Macdonald College woodsman a sawing whiz

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

Life is full of hidden treasures, and in the case of McGill University varsity athletics, perhaps there can be no better example than Ste. Anne de Bellevue resident Jonathan Blais.

The 20-year-old native of St. Elzéar de Beauce, Que., who moved to the West Island three years ago to study Farm Management and Technology at McGill’s Macdonald Campus in Ste. Anne de Bellevue has been one of the most successful intercollegiate athletes not only in Quebec, but in the nation. The problem is, besides keen university sports’ observers, nobody has really noticed. That’s because the five-foot-10, 202-pound senior competes in a so-called low-profile sport. Lumberjacking is not exactly a huge draw by any means, but one that demands speed, precision, agility, and tremendous mental concentration. In it, athletes show their wares in various timed sawing, chain sawing, chopping, log rolling, pole climbing and axe throwing events.

Competing may not be the right word, though. Marauding may be more apropos. Over the past two seasons in particular, Blais has been nothing less than dominant in a sport he had never participated in before registering at Mac. He not only played a huge part in leading the McGill men’s team to consecutive Canadian Intercollegiate Lumberjacking Association championships, winning the past two scoring titles en route, but also opened international observers’ eyes by capturing last summer’s prestigious STIHL Loggersports Collegiate Invitational competition in Stillwater, Minn.

“If you would have told me four years ago that I would leave home, go to McGill and end up being one of the best collegiate lumberjacks, I would have laughed,” said Blais, who grew up pitching hay and working the fields on a swine farm that was surrounded by little forest or brush. “When I first arrived on campus, I walked around and saw different sports I could have joined. I actually thought about rugby, maybe football, but then I saw a picture of all these axes and equipment lying on a table. It looked different, and interesting.”

McGill lumberjack team head coach John Watson said Blais was a raw rookie when he first walked into his office, but somebody who was also smart, possessed good athletic ability and exhibited the most important quality necessary to becoming a successful collegiate woodsman — the ability to be a team player.

“He (Blais) really started to develop as a woodsman in his second year,” said Watson. “He was really influenced by a former McGill woodsman who went on to become a professional, Hugues Fillion. Now, he’s developed into the top collegiate woodsman in Canada and the Northeast United States.”

Blais, who claims the single-buck, in which competitors use a crosscut saw to cut through a log with the fastest time winning as his favourite event, graduates this spring. Winning the STIHL Loggersports Collegiate Invitational last summer not only qualifies him to return this July to defend his title, but also enables him to compete on the STIHL professional tour this spring and summer. Also in his future plans is the possibility of moving to Australia for a while to live with and learn from the finest lumberjacks in the world.

“There’s definitely money to be made in the sport,” he said. “But it’s not the easiest lifestyle. You do so much travelling, and winters are spent in Australia. Still, I’m young, and would like to give it a shot. Anyway, if things don’t work out, I’ll simply come home and return to my first love, farming.” 겔