Part 1

David: Todd, you have been involved in sports for a long, long time, as long as I've known you. As of right now, what are the sports that you do currently play?

Todd: I play floor hockey twice a week-once at the South Delta Baptist Church on Thursday, and once at the Alliance Church on Monday. I've retired from rugby, I played ten years in the sport and I think I've had quite enough of that. I'm looking to become a professional dart player, actually. I've been touring recreationally yet seriously for the last twenty years or so, so I think those are my main sports. I play football one game a year, the grads of '96 all come together before Christmas to play a football game. So those are my sports right there.

David: Where did you begin with sports? I mean, everyone-myself, I started with soccer, and a little bit of baseball, and a little bit of basketball occasionally. What were the sports that you started to play, and how old were you when you started to play these games?

Todd: Well, it was about twenty years ago-1983, 1984-I started floor hockey, a little bit of football, a little bit of soccer. I think that's really where it all began, is I started throwing darts, so it was '83, '84, that era right there, that's where it all started. David: What was a sport that you really took to instantaneously? Of the sports that you began with, what was the sport that you really, really took to?

Todd: It was definitely floor hockey, because I was the fastest guy on my team. I still am one of the fastest people in floor hockey on this planet, and that would be the one?

David: Did you play ice hockey at all? I did- Todd: No, I can't skate worth a dime. I can skate forward pretty good, but you want to ask me to go sideways or backward, forget it, because I'm flat on my rear end. David: I played floor hockey-oh, I'm sorry, I played ice hockey-for about three years, and I'm not sure my passion was in it, although I did play floor hockey often in the driveways of my friends, and I just loved that. Okay, so your passion was floor hockey, and you were good at it. How did you know that you were better than all those other guys that you were playing with, who equally wanted to be the best? How did you know you rose above the rest?

Todd: Because I used to score about four or five goals per game, and the rest wouldn't match that, and God gifted me with fast feet. I don't know, that pretty much sums it up right there. David: Were there sports that you played professionally, on teams? I guess they wouldn't be professional, but on teams? What did you play?

Todd: Yes, I played floor hockey for the Clearwater Cougars in Fort McMurray, Alberta. That was grades four to six, 1987 to '90, and I played on the South Delta Sundevils rugby team from 1993 to 2003, and those are the only two. I can't think of any others, so if there are any others, I have to dig up the gold medals and the trophies in the attic or whatever. The dungeon. [laughter] David: Okay, so when you were in high school, you were quite an athlete, everybody knows that. When I speak to people, they talk about your athleticism. What were the sports-it was rugby and-was it specifically rugby that you excelled at in high school?

Todd: That's right. Yeah, I was. I was-for the first two years, I was put a lock, a second row, which is in the scrum. My third year and on, I was put in many different positions. I was put in flanker, prop, 8 man; occasionally I was put in the back row of the wing. I was very versatile, and my coach, John [inaudible], recognized that, and that's where we went from there. David: So you've spent a lot of time playing on team sports, which-and you were always somebody who excelled above and beyond the other players. I find it striking that you would choose a sport that is so singular-darts. Tell me about how this fascination with darts came about-being alone, working on your own, no team around you. Why darts?

Todd: A few reasons, really. My-especially my dad's side of the family-had an infatuation with darts. All his brothers and sisters played. They made their own tournaments. That started in the late sixties, early seventies. Me and my father, we were hunters, actually, in Alberta, in the eighties, and I had a fascination with targets-you know, hitting targets. Darts is just one of those games where I have that good hand-eye coordination and can hit the target almost every time, and that's where I kind of compare the two. Target practice.