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OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE OCAA
SPRING 2019
2019 HALL OF FAME
COACH’S CORNER On the OCAA’s 50 years of passion LINDA STAPLETON
Also inside: THE RISE OF THE DIGITAL ATHLETE I t’s probably a good thing to have coaching experience before writing an article for “Coach’s Corner”. Does my single victory with the Seneca Sting Women’s Soccer team count, as I stepped in as coach following the ejection of both my coaches? As we celebrate the OCAAs 50th season this year, I prefer to offer reflections gleaned over my 39 years of involvement in one of Canada’s leading sport conferences and the people that make it so. What has changed most significantly since the early days of the OCAA?
DUAL-SPORT ATHLETES
As an organization of college sport leaders that gathered around kitchen tables, the success of the OCAA began and continues with the exceptional leadership we have received from athletic directors, executive directors and college staff that volunteer as convenors and committee members. Over the span of 50 years, the passion demonstrated annually by college staff to support their athletes and coaches is unparalleled. Technology has changed the way we work. It is a major element that has significantly and positively impacted so many aspects of the game. In my rookie administrative year, the main tools
for communication were the telephone and the typewriter (which for me required an ample supply of carbon papers to duplicate copies and a pail of white out to correct all of those typos). As personal computers entered the scene, athletic departments and the OCAA office harnessed that power and that of the emerging software to communicate more effectively and instantaneously, to capture league results and expand the very data rich aspect of player statistics. More data supported coaches in player development and game preparation. It also allowed the OCAA to recognize their athletes based upon solid objective criteria and award them accordingly. Partnering with companies like Krossover provides a home for broadcasted games giving coaches and athletes unprecedented access to every team’s game film across the province. It has also revolutionized scouting. Instead of every coach travelling across the province with cameras to obtain video of their opponents for game prep, coaches can scout from their living rooms. Athletes today can receive individualized video isolating their performances and execution of skill within two days rather than the old standard of two weeks. Many member schools are also doing a tremendous job of webcasting their home games and we have seen several schools raising that bar each year: Humber’s first webcast of the OCAA Cross Country Championships; Seneca’s first of simultaneously webcasting multiple badminton courts at the OCAA Badminton Championships. Digital photography, video clips from cell phones combined with social media have provided a powerful mechanism to promote games and provide immediate results. It can also capture images of negative behaviors which reflect on that individual, the team, the school and the association. As our provincial laws, college policies and sport organization rules have become more defined with respect to harassment, dis-
ALL-STAR GERARD PELLTIER TALKS HOCKEY, COMMUNITY AND EDUCATION 42 | sweat 2016
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