Zone 7 Profile
With the BC Games celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2018, a unique story bridging alumni and up-and-coming athletes has emerged in Zone 7 (North West Zone) with the assistance of Keith Gordon. The Fort St. James speed skating club coach is proud of his team that is set to compete at the 2018 Winter Games in Kamloops.
Keith was keen to get in contact with the Games Society as he believes, “The Games provides a great opportunity for skaters from a town of only 2,000 people in a sparsely populated zone to attend and compete at a multi-sport games. The North West zone is quite isolated and remote.” Nonetheless, Keith and Nicole Ebert (Coach for BC Games Zone 7 Coach & The Vanderhoof Clippers) are currently coaching the team for the junior relay at the BC Winter Games. They are thrilled to have the team comprised of Maddison Seeley, Amy Waddell, Aidan Duncan, and Sean Houghton.
Keith believes, “there isn’t as much high performance sport as in the other zones, but we’re proud of our participation. For many years we were the only club in the zone. In 2008, Jamie Macdonald won 3 bronze medals and in 2010 (Terrace) she was a triple gold medalist. Jamie has gone on to great national and international success with a handful of world cup medals and is now headed to the 2018 Olympics (Pyeongchang). She also won the BC Games athletic scholarship at the 2008 Games in (Cranbrook).”
Further, two speed skaters- Aidan and Sean- will carry on their parents’ skating legacies when they compete at the 2018 Winter Games. Aidan’s mother, Jennifer Hoy, won the overall gold medal at the1988 BC Winter Games (Dawson Creek). Further, Sean Houghton’s father, Craig, won several medals in the late 1980s.
The BC Games is an ongoing testament to the range of skills, talent, and opportunity evident across communities in beautiful, British Columbia.