Brock University selected as RowOntario Talent Development Centre

ROWONTARIO, Rowing Canada Aviron and Canadian Sport Centre Ontario announced today that Brock University will be one of the “Pond to Podium” Talent Development Centres.

"Being selected as one of the talent development centres is a great thing for Brock University," said Brock head coach Peter Somerwil. "This will help Brock in the "Pursuit of Excellence" and will provide us with more coaching resources for athletes that want to excel at the highest level. This past summer we had two rowers compete at the Under-23 Worlds and five compete at the World University Championships. This partnership will help in creating good talent and developing rowers for the future of Canadian rowing at international competitions."

On June 25, 2010, ROWONTARIO (RO), Rowing Canada Aviron (RCA) and Canadian Sport Centre Ontario (CSCO) announced the “Pond to Podium” program, a new program that will be the foundation of a true development pathway for future Olympic-level athlete and coaches in Ontario.

Immediately following that announcement, the Pond to Podium Management Team issued calls for applications from Ontario rowing clubs and Universities to be considered as a host centre of a Talent Development Centre and for applications from eligible coaches who were interested in being named as Talent Development Centre coaches and the Assistant Coach at the National Development Centre – Ontario.

As previously announced, the Welland Recreational Canal Corporation has been named as the host organization of the National Development Centre – Ontario (NDC-O) and Phil Marshall has been named as the NDC-O Lead Coach.

We thank all those organizations and coaches who have submitted applications to the Pond to Podium program. The quality of the applications received from clubs, universities and coaches is indicative of the already strong support for the new program the breadth of talent and facilities that we in Ontario are very fortunate to have to build a strong and effective High Performance system for our developing athletes and coaches.

We have now completed the evaluation process of all the applications and are very pleased to announce the following organizations have been named as hosts of the four Pond to Podium Talent Development Centres:

Eastern Region Queens University/Kingston Rowing Club

Central Region Trent University/Peterborough Rowing Club

Niagara Region Brock University

South-West Region University of Western Ontario

We are also very pleased to announce that the following coaches have been named to the staff of the Pond to Podium program:

NDC-O Assistant Coach - Siobhan McLaughlin

TDC Coach – Eastern - Robert Watering

TDC Coach – Central - Carol Love

TDC Coach – Niagara - Paul Beedling

TDC Coach – South-West - Daniel Bechard

All 5 centres are scheduled to open in September, 2010.

The Pond to Podium program will provide many exciting new opportunities for athletes, coaches and clubs across the Province of Ontario.

We are very excited about our new partnerships with each of the Talent Development Centre host organizations and the team of coaches we have been able to assemble to deliver the program across the province.

Continue to watch the ROWONTARIO website for updates on Pond to Podium and also plan to join us at the 2010 ROWONTARIO Training Conference and AGM, November 12-14, 2010, where a discussion forum on the Pond to Podium program will be held detailing the program and its objectives that will benefit the sport of rowing across the Province of Ontario in the years ahead.