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Students persevere through winter storm to gain provincial glory

It was a weather system to curse on many counts, with heavy snow and freezing rain grounding people at home, ruining farmers’ harvest, cancelling weekend events, and for one small school community, threatening to destroy a 10-year legacy and point of
Mallaig School students claimed their school’s 10th provincial banner at cross-country provincials, held in Cochrane last Saturday.
Mallaig School students claimed their school’s 10th provincial banner at cross-country provincials, held in Cochrane last Saturday.

It was a weather system to curse on many counts, with heavy snow and freezing rain grounding people at home, ruining farmers’ harvest, cancelling weekend events, and for one small school community, threatening to destroy a 10-year legacy and point of pride for students as provincial cross-country champions.

Ecole Mallaig School students had won the provincial banner for nine years in a row, and after coming in first at zones the week before, expectations were high for the group of 16 young students to reclaim the success seen by their peers and brothers and sisters before them.

“We did not want to be the team to lose it,” said Grade 12 student Brooke Corbiere, who had been part of the winning cross-country squad in the two previous years. While that benchmark put a pressure on the kids to keep winning, she noted, “It’s a good pressure, because it makes you run harder and train harder.”

With those expectations, the kids were ready to board a bus and head to Cochrane early on Friday in advance of Saturday’s competition, and were loaded up when the foul blast of winter weather brought its foot down on their aspirations.

As kids sat waiting on the bus, Principal Tom Whitfield and coach Claude Cote delivered the news the division had decided that schools should not be transporting students to provincials, given the road conditions.

The 16 students were in total disbelief at the news.

“We were all so disappointed – we almost didn’t want to believe it,” said Brooke.

Part of the disappointment was the legacy aspect, as Grade 11 student Kale Seguin noted “a lot of the kids on the team had older siblings that took a part in the previous nine banners.”

Some of the kids began making other plans for the weekend, but others were not prepared to let the dream die.

Later that afternoon, Brooke found out that the school’s biggest 1A competitor, the Parkland Immanuel Christian School (PICS) out of Edmonton, would only have had three runners competing to Mallaig’s 16.

Those three runners were bound to be good competitors and place high, but Brooke realized, ‘Our 16 could definitely take their three . . . we could have had a good shot at the banner.’

She texted Kale to tell him just that, who in turn spoke to his father, who said he would be willing to drive them, if need be.

“You always think of safety first,” said Claude Seguin. However, he said he and the other parents knew how much it would mean to the kids to go, even if it meant making a 14-hour odyssey to Cochrane and back in one day.

Since the parents knew that this wouldn’t be a school-sanctioned trip, they knew they would have to take the place of the team’s coach as well.

“As parents, we had to be there to support them, and be there to cheer them on.”

After much discussion and mounting excitement, 14 out of the 16 runners decided they would be able to make the trip by leaving first thing the next morning, with parents Laurier Feland and Dave Dechaine agreeing to join Claude to drive the students from Mallaig, St. Lina and St. Vincent.

“Next thing we knew, we were waking up at 4 a.m. to go to Cochrane,” said Kale.

Coach Cote was kept in the loop by a continuously buzzing cell phone. While he couldn’t join the trip, he was thrilled by the kids’ commitment, and their parents’ support to make it happen.

“I can’t believe it - I guess I just have a wonderful group of parents in Mallaig, with the support they brought to them,” he said.

Even while their coach wasn’t with them, both Kale and Brooke noted the team wanted to do him proud by bringing home the banner.

“We wanted to do it for Mr. Cote, because we knew he wanted to be there if he could. That was a huge thing too,” said Brooke.

After getting to Cochrane, the students managed to gain a lead of 120 points over PICS heading into the final run. PICS had one really strong runner that was sure to place in the top 30, but with Mallaig having four girls in the final race, they ended up winning by the same margin of 120 points, according to Brooke.

“It really took all our runners to take the banner,” said Kale, with Brooke agreeing it was a total team effort. While running is an individual sport, winning the banner is a victory for the team and the school as a whole, both said.

“Within 24 hours, we went from being so heartbroken we weren’t getting the banner to coming home with it. It was pretty incredible,” said Brooke.

“We were all pretty psyched. It was a major accomplishment for our school, especially because we are a small school. We take a lot of pride in that,” said Kale.

Coach Cote and the kids gave credit to their parents for their support, for taking the kids on the 14-hour journey to bring home the banner.

“Without them, we couldn’t have made this happen,” said Kale.

But to Seguin, it’s just what parents do, and will keep doing for their kids.

“Our parents always step up,” said Seguin. “That’s what drives our sports community, the support of the parents and the drive of the kids.”

And so Mallaig’s cross-country streak remains alive, as does the history of the school’s success in the sport, says Cote, who adds –

“I look forward to coaching them next year and keeping the history going.”

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