My Story – Part I

The Greek

Glen Mulcahy February 11, 2017

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I have been involved in sports my entire life and 3 years ago I was reminded why I played youth, high school, and collegiate sports. Every year I do an informal study with all of my hockey teams asking the players at the beginning of each season why they play hockey. The top answer every year was always “because it’s fun.” In early January 2013, the damage to my right knee (after three surgeries to my left knee) from all the years of playing contact sports, finally resulted in yet another surgery.  Afterwards, the surgeon shared with the me what he had done and stated it was evident I was a former hockey, football, and rugby player and it would be weeks before I could return to normal activity. A couple of days later while I was icing my knee, I got a call from a friend asking for the contact information of a former work mate. I hobbled to my computer and eventually found it on Facebook. Once I provided the information I hung up and went back to ice my knee until the phone rang again.  I thought it was the same friends again confirming the information but instead it was another friend, John, asking “have you heard about The Greek?” The Greek was the nick name he called my best friend Ari, the gentle giant. I played every sport possible with Ari including football, high school rugby, adult recreation hockey (beer league), baseball, flag football, skiing, golf and even racquetball.  My friend stated that his brother saw a Facebook post that Ari passed away. I was in disbelief and immediately tried to confirm whether it was true. John made some other calls and later informed me that it was indeed my best friend and best man, who had tragically passed away in his sleep from a heart attack. Ironically, although Ari and I had been friends for over 3 decades, we were not friends on Facebook.  We were traditional and either called or visited to stay in touch. I was a mess from the news and was unable to drive on my own so I waited until the next day to go see his family (my second family). When I entered the door his mother (my second Mom) greeted me with a big hug and tears. His father did the same and all other close family members who came to offer their condolences to Ari’s wife, Christina, and their three kids.  I was at the house for hours that day and for the days that followed planning the service. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life was work on Ari’s life story (Greek tradition where the priests deliver the story on behalf of the family) and I spent the better part of the two days writing it with his brother and a close family friend. The result was many tears and much laughter. His story, is very similar to mine on many fronts. He was born and raised in Montreal, and started playing hockey in his youth on outdoor rinks.  He then moved to the Vancouver area, where his parents opened a restaurant and he shifted from winter hockey to playing community football in the fall and rugby in the spring.  It was on those fields that our friendship evolved to 3-decade brotherhood. When we graduated high school, Ari got a partial scholarship to play football for a junior college in Mexi-Cali and he said you should come, try out as a walk-on.  I had already committed to play junior football in the fall locally and started my post secondary education at a college to play rugby in the spring so, regretfully, I declined. Ari and I were able to keep in touch and every year he would come home for Christmas and summer breaks. He would share all his crazy stories and explain what it was like to be in a fraternity, play football and go to college.  I admit that at times I regret I missed out, but I made the decision to stay in Vancouver largely because I had moved so often in my youth until Grade 8. At this point, I could not think of a better city than Vancouver, BC, Canada to reside. I ended up playing U18 rugby and attended the BC summer games after Ari headed to Mexi Cali. Our summer games team won the Gold Medal, which is one of my proudest sports achievements before entering College. Ari was mad because he had skipped a grade and was older than I and did not qualify to go to the games as he loved Rugby as much as I. Ari then went to Kansas following “a girl” to another college where he was offered a half-ride scholarship to play football. She ended up not being THE girl but that’s aside the point. You’re probably wondering what this has to do with why kids play sports?  It has everything to do with it … there is so much more to sports than running drills or winning games.  Many lifelong friendships result from sports, which in turn, become best men or maids of honour at weddings, get invited to their kid’s birthday parties, baptisms or other milestone events. I was completely out of place at all the Greek functions, being a hot-headed Irish boy, but I became a man largely due to his parents, Gus and Helen, who affectionately called me “Malaka” (someone that uses no common sense but in Greek it has an entirely different meaning). Had it not been for that first spring and summer sweating it out on the football or rugby field when we were 14 years old or for all the times going over to Ari’s house, our lifelong friendship would not have evolved. It has been just over 3 years since I contributed to Ari’s life story and sadly attended his service. It is just as hard now to think of losing my best friend as it did then.  Ari was like a brother to me.  The one solace I take is the positive memories of the sports we played and how much fun we had, all the life lessons we learned, and all the values we learned.  Sportsmanship, respect, team work, work ethic, and leadership abilities all blossomed within sports.  These experiences have helped me be a parent, entrepreneur, and become a long-term coach and mentor for both youth athletes and now adult coaches. We had GREAT coaches when I played youth, high school, and collegiate sports and I have no recollection of seeing parents act like they do now in the stands or sidelines screaming at players, coaches or referees.  It was FUN to play organized sports, even more so unorganized street hockey, flag football, rugby or other activities that I played with my best friend, his brothers, and cousins from the Greek community. We literally had the equivalent of two full teams coming out to PLAY whatever sport we opted for on a particular day. Just as the case with many that play youth and high school sports, the majority play until they finish high school, some play collegiately, even fewer play pro.  Most get jobs, married, and have kids where the tables turn for us to pay so our kids can play like we did.  It’s been like that for generation upon generation except this one…. the American Journal of Medicine announced that today’s generation of kids are projected to have a 5 year shorter life expectancy than their parents – the first time EVER in history. At Ari’s service there was over 1000 people from the Greek community that attended, and everyone agreed that “no parent should have to bury their child.”

http://www.designedtomove.org/

Let’s do everything we can so that we can get the 5 years back for our kids.