July 22, 2009.

Coaching Team Nova Scotia at the 2001 Games in London, Ontario.

My relationship with the Canada Games goes back to 1989, when I was the starting 2nd baseman on Nova Scotia’s baseball team at the Summer Games in Saskatoon.  I had gone to three national championships before making it to the team, which was made up of 18 guys who hailed everywhere from Yarmouth to Cape Breton.   We were one out away from making the medal round that year.  I remember enjoying Saskatoon and the whole Games environment; I remember thinking our Team Nova Scotia uniforms looked like pyjamas, but yet athletes from other provinces really wanted to trade us for their uniforms; and I remember it seemed there were 10,000 fans at our games, although it probably wasn’t really that many.  As athletes, we may not think of the Canada Games as a big deal at the time, but for many of us looking back, it was the pinnacle of our sporting career.

I enjoyed my first Games experience but needed to take a break from playing so I decided to shift focus and set my sights on being the head coach for the Canada Games baseball team.  It wasn’t until the 1997 Games in Brandon, Manitoba, that I got that opportunity, after having held various coaching positions on the Youth Selects development team from 1993-1995.  Although I had achieved the head coach position I wanted, I was disappointed in our finish at the Games – we beat New Brunswick and Newfoundland, but lost to Quebec, Manitoba and BC by one run each game. 

After that, I felt it was time to give someone else a chance to be head coach, so I took on the role of assistant coach/business manager for the 2001 Canada Games Team.  We took home the bronze that year, which was impressive considering we’d lost our best pitcher to the major league draft.  It was by far the best Games experience I’ve had, both on and off the field.
 
Why did my relationship with the Canada Games last so long?  There’s no question that it was my love for sport, my passion for baseball, and my positive experience as a Canada Games athlete that motivated me to coach a Games team.  In fact, some of the athletes I coached in 1997 have themselves gone on to become coaches.  Coaching has opened a whole household of doors for me: becoming a part-time major league baseball scout, for example.  Since 2001, I repeated my role as assistant coach one last time at the 2005 Games before moving back to the Youth Selects team, where I am now the assistant coach.  This has allowed me to spend time with my newborn son; allows my players to hear a different voice driving them to succeed; and allows other people to have the same great opportunity I had to coach for the Canada Games.

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