Pursuit is a sports feature series highlighting athletes, coaches, and staff and significant sporting events from North Bay and the surrounding area.
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It was a memorable end to the spring sports season for the Bradley brothers. Twins Heath and Grayson and younger brother Raine all competed in NDA finals, NOSSA and OFSAA events within three weeks – having tremendous individual and team success along the way.
“They have worked really hard. It’s always been important for me to support them in anything they want to do. Words cannot describe how proud I am of all three of them,” says their mother, Jen Fisher Bradley. “Watching how happy they are in their own success and representing Chippewa with such pride, it's really been a highlight of my life.”
Heath and Raine both impressed in discus at the local, regional and provincial level, while Grayson was part of the Chippewa Senior Boys soccer team, winning NDA and NOSSA before hosting OFSAA. Meanwhile, all three brothers were on the Chippewa varsity baseball team which competed in the NDA finals against St. Joseph Scollard Hall.
Fisher Bradley says, “That was the first time all three boys were on the same team in any sport in their life so that was extra special.”
Raine won the 2024 Fergie Dowdall Trophy as the top athlete at the NDA Track and Field Championship in his first year and went on to break a long-standing NOSSA Novice discus record set by current Toronto Argonauts lineman and Algonquin alum Ryan Hunter when Bradley threw the disc 50.20 metres.
At OFSAA, against the best in the province, he threw a personal best 51.22 meters on the province’s biggest stage to beat the nearest competitor by 5 meters at the OFSAA track and field championships in London. It was an impressive performance as four out of the six throws by Raine were far enough to win the gold medal.
“It was funny, my first two throws I landed on my butt, first time in the new ring, the nerves got to me and I slipped and just fell. But on my fourth throw, I threw my personal best and it was just one of those days where everything was working,” says Raine.
“When you’re at a competition like that and your results are what they are, it just makes the day so much more enjoyable. You get to have a lot of fun with everyone. There’s less stress and you can get to know more people at the competition.”
Heath had a solid performance in senior men's discus at OFSAA, finishing 7th overall with a throw of 45.23 metres, while breaking the NOSSA men’s discus record with a throw of 46.45 m.
“Breaking the record was just a bonus to winning NOSSA," says Heath.
"I was just happy to be able to accomplish my goal of winning in front of my mom and coach Brian Milne. My favourite part of the whole event was watching my mom read my final record-breaking distance and hear the joy in her voice. I would like to give credit to both my mom and Brian (Milne) as well, without them I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”
Fisher Bradley is one of the coaches for the track and field team at Chippewa and says, “Being able to coach Raine and Heath this year was incredible. I didn’t compete in this sport, but a few years ago (Chippewa Athletic Director) Sara Pickles said Widdifield needed help with track and field and needed somebody to oversee discus and so I volunteered and over that time I have learned a lot from Brian Milne who was coaching at Chippewa at the time (and is still coaching) and so when my boys got to high school I asked if they wanted to try it out since I had to run the event anyway. Luckily, they enjoyed it, and they excelled at it and it is an event that we can do together.”
While Grayson wasn’t on the track and field team this year (although he went to OFSAA, competing in shot put during his grade 10 year) he was competing for the Chippewa Senior Boys soccer team as a defender.
“I never played much soccer before until this year and (Head Coach) Mark Hopper found me in the hallway one day and said he needed a big defender for the upcoming year,” says Grayson.
“A lot of my buddies were playing and so I decided to go out and that first practice it was pouring rain, cold, everyone was miserable, and he had us running around in circles, kicking balls and doing drills I had never seen before, but it managed to work, our passing was unbelievable this year.”
The team was undefeated winning both NDA and NOSSA without dropping a game. Grayson says they wanted to prove they belonged at OFSAA, even though they knew they were hosting the tournament.
“We didn’t just want to be the hosts and not play well on our home turf,” says Grayson. “We put in the work, we saw it at both NDA and in NOSSA playing some really good teams. Our goal was to work hard and we knew good things would come. The tournament was awesome. We got to see our gym turned into a beautiful banquet hall. Miss Pickles did a great job hosting and organizing the whole event. Our friends and family got to see us play against some of the best competition in the province right here in North Bay. This was easily the most well done OFSAA event I’ve been to.”
Grayson says while it was a busy couple of weeks for the family, it was a time they really enjoyed.
“It’s nice to have some downtime now, but it was a lot of fun going from soccer practice, while those two are at throwing practice and then all three of us are rushing over to get to the field in time for our baseball game. I really enjoyed being able to see their success in their sport, while at the same time getting to compete with them on the ball field.”
The calendar at home has not been empty for quite some time says Fisher Bradley, “That big calendar keeps us organized and luckily all the boys have teammates that can drive them to practices and to games. As a parent, it’s really hard to miss an event, I didn’t get to see all of Grayson’s soccer games and so when I did, it was special to be there, to see them win.”
She adds, “We tried to work those practices around everyone else's events so that we could get from throwing practice to umpiring, to baseball and just hoped that things didn’t conflict too much.”
And there will be plenty more competitions this summer to attend. Heath will be competing at the Athletics Ontario Provincial Championships while Raine has been invited to the Ontario Summer Games for discus.
Raine says, “My mom got an email from the head coach of the Northern Ontario team letting us know where and when it was happening and invited me to be on the team. I’m really excited. There’s been a lot of training put in, and I’m looking forward to the competition.”
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