Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The man behind Armstrong's re-emergence

Gerry Peckham
Canwest's Kent Gilchrist adds a twist to the now familiar story of Team Canada skip Jim Armstrong's return to the ice, suggesting Gerry Peckham, an old teammate and now CCA High Performance Director, will deserve a medal for recruiting Armstrong to the program.

"He may not be on the podium with Armstrong .. but he won't be far away with a block-wide grin pasted on his face. For Peckham, who hooked up with Armstrong to win back-to-back B.C. men's able-bodied titles in 1973 with Jack Tucker skipping and in '74 with Armstrong on the teeline, is as responsible as anyone for getting Armstrong out of his easy chair and into wheelchair curling."

Read the article HERE

When it was announced that Jim would join the training squad, initially as an on-ice consultant, Peckham expressed surprise that any Canadian would object. Two year's later Peckham can indeed take credit for persevering past initial eligibility doubts, and injecting 40+ years of experience at skip, in a sport not yet a decade old.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great article.

Puts a human touch to the sport, and a great story to our most storied competitor.

Anonymous said...

What do you think, Eric?

It is the ongoing story of Jim's transition, but the reality is that we are getting a ton of publicity for the Sport, which, obviously we would not otherwise get.

I say good on the likes of Kent Gilchrist for writing the story.....may he continue with more in the weeks ahead....

PS....I HOPE Team Canada delivers, at least on the Podium!

Anonymous said...

Seems Mr. Peckham isset to revel in an unbelievable program, headed by him.

Women's silver medal, men's gold, and Wheelchair ?????? hopefully as well.

Congratulations to Gerry!

Anonymous said...

Check out today's Province....ANOTHER GREAT article......does Jim own the Province?

Anonymous said...

Finally, Peckham will get kudos for developing this Program?