Legion Athletic Camp closes its doors

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This article was published 21/01/2020 (2296 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Legion Athletic Camp at the International Peace Garden has trained its final youngster, but it certainly leaves behind an enduring legacy.

Mike Steeves, who now coaches the Vincent Massey Vikings football program and assists head track and field coach Jason Jones, attended the football camp when he was in school.

“It’s disappointing to know that there isn’t something like that for kids to participate in,” Steeves said. “It’s one of those things where only the elite or the rich get these opportunities now when you have to go to a camp outside the province to get better at a sport when you really had a great opportunity in the province until now.”

The camp first opened in 1962, and has hosted thousands of athletes participating in basketball, cycling, fastball, football, gymnastics, team handball, karate, judo, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, track and field, volleyball, weight lifting and wrestling.

The camp announced the move on its Facebook page earlier this month. Director Andrew Kitchen told the Boissevain Recorder it wasn’t an easy conclusion to reach.

“The decision was made by a board that encompasses some Legion directors, people representing interested parties, and a few coaches,” Kitchen said. “They chose this time due to the rising costs to run the camp and the lack of athletes that were attending. It was very difficult to close the camp, which in my personal opinion is why it took so long to close this year. There were a lot of friendships and personal connections that were tied to the camp, which made it difficult to close for sentimental reasons.”

The news was greeted on Facebook by dozens of former campers and their parents expressing their disappointment and sharing memories.

The camp originally opened for an unusual reason.

With Canadian track and field on the decline in the 1950s, the Royal Canadian Legion hired British national coach Geoff Dyson to start fresh. Along with Winnipeg high school phys-ed teachers George Phillips and Fred Taylor, both of whom coached track, it was decided the sport needed a permanent summer base away from the distractions of the city.

The International Music Camp was already running at Peace Garden with dormitories and other facilities, so it was a natural fit.

In the first year, 80 boys attended one week and 80 girls the next week: They were put through their paces by four coaches.

Jones, whose daughter Cassidy recently attended the camp, noted a number of his track athletes also attended. The reaction was invariably the same upon their return.

“They met great coaches and it was just a different experience,” Jones said. “It was a week away from their parents and they were hanging out with like-minded kids who just want to go and have fun during the summer and experience a little higher level of track and field.”

Steeves said that in the days long before the Westman Youth Football Association started up, it was the solitary place a youngster could brush up on his skills prior to playing high school football or after his career kicked off.

“It was incredible for us in Brandon,” Steeves said. “We didn’t have youth football so for us it was an opportunity to get some football that we weren’t getting until we got to high school. It was a great way to meet the coaches, who were from the Winnipeg area, so they brought a lot of their Winnipeg players with them. It got us an opportunity to meet guys from different teams and it was a really neat way to be exposed to football.”

Jones said he would always encourage his Massey athletes to sign up for the camp when the flyer came his way every year. But he understands the competing interests that now tug at the time and attention of young people.

“I don’t there’s such a thing as a lazy teenager anymore,” Jones said. “I think kids are so busy and under a lot of pressure, especially if you’re a pretty good athlete. Everybody is pulling you in six different directions. They want you on their soccer team and on their ringette team and volleyball and everything like that.

“Kids are now having to pick and choose and specialize a little more.”

Steeves said the Legion Athletic Camp, and the opportunity it provided, will be sorely missed. He said sports can be very important to teenagers.

“It brings people together with a common thread,” Steeves said. “We miss those opportunities in sports when you lose these opportunities. I’m biased a bit but there’s nothing better for a kid’s development than to be on a team. The character you can build, the discipline you learn from it, it’s the wins and losses, it’s the sacrificing one’s time and energy for a common goal. We’re losing a little bit of that more and more as sports becomes harder to play because it is such a huge financial burden to families.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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