A Revelstokian has had his name etched in British Columbia hockey history.
Revelstoke native and athletic therapist Cory Cameron was inducted into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame earlier this year as a part of the 2007 Vancouver Giants, one of the great junior hockey teams in recent memory.
Although it’s difficult to pinpoint, as the list of inductees runs back to 1994, Cameron is likely the only person from Revelstoke to ever be inducted into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame.
“It’s a pretty big honour, I don’t think I’ll ever see my name in the Hall of Fame in Ontario,” laughed Cameron.
The induction ceremony was held on July 21 in Penticton, and was hosted by Jim Hughson, a retired Canadian sports broadcaster best known for his work on Hockey Night in Canada, and saw a number of NHL legends get inducted into the hall. Inductees included Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, a pair of B.C.-born Stanley Cup champions who played for the Chicago Blackhawks, former NHL linesman Lonnie Cameron, White Rock Whalers owner Ronnie Paterson and, of course, the 2007 Memorial Cup-winning Vancouver Giants.
Cameron took over as the head therapist for the Vancouver Giants in 2006, an organization that had just won the Western Hockey League (WHL) Championship the year prior but lost in the Memorial Cup, the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League.
“The Giants were a fantastic organization to work with and I was really excited to kind of get involved at that time and the team was great,” said Cameron about taking the position in Vancouver.
“It was a really good learning experience for me as a young medical professional in the hockey world,” added Cameron.
In his first year as head therapist, the Giants were set to host the Memorial Cup, giving them an automatic berth into the tournament.
Calling the 2007 Vancouver Giants a good team is a bit of an understatement. The team, which is now etched in the record books as one of the great junior hockey teams in B.C.’s history, had a number of young talents who would go on to do great things in the NHL. Their roster included Milan Lucic, who has played nearly 1200 games in the NHL and will likely pass that mark after joining the Boston Bruins once again for the upcoming season, journeyman sniper Evander Kane, who has scored more than 300 NHL goals, and Sicamous native Cody Franson, who played 550 NHL games for the Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres and Chicago Blackhawks.
The Giants ended up 45W - 17L record, but lost in the WHL Championship Finals against the Medicine Hat Tigers in dramatic fashion.
“We lost to Medicine Hat in game seven, double-overtime, in the league final, which was a very memorable hockey game, for myself and many other people,” said Cameron.
That same season, the team actually ended up getting stranded in Revelstoke while on the road one evening due to an avalanche blocking the road. Being from Revelstoke, Cameron made a few calls and got the team set up to practice at the Revelstoke Forum the following morning. Cameron said kids from the high school ended up cutting class to rush down and see the team skate.
Then came time for the Memorial Cup. The tournament was hosted in the Pacific Coliseum, the former home of the Vancouver Canucks.
The championship game ended up being a rematch against the Tigers.
“The old arena in Vancouver was packed to the rim with fans, standing room only, amazing support for a junior hockey team there,” said Cameron.
Of course, the Giants went on to win the Memorial Cup, and the rest is written in hockey history. To this day, the 2007 Giants team remains the last B.C. team to win the national championship.
“It’s a cliche in sports, but these guys will be my brothers forever or my friends forever,” said Cameron about the Giants team.
Cameron went on the spend a few years in Vancouver and then Calgary before taking on the head therapist role with the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook. After working for the team for a few years, Cameron decided to split from them and start his own company: Potenza Rehabilitation and Performance.
Through Potenza, Cameron helps professional athletes at his own clinic and performs athletic therapy through contracts with minor hockey and even university volleyball. Cameron also trains with athletes in the offseason.
“Whether that’s me packing their hockey bag off the bus at three o’clock in the morning to set it up in the arena so they could be in the hotel to sleep or rehabilitating a dislocated shoulder in the middle of the season to get them ready for the playoffs,” said Cameron about the many roles he takes on as an athletic therapist.
Cameron also runs a concussion management program with Cranbrook Minor Hockey which gets about 400 participants every year, managing and evaluating athletes who get head injuries.
“They’re the person that’s coming to me in their worst time when they’re hurt and they can’t play hockey and they can’t go to school,” said Cameron about the athletes he works with in the concussion program, who are as young as 10 years old at times. “It’s pretty rewarding to be able to help people and provide proper, up-to-date scientific information on their recovery.”
Cameron still has plenty of time left in his career to add to his already-impressive trophy cabinet.
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