Whether on the rugby field, the basketball court or on a peace keeping mission, Lindsay Gidney has always placed the highest value on team.
The 52-year-old operations coordinator at Ridley Terminal has been a member of the Prince Rupert Seamen rugby team for five years, but before then, he served as a member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry for more than eight years.
During that time, he was deployed in Africa and Europe, playing sports at every stop along the way. No matter where he was, Gidney has always valued the bonds he formed with his teammates on and off the field.
“Whether you’re in a foxhole, a trench or out there on the pitch, you’re in a battle fighting for the player beside you, or the soldier beside you,” he said. “It’s about not giving up because your teammate needs you.”
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Gidney originally hails from the small fishing town of Digby in southwest Nova Scotia, where he was taken onto boats to ply the family trade from an early age.
Being from a small community, Gidney didn’t have access to sports when he was young, and didn’t play his first organized team sport until he was a senior in high school.
“I played basketball in my final years,” he said. “My cousins played, and some of the other guys looked like they were having fun with it so I tried it out.”
Gidney played the forward position, and while he said he wasn’t the best player, he enjoyed the team camaraderie.
After graduating from high school, Gidney joined the armed forces. He said it was a decision he had been contemplating for a long time, and was excited about seeing a different part of the country.
“It was a way to get out of a small town,” he said. “I signed up when I was 17 and the first opportunity I had, I was gone.”
Gidney completed his basic training at the Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis in 1988 before joining the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), which was located in Wainwright, Alberta. Away from his home for the first time, Gidney said he didn’t have time to think about his changing circumstances because of the severity of his training.
“It’s what you’d expect, there was lots of running, lots of carrying packs and lots of digging trenches,” he said. “Rain or shine.
“Cold as well.”
The infantry practiced shooting rifles, machine guns and anti-tank weapons. The drilling was repeated until the recruits were deemed good enough to go into the field.
“We had to be disciplined,” said Gidney. “We had to follow orders quickly and snap to attention.”
After completing his training, Gidney was sent to his first posting in Victoria, B.C. with the infantry’s third battalion. It was there he was introduced to broomball, a hybrid-cross between hockey and lacrosse played on ice. Members of the battalion would walk to the local arena where they would put on the spongy shoes worn in the game and play.
“Anyone who wasn’t good enough to play on the battalion hockey team played broomball,” said Gidney with a laugh.
During his years in Victoria, Gidney was deployed abroad on several peace keeping missions. At each stop, he always found a way to play a sport. In 1988, he played volleyball in Cyprus while on a mission to hold a static line between the two opposing forces.
In 1989 and 1990, he served as a member of a logistical battalion in Africa, and played soccer. In 1994, he was a part of the peace-keeping force deployed to Bosnia where he played road hockey.
Gidney said seeing all the different contingents playing sports together and interacting outside the context of their mission was a wonderful experience. He also gained a greater appreciation for the stability he enjoyed as a Canadian.
“A kid can go to a rink, a pool, a field or a pitch anytime here and try out any sport they want,” he said. “They don’t have to go looking for a place.”
Gidney eventually left the military in 1995, moving to Prince George where he worked as a conductor for CN Rail before taking on a management position as a train master.
Over the next 17 years he worked in Prince George, Fort Nelson and Chetwynd before eventually coming to Prince Rupert. Once again, he played in sports along every stop, joining hockey and softball teams in Prince George and competing in the fire fighter combat challenge in Fort Nelson.
“It’s the toughest two minutes in sports,” he said.
It wasn’t until he arrived in Prince Rupert that Gidney was introduced to rugby, a game he has played for the past five years. He was picking up his son Jonah from a high school practice, and the team’s coach told him the local men’s team was looking for extra players. Gidney decided to give the game a try, and went to a practice.
“I just remembered how physically tired I was after completing that first practice,” he said. “I wondered how I could have let myself get so out of shape.”
Despite some of the predictable difficulties that came along with being a 48-year-old rookie playing rugby for the first time, Gidney was once again drawn to the team aspect of the game and continued to play.
“When you’re in a tough game, you’re beaten and physically spent, but you have to keep going,” he said. “All the attributes of soldiering you see in rugby players.”
Gidney continues to play, but said he knows there will eventually come a time when his playing days are behind him. In addition to playing, he works to help the team fundraise to bring Team Canada players to Prince Rupert to coach the players through a program called Thunder Rugby. He said he hopes that he can help to promote the same love of team he developed in his journey in younger players.
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“It’s teamwork, it’s individual skill that benefit them as well as self-confidence,” he said. “When they get their first few passes, the smiles on their faces and the joy is great to see.”
matthew.allen@thenorthernview.com
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