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“But to tell you the truth, I didn’t
know the strategy, I don’t inter-
fere with her training or the race
plans.”
Kat won the bronze with a
strong kick down the home-
stretch.
Bruny and Bianelle, whose
handball career was ended by
three knee surgeries, never inter-
fered in their daughters’ sports
careers. Both played soccer, took
swimming lessons and played
tennis. Kat, who was six months
old when Bruny won gold in
Atlanta, began pestering her dad
about running track at the age of
4, but her dad held off until she
was 14.
“I wanted them to have a good
base, and then they could choose
their path,” he said.
Bruny never ran a 400-metre
race.
He specialized in the short
sprints, winning gold in the 60-
metre at the world indoor cham-
pionships in 1993 and 1995.
“One year in my training, I had
to do a couple of 400s, I hated it.
I was even scared of the 200, can
you imagine the 400?” he
laughed. “No way.”
While family races are off the
table, the four regularly head to
the gym together on weekends.
Athletics Canada will choose
its final team for the world
championships at the end of Au-
gust.
Since retiring, Bruny Surin has
built a career as both a public
speaker and entrepreneur. He
has a clothing line that sells in 55
stores in Quebec, a foundation
that promotes health and well-
ness to at-risk children in the
province, and supports a begin-
ners track program with Quebec
schools that translated from
French is “Bruny Surin’s First
Steps.”THECANADIANPRESSRun:‘Iwanted
themtohave
agoodbase,’
Brunysays
FROMB10A
lan May remembers a dedicated,
physical specimen. Keith Jones
recalls unmatched passion and a
brilliant hockey mind. As a player,
Dale Hunter had all those things.
And then there were the practical jokes.
“He put Garry Galley’s truck up on blocks
at the old practice facility,” May said of
Hunter, his teammate with the Washington
Capitals. “Other times, he’d take Garry’s car
and move it to the strip mall a few blocks
away.
“Dale was the last guy you wanted to pull
a prank on because he’d get you back 10
times worse.”
Jones also once found himself in Hun-
ter’s crosshairs.
“I realized there was a horrifically bad
smell in my car,” Jones said with a laugh
during a recent phone interview. “As I start-
ed to drive away, I looked back, and out of
the arena door was Dale Hunter’s head and
Calle Johansson’s head peeking around the
corner and laughing.
“They had taken this Swedish fish that is
apparently a delicacy and stuck it under the
seat. I drove with my head out the window
to get to the car wash, and went back three
straight days.”
Often a man of few words publicly, but a
noted character behind the scenes with
those that know him best, Hunter is finally
getting a chance to coach Canada at the
2020 world junior hockey championship.
Set to turn 59 on Wednesday, Hunter has
been a Canadian Hockey League force since
buying the Ontario Hockey League’s Lon-
don Knights with his brother, Mark, back in
- The franchise has won two Memorial
Cups (2005, 2016) and sent a number of
pro-ready players to the NHL, including
Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Corey Perry
and Mitch Marner.
But apart from coaching Canada at the
under-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tour-
nament in 2013 – which he won – Hunter
has been on the outside looking in with the
national program.
“A long time coming,” said Stan Butler,
head coach and general manager of the
OHL’s North Bay Battalion and a two-time
world junior bench boss. “I don’t know if
there’s anybody in junior hockey more
deserving.”
Hunter said he’s always had “other stuff
on, and we had great coaches.”
“It’s awesome,” he added of the oppor-
tunity. “It’s an exciting time.”
May and Jones, however, have a few
ideas about why it’s taken so long for their
former captain to get the nod.
“There’s a lot of petty jeal-
ously at the success he’s had,”
said May, who now works on
Capitals television broad-
casts. “I’ve seen a lot coaches
get that gig that don’t even
hold a candle to Dale.”
“He doesn’t campaign for
anything,” added Jones, an
analyst for NBCSN and a col-
our commentator for the Phi-
ladelphia Flyers. “He’s not out
to promote himself. He’s out
to make his teams better, he’s
out to win at all costs.”
Hockey Canada, not surprisingly, has a
different perspective.
“We only have one spot for a head coach
every year,” said Shawn Bullock, director of
the men’s teams. “Dale was enthusiastic
when he got the call.
“We couldn’t be more excited.”
Some of Hunter’s former players raised
eyebrows when told this would be the firsttime he’s getting the gig.
“It’s definitely surprising,” Marner said
earlier this month. “But it doesn’t surprise
me he’s getting the chance now.”
Hunter left the Knights to coach the Cap-
itals in the 2011-12 season, leading Washing-
ton to an upset victory of the defending
Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in
the first round of the playoffs.
But instead of continuing
in the NHL, he returned to
London and his Knights.
Hunter is on the ice this
week in suburban Detroit
with 38 players for a series of
practices and exhibition
games against the United
States, Sweden and Finland
at the World Junior Summer
Showcase. It’s the first oppor-
tunity for Hockey Canada’s
brain trust – including Mark
Hunter – and coaching staff
to get an up-close look at
some of the teenagers hoping to represent
their country at this year’s tournament,
which begins Dec. 26 in the Czech Republic.
Canada has won the event two of the
past five years, but also failed to medal the
past three times it’s been played in Europe.
“It’s a big ice surface,” Dale Hunter said.
“It’s a tough tournament.”THECANADIANPRESSHunterfinallytappedasworldjuniorcoach
He’ssentnumerousstarstothe
NHL,buttheLondonKnights
coachhadalwaysbeenonthe
outsideofnationalprogram
JOSHUACLIPPERTONPLYMOUTH,MICH.
UndertheleadershipofDaleHunter,seenduringa2014gameagainsttheEdmontonOil
Kings,theLondonKnightshavewontwoMemorialCups.DAVECHIDLEY/THECANADIANPRESSAlong time coming.
Idon’t know if
there’s anybody in
junior hockey more
deserving.STANBUTLER
HEADCOACH,GMOFTHE
OHL’S NORTHBAY
BATTALION