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National Coaching Institute - BC Graduate Profiles
Welcome to the NCI-BC's Graduate Profile page. Past graduates of the Advanced Coaching Diploma Program will be highlighted each season, so please check in to this page frequently!
Gordon Smith
Gordon Recently took over the Women's Soccer Head Coaching position at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and won the Provincial Championship with his team. He is heading to Edmonton for the CCAA Nationals that start on December 6th, 2010. Smith stated in an e-mail, "the NCI program has fully helped gap analysis, especially this year, also implementing the concept of tapering and peaking with the program. We were good in the regular season (8 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie) but ran the table at BC's, winning 5-0, 4-0, and then 2-0 in the final."
Gord Veldman
Gord attended his first swim practice at the early age of seven, swimming for the Ernestown Barracuda Swim Club in Ontario, where he became an impressive age group swimmer and set eight provincial records. After high school, Gord received a full scholarship to Western Kentucky University where he swam for five years and spent the final two as team captain. Gord also earned a Masters degree in Recreation Administration while competing at the University level.
At the age of 22, Gord became a member of the Canadian National Swim Team, accomplishing a long time goal. His National team experience was highlighted by finishing 5th place at the Commonwealth Games in the 50m backstroke. He retired from swimming in 2005 and in 2007, Gord started to mentor under an experienced Randy Bennett as the Island Swimming National Group Assistant Coach. Gord broadened his coaching role when he became Head Pool Coach for the Juan De Fuca Coho Swim Club and Head Group Coach of the Crush Group, with Island Swimming. This past season was highlighted by a Crush swimmer winning a Gold Medal at the Age Group Nationals.
At the age of 22, Gord became a member of the Canadian National Swim Team, accomplishing a long time goal. His National team experience was highlighted by finishing 5th place at the Commonwealth Games in the 50m backstroke. He retired from swimming in 2005 and in 2007, Gord started to mentor under an experienced Randy Bennett as the Island Swimming National Group Assistant Coach. Gord broadened his coaching role when he became Head Pool Coach for the Juan De Fuca Coho Swim Club and Head Group Coach of the Crush Group, with Island Swimming. This past season was highlighted by a Crush swimmer winning a Gold Medal at the Age Group Nationals.
Gerry Dragomir
Gerry Dragomir began coaching over twenty years ago in baseball on the lower mainland. In 2001, he moved into athletics and has successfully established himself as an elite race walking coach for those aged 14 – 75. He knew he would like to be involved in a leadership position and has been a member of BC Athletics Senior/Junior Track & Field Committee since 2001. He also spent seven years working with the Special Olympics in their track & field program. As an athlete, Gerry competed in fastball for the first twenty years of his sporting life before moving into race walking in 1997. He has accomplished a number of top 10 finishes on an international scale through 5k, 10k and 20k races. He was a silver medalist at the World Masters Championships in 2005 for the 5k and gold medalist in 2010 for the 10k road race. Professionally, Gerry works full-time as a Certified Management Accountant and is a founding partner in his firm, Dragomir Liu & Co Certified Management Accountants. His core competencies include strategic planning, leadership, motivation, and team building, which have served him well in his coaching role.
Shannon McDougall
Shannon is a graduate of the Douglas College Sport Science and Coaching program and has been coaching softball for over seventeen years. She believes any goal can be accomplished when you combine the right amount of effort with commitment and continues to work towards excellence with her athletes on a daily basis. Shannon has worked with all ages and levels A, B and C in softball, allowing her to develop a sound coaching philosophy that is built around honor, respect and a genuine dedication to the process. A leader in her sport, Shannon is also a facilitator of the NCCP multi sport workshops and the new integrated certification program for Softball BC. Shannon is currently coaching the Delta Heat Midget ‘A’ team and is very much looking forward to seeing where her coaching experience and education leads her in the future. Shannon feels that it is important for participants of all ages and all skill levels to have access to the experience of sport and quality, trained leaders who can make a positive impact as role models.
Jennifer Schutz
Jenn's coaching philosophy centers around three key words: educate, empower and exemplify. She works closely with her team captains/leaders to gain suggestions for improvement, develop and implement new training ideas and resolve issues quickly. As an athlete, she was a national level middle distance runner, competing for the University of Windsor. Jennifer was a four time All-Canadian, and is still the only CIS athlete to win six national team championships. She has been characterized as the ‘ultimate team player’. Jennifer has been an athletics coach for almost twenty years and also works full-time as a secondary school physical education teacher. She has been an assistant coach at the University of Windsor, the University of Waterloo, and is currently with the University of British Columbia Cross Country and Track & Field Teams. Additionally, Jennifer is also a Run, Jump, Throw Learning Facilitator and has been an assistant coach for two National Teams – the 2002 and 2003 Seoul Ekiden Road Relay in Korea. Jennifer has also volunteered overseas with ‘Right To Play’ as a Coach/Trainer in two United Nations Refugee Camps along the Thailand/Burma border.
Allison Dobb
In 2007, Allison enrolled in the NCI-BC Vancouver diploma program and eventually transferred to Victoria to complete her Advanced Coaching Diploma in the summer of 2010. Her background included studies with political science and criminology at Simon Fraser University where she competed at the varsity level in Rowing. Her passion for leadership and coaching came through at the end of her studies when she realized coaching would be an ideal career path for her to pursue. She started to coach rowers with Team BC from 2001 – 2005 and moved up the coaching ranks in a short period of time to gain experience at various club levels. She is appreciative to have learned from and mentor with Terry Paul, Men’s National Development Team Coach, and Mike Spracklen, National Heavyweight Men’s Coach. Both master coaches have influenced her philosophy and training attitude in a positive light, allowing her to create strategic plans that are optimally structured for her athletes. Leadership has been a key theme for Allison throughout her career and she plans to be an active student of the sport for as long as she is involved.
Mike Clarke
Mike began his NCI experience at the 2007 International Coaching School and started to complete the various NCCP Level 4 tasks in Victoria, Vancouver and Whistler. He was also instrumental in the development of Para-Alpine ski races and should be proud of the recent performances at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. Mike has coached alpine skiing for twenty seven years. His early coaching experiences began on the mountains of Blackcomb, and Mt. Washington. An avid learner with a keen eye for detail, Mike was appointed National Para Alpine Development Coach in 2005 and has coached athletes from the club level right through to International Ski Federation (FIS) athletes. A few of his most memorable coaching achievements include graduating athletes from the club level to provincial and national ski teams and para-athletes to the World cup, World championships and Paralympic Winter Games. Mike has a solid record with many of his athletes winning national championships as he has always sought out the best performance from his group.