14 Wing sports awards highlight year’s best
“Mostly retired” elite athlete James Peppard discovered the secret to aging in sports over the course of his impressive competitive career, a secret he shared as guest speaker at the June 4 14 Wing Greenwood Personnel Support Programs annual sports awards breakfast.
Peppard’s high school years were spent participating in a variety of athletics, cultivating a passion for the game that led him to earn a degree in physical education at Acadia University, while competing on both the hockey and football teams.
“I love the competition. Everyone in this room loves to compete, and that burns the fire in us and brings out our best,” said Peppard. “There’s a strong desire to improve, too, that burns inside us.”
This fire fueled Peppard’s pursuit of rugby after university. In 1993, his team won the rugby world indoor championships and, in 1998, he earned a place on the Nova Scotia team for the Canadian Rugby Super League and the All-Canadian Rugby team.
“There’s probably people in this room that are just blessed with God-given talent, they’re going to compete at a high level with minimum training; I wasn’t one of those,” Peppard said. “I was a good athlete but, if you want to pick one thing I was good at, it was the grind. I could grind, and I trained through pain. I could get an injury and I could do everything else around that injury so that I kept training.”
Moving through those injuries can be particularly challenging for athletes, Peppard said.
“Injuries happen, right? You hurt something, you dislocate something, you wake up and people are looking down at you. That happens; that’s sports. It’s the rehab that’s tough, you know, it’s not the injury itself. It’s the mental drain of getting back to where you were that’s tough,” he said.
He developed a habit of transitioning his training throughout the year to allow his body to heal and become stronger.
“These adjustments in training are what you have to make on a regular basis to keep yourself fit and to be competitive with the best. If you ignore that, slowly your performance declines, and you’ve had a very short, high-end competitive career.”
Aging, he said, is no different.
“Those adjustments allow you to physically age in the way you want. If you don’t make attempts to adjust your training, then you’ll age quickly.”
He himself transitioned from rugby to weight lifting, inspired by his uncle, Herb Peppard, a Second World War veteran who served in the Canada-USA First Special Service Force “Devil’s Brigade” and retired to become a powerlifting enthusiast, earning the title of Nova Scotia Masters Bodybuilding Champion twice – at ages 63 and 68, as well as a place in the Colchester Sport Hall of Fame for bodybuilding. James Peppard’s free lifting won him several titles of his own, including the 2003 All Strength Challenge Strongest Man in Canada, and ninth Strongest Man in the World.
“When you get out of competitive sports, it’s kind of tough, because you’re missing the jolt from when you win something, or you’re on a team that wins something. That very special feeling you get from winning is hard to replace. It is. You fill it with other things but, for some people, unfortunately, it’s very negative for them.”
Peppard was able to find that missing “jolt” again through the coaching and mentoring of other young athletes, and he encourages his peers to do the same.
“Coaching is an important way to fill that gap. You’ve worked hard, you’ve developed a knowledge base for your sport, you’ve developed techniques and the ability to grind. You can share those with someone. You pick a few people that you share that with, and you train with them, and you work hard and, when they win something, you get that jolt back.”
And the best part about sharing that space in the sport you love with someone new, he said, is to then see the people you trained turn around and share their experience and knowledge with somebody else.
“The feeling that you get knowing that you’re leaving things a little better, it’s fantastic. It really is. So that’s my secret, that’s what I’m leaving the 14 Wing group of athletes with. Thanks for letting me share your space.”
14 Wing Greenwood Commander Colonel Jeff Davis thanked Peppard for his inspirational story and commended him on his dedication to both self-improvement and the mentoring of peers.
“Jamie brought to light why we love sports: the competition, the dedication we give from our lives, the disciplines that we have. He also highlighted, though, what sports is. That dedication Jamie spoke of where you take that experience, you go back, train harder; you seek coaching and mentoring, and you get better – it’s what’s key, and it’s our way to challenge ourselves to do better and to succeed in the future,” Davis said.
“Hugely important and hugely relatable to what we do in these uniforms on a day-to-day basis. The things that we get from team sports, individual sports – to challenge each other and competing at a high level – is what this organization is all about.”
Davis announced the presentation of a Special Edition Royal Canadian Air Force Centennial Coin to Warrant Officer Alain Chalifoux for his years of sports volunteerism, both at work and in the community’s schools. Greenwood was provided seven coins to present to deserving members who have had an impact in the Royal Canadian Air Force and on the wing. Chalifoux’s coin was the first to be awarded in Greenwood.
“When I think back to Jamie’s words on coaching and mentoring, that’s what I see Warrant Chalifoux doing now as well: coaching young people, making them better, challenging them to get everything they can out of themselves – for themselves and for their teams. It’s for that determination, that dedication, that desire to make the community we live in better; that 14 Wing wanted to recognize Alain Chalifoux,” said Davis.
14 Wing Greenwood sports awards nominees (winners in bold)
Female Athlete of the Year: Private Anais Messier, Warrant Office Amanda Jardine, Master Corporal Sandra McLean, Corporal Brandi Weibel
Male Athlete of the Year: Lieutenant Jonathon Wilson, Master Corporal Edrian Vlaar, Master Warrant Officer Andrew Grove, Master Corporal Wesle Aucoin, Warrant Officer Pier-Olivier Poulin, Sergeant Jeff Baker
Team of the Year: women’s soccer, Bombers men’s basketball
Official of the Year: Master Warrant Officer Greg Arsenault, Master Corporal Yannick Gagnon
Coach of the Year: Alyssa DeAdder, Chief Warrant Officer David McDowell
Volunteer of the Year: Corporal Brandi Weibel, Sergeant Wayne Jones
Leadership Award: Corporal Brandi Weibel, Master Warrant Officer Andrew Grove, Master Corporal Trisha Chipman
Sportsmanship Award: Master Corporal Trisha Chipman, Corporal Cassidy Durling, Master Corporal Jeff Bond, Corporal Brandi Weibel, Master Corporal Tracy Smith
Most Improved Award (two winners): Corporal Elena Barter, Master Corporal Emily Doyle, PSP Alyssa DeAdder, Corporal Warren Reiger
