Two former basketball teammates and a former baseball coach were recognized last May for pursuing their athletic dreams long after their time with the WolfPack ended.
Each year, the Kamloops Sports Council recognizes the very best in Kamloops athletics. During the 29th annual event honouring the achievements from the 2018 year, Tim Unaegbu won Coach of the Year and also saw his team—the South Kamloops Secondary School Titans senior boys basketball team—win Team of the Year. The hard-to-miss Greg Stewart won the International Excellence award for his work in para shot put and former baseball assistant coach Dave Arthurs won the Masters Athletic Award for winning a pair of medals in Australia.
"After playing with Greg and being his friend for over a decade, it was a really special moment to be on stage with him to share a moment like that," said Unaegbu.
Seven years ago, after Unaegbu was done playing for the WolfPack basketball (2006/07 and 2011/12) and soccer programs (2006-11), he was looking for a new challenge. Former 'Pack assistant, Dell Komarniski, offered him the head coaching position with the Titans.
Four years into his role, he discovered a group of Grade 9 students that fit perfectly into his system.
"These kids came in and they played hard. Talent didn't matter because they bought into the system and outworked everyone," said Unaegbu, who was named to the PACWEST second team all-star as a soccer player during the 2008/09 season. "Early that season, I promised them by their Grade 12 season, we would be provincial champions."
Unaegbu's prognostication nearly came one year ahead of schedule, as his Titans reached the provincial final in 2017. Unfortunately, they couldn't hang onto a seven-point lead with four minutes remaining and lost to Abbotsford's Rick Hansen Secondary School.
"I knew we were going to win in our Grade 12 year because the day after we lost the provincial final, every single one of my players was back at the gym and going to work. They didn't take any time off to rest or to be down on themselves, they wanted to get better every single day," he said.
Unaegbu's group ran it back in 2018 and entered the AAA provincial tournament as the No. 2 seed.
In the final, the Titans tangled with the top-ranked Byrne Creek Community School Bulldogs from Burnaby on March 10, 2018 at the Langley Events Centre. The Bulldogs knocked off an injury-riddled Titan unit early in the year, but Unaegbu's squad came out hot and staked themselves to a 15-point lead in the first half. There was no second-half collapse this year. The Titans finished off the Bulldogs 74-66 and became the first Kamloops basketball team to win the provincial title.
"It was one of the greatest feelings of my life," said Unaegbu. "To see a seven-year vision come to life was truly amazing. The best part of winning it was the bond we all formed. To this day, I still talk to the players from that team and watch NBA games together. Nobody can take that championship away from us."
Unaegbu stepped away from the Titans after winning the provincial championship and taught English to kids in South Korea for a year.
Sharing the spotlight with Unaegbu was Stewart, who previously won the Sports Council Male Athlete of the Year Award in 2004. This was his third nomination at the awards but the first time for the International Excellence Award.
"I don't do any of this for the recognition, I do it because it's what I love to do. That being said, it is humbling for people to go out of their way to give me an award for playing a sport. I'm very grateful for it," said Stewart, who moved to Kamloops in 2000.
Despite missing his left forearm since childbirth, Stewart became one of the most dominating big men in WolfPack history. Standing at 7-foot-2 and clocking in at 310 pounds, Stewart was named the Canada West Defensive Player of the Year for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Defensive Player of the Year for 2010/11. He also spent more than a decade with the Canadian International Volleyball team, highlighted by three gold medals at the World Championships in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
But after a lifetime in a team environment, he was ready for a change.
"I was searching for something that would make me happy again and that's when I ran into the Paralympic people at a Christmas party. They invited me out to a free identification camp in Montreal (February 2017) and I tried out a couple sports," said Stewart, who graduated from South Kam in 2004.
The javelin didn't sit well in his monstrous mitt, but he found an instant connection with the discus and shot put. At the camp, his furthest shot put distance was 13.50 metres.
Luckily, Kamloops is home to one of the world's greatest shot putters, Dylan Armstrong, who owns eight international medals. He was happy to work with Stewart.
"Greg is a real pleasure to coach and I've enjoyed getting to know him over the past two years. He has made incredible progress and he is on the right track to accomplishing his goals," said Armstrong, who won bronze with a 21.04m toss during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
After one year of professional training, Stewart obliterated his previous personal best with a 15.80m toss.
This year, Stewart has continued to improve his throws and his new personal best of 15.87m currently has him the No. 2 thrower in the world for his F46 classification.
"He has a nice advantage with all those long levers," said Armstrong. "More importantly, he's fast. So, when you combine those, that's what makes him great and has him near the top of the world standings."
The 32-year-old currently sits behind Joshua Cinnamo, who can toss it 15.98m, and will look to dethrone the Minnesotan at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan—if not sooner.
In order to qualify for the Games, Stewart needs to throw a certain percentage of the third-place distance from the previous World Championships. A challenging formula to comprehend for some, but Stewart isn't worried about it.
"One of the biggest adjustments moving from team sports to individual sports is understanding that it is all on my shoulders. I am in complete control of what I need to do, so there's no point in worrying about what others are doing," said Stewart, who graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration while majoring in human resources in 2012.
Stewart passed his first test on the path to Tokyo last month in Montreal, when he his throw of 15.14m won him the national championship. That distance automatically qualified him for the Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru at the end of August and World Championships in Duabi from October 29 to November 15.
Unaegbu and Stewart weren't the only TRU contingent to earn an award. Dave Arthurs, a former assistant coach with the baseball team, won the Masters Athletic Award for winning medals in the Masters fastball and baseball tournaments in Australia.
In November 2018, during the 11th annual Pan Pacific Masters Games, Arthurs won gold in baseball with the Adelaide Aces and bronze in fastball with the Melbourne Giants.
"I was surprised to win this because I wasn't expecting it," said Arthurs, who coached on the 2005, 2007 and 2009 Canadian Collegiate Baseball Conference championship-winning WolfPack squads. "The competition in Masters is pretty incredible. It's just a testament to people my age that find their athletic ability again and want to still compete."
Arthurs retired after serving 25 years for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in January 2005. Still connected to the sport towards the end of his career, he served as an assistant coach from 2001-12 with the WolfPack baseball team. As of 2009, the 59-year-old has been spending part of the year in Brisbane, Australia.
The right-handed stick who still catches the majority of his games, wants to play five more years to check off a couple milestones. Five years will give him 50 years in fastball with 40 of them as catcher.
"Some age groups go up to 75. If I'm still in good enough shape to compete, why would I ever stop?" he said.
All three athletes have proven that their hard work and some of the lessons they learned while excelling with the WolfPack have stuck with them and allowed them to enjoy success in their post-collegiate careers.
This story and others like it appeared in the new Alumni Newsletter. To subscribe and receive stories such as this, along with other information about news and events with the WolfPack, update your information through TRU Alumni Association.
