For at least 11 seasons at Point Grey secondary, a host of different teenage girls have stepped into the same silver and blue soccer kit to compete for the Grey Hounds.
The soccer shorts are routinely taken home where players have sewn in a drawstring to replace the hardening waistband. Others use shoelaces or elastic bands to cinch the baggy, stretched uniform to their body on game day. A few jerseys are unraveling at the neck or the bottom seam, and at least one has a blood stain.
This week the Hounds will replace their faded uniforms, but not the glory of their legacy.
The old jerseys have lots of character, said graduating player Beth Anne Helgason.
They are a great symbol of our team because they were passed on and they do so well for us despite what theyre really like. At some point we need to get a new jersey to continue our legacy and pass it on to younger players.
In 10 of those 11 seasons, including this most recent one, the Hounds won the senior girls city championship. On four of those championship teams from 2001 to 2004, the Hounds rallied around Brenna Innes, a hardworking and kind-hearted midfielder known for her generosity of spirit who captained the soccer team her two senior years.
She made it a point to give four hugs a day, said Helgason, who wore the same No. 12 jersey as Innes but never met the older player.
Innes graduated high school in 2004 and was studying at the University of Victoria in August 2007 when she and friend Chelsea Robinson died in a house fire. Innes was 21. They were deeply mourned.
In honour of Innes, Point Grey secondary raised a plaque near the schools trophy case, and this weekend her family will run the sixth annual Brenna Innes Memorial Soccer Tournament at UBC Thunderbird Stadium. Proceeds will benefit the B.C. Burn Fund.
The Grey Hounds new senior girls soccer jerseys will also pay tribute to Innes.
Her initials, BJI, and the No. 12 will appear on the back of each jersey, tidily printed above the number below the collar. Innes middle name was Jaclyn.
Despite never having met her, we heard a lot about her from teachers, said Helgason, 17. We would walk by her plaque every day of our five years of high school, and when we started in Grade 8 we were told about her. She is exactly what student-athletes should be dedicated both to the sport and to schoolwork as well as her friends.
The Hounds will not retire No. 12, not when the jersey represents the warm welcome many players say they experienced when they joined the Grey Hounds. Instead, the No. 12 will be reserved for future team captains.
When youre initially that Grade 8 first going out to practice, its intimidating because its a team from all ages at school, said Victoria McCann, 18, a graduating player who worked alongside Helgason to replace the jerseys. Right away everyone was really nice and I think that came from the energy that was created here. They wanted us younger [players] there to continue it and we feel the same way this year.
Four Grade 9s played on the senior team this year. As Grade 8 bantam players, McCann and Helgason were pulled up to join the senior Hounds at Provincials. This spring, for the first time in more than a decade Point Grey failed to qualify for the B.C. championships. The elimination was disappointing but not defining, said Helgason.
The Grade 12 students, with the support of coach Marc Carmichael, ordered 24 new kits at a cost of roughly $55 each. The team and players families chipped in for the new tribute jerseys.
Kelsey Innes, two years older than her late sister Brenna, said she was surprised but very appreciative and honoured to learn the Grey Hounds were making a personal memorial of their jerseys.
It's been almost six years since Brenna died and it still feels so fresh for me and my family yet I worry that memories of her have begun to fade for most others, said Innes, 28. I don't want her to be lost.
Innes wont be forgotten at Point Grey. To the Hounds, she will always be BJI 12.
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