Continued from page 45 It was 1978 when George
started his coaching career with Whalley Softball. He later became a member of the Whalley executive through the 1980’s and 90’s, and became president from 1979-81. Still later, in 1997, Goddard
coached the Whalley Warriors boy’s team all the way to the B.C. Summer Games in Burnaby; in Abbotsford he coached the girls squirt 91 B team, and eventually would take several teams to the B.C. Summer Games, winning three medals in four trips in the process. This year, Goddard helped
coach the women’s Maple Ridge Pride 97 to win gold at the Western Canadian Championships in Winnipeg. But, according to George, its not that any one season
stands above the others; it was the joy of connecting with the players and the love of the game that motivated him. “I’ve never in my working
career, stayed in once place as long as I’ve coached. It was when my youngest daughter started to play that I got interested in coaching softball. Now she’s coaching little league herself. It comes full-circle. “I’d have to say the most
memorable moment was the first girls’ team I coached. The team was brand new. Heading into the last game of the year, we had a perfect record - with 19 straight losses. But the girls stuck with it, played with honour, were confident and you could see they still took pride in what they were doing. Well, we blew our perfect record
and won the last game of the year. The team stuck together for several years after and went on to win many tournaments. George says it’s more than just
coaching to him: softball is a lot like life in many ways. You can learn a lot by being committed to yourself, committed to your team. “I try to be a life coach,”
George says, “I try to emulate respect and fairness; set some rules and emulate mutual respect for your team-mates and the players you’re playing against... From time to time I still bump into people - adults I taught thirty years ago. Sometimes they’ll even make a u-turn in the middle of the street, just to come and say hi, and let me know that they still remember.”
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