Lynne Leclair will be joining a Mardi Gras parade this weekend.
The Parksville resident will join her Mardi Gras touch football teammates as they become the first women to be inducted into the B.C. Football Hall of Fame. The Vancouver-based Mardi Gras team won six national titles from 1986 to 1991 as well as seven consecutive B.C. championships.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an amazing honour but I think it鈥檚 really deserving,鈥� said Leclair. 鈥淲e were dedicated. It wasn鈥檛 just weekend football. We trained all year round. We took it very seriously to become national level athletes. It was the highest level that women can play football at that time anywhere. We wanted to win championships.鈥�
Leclair was introduced to the sport by a friend in 1983 when Touch Football BC started a women鈥檚 league that had 16 teams registered in the Lower Mainland. She was a former student athlete with the Simon Fraser at the time having competed in the sprint distance in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and felt she could play the sport well.
鈥淚 was just learning the game when I saw this quarterback, Laura Stewart,鈥� Leclair recalled. 鈥淚 wanted to play with her. She was just phenomenal. She could fire that football like nobody I have ever seen. I really had good hands and was learning the game. I was a sprinter and was very fast. I said, 鈥榠f I connect with that quarterback, we鈥檙e going to score a lot of touchdowns. And we did.鈥�
Being new to the game, Leclair said she was too shy to ask to join the team that had already been playing together for a couple of years.
鈥淚t was my husband who approached the coach and he told him, 鈥業鈥檝e seen your wife play, we want her,鈥� said Leclair.
Leclair joined the Mardi Gras in 1986, the year they started their dominance in the league. They won their first national titles and five more after. They became a sports dynasty.
鈥淲e went on winning like crazy,鈥� said Leclair. 鈥淲e won six national titles in a row.鈥�
Mardi Gras consisted of members who are accomplished athletes nationally who have had success in other sports such as soccer, basketball, softball, hockey and athletics. LeClair played hockey and rugby. She was a member of Canadian rugby team that competed in the World Cup in 1994 and 1998.
Leclair said she totally fell in love with touch football because there is no tackling.
鈥淥nce you鈥檙e tagged or touched by a defender, the play is dead,鈥� said Leclair. 鈥淪o if you have speed and moves, you can evade the defenders and that鈥檚 what I really like.鈥�
Leclair, who is already in the B.C. Touch Football Hall of Fame, said to get inducted into the B.C. Football Hall of Fame was a big surprise and huge honour.
She will be part of the presentation during Saturday鈥檚 CFL game in Vancouver between the B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts. Also being elected is local resident Bernie Pascall, who will also be inducted into the B.C. Football Hall of Fame for his contribution to the sport as a commentator on CFL telecasts over five decades.
Members of the Mardi Gras who will be inducted include: Devona Adams, Miekel Aichele, Berni Batchelor, Andrea Brauner, Marla Britton, Cathy Bultitude, Cori Campbell, Tiffany Chester, Laura Houle, Debbie Huband, Annie Hutchinson, Lynne Leclair, Monique Lizee, Trudy Lyons, Diane Materi, Robyn McDonald, Cathy Morgan, Calli O鈥橞rien, Debbie Osborne, Diane Perry, Sharon Staples, Laura Stewart, Dawn Storey-Gray, Bett Watt, Cindy Whieldon and coach Mike Millar.
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