Another successful year for BC Coaches Week
Sep 23, 2013
The 7th annual British Columbia Coaches Week, celebrated Sept 14 – 22 this year, saw a week full of exciting events, contests, free NCCP courses, webcasts and more across the province. viaSport would like to thank our partners and participants that helped make this another successful event! Here’s a quick re-cap of some of the great initiatives recognizing our fantastic BC coaches that took place last week:
viaSport aired exclusive coaching webcasts; full videos available now
On Tuesday, September 17 and Thursday, September 19, viaSport aired two special coaching webcasts featuring well known Olympic coaches, Allison McNeill and Ben Rutledge, as well as Senior Coaching Consultant, Laura Watson.
Webcast 1: After 12 years of coaching the women’s National team, Allison McNeill walks listeners through some of her coaching experiences and “lessons learned in London” from her journey to the 2012 London Olympic Games. Allison shares some of her secrets to success such as believing in your vision as a coach, dedication and commitment from your team, not being afraid to give up and cooperation at all levels. She also outlines some strategies on how to build good team chemistry and some important “building blocks to success” in creating a championship team. Watch the full video now on our YouTube channel to hear Allison’s coaching words of advice.
Webcast 2: Laura Watson from Coaching Association of Canada interviews Olympic rower and coach Ben Rutledge in a special video version of her Watson’s Whys article series. Laura asks Ben to describe his experiences as a coach at the 2013 Canada Summer Games and some of the key things that contributed to his team’s success. They discuss Ben’s successes as an Olympic gold medalist and his transition from high performance athlete to coach. In addition, Ben shares why he became a coach and how his experience as an athlete contributes to his particular style of coaching. Watch the full video now to hear more about Ben’s coaching wisdom.
Active participation in the viaSport daily Facebook contest
Running the length of Coaches Week, viaSport hosted a daily Facebook contest encouraging coaches to engage in discussion about general and technical coaching questions. At the end of each day, all participants were entered into a draw to win a Perfect Pull-up Bar from Fitness Town as well the daily prize.
2013 Contest Winners:
- September 14 – Cindy Simpson won a Langley Events Centre Suite Experience to the opening night of the 2013 NORCECA Men’s Volleyball Championships.
- September 15- Sabrina Hinson won five passes to explore BC’s sports history at the BC Sports Hall of Fame and a complimentary book from Human Kinetics.
- September 16 – Dave Gillis won a Coaches BC OGIO duffle bag filled with a Coaches BC lanyard, whistle and water bottle.
- September 17 – Tenille Hoogland won five passes to explore BC’s sports history at the BC Sports Hall of Fame and a complimentary book from Human Kinetics.
- September 18 – Regan Taylor won a Coaches BC OGIO duffle bag filled with a Coaches BC lanyard, whistle and water bottle.
- September 19 – Jasmine Knight won a Coaches BC OGIO duffle bag filled with a Coaches BC lanyard, whistle and water bottle.
- September 20 – Sandi Vyse won a Coaches BC OGIO duffle bag filled with a Coaches BC lanyard, whistle and water bottle.
- September 21 – Gudrun Anderson won a Coaches BC OGIO duffle bag filled with a Coaches BC lanyard, whistle and water bottle
Thank you to all participants for sharing your coaching wisdom with us. Here is a sample of some of our favourite answers from the contest:
What is your favourite part of coaching and why? Seeing the joy on an athlete’s face and in their body language when they are successful at a new skill used in competition! It is my favorite part because I can see from their actions that we have been a successful team implementing a skill and achieving positive results! – Cindy Simpson |
What is your funniest coaching moment? I was skating backwards demonstrating a drill to my speed skaters and fell butt first into a big garbage can full of water at center ice! That was a classic coaching moment to be passed on for generations. – Sandi Vyse |
What is your favourite sports quote? “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. ” – Wayne Gretzky – Regan Taylor |
Visit the viaSport Facebook page to read all of the daily responses.
Winner announced for Coaches Week Photo contest!
viaSport called out to coaches across the province to submit their coaching photos in this year’s Coaches Week Photo Contest for the grand prize: A one night stay at River Rock Hotel & Casino in Richmond, breakfast buffet for two and a $50 credit for Tramonto Restaurant. The winning photo will also be featured on the cover of the next BC Coaches Perspective magazine.
Congratulations to our photo contest winner, coach Allan Prazsky. His incredible photo above was taken by photographer Brenndan Laird and captures Allan coaching Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Jessica Hainstock in her preparation for this year’s Gran Fondo which happened in Whistler, BC earlier this month.
viaSport would like to thank all participants for taking the time to submit their inspring photos.
Thank you to all partners for helping making Coaches Week 2013 a success
A huge thanks to Fitness Town, Langley Events Centre, BC Sports Hall of Fame, Human Kinetics, River Rock Casino Resort and Richmond Oval for donating some great prizes to our Coaches Week contests. Also a big thank you to the Pacific Sport Centres, PISE and other community centres that hosted free NCCP courses throughout the week. Visit the schedule of events to see a list of all the NCCP courses that were offered throughout the province.
Finally, this week wouldn’t be possible without the great support from sports organizations, clubs, players and others that helped us recognize and appreciate our coaches across the province. Visit our events page to see some of the great coaching profiles and other contests that took place in BC.
Until next year – thank you BC coaches!