Phil Mack won’t end his career as an Olympian, but that career has been Olympian in fighting spirit.
The undersized but pugnacious Victoria player, the embodiment of the Canadian men’s rugby sevens team, has announced his retirement.
“It’s time to move on to the next part of my life, while the body is still in good shape, and I can do it on my terms and not the other way around,” said the graduate of the Oak Bay High Barbs and University of Victoria Vikes.
Ideally, Mack would have retired after the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, but Canada failed to qualify.
“It stings not being down there in Rio,” the 30-year-old Islander said.
“We won gold last year at the 2015 Pan Am Games [in Toronto], and I can only imagine the Olympics would be a step up from that.”
“But when you play long enough, you realize disappointment is a part of sports. Our Canadian women’s team [also based in Langford] is in Rio [where rugby sevens makes its Olympic debut], and we’ll be backing them.”
Mack, a member of the Toquaht First Nation, earned 31 caps in Test matches as a scrum-half with the Canadian XVs team and played in the 2015 World Cup. He became the first Canadian player to appear in 50 HSBC World Sevens Series tournaments and represented Canada in the Pan Am and Commonwealth Games. Mack was named to the World Sevens Series all-star team in 2014.
The James Bay club player accomplished all this despite a frame measuring five-foot-seven and weighing 170 pounds.
“I never let size define me as a player,” Mack said.
“I always figured when you see a little guy playing big, it makes big players play even bigger.”
Mack is considering coaching as part of his post-playing life.
“I took what I could out of the game and now I want to give back,” he said.
Mack admitted there will be a sense of yearning in the fall when the new season kicks off.
“It’s all part of moving on,” he said.
