I moved to the region in the 90's and connected fairly quickly with the Nanaimo Masters Soccer Club. As I live on Gabriola, team mates would pick me up at the ferry and give me a lift to games. Often this was Laurie. We were both midfielders, so it seemed to me we looked at the game in a similar way. We talked about the previous game, then the one that we were going to - it was lots of fun. I was curious about Nanaimo and what it had been like to grow up here when Laurie was a kid, so he told me lots of cool stories from the 50's, 60's and 70's. Sometimes Allie and Sarah would be in the car, and so I got a chance to meet some of his daughters, and was able to put a face to the girls that he often mentioned with great pride.
In more recent years, with injuries piling up on both of us, we would talk each other into playing "one more season". Well, we'd been doing that for about the last five seasons, and thank goodness, because I had a great time.
The dressing room won't be the same without Laurie, and my heart goes out to his family and friends.