Some Surrey-area school teachers spent part of their summer vacation on a game-show set in Toronto.
Five physical-education teachers who work at Queen Elizabeth Secondary competed as a team on an episode of CBC’s Family Feud Canada to air in mid-September, during a special Teachers’ Week promo.
The school’s athletic director, Tavis Bowie, was joined by fellow gym teachers Shawn Klein, Sukh Badwal, Frederique Muirhead and Danielle Calbick.
In mid-August they flew to Ontario to record their episode with show host Gerry Dee, in a feud with teachers from an elementary school in Westlock, Alberta. Both teams buzzed in for a chance to win $10,000 in equipment and supplies for their students.
“It was a little bit nerve-wracking going onto the television set and seeing it all happen, because it’s a lot different when you’re there than when you’re watching it on TV,” Bowie said in a phone call Wednesday, Aug. 30.
“But it was really exciting to go with a group of friends and colleagues and hang out in Toronto for the day.”
The only team from B.C. for Teachers’ Week, the Q.E. quartet will see their episode air Monday, Sept. 18, 7:30 p.m. start.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW PHOTOS
In July, after a secretary at Queen Elizabeth urged them to get involved, they auditioned for show producers during a Zoom conference call.
“She’s a huge fan of the show, and talked to another of the phys-ed teachers here, Neil Martin, who is, like, the most enthusiastic guy you’ll ever meet,” Bowie explained. “So he was all into it and got us all on board. Then we did the audition and didn’t find out until the beginning of August whether we made it or not.”
The timing didn’t work for Martin, Bowie explained.
“He was travelling in Africa, so the guy who was kind of the initiator of it all wasn’t there for the actual show. But we still had five other willing participants. We decided, ‘Yeah, let’s give it a shot.’”
The Q.E. team had some fun with the Feud show host, former star of the teacher-focused sitcom “Mr. D.”
“Obviously he comes from a phys-ed background,” Bowie noted, “so I think he had a good time being able to roast us from an inside perspective. I think he could see inside our little pea brains and what we were thinking. He did a great job kind of playing that up.”
Representing Q.E. on the show was also a thrill, he said.
“We’re a pretty fun group of individuals so I think everyone was excited to try it out and represent Queen Elizabeth in a positive way. Sometimes the inner-city doesn’t always get the best press, so I think this was just a neat way to show the kids, you know, here’s a group of your teachers, you can laugh at us or make fun of us or, you know, have a joke on us at our expense, right?”
Photos emailed by the Family Feud Canada media department show Bowie with a leg cast and walking with crutches.
“I was playing in the Nations Cup (soccer tournament) in Richmond in July,” the teacher explained, “and when you try to pretend you’re 20 and you’re not 20, and you play five games in 48 hours, things can happen. We got to the final of the over-38s (division). I went into a sprint and heard the pop and felt like a machete hit the back of my leg. So, yeah, the Achilles tendon went on the right side.
“I’m relying on my wife to drive me everywhere, and it was interesting getting across the country,” added Bowie, who lives in Delta. “I still have the hard cast on just one more week, which is nice, but it was interesting going on a game show with that.”