Coach – Cross Country, Track and Field, Gymnastics 1968-2013 Holds Western Record for Championships won – 43 14-Time National Champion – 10 Women’s & 4 Men’s Titles 29-Time OUAA Champion – 16 Cross Country, 12 T&F, 1 Gymnastics CIS Coach of the Year 14 Times – OUA Coach of the Year 28 Times Cross Country Coach – World Student Games 2010 1st Recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for OUA T&F 2000 London Sports Hall of Fame Inductee 2013
On his favourite memories of coaching and coaching philosophy
“Even though we’d had a lot of championships there’s been a lot of years that didn’t have any championships. Because I’m coaching a number of sports right? Um, so it’s, I think it’s the experience of some of the competitions we went to, the relationships that I saw evolve among team members. That to me, was really satisfying. To see, uh, team members kind of jiving and gelling together as friends and support systems, support network you know? That kind of stuff is very uplifting for me. And I, so there’s a point that I really believed as a coach that you have to stay out of their way too, you know? You have to let, uh, the artist do their thing, you know? And, um, so, I never wanted to be a controlling coach. So, more of a motivating coach but not a controlling coach. So, um, I’d like to let the leaders lead. As long as the leadership was, you know, there was rare occasions but there were some occasions in my career that maybe the leadership wasn’t quite as good as it should be and I would have to address that. Most often you have really good people with good leadership skills and they kind of set certain tones, traditions and so on that you just let it go. Let, let that flow and you kind of stand back on the side lines, you know? Get out of their way.”
