Article contributed by Lawrence Vea
Long time official, Gary McWilliam of Comox has officiated his last match. McWilliam, 84 began his teaching career back in 1966 in Ocean Falls and then moved in 1968 to Comox Junior, then to Lake Trail Middle and finally to Highland Secondary in Comox where he completed his career in 1998. Early in his teaching career, while teaching PE he realized he needed a sport to coach so decided to assist another with the volleyball team. While doing so he found that it was extremely difficult to secure officials for any of the team’s matches. Wishing to counteract this, he decided that he would get into officiating and organize officials to ensure the sport would be supported. This led to a 61 year tenure officiating volleyball!
Gary first received his Local certification in 1968, his Provincial in 1971 his Regional in 1977 and his National in 1981. Along his officiating pathway some of his memorable International matches included Canada men versus Brazil in at UVic, Canada women versus China in Tokyo, Korea men versus Australia in Hawaii and Canada men versus USA in 1983 at UBC where Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons began using a 2 man service receive…during which Gary managed to call a rotational fault on them! They were not impressed! Gary remembers this match as being an extremely entertaining match with a full house of spectators.
Although this was a memorable match, his most memorable match was in the Men’s Canadian National Championships in 1980 in Quebec where he officiated Ontario versus Quebec. At this time he was being evaluated for his National badge. The match went 5 and afterwards he was awarded with his National badge.
A match that he would like to have a “do over” on was a match- China vs Japan women, where, as the R2 he failed to match the lineup sheet with the scoresheet in game 2, which caused a lot of problems! Reminder to R2’s…always ensure the lineup sheet matches what is written down on the scoresheet!
Gary’s expertise in officiating provided him with the opportunity to officiate university volleyball at both UBC and 15 years at Malaspina (now VIU) from 73 – 87. He enjoyed these matches and was most comfortable officiating at this level.
When asked about his mentors, Gary is quick to mention two very important people:
Vale Savege who was with him along the pathway to his Regionals and Nationals and who became a life long friend & Dale Ohman, former UBC coach, who was never an official but, as Gary admits, was an extremely important “after match” critic of his performance…but never in a nasty way. Dale was simply an aid to improved officiating performance which Gary remembers so well and much appreciated.
For all his work in volleyball, Gary was inducted into the Volleyball BC Hall of Fame in 2018.
As he hangs up his whistle for the last time, Gary is most appreciative of all the opportunities officiating has provided him, especially the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people involved in the sport of Volleyball. Thanks to all!
A brief ceremony will be held on Saturday November 15 at Vanier Secondary in Courtenay, preceding the AAA Boys Island Finals.