Do you know a coach who inspires and instills a life-long love of sport in their teams and athletes? Or a coach who embraces diversity, pushes the envelope and breaks through barriers?
Why not nominate them for an Ontario Coaching Excellence Award!
2017 NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED
The Ontario Coaching Excellence Awards program celebrates the dedication and commitment of exemplary individuals who inspire, innovate and share knowledge of sport with others. The Awards recognize the importance of leadership, performance and the value of human insight which are all integral to great coaching.
A coach is nominated in one of the following six categories:
Grass Roots (1 Male, 1 Female)
Coaches recognized in this category are inspirational role models in the community. The coaching focus would be on introducing children and youth to a sport, developing fundamental movement skills while creating a positive environment for healthy development and instilling a life-long love to be physically active and stay involved in sport. A coach in this category would measure their daily success in the number of smiles achieved.
Good-to-Great (1 Male, 1 Female)
The coaching focus is on performance excellence and competing to win. The coach would be recognized as the primary coach who identifies talented individuals; who creates a training environment that further develops athletic skills and abilities to a higher level of success in competition over a period of time.
Trailblazer Coach
The Trailblazer coach is an innovative out-of-the-box thinker who inspires others to follow and has made a difference in their sport or for their athletes. Whether coaching a community rep team or top performing provincial athletes, the coach who pushes the envelope, invents new approaches to old challenges and breaks through barriers should be nominated for this award.
The “Aboriginal Impact” Award recognizes a coach who has made a significant impact by advancing the Aboriginal Sport system/community in Ontario. Over a sustained period of time they have demonstrated the value of physical, emotional and mental well-being of Aboriginal peoples of Ontario through physical activity and sport. Examples in this category include success in reaching out to and actively welcoming Aboriginal athletes to an existing team or sport program, introducing a new sport program to an Aboriginal community, or a coach who advocates for Aboriginal cultural and traditional practices in their coaching.
Andy Higgins Lifetime Achievement Award
An outstanding coach who has made a significant contribution to coaching in Ontario over a long sustained period of time—20+ years. Andy Higgins, an Olympic decathlon coach, an educator and all around good human being, has devoted his lifetime to instilling positive values, citizen development and making a difference in people’s lives through sport. A coach who dreams big, looks for the possibilities, and focuses on a lasting legacy would be an ideal award recipient in this category.
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School Sport Coach – Selected by OFSAA …………………… …………… 
The selection of recipients (1 Male and 1 Female teacher-coach) is based on their unique contribution to sport through continuous development of new coaches. The nominated coach must have influenced the development of new coaches and have shown evidence of program building as well as encouraging athletes to give back to sport. .
Interested in nominating your coach?
Nominations for the 2017 Ontario Coaching Excellence Awards have now closed. Stay tuned for more information on this year’s winners during national Coaches Week, September 23-30, 2017.
Nominations for the 2018 Ontario Coaching Excellence Awards will open in the fall of 2017. For more information please contact Eric McLoughlin at events@coachesontario.ca.
The following are the winners of 2016 Ontario Coaching Excellence Awards: (Click to see their videos)
- Colleen Rasmussen-Taylor – Grass Roots Coach (Female), Softball, Port Perry
- David Currie – Grass Roots Coach (Male), Hockey, Sarnia
- Ken MacDonald – School Sport Coach (Male), Toronto
- Jo-Anne Dexter – School Sport Coach (Female), Cornwall
- Laura McPhie – Good-to-Great Coach (Female), Swimming, Guelph
- Terry Radchenko & Ross Ristuccia – Good-to-Great Coach (Male), Athletics, Toronto
- Craig Blackman – Everyone Matters Coach, Athletics, Toronto
- Kevin Sandy – Aboriginal Impact Coach, Lacrosse, Ohsweken
- Graeme Williams – Trailblazer Coach, Squash, Windsor
- Casey Curtis – Andy Higgins Lifetime Achievement Award, Tennis, Markham
