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Joe Rea took Canadian wheelchair curling into the international spotlight and made it shine like gold.
As coach of Team Canada in the early 2000s, Rea was an integral part of three consecutive Paralympic championships. He first led the rink to gold in 2006 in Turin, and then guided Canada to repeat performances in 2010 in Vancouver and 2014 in Sochi. During that same period of time, he also helped the team clinch world championship titles in 2009 in Vancouver, 2011 in Prague and 2013 in Sochi. Those Paralympic and world championship years were Canada’s greatest stretch of international success in wheelchair curling.
Rea was also a pioneer in the sport. Back in 2002, Curling Canada was making the development of wheelchair curling a priority, and Rea got involved when Curl BC asked him to organize a clinic for wheelchair players. Rea – who was already a successful player and coach in the traditional version of curling – was attracted by the idea of taking the sport in a new direction, without any real instruction manual.
Within Canada, the first national championship tournament hit the ice in 2004. Rea was the coach of a B.C. team that advanced all the way to the final, where it lost to Ontario. That Ontario squad went on to represent Canada at the first-ever world championship, held in Scotland in 2005. Rea was the team leader for the Canadian entry, which played to a 5-2 record but finished out of the medals. The following season, 2006, Rea took the reins of Canada’s national team and got it started on its path to dominance.
At the 2006 Paralympics in Turin, wheelchair curling was making its debut as a medal sport. With Rea at the coaching controls, Canada finished first in round-robin competition with a 5-2 record and then beat Norway 5-4 in the playoff semifinals. In the match for gold, skip Chris Daw and his Canadian crew defeated Great Britain 7-4.
In 2010 in Vancouver, skip Jim Armstrong and Team Canada again finished with the best record in round robin (7-2). In the semifinals, Canada doubled Sweden 10-5, and that led to an 8-7 victory against South Korea for a second consecutive gold medal.
In 2014 in Sochi, Team Canada rolled to a 7-2 record in round robin, good for second place behind host Russia, which went 8-1, its only loss a 5-4 setback against Canada. The Canadians – again skipped by Armstrong – edged China 5-4 in the semifinals and ended up meeting Russia for gold. This time, Canada prevailed 8-3 for the Paralympic three-peat.
In the world championship years, Rea and his Canadian entries beat Sweden (2009), Scotland (2011) and Sweden again (2013) for gold medals.
For his accomplishments at the highest levels as a wheelchair curling coach, Rea was inducted into the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2019.
“The winning was great,” Rea told the Canadian Paralympic Committee. “But the journey to get to those wins is what really stands out.
“It was a thrill for me to see my players find joy in an activity such as wheelchair curling, and to share that was a wonderful experience.”
Rea was a resident of Prince George from 1971 to 2022.
The Prince George Sports Hall of Fame is honoured to welcome him as a 2024 inductee.
Sporting events don’t just happen on their own. They require people like Edna Stitt.
Stitt is being inducted into the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame for her decades of contributions as a volunteer. Hockey, fastball, baseball, curling – when games were being played, there was a good chance Stitt was somewhere behind the scenes, filling a vital role, all on her own time and free of charge.
In fact, at the age of 78 this year, Stitt continues to volunteer on the local sports scene.
In hockey, she was a long-time referee at the youth level, and has been a part of Prince George Spruce Kings game nights for about 25 years and counting. She has been a goal judge, has worked in the penalty boxes, and has served in the timekeeper/scorekeeper box. To date, Stitt has also been helping out at Cariboo Cougars games for about 10 years as a timekeeper/scorekeeper.
When the Spruce Kings hosted the Royal Bank Cup national junior A championship tournament in 2007, Stitt was there. And in 2017 – the year the Cariboo Cougars welcomed the rest of Canada for the Telus Cup national midget championship – Stitt was part of the volunteer crew that kept everything running smoothly.
In the summer months, Stitt has been making a second home at local ball diamonds for too many years to count. She played fastball for several years and then became an umpire. Also on the diamond, she has been a scorekeeper for women’s fastball and men’s baseball. In men’s baseball, she has made her presence felt at provincial, national and international events, including the 2012 Baseball Canada Senior Championship and World Baseball Challenge tournaments in 2009, 2011 and 2013.
Curling is another of Stitt’s passions, and she has always made herself available when major events have landed in the city. She was a volunteer at the 1983 Scott Tournament of Hearts national women’s championship when it was held at the Prince George Coliseum, and she donated her time at the 2000 Scotties when the tournament took to the ice at the Multiplex.
And, no surprise, when Prince George hosted the 2022 World Women’s Curling Championship at CN Centre, Stitt was in the building, doing her thing.
The seeds for Stitt’s volunteerism were planted early in her life by her mom, Jean, who would attend her daughter’s ball games and would keep track of scores and stats on little pieces of paper. Jean ended up becoming an official scorekeeper – an example Stitt later followed.
Stitt has been a resident of Prince George since 1958, when she moved here from Williams Lake with her parents. As a youngster, Stitt was also a hockey player.
“Sports has been me for 70 years, and you have to give back to a certain extent, so my volunteering gets me into the game,” Stitt told the Prince George Citizen in 2017. “Now I find because of my age I need to get out and find a purpose to get up some mornings, and some days my purpose is to go to the Spruce Kings game and other days it's to go to the Cariboo Cougars game. And that's what I do.”
The Prince George Sports Hall of Fame proudly welcomes Stitt as a 2024 inductee.
Megan Tandy exemplifies unparalleled commitment, dedicating an impressive 12 years to representing Canada on the global stage as a biathlete. Her extraordinary journey includes three consecutive Olympic appearances – the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and the PyeongChang Olympics in 2018.
In her Olympic debut at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, Tandy, a hometown hero from Prince George, showcased her prowess in four events on Canadian soil. She achieved a commendable 15th-place finish in the women’s 4x6 kilometre relay, followed by the women’s 10 km pursuit in 36th, the women’s 7.5 km sprint in 46th, and the individual women’s 15 km event where she secured the 50th position.
Tandy, then just 21, ended the Games as the top-ranked Canadian female biathlete and was the first Canadian woman to compete in the Olympic pursuit event, despite being just weeks removed from a bout of illness.
Tandy’s journey continued through snow-covered trails. At the Sochi 2014 Olympics, she was part of an eighth-place Canadian finish in the 4x6 km women’s relay. She also placed 51st in the women’s individual 15 km event and 59th in the women’s 7.5 km sprint. The top-10 finish in the relay stands out as the most impressive result on her lengthy Olympic resumé: Tandy shot clean on her leg to make it one of the best personal performances of her biathlon career.
The PyeongChang Olympics in 2018 saw Tandy earn the 57th position in the 7.5 km women’s sprint event.
Tandy’s journey to the trifecta of Olympics included notable successes at the 2002 B.C. Winter Games, six world championship appearances, and numerous accolades in World Cup competitions.
A proud product of the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, Tandy started her biathlon career at the age of 12, delving into competitive realms at 16. For an astounding 14 years, she navigated the challenges of the sport before retiring in January 2019, prioritizing time with her family.
Reflecting on her beginnings at an old shooting range with rocky, uneven shooting lines and frequently-jammed metal targets beside a mosquito-filled swamp, Tandy credits those challenging conditions for shaping her into a sharpshooter, where her shooting prowess emerged as her greatest strength.
“When I look back, more than anything, I am overwhelmed with thankfulness,” Tandy said in a social media post at the time of her retirement.
“This sport has taught me so much about winning and losing, about perseverance and self doubt, and about the power of goals and hard work. Above all else it helped me build the self-confidence to be honest and true to myself throughout many highs and lows both on and off the race course. Not to mention the immense feeling of pride that comes with wearing that maple leaf again and again!”
The Prince George Sports Hall of Fame welcomes Tandy as an honoured member of the induction class of 2024.
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