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Wrestling's in his blood

Guy Quenville is the perfect guy to court a life-long love of wrestling. The 58-year-old Sudburian is, after all, not easy to "pin down" on exactly what his latest involvement is in a sport that has been his passion for more than 40 years.
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Guy Quenville's life-long love of wrestling not only helped build the sport locally, but also took him to wrestling mats all over the world. Photo by Randy Pascal.
Guy Quenville is the perfect guy to court a life-long love of wrestling.

The 58-year-old Sudburian is, after all, not easy to "pin down" on exactly what his latest involvement is in a sport that has been his passion for more than 40 years.

Like most, his involvement dates back to his high school days when he was approached in Grade 9 to join the team at Macdonald-Cartier. And like most, his first impression of wrestling came from the “pro” variety he had seen on TV.
"When we saw only the mats, we thought maybe our school couldn't afford the rings," said Quenville with a smile.

Weighing just 80 pounds or so, the middle child of five quickly determined there would be no flying off the top turnbuckle à la Edouard Carpentier.

He turned out to be a better-than-average wrestler, and went on to represent the Panthères at the provincial championships (OFSAA) in his later high school career.

But it was off the mat that Quenville prospered in the sport. By Grade 13, the energetic youngster was the team's assistant coach. He became the head coach just a few months after his own graduation.

Quenville immersed himself in his new role.

"We didn't have YouTube or things like that, so we had a lot of clinics," he said. "And I started taking the kids out of town. That's what helped us win our first NOSSA championship."

His devotion helped spawn a steady stream of provincial champions and the first local wrestling club, the Sudbury Golden Eagles.

As if that wasn't enough, Quenville decided to step back onto the mat — sort of. He became a referee.

"I was tired of going down south and seeing our kids getting bad calls, and having northern coaches not want to argue because they weren't sure what they could argue," he said.

Not one to dip his toe in the water, by the late 1980s Quenville had dived right into officiating and was being asked to referee bouts at the national level.
Soon, he was taking his officiating abilities beyond Canada. By the early 2000s, he was one of the first Canadians to referee in Iran.

"Their major sport there is wrestling, like hockey in Canada, and the referees are gods," he said with a laugh.

A stint at the World Francophone Games followed and although he plans on retiring in two years, Quenville would like to add Japan and Moscow to his wrestling referee bucket list — though he admits that might not happen.

That doesn't get him down though. Quenville still gets a real charge out assisting wrestlers at the primary and secondary school levels at Macdonald-Cartier, or working matches right here in Sudbury.
And he wouldn't have it any other way.

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