Ottawa Sports Awards – The Ottawa Sports Awards is proud to announce the 2018 recipients of Lifetime Achievement Awards in coaching, officiating, and volunteering and administration, as well as the winner of the Mayor’s Cup award for outstanding contribution to local sport. The honourees will be celebrated in person at the 2018 Ottawa Sports Awards Dinner, January 30, 2019 at Algonquin College on Woodroffe Avenue.

Brian Kilrea Lifetime Achievement Award, Coaching: Mike Rivet

For over 30 years Mike Rivet has arrived at an arena or ice oval, put on his speed skates, and gone on the ice to help speed skaters develop into better athletes and better people. Canada’s PyeongChang 2018 Olympic athletes Ivanie Blondin, Vincent De Haître, and Isabelle Weidemann started with Mike at the Gloucester Concordes Speed Skating Club when they were just learning to speed skate. He has also coached deaf-blind athlete Kevin Frost to long and short track Impaired Skating World Championship titles. For Mike it has never mattered if the person he was coaching was just learning to skate or it they were preparing to represent Canada – he would treat them all with enthusiasm, respect, and share his evident love of the sport of speed skating. Rivet has also been previously named the Ontario Speed Skating Coach of the Year, and Speed Skating Canada’s Coaches Award of Excellence. He is truly the first person that comes to mind when anyone in the sport talks about coaching in Ottawa.

Lifetime Achievement Award, Technical Official: Nadine Crowley

A former international level basketball official, Nadine Crowley is now dedicating her knowledge and energy at the grass roots level in Ottawa, provincially, nationally, and internationally to create and implement training programs to develop officials of all ages. A member of Canada Basketball’s Board of Directors, Canadian Basketball Officials Commission and the FIBA Licensing Advisory Group, Crowley is involved in the early stages of community building and aligning Canadian officials with the rest of the basketball world. Currently one of 11 FIBA Referee Instructors in the world to have obtained their level 2 instructor certification, Nadine was the instructor at the Senior Women’s 2018 World Championships. In her officiating career, Crowley was on the floor at three World Championships, numerous Pre-Olympic Championships, Asian Games, FISU Games, and Canadian Championships. Locally, Nadine founded the Officiating Mentorship Program for the Boys & Girls Club of Ottawa in 2012 and was the Referee-in-Chief for five years.

Lifetime Achievement Award, Sports Volunteer and Administrator: Peter Lawrence

Originally from England, Peter Lawrence immigrated to Ottawa in 1962 and started his coaching career at the Bayshore and the Plant Bath pools and became the major force behind those initial water polo events in the city. A few years later, Peter was pulled into exciting projects run by the City of Ottawa during 1966-1969. He played an instrumental role in designing and influencing the architectural decisions for the Brewer Park, Pinecrest and Gloucester pools, ensuring they could be used for water polo games. Today, at the age of 82, besides swimming several times every week on his own, coach Peter is still fully committed to his coaching routine. He continues to introduce young girls and boys aged 6-13 to the sport at several weekly sessions happening at different city pools, working as one of the most dedicated coaching resources in Ottawa Titans Water Polo Club. Countless number of junior coaches have had the opportunity to learn from coach Peter as he was tasked with organizing and mentorship duties. The many contributions of Peter Lawerence over his time in Ottawa has allowed the Ottawa Titans to become the largest Canadian water polo club.

Mayor’s Cup: Kathleen Murphy

Kathleen Murphy represented Canada at the 1976 Olympics in gymnastics at the age of 16. After her gymnastics retirement she continued her passion for amateur sport by volunteering her time in as many capacities as she could. She volunteered her time on the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre board of directors for over ten years, eight of which she served as the President of the club which is now one of the largest in the province. In 2008 she began to multitask her volunteering efforts and helped to found the Ottawa National Diving Club. Beginning with only two divers and one coach, she has grown the club to over 250 members and 12 coaches. An NCCP Certified Comp-Intro Coach-Level 2, Kathleen continues to volunteer her time in a coaching and administrative capacity to this day. In 2017, Murphy was a representative for the 2021 Canada Games bid in Ottawa, and in 2018 she was named the Executive Director of Dive Ontario. A community builder and outstanding Ottawa sports representative, Kathleen Murphy will continue to look for new opportunities to bring amateur sport to the next level in Ottawa.

Tickets for the Ottawa Sports Awards Dinner are on sale now at https://ottawasportsawards.ca/

The Ottawa Sports Awards is the largest and most inclusive amateur sport recognition event in Canada will mark its 66^th anniversary this year. Last year’s event sold out with over 600 in attendance. Winners of the 65 individual sport awards, team recognition awards, and the Athlete, Coach, and Team of the Year awards will be announced in January. 

For more information, please contact:

Jen Elliott

Ottawa Sports Awards Board Member

ottawasportsawardsmedia@gmail.com