As we prepare our senior boys basketball team (ACMT Jaguars) for the league playoffs and a subsequent push for a fourth consecutive provincial championship, I was reminded of the following heartbreaking yet inspiring story from a couple of years ago and decided to revisit it and share it with others.
On January 11th, 2008 the Bathurst Phantoms were traveling home following a basketball game. On this snowy night, the van carrying the players collided with a transport truck killing seven of the young men and the head coach’s wife. This tragedy obviously devastated the entire community of Bathurst in northern New Brunswick.
Javier Acevedo, Nick Quinn, Nick Kelly, Justin Cormier, Daniel Hains, Nathan Cleland, Codey Branch
Despite having lost seven of their teammates, one year later the Phantoms found themselves in the provincial championships. Led by one of the survivors of the horrible crash Bradd Arseneau, and with their head coach hospitalized with a heart condition, the Phantoms miraculously defeated their opponent from Campobello. Wearing the number 7 in honor of his deceased friends, Arseneau scored 25 points in the 82-50 trouncing and earned himself the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honors. In a subsequent interview Bradd announced that the Campobello Vikings faced more than just the Boys in Red on the court on this particular day. He asserted that the Phantoms had an unfair advantage as the spirit of seven extra players propelled them to victory.
Following the provincial championship Bradd Arseneau appeared in Gatorade commercials along with other Canadian athletes including: Olympic gold medal winners Cassie Campbell and Chantal Petitclerc, Ultimate Fighting champ Georges St-Pierre, NHL legend Gordie Howe, and the subject of a recent M.E. post Ray Zahab.
On the set of Gatorade commercial
Other athletes featured in the “What’s G” series of Gatorade ads were Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Mohamed Ali. To be included alongside these iconic athletes is certainly a testament to Bradd Arseneau and his Bathurst Phantoms teammates Monumental Effort.
Gotta run,
Vince
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Sad story but it is amazing how people rise from the ashes to produce those monumental efforts. Great reminder that we shouldn’t be taking today for granted…or any day for that matter.
DD