‘He’s always with me’

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This article was published 10/12/2021 (1402 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The backyard of Anna Kernaghan’s River Heights home serves as a quiet tribute.

There’s a treehouse, erected when Anna and her brother Clark were younger, and a basketball court, built when she was just starting out in the game.

The rubberized half-court playing surface doesn’t leave much room for anything else.

Even back then, Anna’s dad, Dale Swirsky, seemed to understand the grip the game would come to have on his nine-year-old daughter. He also loved the game, as a senior league player and as Anna’s coach.

“I would say he’s probably the reason I started playing basketball,” says Anna, a sharp-shooting guard on the University of Winnipeg’s fifth-ranked women’s basketball team. “I tried other sports before basketball, but I grew up and he always played on senior men’s teams and I’d go watch him play. In the backyard we had a hoop so I’d always wanted to play with him and we just play games like Horse and 21.

“It just kind of became our thing — playing and even just watching NBA games together.”

Swirsky coached Anna’s Fury club team and in Grade 9 at Grant Park High School. When she transferred to Sturgeon Heights for Grade 10, he maintained a respectful distance, advising her away from the court.

Her skills continued to improve and by the summer of 2017, Anna was a key member of the Manitoba team chosen to compete at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg. Prior to the Games, the provincial team travelled to Regina for a tuneup tournament and Anna’s family tagged along with Swirsky performing video and statistical analysis for the coaching staff.

The morning of the team’s first game on Canada Day, however, Swirsky was stricken with chest pains and rushed to hospital. The family was told he had suffered a heart attack known as a widowmaker, which was a complete blockage of an artery.

“I spent most of my time at the hospital, just waiting, to see if they could do anything,” remembers Anna. “But I still kept playing in the tournament. Honestly, it was hard, but it felt right because I think that’s what he would have wanted me to do.”

She played in games Saturday night and Sunday morning before the family, deep in shock, returned to the hospital at which time the decision was made to remove Swirsky from life support.

Karen Kernaghan, Anna’s mom, understood her daughter’s desire to play through the weekend.

“I knew who she was,” says Karen. “Obviously this was an extraordinary circumstance. Now… you don’t know how you’re going to react and especially because they had such a connection through basketball. I guess it could have gone either way, right? It might have just been too overwhelming to play basketball because it reminded her of him or I think the way she chose was it was a way to honour him.”

Swirsky’s death remains a puzzle. He was an active 46-year-old who had taught for more than a decade at St. Mary’s Academy before moving on to a teaching gig at Red River College. Regular medical checkups did not reveal a problem.

“He was actually very healthy and in the months leading up to it, he was even making an effort to be even healthier,” remembers Anna. “He would bike to work every day (and) we eat pretty healthy in my house because my mom is a health freak… He was in good shape, so it was quite the surprise that it happened.”

Supportive teammates, parents and friends helped pull the family through those difficult times. They were numb with grief on the drive home from Regina.

“It was a pretty quiet ride,” says Anna. “I think we were just all in shock – I would say the weirdest moment was walking in the front door and all his stuff was still there. His shoes were still at the front door but you know he’s never coming home. That was probably the hardest.”

The Manitoba team went on to claim a bronze medal at the 2017 Canada Summer Games. The team played with Swirsky’s initials stitched onto the players’ uniforms.

More than four years later, the pain of that loss has become easier to talk about. Anna, now 20, is in the midst of what could become a run to the U of W’s first national championship in almost 30 years.

The Wesmen women, 15-0 at the holiday break, are an extremely close-knit bunch and she can count on the emotional support of teammates such as Abby Benson, one of her closest friends.

“He was involved in basketball my whole life growing up,” says Benson of her dad Eric, who played basketball at the U of W in the 1980s. “He was my coach and for Anna that person was her dad. Her dad was her mentor, her hero. He was coaching her teams so with her being my best friend, I let her know that my family’s there for her, too.”

It’s heartbreaking to know Swirsky wasn’t around to see Anna’s basketball career take off. In her first year with the Wesmen, she was named to the U Sports all-rookie squad and other accolades seem likely to follow.

How would he view this success?

“He would just be over the moon,” says Karen. “Even in high school, she had a great grade 10, 11 and 12 (seasons). She kept playing in high school and then in her Grade 12 year, she was Basketball Manitoba’s AAAA female player of the year… He would have been so excited for her. And to see her play in university, he would have loved that, that’s for sure.”

Wesmen head coach Tanya McKay got to know the family during the recruiting process three years ago and says Karen Kernaghan is due a lot of credit.

“Her mom is an incredible role model, incredibly positive,” says McKay. “You just feel so good when you’re around them.”

Anna says her dad’s legacy and the support of her team is what drives her.

“I think he’d be proud of me for everything I’ve accomplished,” says Anna. “I find it easy to stay motivated because I know what my goals are and I knew what type of team we were going to have coming into this season. I think it’s easy to stay motivated when you’re surrounded with all these other people who are also motivated the same way as you.”

On and off the court, her dad is never far from Anna’s thoughts.

“He’s always with me,” she says.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14