The high-school teachers’ strike of 1979-1980 remains one of the more historic incidents in the history of Sudbury public secondary school education.

A 56-day labour dispute shut down 17 schools from February 6th through until May 4th (1980).

For this particular reporter, that graduating year of high-school would prompt a move to Timmins, leaving behind my beloved E.S. Macdonald-Cartier in favour of my very last memories of that very special time taking place at Ecole secondaire Theriault.

For many of those in the earlier years of their secondary studies, the entire affair meant little more than a mid-winter vacation.

For David Turcotte, those few months were quite literally life changing.

A grade nine student at Lockerby Composite at the time, Turcotte would spend every single waking minute during that break from school working on his basketball game at Laurentian University, a hop-skip-and-jump from the family homestead.

Looking back now on a career highlighted by a dozen years spent with the national basketball team of Canada, one can surmise that Turcotte spent his time in the gym quite wisely, emerging quickly into a force to be reckoned with on the hardcourt in the winter of 1980.

“In grade nine when I started, everybody was a better player than me,” recalled the now 60 year-old resident of Utah, making a visit to Sudbury earlier this year to partake in the Eli Pasquale tribute that closed off regular season play for the Sudbury Five. “But I was literally at Laurentian from the minute it opened to the minute it closed.”

“By the time we were done grade nine, I was way better than anybody in my grade.”

A hockey wannabee growing up, Turcotte was definitely built for on-ice truculence, his very late teens seeing the then basketball sensation standing 6’2” and weighing in a shade over 200 pounds.

“Hockey was great because physically, it gave me real good lateral quickness,” said Turcotte, a teammate with Pasquale for the majority of his time with Team Canada. “As a defender, I could keep anybody in front of me. I could use my physical strength to control time and space.”

But Turcotte also speaks fondly of his hockey training for at least one more key reason.

“The ability to see openings, see gaps and cut into space, that was wired into my brain already from thinking as a hockey player,” he said.

More than forty years later, Turcotte thanks his lucky stars for the landscape of Sudbury basketball during his run with the (Lockerby) Vikings, an era when pick-up games were far more abundant if a young, brash still wet behind the ears talent did not mind learning on the fly at the hands of his elders.

“In grade 10, the university guys and the guys they were playing with would let me play, even though I was the worst player there,” Turcotte stated. “I was waiting obsessively for a chance to jump into summer scrimmages at Laurentian.”

“I just ended up getting pulled way up.”

Pulled up to the point of earning some playing time with the junior national team, making his way to Taiwan and putting up 23 points or so against a USA entry that included Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Danny Manning.

While American coach Lute Olsen had just filled up his final recruitment commit to a kid by the name of Steve Kerr at the University of Arizona, assistant coach Tony McAndrews had a slot open with the Colorado State Rams.

“I was loud and cocky and aggressive - but I got the chance to start every game,” said Turcotte. “It was a great experience.”

With more than 1500 points to his credit during his time in Fort Collins (Colorado), Turcotte remains among the school’s all-time leaders in a variety of offensive categories.

When it came to representing his country, however, his calling card would remain his defensive game, with the 1988 Summer Olympics (Seoul), the 1986 FIBA World Championships and the 1992 & 1993 FIBA Americans Championships among his career highlights.

For as much as Turcotte was at times ultra-focused on basketball, he was also remarkably adept at ensuring that life beyond sport could be well navigated, earning a degree in law from Brigham Young University following his graduation from Colorado State (finance and business).

His life, post playing days, could easily form the basis of another complete column entirely - though some of his more recent ventures circle back to where this journey truly began.

Some two years ago or so, Turcotte joined forces with former Team Canada teammate Howard Kelsey to form the Canadian National Basketball Teams Alumni Association, with a group mission aimed at “preserving our storied basketball past while connecting and engaging with our Alumni to support and advance the sport of basketball in Canada.”

No elaborate photos. No eye-popping fundraising goals.

Just a website that allows for the name of every single athlete who has donned the maple leaf jersey in search of basketball excellence - and a picture of those same athletes decked out in said jersey.

It’s a painstaking process where victories are measured by the addition of one previously unconnected alumnus to the group. It’s also an endeavour being tackled at a time when the notoriety and success of basketball stars from north of the 49th parallel has never been greater - even if an awareness of all who came before them falls far short of that standard.

This is an undertaking that David Turcotte knows could easily keep him occupied from the time he wakes up until the time he lays his head on the pillow, all in support of a sport that he loves.

But it’s not like the talkative gentleman from the nickel city has not travelled that highway before.