GM Announces the 2009 High Performance and Community Club Coach Grant Recipients

Vancouver (B.C.) – Today, ten Canadian high performance coaches and their Olympic hopeful athletes were each awarded a $10,000 grant for coach development through GM Canada's Making Dreams Possible Program. In addition, 52 community clubs from across Canada each received a grant of $2,000 for coach training and development activities.

List of Community Club Recipients Follows

Today's announcement is the third phase of GM's overall pledge to provide a competitive edge for Canadian athletes.  GM's direct support of coach education and development through this program has impacted over 15,000 coaches and 170,000 athletes in 155 communities across the country. 

“GM has a long history of supporting Canadian athletes and is proud to help our Olympic hopefuls realize their dreams by supporting their coaches as they work together to stand atop the podium just one short year from now in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Games,” said Tom Laurie, GM of Canada's Olympic Partnership Manager. 

“Excellent coaches played an important role in my athletic career and I believe will be an important differentiator for our Canadian Olympic hopefuls as they prepare for 2010,” said Cassie Campbell-Pascall, only captain, male or female, to lead Canada to two Olympic gold medals (2002, 2006).  “GM's Making Dreams Possible Program supports the development of coaches that can inspire athletes at all levels to reach their full potential and dare to dream big.”

John Bales, Chief Executive Officer of the Coaching Association of Canada commented “Thanks to the GM Making Dreams Possible Program, more Canadian coaches from the playground to the podium have access to valuable training through coach education programs such as the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP).  Vancouver 2010 is expected to inspire more Canadians to participate in community club sports and it is important that coaches are well trained to ensure that children have positive first experiences to encourage a lifetime love of sports.”

“This grant from GM allows me to focus on what matters leading up to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and alleviates some of the traditional financial concerns associated with the intensive coaching that will be required” says Mark Fawcett, coach of Alpine Snowboard star, Matt Morison, who was selected to receive a Making Dreams Possible high performance coach grant for the third year in a row, “It is important to do everything we can this year to make Matt comfortable with the Vancouver site for his shot at the podium on Canadian soil.”

“Community Club and school coaches play a critical role in setting the foundation to inspire and grow the next generation of Canadians”, said Ken Shields, President of the West Shore Basketball Society in Victoria, B.C, one of the 52 Community Club grant recipients.  “Having well trained coaches to deliver our programs at all levels is important to ensure that children enjoy participating in sports and contributes to the development of an active, healthy lifestyle.

“The financial support that General Motors of Canada has provided to Own the Podium 2010 (OTP) has enormously helped Canadian winter athletes and their coaches be prepared for podium performances on Canadian soil in 2010,” said Roger Jackson, CEO of Own the Podium 2010. “Specifically, partnerships like this provide a competitive edge by providing essential support for development programs for our Canadian coaches.” 

The recent success of Canadian athletes at World Cup Championship events this winter is a strong indication that programs like Making Dreams Possible and Own the Podium are preparing our athletes for unprecedented results in 2010,” said John Furlong, VANOC CEO.  “GM is a valued partner and we thank them for their role in helping to deliver exceptional Games to all Canadians in 2010 and their commitment to sports and athletes in this country.”

 General Motors of Canada Ltd. is the Official Vehicle Partner of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

About GM's Making Dreams Possible Program
Making Dreams Possible is a program developed by GM in partnership with the Coaching Association of Canada, the governing body of Canada's coaching education program and is designed to support coaches of Olympic and Paralympic Sports at the high performance and community club levels. 

GM's Making Dreams Possible program will provide a minimum of 100 grants of $2,000 each annually for coach development in local communities, and ten grants of $10,000 each annually to high performance athletes and their coaches.  These grants will be used to fund special projects that develop the skills and abilities of high performance and community level coaches.  Application forms can be found through www.coach.ca

About the Coaching Association of Canada
The Coaching Association of Canada (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.  With a mission of enhancing the experiences of all Canadian athletes through quality coaching, the CAC and its partners deliver a leading edge coaching system that has a goal of reaching 100,000 NCCP-trained coaches who will impact 1,000,000 athletes each year by 2010.  Visit www.coach.ca for more information about coach education and training.

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Contacts:

Community Club Grant Recipients