OTTAWA, ON – The Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) today announced the members of its 2008-2009 Board of Directors. Returning for a second term are board chair Jean-Marie de Koninck of Lac Beauport, Que., Anne Merklinger of Metcalfe, Ont., Anita Comella of Toronto, Luc Denis of St-Hubert, Que., Gérald Janneteau of Boucherville, Que., Susan Kitchen of Toronto, Michael Mahon of Edmonton, Kelly McGiffin of Hamilton, Ont., Dean McIntosh of Calgary, and Steven Sugar of Newmarket, Ont. Also on the board is John Bales of Ottawa, CAC's chief executive officer. Newly elected to the board are Gordon May of Richmond, B.C., Lorraine Lafrenière of Kanata, Ont., and Jean Blackie of Gander, N.L. Jean-Marie de Koninck is a professor of mathematics at Laval University. A former competitive swimmer, he coached the sport for 28 years at the national level and is president of the Club de natation Rouge et Or Université Laval. He is the founder of the Quebec Swimming Coaches Association and has been a swimming analyst for la Société Radio-Canada and TVA for seven Olympic Games. He is also the founder of Operation Red Nose, a program that fights impaired driving in 92 communities in Canada and now operates in France, Switzerland, and Portugal. Anne Merklinger, vice-chair and a national sport organization (NSO) representative, is the director general of CanoeKayak Canada. She sits on numerous sport organization boards, including Special Olympics Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). After a distinguished swimming career, she focused on curling and was for many years one of Canada's top performers in the sport. Curling coach Jean Blackie is the board's new community coach representative. She is a National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) Level 3 coach, a Master Learning Facilitator, and a Learning Facilitator. She has been involved with the Canada Games as team manager, coach, and mission staff member since 1991. For many years she was junior coordinator and technical coordinator for Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2006, she won the Investors Group National Volunteer Sport Administrator Award. Blackie replaces Virginia Smith of Yarmouth, N.S, whose term has expired. Anita Comella, a provincial/territorial government representative, is the acting director of the Sport Unit, Sport and Recreation Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion. She has been involved with the NCCP since 1994, serves on the Federal-Provincial/Territorial Sport Committee reporting to the inter-provincial Sport and Recreation Council, and co-chaired the federal government's Coach Working Group. Luc Denis, a Provincial/Territorial Coaching and Sport Leadership Councils (P/TCSLC) representative, is Sports-Québec's program director. He was a member of the Secrétariat au loisir et au sport's evaluation committee that developed excellence plans for Quebec's sport federations. Gérald Janneteau, a member-at-large, was a broadcaster whose career spanned 27 years, including 10 years as president and general manager of RDS (Le Réseau des sports). He is a member of the COC, the president of Sportcom, and a vice president of the Centre national multisport-Montréal. He served as the chair of the Fondation Sport-Études for several years. Susan Kitchen, a P/TCSLC representative, has been the executive director of the Coaches Association of Ontario since its formation in 2002. As a Ministry of Tourism and Recreation consultant, she handled the coaching program portfolio and represented Ontario on the National Coaching Certification Council. She has served on the boards of Coaches of Canada (C of C), the Sport Alliance of Ontario, and the Argonaut Rowing Club, and has been involved in the sport of rowing as a competitive athlete, coach, official, and volunteer. Lorraine Lafrenière joins the board as an NSO representative. The chief executive officer and secretary general of the Canadian Cycling Association, she served CAC as chief operating officer and as vice-president, Operations and Marketing. As COC's manager of media relations, she was press chief at the 1996 Olympic Games and the 1995 Pan American Games. Lafrenière has extensive community involvement, including as a board member of the Canadian Cancer Society (Ottawa-Carleton) and as president of the Media Club of Ottawa. She replaces Jean-Paul Caron of Ottawa, whose term has expired. Michael Mahon, the dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, represents the Canadian Council of University Physical Education and Kinesiology (CCUPEKA). He was the chair of the federal government's Coaching Implementation Group and is the past president of CCUPEKA. Gordon May joins the board as a P/TCSLC representative. He has been executive director of the Coaches Association of British Columbia for the past 12 years. His responsibilities include managing the NCCP for the province. His previous experience includes 11 years as a sport consultant with Alberta Recreation and Parks. He has served on the mission staff for the Canada Games and the Western Canada Games and was a staff member for the Commonwealth Games. May is a member of the BC Sport Leadership Council, the Provincial/Territorial Coaching Council, and the Special Olympics BC Leadership Council. May replaces Rob Meckling of Whitehorse, NWT, whose term has expired. Kelly McGiffin, a member-at-large, is a vice president of a credit union and is responsible for branch operations. A former national team coach with Softball Canada, he is now the head coach of a men's team that plays out of Palm Springs, Cal., in the International Softball Conference. He represented Canada at three world championships and at the 2003 Pan American Games. Dean McIntosh, an NSO representative, is Hockey Canada's senior manager, coaching, and is responsible for hockey's transition to the NCCP and for the development of its Long-Term Athlete Development program. He is the co-author and editor of Hockey Canada's Community Coach program and its Introduction to Competition curriculum. A volunteer community soccer and hockey coach, he is an administrator and facilitator of the hockey segment of CAC's “We are coaches” campaign. Steven Sugar, the CofC representative, is an NCCP Level 3 figure skating coach, a Master Course Conductor and Master Learning Facilitator for Skate Canada, and a writer and reviewer of Skate Canada coaching manuals. A CoC vice president, he is a business management consultant serving coaches and sport organizations across Canada. Two board positions are currently vacant and will be filled later this summer. Erin Carter of Winnipeg has resigned as athlete representative and Tom Scrimger of Gatineau, Que., former director general of Sport Canada, has stepped down as the federal government representative. The Coaching Association of Canada is a not-for-profit amateur sport organization with the mission of enhancing the experiences of all Canadian athletes through quality coaching. CAC and its partners deliver a leading-edge coaching system whose goal is to have an impact on 1,000,000 athletes through the training of 100,000 coaches each year in the National Coaching Certification Program. Visit www.coach.ca for more information about coach education and training. For more information, contact:
Sandra Gage
Director, Marketing and Communications
Coaching Association of Canada
613-235-5000, ext. 9-2378
sgage@coach.ca