November 1, 2006 (Ottawa, ON) – The Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) announced that ice hockey coach Clare Drake of Edmonton, Alberta and Jean Blackie of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador are the recipients of the Geoff Gowan Award and the Investors Group National Volunteer Administrator Award respectively for 2006. CAC also released the names of this year’s Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award recipients.

Clare Drake was honoured with the Geoff Gowan Award for his lifetime contribution to coaching development. A gifted educator who was for many years a professor in the Faculty of Physical Education at the University of Alberta, Clare wrote numerous research articles on the technical aspects of hockey, lent his expertise to a variety of educational hockey films and videos, and provided enlightened leadership to Hockey Canada’s coach education initiatives. His writings formed the basis of hockey’s first National Coaching Certification Program and for the past 30 years, he has supported its delivery through innumerable clinics and conferences at home and throughout North America, Europe, the Orient, and Australia. He is also a developer of the National Coach Mentorship Program, a committed mentor, and a hands-on university coach, often referred to as the “dean” of Canadian intercollegiate hockey coaches.

Jean Blackie is the recipient of the Investors Group National Volunteer Sport Administrator Award. She has spent countless hours on-ice as a coach and off-ice as an administrator in the sport of curling. No matter what her role, Blackie’s time and dedication has made a significant difference in her province’s curling community. Through her efforts as Provincial Junior Coordinator (1994-2003) and conducting numerous junior development camps, the number of junior curlers more than doubled and the Provincial and Atlantic 17 & Under Championships were launched. In 1999, as manager for the boys’ team in her third Canada Games experience, the team won a bronze medal. As Provincial Technical Coordinator (1995 – present), she introduced the first of many high performance camps and the first NCCP Level 3 coaching clinic in the province.

The Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Awards will be presented to 40 coaches whose athletes won medals over the past year at open world championships, Olympic Games, or Paralympic Games.
From British Columbia: wrestling coach Justin Abdou of Port Moody; national disabled alpine ski team coach Leslie Clarke of Whistler; women’s national wheelchair basketball team coach Tim Frick of Port Coquitlam; wheelchair curling team coach Joe Rea of Prince George; women’s national curling team coach Gerry Richard of Kelowna; and heavyweight men’s national rowing coach Mike Spracklen of Victoria.

From Alberta: artistic gymnastics coach Liang Cheng of Edmonton; freestyle skiing coach Murray Cluff of Cochrane; women’s national team hockey coach Melody Davidson, national goalball team coach Janice Dawson, cycling coach Tanya Dubnicoff, skeleton coach Teresa Schlachter, long track speed skating coaches Marcel Lacroix, Neal Marshall, Xiuli Wang, and Arno Hoogveld – all of Calgary; paralympic cross country skiing coach Kaspar Wirz and cross country skiing coach David Wood – both of Canmore; and women’s Olympic curling team coach Daryl Nixon of St. Albert.

From Manitoba: racquetball coach Ron Brown and adaptive rowing coach Karen Styrchak of Winnipeg.

From Ontario: figure skating coach Lee Barkell of Barrie; men’s national canoe coach Tamas Buday of Mississauga; paralympic athletics coaches Ray Elrick and Peter Eriksson – both of Ottawa; national sledge hockey team coach Jeff Snyder of Elmira; and visually impaired judo coach Tom Thomson of Brantford.

From Quebec: short track speed skating coach Martin Gagné of Verchères; racquetball coach Michel Gagnon of Longueuil; men’s national kayak coach Mark Granger of Châteauguay; national wheelchair rugby team coach Benoît Labrecque and women’s national curling team coach Michel St-Onge – both of Quebec; paralympic athletics coach Jean Laroche of Sherbrooke; cycling coach Michel LeBlanc of St-Nicholas; paralympic athletics coach Pierre Pomerleau of Charlesbourg; short track speed skating coach Guy Thibault of Le Gardeur; cycling coach Eric Van den Eynde of Bromont; and wrestling coach Victor Zilberman of Côte St-Luc.

From Nova Scotia: women’s national kayak team coach Laszlo Latorovszki of Waverley.

From Newfoundland and Labrador: men’s national curling team coach Toby McDonald of St. John’s.

The winners are to be presented with their awards at the Sport Leadership Awards Dinner on Friday November 3 in Vancouver. The dinner is the highlight of the three-day Petro-Canada Sport Leadership sportif 2006 conference being held at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre.

CAC is a not-for-profit amateur sport organization with the mandate to improve the effectiveness of coaching across all sports and at all levels of the sport system.