The 1990s were banner years for the Canadian women's rowing team and Jessica Monroe was right in the middle of that success. The Victoria High grad, born in Palo Alto, California and living in North Vancouver, honed her rowing strokes at False Creek and University of Victoria clubs before solidifying her place on the national squad. In 1991, when the Canadian women rowers burst onto the international scene at the World championships, Jessica was on the record setting, gold-medal crews in coxless fours and coxed eights. The fours crew record time of 6 minutes, 25.4 seconds, stood until 2006. That success set up the crews well for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where she again won double gold in fours and eights. Jessie Monroe-Gonin collected a silver with the eights crew in 1996 in Atlanta to round out her Olympic medal haul. At age 31 she helped Canada's women's eights to a silver medal at the 1997 worlds, marking an impressive finish to her outstanding international rowing career.

A former player and coach who had an opportunity to help a group of local juniors step into the senior ranks, Herb Bate found himself bitten hard by the fastball bug in 1968. As sponsor-manager of the newly minted Bate Construction team, he set the stage for a provincial and national dynasty in men's fastball that would last well into the next decade. From the word go he was keen on making more than simply a run-of-the-mill team out of this fairly talented group of players. Working with his coaching staff, he recruited top pitchers on a regular basis, a key ingredient at the senior level. He then found high-level opponents for his squad to play and was instrumental in forming a Northwest International Fastball League. The formula led to seven B.C. titles in eight seasons and helped attract the Canadian championships to Victoria in 1974. He achieved two major goals the next year when his team captured a Canadian championship, then later earned a tie for the world championship title in New Zealand.