The members of this group will be remembered long after the playing field lights have been shut off. As athletes, coaches and administrators, their contributions have stood out, even in a crowd of exceptional individuals.
Chris Cavender, BA’86, BEd’87
(Basketball)
Chris Cavender feels his time at Western allowed him to see the world beyond his limited perspective and encouraged him to be a risk-taker.
The 6-foot 4-inch forward was captain of the Mustang team for three years and one of his most memorable events was the team winning the regional tournament to make it to the final four in Canada.
Cavender notes the camaraderie on the team is his biggest takeaway.
“We had so much fun together every time we traveled,” he says.
Cavender has been a teacher and coach in the Thames Valley District School Board since his graduation; apart from the 11 years he spent teaching and coaching overseas.
Today, Cavender is Vice-Principal at Woodstock Collegiate Institute, a role he took on in February 2009. While he is not able to coach at the high school level due to his new position, Cavender continues to coach his children in basketball and soccer. He recently completed his masters degree at Western’s Faculty of Education and hopes to become a principal one day.
He says the biggest source of pride in his life now is his family – wife Nancy and children Hayden and Callia.
Harold Alex Gretzinger, BA’77, DDS’81 (Track & Field)
Harold Alex Gretzinger says the nine years he spent at Western shaped his life to a great degree.
“Those years determined my profession and led to a specialty within that profession. Without the influence and recommendation of Western’s founding Dean of Dentistry, Wes Dunn, that simply would not have happened,” says Gretzinger, who is an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in Sarnia.
He became the only Mustang to win the Murray McNie Trophy three times, an award that is voted upon by team members to recognize the season MVP. He is also the only Mustang to win four consecutive championship titles, winning the OUA Conference 50m hurdle gold medal from 1975-1979. In 2007, Gretzinger was inducted into the Track & Field hall of fame.
He notes his fondest athletic memory at Western was winning a spot on the indoor Canadian Track Team in 1975 and then winning his first international competition in the 50 yard high hurdles with a record of 6.24 seconds.
His proudest athletic accomplishment since leaving Western is riding a bicycle for 40km, in less than one hour, at the age of 55.
Gretzinger and his wife Marie enjoy biking, skiing and traveling together. He has been to more than 70 countries to date.
James C. Joy, BA’60
(Wrestling)
James Joy was a Canadian Intercollegiate Wrestling Champion at Western, and while it was rowing and coaching where he made his career, he says it was his Western wrestling experience that helped put him on his path.
“Having both Jack Fairs and Mike Yuhasz as coaches was both inspirational and motivational,” says Joy, who also played football. “They provided the important sense of education as a lifelong odyssey.”
He says wrestling at Western was the beginning of his interest and future exploration into the concepts of Integration and Flow.
Rowing was in its infancy at Western at the time and it conflicted with football, so Joy chose to row during his summers and after graduation. From 1958-62, he was a Canadian Lightweight Sculling Champion and went on to coach the sport for a number of years, as well as write several books and manuals on the sport. Today, he runs the Joy of Sculling Coaches Conference for rowing coaches. Considered the premier conference in the United States, it had more than 300 participants last year.
Joy has three daughters (Christina, Kathleen and Alicia) living on the U.S. West Coast, while he and his wife, Cecilia, reside in Geneva, New York. His future goals are to continue offering a high quality conference to young coaches.
John Priestner
(Football)
John Priestner asserts that Western embraced him as a naive young boy and turned him into a man.
“There were many mentors here at Western who guided me, influenced me, scolded me when necessary, picked me up when I was down, and gave me a break on occasion – provided I had learned a lesson from the experience,” says Priestner.
Three such individuals that stand out for him are President George Connell, Susan Pepper and Darwin Semotiuk.
Priestner says Semotiuk taught him to “use good judgment”. A lesson he says continues to impact his life.
A middle linebacker with the Mustangs football team (1976 to 1979), Priestner won the Vanier Cup twice. In 1979, he was drafted by the NFL’s Baltimore Colts and played for one season. He then went onto the CFL where he played with the Hamilton Tiger Cats from 1980 to 1986.
In 1995, Priestner bought a fluid power company in Burlington called Macromotion Hydraulics, which he co-owns with his younger brother, Paul, also a Western alumnus and former Mustang football player.
He notes none of his accomplishments begin to compare to the sense of accomplishment he has had with raising his son William, 14, and daughter Elizabeth, 12.