As the University of Saskatchewan Huskies take on the University of Brandon Bobcats Canada West women’s volleyball action in Saskatoon, SK, October 21, 2023. Photo Electric Umbrella/Liam Richards
One Christmas memory in particular sticks with Brett Lauther.
He was just a youngster, growing up in Truro, N.S., when a top-of-the-line hockey stick ended up under the Lauther family’s tree.
“The Easton Z-Bubble, it was called,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 33-year-old placekicker remembers.
“It was a big deal. It came out before the Synergy and all those other sticks came out. I guess I’m dating myself by mentioning this, but I just remember that it was the biggest thing at the time.
“I couldn’t believe that Santa Claus brought me a Z-Bubble for Christmas. I was pretty fired up.”
Like Lauther, Corey Mace is especially appreciative of one Christmas gift from long ago.
“One of my aunts gave me a ninja turtle and there was a parachute on it,” the Roughriders’ newly appointed Head Coach says. “I just remember that I was so elated with that gift. I’ll never remember opening anything else and being so excited.”
The colour of ninja turtles served as foreshadowing, considering Mace’s current vocation and location.
“They are green,” he says with a laugh, “so let’s go!”
Now, a few decades later, Mace and his wife, Petra, are focused on ensuring that their children experience a joyous Christmas.
“I don’t really remember a ton of gifts, but I remember the moments with my family,’’ says the proud father of four-year-old Maleena and one-year-old Micah.
“Now that I’m a husband and a father, I love giving our kids that same thing.
“Now, don’t get me wrong. Our kids love getting gifts, especially our four-year-old. But to be around family, that’s the best gift, no doubt.”
Family was also the emphasis for Trevor Harris back in 2009, late in his tenure as the star quarterback at Edinboro University.
“I made a blanket for my mom of myself and my brother for my senior day in college,” the 37-year-old son of Tom and Suzanne Harris remembers.
“It was my last game at home in college and it’s a picture of me dapping up my brother on a blanket.
“It signifies a lot to us, because my mom was battling cancer at that time and you can see the pink ribbon on my waist. In a lot of ways, it signifies that moment of her battling through that and her being able to witness her two sons be on the same team.”
At the time, Trevor’s younger brother Cody was a redshirt freshman on the Fighting Scots, based in Edinboro, Pa.
“My brother is my best friend, aside from my wife, so that moment — giving that blanket to my mom — really meant a lot to me,” Trevor Harris says.
“It was also something all of us kids put together in terms of us as we grew up. It was kind of the message, ‘No matter how big we get, your children are always going to need you and always going to love you.’ ”
Christmas week is typically eventful for the Harris family, considering the concentration of milestone days.
Trevor and his wife, Kalie, celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary on Tuesday (Dec. 19).
On Dec. 23, an early family Christmas was held to coincide with the birthday of Tom Harris.
December is also a busy time for Roughriders President-CEO Craig Reynolds, whose birthday falls eight days before Christmas.
“Everybody who is reading this who has a birthday around this time of year can totally appreciate this: You get the shaft when you have a birthday like this,” he says with a laugh.
“Nobody is worse at this than my sister. She always gives me the old, ‘Oh, I’ll give you a combined gift, because your birthday is so close to Christmas.’
“So you don’t even get the gift on your birthday. You get it on Christmas because, 99 per cent of the time, they haven’t even bought the birthday gift yet because they’re waiting to do their Christmas shopping.
“And then, without fail, the combined gift is exactly what you would have got for Christmas … so you get the shaft.”
As did Lauther, once upon a time — the shaft being part of what was then a state-of-the-art hockey stick.
The aforementioned Z-Bubble served Lauther well for at least a couple of seasons.
But then came that fateful day when, in an instant, his hockey stick and his heart were broken.
“I think it was time to go when it did go,” Lauther reflects. “It was one of those things where it was better off, I feel like, so I think I just left it in the garbage at the rink. It was definitely past warranty.”
Still … a treasured gift ends up in the garbage?
“I did it a disservice,” Lauther acknowledges. “I couldn’t do the goldfish flush down the toilet or some memorial.
“It still sticks with me. I remember how awesome it was at the time to get something like that. You look back now and appreciate things like that a lot more, for sure.”
