and the officials and for the love of the game, I hope that kind of decision making is reviewed by the league.  For the boys themselves, Richmond had a great season and I wish them all the best with their next steps in lacrosse and life.

In life we know we can’t change what happened.  But what do we know? WE ARE IN CHARGE OF OUR NEXT DECISION!!  We can be in charge of our next shift.  Our next shot.  Our next thought process.

As I texted one of Langley’s players when I heard this news, I’m sure Chris had a few things to say about the incident yesterday from his ‘season ticket cloud seats’ and I know that he is with you all….always!!

Great job Langley.

Way to turn a negative into an amazing BE THE BEST moment.

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Be The Best.

Hope is an action word.

What is hope?

It’s a noun.

It’s a verb.

It’s actually both.

That being said, any way you use it, I’ll argue that hope is an action word.

What do I mean?

Hope may be a state of mind or the expression of a state of being but when hope is combined with action…it truly is an action word.  I hope for a great future.  How am I making that future happen?

This past weekend, a trail on private land was dedicated to Chris’ memory.

The name of the trail…Hope Trail.

Totally love it.

Chris’ story is one of sadness sure…but it is also oozing with hope.

This trail leading down from a beautiful Valley property to the river below is not for the timid.  It’s a tough trail fit for a hard training athlete doing the equivalent of bleacher runs as Chris would do many times.

What is hope?  Hope is a massive tree crashing down in a windstorm and then the thought, desire and action to cut the barrier in pieces to get the trail through.  Hope is not seeing a cliff, but seeing a trail…

Steve addresses the assembled at the trail dedication...(ok, I think he was telling a joke)

Hope Trail.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Many thanks to Steve and Evy Klassen (Steve spoke at Chris’ funeral) and their family for this amazing remembrance for Chris.

Be The Best!

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Be The Best.

The gang rolls in.

After a number of weeks of renovations, the ping pong ‘arena’ recently re-opened in the basement.

That means some ping pong must be played.

Tonight we had some of the old Brookswood gang over.  Great to see Allan, Beau, Cam and Marshall.

I don’t know if I’m just getting shorter…but these guys are definitely getting taller as we approach the 1/3 mark of their grad year.

Of course we think about what this grad year would have been like with Chris…for Chris and for us.  Looking forward to the future.  US colleges? SFU? Lacrosse scholarships?

Those questions will never be answered…and it’s hard.

That being said, it’s fantastic to hear the thoughts, dreams and plans of these young men and others like them as they prepare for their next steps.  Not that everything is clear yet.  My goodness…I had no idea what to do after Grade 12…but you start making decisions, see where that leads and make another decision and keep moving forward.

To everyone I would encourage you that things start with dreams.  Action (ie simple decisions) turn dreams into goals and goals into measurable tasks…usually on a daily and most certainly weekly basis.

Allan picked up his Chris Friesen memorial lacrosse shafts tonight and you see me and the guys in the pics below.  Thanks to Max for being the photographer tonight!

Remember…it’s ok to not know where you’re exactly going.  You just want to keep your feet moving.

THAT is advice that we are aiming to live every single day.

Great to see part of the Gang tonight!

Allan, Marshall, me, Beau and Cam.

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Be The Best.

Chris scores a goal!

During last week’s Midget Lacrosse Nationals it reminded me of Chris at the 2007 Bantam Box Lacrosse Nationals in Ontario.

btw, Team BC lost in their bronze medal bid this past Friday night.  A tough way to end after that epic battle with Ontario to beat them in the tournament round.  From Ontario’s perspective, I’m betting they had a little payback on their minds and with BC having to play an extra game Friday morning, they took advantage.  All that being said, some great lacrosse by all and some great development as players and young men going through all of those emotions and experiences.

Back to 2007.

In order to help with the trip expenses to Ontario, the players were allowed to raise private funds to help make the trip a reality.  I recently uncovered the one-pager that described the program and gave potential donors an idea of who Chris was.

Here is how it opened:

Know many teenagers who write down their goals?

Know many teenagers who then break down their goals into actionable work plans and don’t quit until they’ve made it?

Meet Chris Friesen.

Along with excellent grades, this 14-year-old wrote down a goal of making the top-tier lacrosse team (A1) in Langley.

He served as team captain and the team completed an amazing season in first place heading into the Provincial championships in mid July.

In addition to league play, he was selected to Team Fraser Vally and then to Team BC.   He will be representing our province in Ontario this August.

Chris and buddy Brett celebrate BC’s bronze medal at Nationals in August 2007.
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Specifically, I will always be thankful to my Wardell clients and friends at Mainland Machinery and Sitelines Architecture respectfully, for their major support of Chris during that program.

I’ll never forget Chris writing down that goal (a practice we’ve done as a family at New Years each year).

It was achievable, but a stretch goal for sure.

  1. Goal.
  2. Action plan.
  3. Don’t quit.

I got it son.

I’m listening.

BONUS:

There are over 300 photos on-line of that 2007 trip.  Click here to view.