Berty Lavoie-Williams
| |
| Art by Pac | |
| 2020 Draft Candidate | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Species | Grey Kangaroo |
| Gender | Male |
| Date of birth | April 1, 1999 |
| Birth place | Toronto, ON |
| Listed height | 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) |
| Listed weight | 222 lb (101 kg) |
| Shoots | Right-handed |
| Education | |
| School | Claiborne University |
| Player Contacts | |
| (IC) Agent | TriangleDelta |
| (OOC) Creator | TriangleDelta |
Biography
I run into Berty at Ouragan on Bloor St on an early Saturday afternoon. The place is quiet, with only a few people sitting and eating. It's weird - I've been here during the evening, and even on weeknights you would have to squeeze through people to reach a table or a booth. The grey kangaroo meets me with a big, enthusiastic smile, gets us to sit at the bar, and asks me what I'd like.
He moves around the small, award winning restaurant with comfort and familiarity, stepping around the bar to grab us some drinks and punch in our order. I guess it shouldn't surprise me - the kid's lived just upstairs most of his life, and given who his mom is, the place may as well be his family kitchen.
The two of us start chatting as he works. I don't have to do any of my normal steps to get a subject comfortable before we start - he's got this easy way about him that makes the conversation come naturally. In some ways, he's not so different from the kid I interviewed when he graduated high school. He'd just come off a month where he carried his school's basketball team to the Canadian national finals, and a few weekends later performed in the Canada Ballet School's annual symposium.
At the time, Berty had this almost frenetic energy. He was a people-pleaser, a loveable flirt of the highest order. People fell in love watching him on the court - the effortless way he moved around and through his opponents, those beaming smiles with each basket. In person, he fully lived up to that image he projected. He had this natural charisma that shone through, even when talking about something as simple as his life story. He grew up in a tiny apartment with his moms: an ex rugby player with countless college trophies and a bad hip, and a sharp-tempered chef and restauranteur. During that interview, he joked that the two of them got him into basketball and dance as a kid to use up all his excess energy. You try to raise a joey in a small space, and you're asking for an unstoppable ball of bouncing energy and destruction.
For this new interview with him, now that he's graduating from university and on his way to the FBA, I expect that same energy and charm. I do get that, but it takes most of our hour together for me to notice the changes the past four years have brought. He went down to Claiborne University in New Orleans with some serious weight on his shoulders. The scholarship from a school with a less-than-stellar basketball program came with a promise, and some heavy expectations.
Focusing on Berty and a couple other carefully selected players, Claiborne meant to go from a football school with an easily forgettable basketball team, to a major competitor on the national stage.
You can see the effect those expectations have had on him, even in his body. He talks about the decision he made after disappointing results in his first year to step back from contemporary dance and ballet, and instead focus on improving his basketball skills. He's taller than before, and he's bulked up quite a bit. He's got that same grace you used to see on the court, but there's weight and purpose behind his movements now.
More than that, there's his attitude. People tell stories of his mom, Hurricane Dorothy, and what a terrifying, focused force she was on the field. Everybody in Toronto has heard the rumours of chef Mallory Lavoie's drive and temper. I can see some of both of them in him now when he talks about the training he's done, the work he's put in to build himself and his team into a force that could take on champions. That slow, agonizing climb up the ranks, coming just shy of qualifying year after year.
Then finally, this year in 2020, they broke through that barrier and earned themselves a seed. They fought through round after round, until he and his teammates found themselves in the Elite Eight. It wasn't a win, but hell if it wasn't proof of all that work and progress. You can see the pride when he talks about it, the fire.
Throughout all this, we're eating at the bar. He greets the staff by name when they come in. Mallory Lavoie herself even makes a brief cameo, fuming by from the front door into the kitchen, and then stomping her way back out. Berty barely reacts, other than to wish her a good day as she leaves. There are all of these other questions I want to ask him: was his choice to study kinesiology related to his mother's lingering athletic injuries? Does he have any regrets about choosing basketball over dance? What about his reputation as a heartbreaker in New Orlean's gay scene?
I don't ask those questions, or the others I prepared for this interview and feature. It's because I don't need to. I have my answers. Berty was raised by parents who pushed and fought until either they broke themselves, or people learned to respect and fear them. Underneath that easy, friendly demeanour is something sharp and focused. The darling of Toronto's Village has grown up, and he's ready to fight.
- Sylvi Dequit, Culture and Sports Reporter for Toronto’s OUT TO... magazine, June 2020 issue
Stories
Pre-Draft
The following stories take place prior to the 2020 Draft. They can also be found here on SoFurry.
•Family Dinners