Young and full of heart

With his 60th birthday behind him, Jim Young is not about to change. Why should he?

His trademark dogged determination at his side, Young still carries himself with a body that would put to shame a good chunk of men half his age, the result of his near daily treks to the gym.

It is that same commitment that allowed the undersized offensive lineman to thrive over a 16-year career with the Sudbury Spartans, one that would see him play a key role on five championship teams, honoured as an NFC league all-star eight times, and ultimately inducted into the Hall of Fame.

"My first year with the Spartans, I was in my last year of high school," recalled Young, capping off a stretch that would see the Lasalle Lancers crowned as city champions four years in a row. "I was an anomaly then. I think the average age of the Spartans was approximately 33.

"A good third of the team were high school teachers."

The year was 1973, a time when the NFC still opened play on Labour Day weekend. A time when the NFC was home to the Bramalea Satellites, a short-term amateur powerhouse.

"They were a phenomenal team," noted Young. "Guys there were either just coming out of the CFL, or just going into the CFL. That was an eye opener.

"I was a small lineman, so I couldn't afford to give anything away. I had to do what I had to do, to be the best that I could possibly be."

The Spartans of the 1970s and into the 1980s were a tough team, with a strong core that stuck around for years. That consistency made them a force to be reckoned with.

Young wouldn't step away from the game until after 1987, and by then his rock-solid reputation was firmly entrenched.

And yet that is only half of the story.

"You stay young keeping active," Young likes to say.

A decade or so after hanging up his cleats, Young, still very athletic, was introduced to running by marathoner Ron Poirier and friends. With a body built for football, he would max out at five or ten kilometres, but when Young decides to do something, he sinks his teeth in.

"When I latch on to something, I stick with it," he said.

By his own admission, Young was a far cry from being a natural runner, but he pushed himself and got his best 5K below 19 minutes.

"You didn't typically see a guy who weightlifted all the time and ran races," he said with a smile.

That dogged personality might be the reason paddler Brad Leonard would seek out Young as a potential candidate to join him and 18 others to form the dragon boat squad, Team Chiro.

Launched for recreation initially, Team Chiro would ultimately become truly elite, travelling halfway around the globe to compete at the world championships in 2008.

Young was part of that team.

"It's incredibly hard for an awkward, rigid guy like me who has no flexibility," he joked.

Like Young always does — whether driving into a defensive line, fighting to get his 5K time lower or trying to wring more flexibility out of his bulky lineman's body — persistence drove him forward.

You stay young by staying active, he likes to say. But when you're Jim Young, you also do it with heart. And Young has that. In spades.