{"id":5525,"date":"2019-01-15T10:43:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T10:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/2019\/01\/15\/coach-overwhelmed-by-support-from-peewee-team\/"},"modified":"2019-01-15T10:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T10:43:00","slug":"coach-overwhelmed-by-support-from-peewee-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/coach-overwhelmed-by-support-from-peewee-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Overwhelmed By Support from Peewee Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Original story posted ici<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

SYDNEY, N.S. \u2014 Stephen Gillis teaches his Vancouver Spirit peewee team that being a good hockey player goes beyond what they do on the ice. Now they\u2019re stepping up for their coach.<\/p>\n

Gillis, originally from Sydney, needs a kidney transplant. His group of 11 and 12-year-olds has created a video that\u2019s gone viral with over 300,000 views in the hopes of finding their coach a donor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just overwhelmed by the kindness of the kids, the team, the parents, they\u2019re such amazing people and an amazing group,\u201d said the 38-year-old, who\u2019s lived in Vancouver since 2000. \u201cJust the kindness of everybody from my past, my current life, from all walks of life, I just can\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first season behind the bench for Gillis with the Spirit peewee A2 rep team, but he\u2019s coached many of the players through atom. He grew up with a love of hockey from back home and was a big fan of the Cape Breton Oilers as a kid. He still plays himself, lacing up in a Vancouver adult rec league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Spirit participated in the Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup, which is a national competition where teams perform good deeds off the ice and are awarded prizes and a trophy. Gillis\u2019 team raised $1,300 for a family in need at Christmas time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shortly before the team\u2019s good deed, Spirit assistant coach Cory Dobson contacted the Vancouver Canucks to let them know of Gillis\u2019 story. The Canucks invited him out to attend practice for the day and to a home game against the Nashville Predators on Dec. 6. Soon after, the Spirit players learned of their coach\u2019s need for a transplant.<\/p>\n

Spirit captain Jordan Stewart and his mother, Janette Stoeken, came up with the idea for the team\u2019s viral video on a drive home from team practice a few days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was super surprised that he had a serious kidney disease and he was really sick because he never let it show and he was always striving to make himself better and us better,\u201d said 12-year-old Stewart, who plays centre with the Spirit. \u201cWe just thought it would be a nice thing to do for Stephen because he is such a great coach and a great person to us. We were thinking that it would be a good idea to try and make a video and find him a kidney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super shocked (at the response to the video). I\u2019m happy that people have taken charge and hopefully, someone can find him a kidney and get him back to a healthy Stephen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before taking his current job producing curriculum films for the University of British Columbia\u2019s medical program, Gillis worked as an independent filmmaker. His first project, 2010\u2019s \u201cThis Wrestling Life,\u201d followed the lives of professional wrestlers who competed in independent shows throughout Western Canada. He followed that with another documentary \u201cRise of the eSports Hero\u201d in 2013 that delved into the world of competitive gaming.<\/p>\n

In 2005, he learned he had Crohn\u2019s disease, a painful form of inflammatory bowel disease. It took its toll especially while making \u201cThis Wrestling Life\u201d and required life-saving surgery before he finished the film.<\/p>\n

Last year, Gillis began to experience severe cramping in his hands. His condition worsened, and he ended up in the hospital in July. He was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease called IgA nephropathy (also known as Berger\u2019s disease), which stemmed from his Crohn\u2019s disease. At that point, he had nine per cent kidney function.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the hospital for a week and a half getting fluids and stuff. Eventually, they got it back to about 14 per cent (kidney function),\u201d said Gillis. \u201cI got out and it\u2019s been declining since over time, but I\u2019ve been just trying to do my best to take care, drink lots of water and escape dialysis for as long as possible until we get a donor lined up.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Gillis appeared on Vancouver CTV\u2019s morning show and his story has been picked up by local and national media outlets in the hopes of spreading the word. He requires a living donor with the same O negative blood type and hopes to have a kidney after this season, recover over the summer and be back on the ice next fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the team in general, I take my role very seriously with them in their life and my life,\u201d said Gillis. \u201cI\u2019ve never missed a practice and I never missed a game and I intend not do.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original story posted here.\u00a0 SYDNEY, N.S. \u2014 Stephen Gillis teaches his Vancouver Spirit peewee team that being a good hockey player goes beyond what they do on the ice. Now they\u2019re stepping up for their coach. Gillis, originally from Sydney, needs a kidney transplant. His group of 11 and 12-year-olds has created a video that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"segment":[],"class_list":["post-5525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5525"},{"taxonomy":"segment","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/segment?post=5525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}