You're the best, Duncan McKenzie

NEWS RELEASE

SAULT SPORTS COUNCIL

************************* Duncan McKenzie of CASS recognized during Ontario Coaches Week!

April 14th to 21st is Ontario Coaches Week and Sault Sports Council is pleased to announce that multi-sport coach Duncan McKenzie, of Central Algoma Secondary School, is one of five coaches in the province being honoured for his efforts.

A coach of basketball, track & field and volleyball, McKenzie is also a teacher and athletic director of the high school.

He takes on a leadership role, developing his athletes into referees, volunteers and even coaches.

In order to effectively run a basketball program that he dubs "Little NBA," Duncan recruits members of the CASS track team to coach in return for community hours.

“I oversee them, mentor them, teach them how to coach and how to referee, everything. I teach them the CASS way, how we do things so that they (the Little NBA players) are prepared when they come to CASS.”

He is starting a program for aspiring volleyball players this fall called Little Spike.

“All of our feeder schools (Thessalon, Bruce Mines, Desbarats, St. Joseph Island, Echo Bay and Laird) have bought into our sports programs and now all of them have given names to their teams, like the Echo Bay Eagles, and it has really helped school spirit. In our area, everybody plays! Sport is huge for kids up here. They just can’t wait to get involved. I try to show them the good side of sport, things like sportsmanship and steer them on the right path. It’s competitive, but it’s positive, too.”

The above information was gathered from the Ontario Coaches Week event program.

You can find out more about Ontario Coaches Week at the Coaches Association of Ontario website.

For a copy of the event program and more information about Duncan McKenzie, please contact Lorie Springall at Sault Sports Council via email or 759-5309.

Duncan was nominated by colleague Carole Hunt-Ford.

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