A former Vancouver Island University badminton coach will be immortalized in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association hall of fame.
Alf McGuire will be inducted to the hall on the strength of leading VIU badminton as a coach and then as a badminton convenor for the CCAA. He started coaching at VIU in 1974, when it was known Malaspina College, and served as convenor from 1994-96 and 1997-2015.
McGuire told the News Bulletin he was caught off-guard and "totally shocked" to learn of the hall of fame honour.
McGuire, originally from Scotland, began playing badminton after he got suspended from playing soccer. He "got run around the court and thought, 'Nobody's going to do that with impunity,' and [he] was hooked."
The sportsmanship of badminton is what he loves, and it's something that seems to be sorely lacking in some other sports, he said. Matches always ends with handshakes.
"Some of the stuff that I see happening in other sports just makes me cringe," McGuire said. "In badminton, if you are not respectful to the officials, you will be punished. It starts off with costing you a serve, a serve goes to your opponent, and can finish up with a complete blank card where you're disqualified from a tournament, so they don't mess around … I think that's something that should happen in other sports. It helped my players become better people."
Leading the university to nationals all but one year he was coach – because his daughter was born – and coaching Canada at the World 2007 Summer Universiade games in Bangkok are two highlights for McGuire.
"We went in there ranked 23rd and came out ranked 12," he said. "That was a highlight because [in] Bangkok, badminton is a huge sport … badminton in North America is played in cathedral silence, [and there were] 5,000 people chanting. We were playing China – I guess they didn't like China – they were all chanting, 'Canada!' 'Canada!'"
According to VIU, McGuire is the longest-serving CCAA convenor in any sport. In layman's terms, he said his responsibilities were to represent the sport at nationals and ensure everything runs smoothly.
Danielle Hyde, VIU athletics and recreation director, said McGuire's call to the hall is "incredible."
"I was a student athlete, and I can remember walking into the gym and seeing Alf coaching … he was always just how he is now, a welcoming, grateful, happy person, and for the university to have had the privilege to have him as part of our sport community for as long as he was, I'm just really happy that he has been inducted in this hall of fame class," she said.
In addition to the CCAA honours, McGuire was also inducted to the VIU Mariners' Wall of Fame at the athletic department's awards ceremony on April 11.
