For 100 years, since Port Coquitlam's inauguration day was capped with a baseball game, the city has been known for its sports culture.
But a new PoCo Sports Alliance (pocosport.com) launched last year and soon to move into offices in the $20-million Pitt River middle school under construction will deepen and enrich the culture and spread it further afield, predicts Ryan Clark, the group's executive director.
Clark was hired in September to oversee the sport body and recently the organization launched its membership services, as well as a website, a calendar, a YouTube channel and Flickr account featuring videos and photographs of local sports events, including the recent BC AAAA Provincial Girls Volleyball tournament at Riverside secondary school.
The organization, which grew out of the PoCo Amateur Athletic Organization, aims to develop sports leadership in the community and, through the promotion of values and ethics, change attitudes in competitive environments where sideline misbehaviour will longer be tolerated.
At the same time, the group aims to make sports more inclusive so as many people as possible engage in healthy activity.
Through an annual sports summit, training and development for volunteers, coaches and athletes, as well as the development of partnerships with other agencies, the alliance hopes to make school and community clubs more sustainable and provide continuity for clubs when volunteers leave because their kids move on or age out.
It's a big job, but Clark, the former CEO of Tennis BC, who was recruited for the job, says he's up for the challenge.
BUILDING A CULTURE
"What a great way to build a city sport culture, not just for the sake of building sport but all the good things - the social, all the health benefits, better use of facilities. You put all this out there to build an exciting community," Clark said, calling the establishment of a sports development centre at Pitt River middle, a "rare and great opportunity."
The board of directors for the non-profit, funded mostly by PoCo city grants and team membership fees, is headed by Mike Bowen, a former PoCo city councillor and a longtime community sports activist, as well as directors from a wide-variety of education, school and team sport backgrounds, including Carey Chute, an SD43 assistant superintendent.
The connection with SD43 is important because it means teams associated with schools in Coquitlam, Port Moody, Anmore and Belcarra - not just PoCo - can also become members and benefit from services.
Clark brings coaching, athletic and organization development experience to the table. He grew up competing in rugby, track and tennis, and graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in marketing and public relations after earning a full scholarship for tennis.
COACHING ATHLETES
He coached for Egypt in Cairo, where he trained the junior and U21 teams for the African Games, and served as Canada's Pan-American Games team coach in 2003, and believes his experience can help him mentor athletes, coaches and volunteers.
Among the services he can provide, for example, is advice to Canadian and U.S. college and university-bound athletes, giving students the added boost and confidence that training for higher-level sport can boost the team as well as civic pride.
"[Students] have more of a purpose when they go into their training," he said, noting that among those he has provided advice to in the past are two PoCo athletes: Tyler Rosenlund, who went onto lead the University of California-Santa Barbara to the NCAA Div. 1 national title in soccer and plays professionally; and Krysha Bailey; a track and field star from Terry Fox who earned full scholarship to the U. of Georgia and competed for Canada's Olympic team.
Clark says he is excited about what sports can bring to young people and the larger community. "Sports really delivers at the ground level when you look at it. It's the clubs, the coaches,the volunteers, the parents, the schools and the cities [all working together to provide an enriching experience]. That's where it's delivered."
