Former NHL star Geoff Courtnall still gets pats on the back for the overtime goal that kept the Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals run in 1994.
But historic goals and Stanley Cup highs can’t compare with the satisfaction of lifting people out of life-threatening lows.
“I get so much more out of a grown man crying to me that I saved his 18-year-old son with the Archie Courtnall Centre than I do about guys coming up to me to remind me of the overtime goal in 1994,” Courtnall said.
The psychiatric emergency services centre at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria is named after his father, AHL player Archie Courtnall. The married father of four, who suffered from depression, ended his life on Aug. 6, 1978.
On Sunday, Courtnall continues his family’s tradition of raising awareness about mental illness by cycling in the Ride Don’t Hide fundraiser in support of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Courtnall will lead the 105-kilometre ride while 2012 Olympic track cycling bronze medallist Gillian Carleton is to lead the 50-kilometre course. Five rides in all will depart from Ogden Point in Victoria.
“For me, I feel I’ve made a difference, and I want to continue to try to make a difference because I don’t want any families in Victoria, or anywhere I have friends, to suffer what I did when I was 15.”
Less than two weeks before Courtnall’s 16th birthday, his father committed suicide.
The teen saw his happy, engaged and energetic father slip into the final depths of depression. He was just old enough to understand his father’s pain and too young to know what to do about it.
“I think of him every day. We were very close,” Courtnall said. “He coached us in baseball, soccer, hockey, spent every weekend with us, and took us to work with him on the weekends, and trained us Saturday mornings for 6 a.m. father and son hockey.”
Archie Courtnall also instilled in his children a strong work ethic and taught Geoff gardening, construction and other trades — skills that helped him survive, then thrive.
But along his rise to fame, Courtnall suffered several concussions. And he celebrated wins and nursed defeats with alcohol. A close friend would soon tell him that was a problem.
Courtnall took his last drink during the Canadian men’s 3-2 Olympic gold medal game during the Vancouver Winter Games on March 1, 2010.
That, coupled with the end of his 25-year marriage, brought him clarity. He looked past the concussions to the emotional bruising he suffered as a child having lost his dad.
“I’m sober six years plus,” Courtnall said. “It’s so easy for me now to see how other people deal [unhealthily] with pressure, stress, unhappiness — because I did it for a long time.
“People are afraid to say anything, but I’m not, because I know how great it is coming out the other side.
“There’s still so much denial out there where people turn a blind eye to their children, to their fathers, to their husbands, to their wives and just let them sink into the lowest places.”
With no alcohol to mask his problems, Courtnall dealt with them head on.
“It’s always bigger than what we think,” he said.
He returned to church and took a personal development course. “It’s just made me feel so much more full as a person and really given me a new way to live.”
Courtnall, who has two sons, Justin, 27, and Adam, 28, also renewed an ambitious exercise regime which includes long bike rides. “When I go out and ride my bike, I feel like a 12-year-old kid.”
That is not to say there’s no bumps in the road. But Courtnall has learned to steer away from bouts of depression and wants to help others do the same — and feel free to talk about it when they can’t.
“Anyone can make a difference.”
Ride Don’t Hide
What: The fifth annual Ride Don’t Hide event to raise awareness and funds for the Canadian Mental Health Association
When: Sunday starting at 6:30 a.m.
Where: Ogden Point, 199 Dallas Rd.
Race times: 6:30 a.m. for the 105-kilometre ride; 8 a.m. for the 50-km ride; 9 a.m. for the 28-km start; 9:05 a.m. for the 17-km ride; and 9:10 a.m. for the family 6.9-km route.
Registration and information: ridedonthide.com
