At a St. John's softball field of dreams, Ty Campbell, 19, steps up to the plate for Team Nova Scotia's men's squad.
Cheerleading from the sidelines is Garth Perrin, a man the players affectionately know as G. He's watching the games with his arm in a sling, his walker tucked behind the bleachers.
That either of them made it to the Canada Games at all is nothing short of remarkable. Both were battling for their lives in hospital in Halifax in back-to-back health crises that had the team, defending silver medallists, focused on a life lesson that goes well beyond sport.
Perrin, who survived a staphylococcus infection that spread into his arm and spine, and then a bout of COVID, arrived just in time to greet the team after a practice on Tuesday. In early May, his health condition forced him to give up coaching duties in the weeks leading up to the games.
"Blessed, I guess, to be here," he said, his voice halting, during an interview. He travelled with his wife and daughter, taking the 16-hour ferry ride to Newfoundland. He was recently released after three months in hospital and will be on the mend for six months to a year, he said.
Perrin was determined to get to St. John's to root the players on, as they did him, while he was in hospital.
"Having those guys come in that last week and so on, and you know, for them to give up one of the few nights off they had this summer spoke a lot of them in their character," he said.
One of the players who showed up to support him was Campbell. In an unfortunate coincidence, the teenager was also fighting for his life in the same neurosurgery ward at the QEII Health Sciences Centre just months earlier.
"Yeah, it's definitely a different journey than some would have," said Campbell,
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