2009 - Monica Hayes
President, Referee, Builder, Player
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Monica was a fantastic organizer... an excellent leader and a delight to work with.
Monica Hayes was one of 30-40 women who showed up at Britannia Community Centre for the initial meeting for players interested in Women's Touch Football. The year was 1983 and the organizers of the league included Shirley Phillips, Nancy Thompson (worked for Man in Motion) and Lisa Maitland who worked for BCAFA. That first year she volunteered to be the Women's Rep "out of love of football as a sport. I used to watch it with my dad," she says. And she was exicited about the chance to play and help with the organization. The original 8 teams were from other sports, including basketball (Mardi Gras) and softball (Kaban) other team names were: DQ Blizzard, Altered States, Retreads. When word got our that there was a woman's league, the number of teams swelled to 16. And recognizing that there were two levels needed, Monica was helped to set up a B Division. In 1986 she took on a bigger role becoming President of Touch Football. Now she had to "prove her worth to 1,100 men." The women's league had its ups and downs and soon it was suffering from a lack of players and contracted to 8 teams. "It was quite incesestuous, -- typical of any sport as players got better they were recruited to better teams." In fact other sports were trying to claw back the women who were in touch football. SFU's women's coach banned the women on the basketball team from playing... as it couldn't afford for them to get hurt playing another sport. It was decided that they had to go out and recruit players and teach them the sport of touch football. Fliers were made and teaching clinics were organized. (It was at one of these clinics that the girls who would go on to form the Sharks first met.) In 1985 she was a part of the committee to bring the National Touch Bowl to Vancouver. And in 1986 the first National Championships played outside of Eastern Canada were brought to Vancouver. And a Vancouver team, Mardi Gras won the Women's National championship. That win brought the women's league some legitmacy, and they were able to get better fields for the women. Other challenges she had to address included a growing tension between Rec and Top Flight men's divisions. Monica initially played for Dairy Queen Blizzards and later Kaban. On the field she was "a perennial brides-maid. Having played in half a dozen nationals but never won." In her service to TFBC she was second to none. And was recognized with the Commissioners award the year she retired. |
League president:
Commissioners Award Winner
-Colin Farrell "Monica was a fantastic organizer... an excellent leader and a delight to work with -- " -Craig Lingaard " I served on the TFBC board for 10 years in the capacity of Women's Representative and then President of the league, so that included all men's teams, Top Flite, Intermediate and Recreation divisions. It was a fun ride... I have wonderful memories ..." -Monica Hayes |
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Monica Hayes
Monica was a tremendous asset to the league. She brought such a high skill set of a multitude of talents, chief among them sensational organizational and administrative abilities. It was such a pleasure to work so closely with Monica over such a long period of time on both the executive and especially the Touch Bowl 86 Executive Committee. The latter being the crowning achievement of Touch Football in B.C., as we truly were the talk of Football across the country for having put over three thousand five hundred people in Swanguard Stadium on our Super Sunday. This is still regarded to this day as the best Touch Bowl ever. Monica, I am so very pleased to see you receive this prestigious award.
Paul Benwick