They smiled, surrounded by proud family and friends and they were humble, as their dedication to sport was recognized by the Quesnel Sports Hall of Fame.
Last Friday, seven new members were inducted into the Quesnel Sports Hall of Fame and five members were recognized for continued achievements.
Sharon Chow, coach of the Quesnel Figure Skating Club, was inducted for her outstanding contribution to athletic development.
Chow, who has been with the QFSC for more than 49 years began coaching skaters when she was still in high school.
“Wow,” Chow said was her initial reaction when given the news she was going to be inducted into the hall of fame.
“It’s special for me because the award will be displayed in the very building I spent half my life.”
When asked if the recognition by the hall of fame ranked higher than her recent success in Skate Canada’s new logo contest, Chow did not hesitate.
“Heaven’s no,” she said with a laugh.
“Kurt Browning [coming to give a one-day seminar in Quesnel] is huge.”
As with all good coaches, Chow dedicates herself to coaching for one simple reason.
“I just love coaching the kids,” she said.
The Quesnel Sports Hall of Fame also recognized Liz-Anne Eyford for her outstanding athletic career in the sport of badminton.
Eyford, who began playing badminton at the age of nine, holds several provincial and national titles, as well as a gold medal for singles, a silver in the team event and bronze for doubles in the 45+ category at the 2002 World Masters Games in Melbourne, Australia.
Eyford is also a nationally certified umpire and referee and has volunteered and officiated at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
A key to her success, Eyford said, was a piece of advice offered by one of her coaches, Gerry Faulkner.
“He told me to take every challenge as an opportunity and every loss has a lesson,” Eyford recounted.
“Those words have echoed often in my mind, as a teenager playing in Nelson all the way to Melbourne during the Master Games.”
Eyford also remembered with fondness, the help she received from people in Quesnel when she organized badminton tournaments, especially the men who let her play against them.
“The people in Quesnel are amazing.”
Also entering the Quesnel Sports Hall of Fame were five athletes and one team.
Shaelynne Macaulay, 13, has been skating for close to seven years.
Macaulay enters the hall of fame in recognition of her first-place finish at the 2010 Pacific Skate Star Skate Championships in the senior women bronze category.
A student at Quesnel junior secondary, Macaulay outskated 17 other competitors to finish in first place.
Kieron Langan stacked up a pile of accomplishments on the biathlon trail last year. Langan won three gold medals at the B.C. Winter Games, finished first in the junior boys six kilometre individual sprint at the Western Canadian Championships, two gold medals, a silver and a bronze at various races during the B.C. Cup season.
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In a different kind of racing, Ryan Appenrodt, a student at Correlieu senior secondary school was inducted to the Quesnel Sports Hall of Fame in recognition of his first-place finish in the Honda CBR 125 Challenge.
Appenrodt took top spot in the national motorcycle racing series with 400 points, 43 ahead of his nearest competitor.
“This is pretty exciting,” a humble Appenrodt said.
“I want to thank Patty Morgan for nominating me.”
Two archers from the Quesnel River Archers club were inducted into the hall of fame, Brianne Foley and Wayne Schaefer.
Foley, competing in the peewee compound bow category at the B.C. Archery Association’s indoor target championships shot 948 out of a possible 1,200, which was good enough for a first-place finish.
Schaefer was also inducted into the hall of fame in recognition of his first-place finish in the Master 50 bowhunter unlimited category at the BCAA indoor target championships.
Schaefer, who shot a total of 1,179 out of 1,200 at the championship, joins wife Cathy and son Jonathan in the hall of fame.
The final inductees into the Quesnel Sports Hall of Fame were members of the quesnel U16 junior A ringette team that won the provincial A championships last March.