Buffy joins St. Catharines sports hall of fame

Buffy Williams shown in action. Photo by KEVIN LIGHT.

Buffy Williams had a Mickey Mouse excuse for missing her induction into the St. Catharines Sports Wall of Fame.

Unfortunately for the 2018 inductee, a trip to Disney World in Florida coincided with the night of the recent ceremony in St. Catharines.

“The odds of that happening were about one per cent,” the 41-year-old St. Catharines native said.

Her parents have a tradition where they take the Williams children to Disney when they are in Grade 1 and it was six-year-old Tate’s turn in 2018.

“They weren’t sure they were going to be able to keep up so they invited the whole family this time,” she said. “They booked it in August and that’s just the date it happened to fall on.

“The odds are hilarious.”

The three-time Olympian and Olympic bronze medallist in the women’s eight in 2000 admitted she was caught off-guard by the honour.

“At this stage of my life, I have moved on from my sporting life,” said the four-time medalist at the world championships. “When it comes back and you get invited into something like that, it is pretty amazing.”

The career highlight for the two-time St. Catharines athlete of the year (1997 and 2000) was capturing a bronze medal in the eight at the 1999 world championships held in St. Catharines.

“There are all kinds of things that stick out in my mind, but one of those is the 1999 worlds,” she said. “It was the first time I got to row internationally in front of my family and in front of a home crowd. It was pretty uplifting.”

The low point in her career came in the winter of 2004 when she was plagued with injuries.

“I had lots of rib stress fractures and I has tons of injuries that year which made it really, really hard to train ideally for an Olympic year.”

Through all the pain and intense training, she was driven by a love of rowing.

“I have always loved sports and it was that challenge of sport,” she said.  “As a little girl, I always said that when I grew up I wanted to be a professional athlete.”

For her, it wasn’t all about the results.

“It was the challenge of not just winning, but perfecting your own skill and just pushing your own boundaries,” she said. “It really was a personal thing of how far could I push myself.”

She pushed herself through to three Olympics Games, including 2008 when she became the first Canadian rower to compete as a mother.

“It isn’t necessarily unusual now (to compete for so long), but back then it was and I think it was that I kept thinking that I could be better,” she said. “I got to the point where I pushed a lot of boundaries that, if you had asked me 12 years earlier if I ever would have reached those boundaries, I would have shook my head.

“I just kept believing that I could be better and I loved the challenge of pushing myself and pushing the athletes around me to be better.”

She continues to apply the lessons she has learned in rowing to her daily life.

“It even explains the stage I am right now in terms of pursuing another career and looking at what I would like to do in terms of that pathway,” she said. “What is going to challenge me and what is going to excite me is what I’m taking into that exploration.”

Williams worked at the University of Victoria as a project coordinator until May 2017 when she left that job to be with her family and husband,Barney Williams, while he coached rowing at Cornell for half a year. He is now the head coach at the University of Victoria.

Buffy has worked at a couple of contract jobs since then and is in the process of figuring where she wants to go with her career.

“My priority is being a parent and love to see my children growing into their own persons and guiding that,” she said. “My philosophies of sport filter in that when I see different challenges and different experiences that they are having.

“Obviously they are going to make their own choices, but if my experiences can help them develop as a person, I definitely share them.”

Her three children are all involved with sport: 12-year-old Tavin plays soccer and squash; nine-year-old Kyla is involved with synchronized swimming; and, Tate plays hockey.

“They have spent just enough time around regatta sites that they don’t have any interest at all,” Buffy said, with a laugh.

Buffy’s involvement with rowing is now sporadic at best. There’s a national alumni group in Victoria that is out on the water quite a bit and Williams will hits the water if the group is in desperate need of a spare.

“At this stage of my life, I am just so busy with the kids and balancing life that it’s too much of a time commitment to go out to the lake and get in a boat,” she said. “You need a two-hour window compared to stepping out the door for a run which is far more efficient at this stage of my life.”

Williams would have loved to attend the induction ceremony and have the chance to thank all the people in St. Catharines who gave her a chance to chase her sporting dreams.

Included on that long list are her parents, Holy Cross rowing coach Mike Thompson, skating coach Judi Boyle and the rowing community in St. Catharines.

“Thank you to my family whom without their support who would I really be,” she wrote. “Specifically my dad, Claire, who showed me what hard work and determination looks like and my mom, Susie, who spent countless hours driving me to and from activities and never saying no when I wanted to try something new.”

Thompson was there when she started rowing late in her high school career.

“Without his patience and belief that I would come around love the sport, I probably would have walked away from it, to be honest,” she said. “He gave me the space and recognized that I needed that space to fully embrace the sport of rowing in high school.”

Boyle and the Winter Club of St. Catharines were important to her early development as an athlete.

“She set me up for a lot of success, even though it wasn’t in the sport I started in,” she said.

William has many fond memories of her skating career.

“Whether it be brownies, violin, x-country, basketball, early morning cardio or weight sessions at the YMCA.  I will admit for many years figure skating was my favourite and I spent many hours a week at the Garden City rink,” she wrote.

And last but certainly not least, the St. Catharines rowing community and facilities were crucial to her development.

“The incredible facility and racing experiences located at Martindale Pond are second to none in this country,” she said. “Some call me biased but I call it as I see it!

“There is such a great vibe on the island at St.Catharines RC, Ridley and Brock boat club. It makes for a nice mix of competitive and social energy.”