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(Posted
6 p.m., Jan. 30)
Unsung
community sports heroes recognized at special awards ceremony
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans
Online
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|  Beatrice-Desloges
volleyball coach Chantal Lefebvre was among 30 local minor sports volunteer who
were honoured at the Celebration 2010 awards on Thursday. Photo supplied
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Thirty
unsung heroes were honoured at a special award ceremony at the Orléans
Client Service Centre on Thursday for donating hundreds of hours of their time
to the minor sports community in the far east end. The
event was among nine similar ceremonies being held in ridings across the National
Capital Region, as well as two ridings in the Sudbury area, in the lead up to
the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The
Celebration 2010 awards were the brainchild of former Ontario Minister of Municipal
Affairs Jim Watson who was on hand Thursday night to help Ottawa-Orléans
MPP Phil McNeely present each recipient with a certificate and a special medallion
minted and donated by the Sudbury-based aluminum manufacturer Alcan.
The
30 unsung heroes represented a wide variety sports from minor football to speed
skating, baseball, karate and even cheerleading. At least half of them have been
involved in a handful of different sports over the years, mostly as coaches. Many
of them first got involved in minor sports through their kids. Dwayne Cowick first
became involved in coaching baseball when his son Corey was just four years old.
He would end up coaching his son all the way through to Senior Little League which
is open to kids 16-years-old. Along
the way, his teams made it to the provincial championships at every level and
in 2002 and 2004 the made if to the final game of the Canadian Little League Championships. He
also coached minor hockey, softball, soccer and lacrosse. This past year he was
an assistant coach on the Orleans Little League major team and he coached his
daughter`s ringette team. "I've
always loved coaching. It's just one of those things," says Cowick. "You're
trying to mold these kids into athletes who respect the game and respect each
other and along the way help build up their self-esteem and confidence. It's fun
to watch and be a part of." Mike
Lanos started coaching soccer when he was just 15. That was more that 30 years
ago. Today, he is the technical director and co-head coach of the Gloucester Hornets
Soccer Club. Besides
teaching his players the skills of the game, the advantages of teamwork and how
to deal with adversity, he`s also trying to instill in them a sense of paying
it forward. "I
have a bunch of kids who played with me a couple of years ago who are helping
me with my clinics running drills. That's probably one of the most satisfying
things about what I do,. To have these kids want to come back and pass on what
they've learned to the next generation coming up." Among
the award recipients were a handful of local high school teachers who spend a
good deal of their free time after school and on weekends coaching their high
school teams. Jim
Mick first started coaching junior football when St. Peter High School opened
in 1992. In 1997, he coached the school`s senior boys football team to their first
ever city championship. Since then the Knights have developed into one of the
top high school football programs in the city, winning the National Capital championship
seven times and the OFSAA provincial championship twice in 2005 and 2009. Erik
Kukkonen received the award for the hundreds of hours he`s put in coaching senior
boys football and senior boys rugby at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School. Before
Chantal Lefebvre joined the teaching staff at École secondaire catholique
Béatrice-Desloges in 1997, she coached volleyball for nine years at De
La Salle. The
first year Béatrice-Desloges opened, the junior boys volleyball team was
only made up of Grade 9 students. I took awhile, but by 2004 the Bull-Dogs senior
boys team was challenging for the AA city championship. They eventually won it
in 2006 and the next year moved up AAA where they made it to the finals before
losing to Quad-A juggernaut Glebe. They`ve
made it to the OFSAA provincial championships in each of the past four years. Rick
Despatie received the award for all the work he`s done in developing the girls
basketball program at St. Matthew High School where he coaches the intermediate,
junior and senior teams in the same season. The junior team has won the city championship
seven times in the past eight years and the senior and intermediate squads are
always in the mix come playoff time. Leeann
Napiorkowski and Linda Cunningham each received a medal for the work they`ve done
coaching boys rugby. Napiorkowski took over coaching the senior boys team at St.
Peter High School nine years ago and has since lead them to the city championship
three straight years winning once in 2007 and again in 2009. Linda
Cunningham has coached the junior and senior boys teams at St. Matthew High School
for the past eight years with the help of her husband Paul. Other
recipients of the Celebration 2010 awards include: Mark Magee who has coached
a variety of teams for the past 15 years and has volunteered as the rink manager
at the Scala Park outdoor rink for the past four years; Gloucester-Cumberland
basketball coach Alistair Butt; Cumberland Panthers football coach Chris Molinski;
Mews Orleans Bengals cheerleading coach Katherine Borsato; North Gloucester Giants
football coach Jim Button; umpire, umpire instructor and umpire-in-chief Chuck
Dufton; Cumberland United Soccer Club coach Rob McIntosh; Mews Orleans Bengals
coach Dennis Prouse and club registrar and team manager Tammy Youssef; Jean Lepage,
who`s coached a variety of sports for the past 44 years; Orléans Minor
Hockey Association volunteer Denis Normand; adult softball league organizer Michel
Cadieux; Blackburn Stingers coach Michel Brunet; husband and wife karate instructors
Pat and Evelyn Holinger who teach self defence and street-proofing to local youth
at the Queenswood Heights Community Centre; karate instructor and volunteer Rick
Vey; minor sports coach and volunteer Rick Foy; Gloucester Synchronized Swimming
Club executive member Arlene Schroeder; Alain Roy who organized a group of kids
to compete at Les Jeux de l'Acadie ìn Petit Rocher, N.B.; Gerry Ferguson
who has held various volunteer positions with the Gloucester Little League for
the past 19 years; and John Reid, who at various times has been a coach, general
manager and on-ice official and is now the Referee and Chief with the ODMHA, (This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local
business partners.) Return
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