Honouring a true team player

Doug Quigley Memorial Soccer Tournament held again after more than a decade

It’s been more than 40 years since Cathy Quigley lost her younger brother Doug. She still remembers a boy passionate about the game of soccer who always tried to uplift his teammates.

“He was quite a good player, but Doug was always the type of person that, although he wanted to do well for himself, he always focused on his teammates that weren’t quite so good or didn’t get much time,” she tells West Coast Wire. “He always put emphasis on them and tried to make them better.”

In his own way, he was helping grow the game of soccer in Corner Brook by keeping his teammates engaged.

Tragically, Doug never got the opportunity to develop into the type of player he could have been. He died at the age of 14 in a bus accident while enroute to a soccer tournament in St. John’s on Aug. 17, 1979. Other teammates were injured in the crash, but Doug was the only one who died.

Ten years later, Doug’s former coach, Eugene Cook, started the Doug Quigley Memorial Junior High Soccer Tournament to pay tribute to Doug. Junior high soccer teams from Corner Brook, Stephenville and Deer Lake gathered in Corner Brook for the tournament each year until about 2009, when the last tournament documented by the newspaper was held.

However, through the efforts of Corner Brook United Soccer, the Doug Quigley Memorial Junior High Soccer Tournament has made its return.

On June 11 and 12, at the Doug Sweetapple Soccer Field on Wellington Street, junior high boys and girls competed for the tournament title.

Corner Brook Intermediate, Xavier Junior High (Deer Lake), Stephenville Middle School and a merged team of Pasadena Academy and Immaculate Heart of Mary competed in the boys division while Corner Brook Intermediate, Immaculate Heart and Stephenville competed in the girls division.

Gold, silver and bronze medals were presented to the top three teams in each division.

In the girls division, Corner Brook Intermediate won gold, Immaculate Heart of Mary won silver and Stephenville Middle School won bronze.

Tournament organizer and Corner Brook United Soccer vice-president Deidre MacDonnell was excited to see the Stephenville Middle School Girls team had a lot of girls new to soccer.

“They had some great parents out in Stephenville who managed to recruit a bunch of girls,” she says. “They came out and they did fantastic. I think they had a lot of fun. One of the things we really want to do with this tournament is give people an opportunity to try soccer and have some fun.”

The boys tournament kicked off with the combined Immaculate Heart/Pasadena team beating Intermediate in an 8-0 blow-out.

However, despite the bad round robin defeat for Intermediate, both teams met again in the final. At first, it appeared to be a repeat of the opener as Immaculate Heart/ Pasadena got out to a 2-0 lead, which they held until about four minutes to go. Suddenly, Intermediate turned the tide and improbably netted not one, but two goals to even the score. The game ended up being determined by penalty kicks. After six shooters, the score was still tied. But on the seventh, Intermediate got the goal and save they needed to take the title.

Xavier won bronze in the boys’ division.

According to MacDonnell, the games were well attended.

“That was another lovely thing about the whole weekend,” she says. “It was so nice to see such life in the soccer field again. There were fans coming and going.”

MacDonnell says the Corner Brook United executive wanted to revive the tournament as both a way to introduce youth to the sport, help grow the game of soccer and celebrate Doug Quigley’s memory.

“We just all felt very strongly that this was established for a reason and it was important to keep that going,” she says. “It just really makes you stop and think for a second how quickly things can change. It’s important to take a second to stop and reflect and realize that being here and having a fun weekend, being able to play the game, it truly is a gift.”

As a mother of a 14-yearold boy who plays soccer, the tournament resonates with MacDonnell.

“It strikes a chord,” she says. “I just can’t stop thinking about this mother putting her son on a bus one day to send him off to play a tournament in the game that he loves, and it just ended so tragically.”

Corner Brook United revived the tournament with the blessing of the Quigley family.

“The tournament itself is a good stepping stone for any people that really love soccer,” says Cathy Quigley. “It gives them a little pathway.”

Quigley, who now lives in Alberta, was unable to attend the tournament this year, but she hopes to be there next year, to take in an event so important to her and her family.

“It means everything in the world to us,” says Quigley, speaking for the family. “I’ve forwarded a lot of the pictures from the tournament to my family over the weekend. And we’re going to be more heavily involved next year. Hopefully we’ll be there.”

Quigley was grateful to MacDonnell, Doug Sweetapple, Colin Lynch and the Corner Brook United executive for all the hard work they put into organizing and reviving the tournament.