Did you know … SIRC has a regional office in Toronto? You can check books out of the Ottawa and Toronto locations if you are a member of SIRC?

Recently SIRC and SPORT4ONTARIO hosted an Open House at our NEW regional office in Toronto. After consulting with Amanda Street-Bishop, the Information Specialist at the SIRC@SPORT4ONTARIO Office, Nancy Rebel and Brandie Adams brought over 400 books, journals and DVDs from the SIRC Collection to the Toronto office for people to browse through. The event was fantastic! Numerous sport groups in the GTA attended the event to find out about SIRC services and to help choose what they would like included in the SIRC@SPORT4ONTARIO Library. Debra Gassewitz, president and CEO of SIRC, gave a brief presentation and then launched the new Check Out service.

SIRC members in Ottawa and the GTA are now able to borrow SIRC resources on a weekly basis. Currently there are over fifty publications being circulated on nutrition, team building, officiating, mental training, administration, coaching, strength training, leisure management and more. Popular books include:

o Successful Sports Officiating: fundamentals for all officials.
o The Women's Basketball Drill Book: More than 180 drills from the game's top coaches.
o Speed for Sports Performance (DVD)
o Complete Conditioning for Tennis.

SIRC is looking forward to organizing other events in the future. Stay tuned to see what we’re hosting next!!

Also, as a new feature to our blog entries, SIRC is excited to let you know about new titles that have recently been added to the SIRC Collection:

o Actively Engaged: A Policy on Sport for Women and Girls. (Canadian Heritage)
o Rock Climbing. (Human Kinetics)
o Softball Coaching Development Program Level 3. National Coaching Certification Program. (Softball Canada)

Let’s talk about cricket!

As a Canadian that’s not a statement you hear too often, but the sport of Cricket is growing in popularity in this country by leaps and bounds. For example in the Toronto area alone the Toronto and District Cricket Association is the largest amateur club in North American and has over 1300 players on 92 teams. One of those players, Rizwan Cheema, a recent immigrant from Pakistan, who only played at the club level in his home country, not only plays for the National Team here in Canada, but is also getting international recognition. He is currently one of 51 players through to the final phase of the Indian Premier League auction. (This is like the NHL draft of cricket). Mr. Cheema owes this honour, not only to his skills but to the support and training he has received in Canada.

As Cricket Canada president Ranjit Saini stated in a January 6th , 2010 press release “This is a proud moment for Cricket Canada and its members" he later went on to add “Should Rizwan get selected and becomes part of IPL, the boost in Cricket Canada brand name will be phenomenal and the public awareness about Cricket in North America and particularly Canada will grow significantly. "

Interesting Cricket Canada Information:
The Canadian Cricket Association (now called Cricket Canada) was established in 1892.

The first recorded game of Cricket played in Canada was in 1785 at Ile-Ste-Helene in Montreal, Quebec.

In 2009, over 20,000 children throughout Canada played cricket in both school and community based development programs.

Cricket Canada’s head office is located in the SAO building along with SIRC’s new regional office in Toronto. The staff memebrs of Cricket Canada are avid users of the SIRC collection and borrow materials on a regular basis. SIRC is happy to help Cricket Canada with their research needs.

What's going on at SIRC’s Toronto Regional Office

SIRC@Sport4Ontario, SIRC’s Toronto Regional office, is located in the Sport Alliance of Ontario Building where close to 50 provincial sport organizations call home. This building is unique as it provides the organizations with office space and full office services, plus there is meeting room space available to tenants which allows them the space to run training sessions, coaching clinics and of course professional development programs for organization staff.

Yesterday, (January 13, 2010) Sport4Ontario held their monthly lunch and learn forum, which included guest speaker Barrie Claude Shepley. Barrie was Canada’s first National Triathlon Coach and was the first Olympic Triathlon Head Coach for Canada in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games where Simon Whitfield won his historic gold-medal. He has been named Coach of the Year in Canada on three occasions, Coach of the Year in Ontario two times, been inducted into Triathlon Canada’s Hall of Fame and has also been named a High Performance Coach from the National Coaching Institute.

On January 28th, 2010, SIRC’s Toronto Regional office will also be taking advantage of the meeting room space to hold an Information Session and Luncheon. Participants of this hands-on session will not just learn about SIRC, they will also participate in exercises designed to show them how SIRC can help them in the daily operation of their provincial sport organization.

Professional Development and Learning – That’s What’s Goin’ On!!

Toronto Info Session a Great Success!

On January 28th the Toronto Regional Office of SIRC held an information session for SIRC members who were interested in learning how to better work with the SIRC Collection and SIRC Services to help them and their organization. We had a full house with representatives from a variety of organizations including the Ontario Badminton Association, Ontario Basketball Association, ParaSport Ontario, Cricket Canada, the Ontario Association of Triathletes, ROWONTARIO , the Sport Alliance of Ontario and the Ontario Ringette Association.
Attendees learned how to post jobs on the SIRC Career Page , advertise conferences and events on the Conference Calendar and submit a press release to the Press Release service.
Following this Amanda Street-Bishop and Brandie Adams, SIRC’s Information Specialists, led the group through the members’ area including a tutorial on the SportDiscus™ Database. The group was interested in finding articles on topics ranging from Sponsorship to Injury Prevention.

Armed with the knowledge of how to search the SIRC Collection, the session then moved on to the hands on portion. Attendees completed a scavenger hunt through the various SIRC Resources. Congratulations to Stephanie Wade of Triathlon Canada, Rebecca Norton of Coaches of Canada, Lizze McArdle of Sport4Ontario and Matt Kennedy of the Ontario Blind Sports Association who won our scavenger hunt competition.

Thanks to everyone that attended including some new members to SIRC: Christopher Lowcock of the Ontario Disc Sports Association and Chloe Greenhalgh of Dragon Boat Canada.

Durham College Students learn the value of research!

Amanda Street-Bishop (Toronto’s Regional Information Specialist) received an invitation from Durham College’s Professor Kate Houze, to speak to their first year students enrolled in the Sport Administration and Sport Management programs. Students partook in a hands-on workshop which allowed them to learn about SIRC and how they can use us to help them in their second semester Sport Research Course. The purpose of this course is to present each student with a knowledge base and the relevant skills in order to better understand and function in the evolving sport management industry. The students study research and its application to the sport industry. Students examine research in detail – what it is, its purpose, its importance to industry, how to use, when to use it and then apply this knowledge to several research projects. Many sport management positions require one to research, to articulate an idea or concept and to present this information effectively to a board of directors, a client, a sponsor or other management groups making research an essential part of the Sport business environment.

The session was conducted in the school’s state of the art computer lab allowing each student to independently explore the SIRC site and the SportDiscus™ Database. The students were interested in scholarly, peer reviewed articles on a variety of topics including: steroid use in professional baseball, violence in amateur hockey and the promotion of mixed martial arts.

Here’s some of what they found:

• Financial Incentives and League Policy: The Example of Major League Baseball's Steroid Policy. Tainsky, Scott; Winfree, Jason A., European Sport Management Quarterly Mar2008, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p67
• Honor, ritual and violence in ice hockey. Colburn Jr., K., Canadian Journal of Sociology 1985: Vol. 10 Issue 2. p. 153-170
• Injury trends in sanctioned mixed martial arts competition: a 5-year from 2002 to 2007. Available Ngai, K. M.; Levy, F.; Hsu, E. B., British Journal of Sports Medicine Aug2008, Vol. 42 Issue 8, p686
• Mixed Martial Arts: The Book of Knowledge. Bolelli, Daniele, Journal of Asian Martial Arts 2007, Vol. 16 Issue 4, p86
• Public Perceptions of Steroid Use in Sport: Contextualizing Communication Efforts. Becker, Amy B.; Scheufele, Dietram A., International Journal of Sport Communication Dec2008, Vol. 1 Issue 4, p444
• The Relationship Between Spectator Motivations and Media and Merchandise Consumption at a Professional Mixed Martial Arts Event. Sport Marketing Quarterly 2009, Vol. 18 Issue 4, p199
• Sports MDs seek CMA support in bid to make hockey safer. Sullivan, P., Canadian Medical Association Journal Jan 15, 1990: Vol. 142 Issue 2. p. 157-159

Celebrating Ontario’s Athletes

On Thursday April 15th, 2010 SIRC’s Toronto Regional Information Specialist had the honour of attending the 45th annual Ontario Sport Awards which took place at the Atlantis Pavilion, Ontario Place, presented by the Sport Alliance of Ontario and the Ministry of Health Promotion. The event was hosted by Hugh Burrill, City TV sports anchor and Alexandra Orlando, Rhythmic Gymnast, Olympian and Pan Am Bid Committee Member.

The night got underway with the Corporate Sport Citations which are presented annually by the Province of Ontario to corporations that have been a leader in supporting sport through sustained corporate involvement over several years. The next award on the agenda was the SYL APPS Special Achievement Awards, which are presented annually to volunteers who have contributed to the development of sport in the province.

Other big Winners of the night were:

• Male Athlete of the Year - Patrick Chan (Skating)
• Female Athlete of the Year - Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (Athletics)
• Male Athlete with a Disability of the Year - Stephen Jesso (Powerlifting)
• Female Athlete with a Disability of the Year - Erika Schmutz (Wheelchair Rugby)
• Female Coach of the Year – Wendy Morgan (Ontario Curling Council)
• Male Coach of the Year – Anthony McCleary (Athletics)
• Team of the Year – NEXXICE Senior Synchronized Skating Team (Skate Ontario)
• Rolf Lund Jule Nisse Award – Sheilagh Croxon (Coaches Association of Ontario)

Congratulations to all the winners and to the Sport Alliance of Ontario and Ministry of Health Promotion for putting on a wonderful evening to honour Ontario’s Best.

To view all award winners at the 2009 Ontario Sport Awards please click here

Second Open House Another Success

On April 29, 2010, SIRC’s Toronto Regional office held its second Open House, with over 150 books on display from both the SIRC Ottawa office and the SIRC@Sport4Ontario collection. Many people from the Provincial Sport Organizations (PSO) in the Sport Alliance building came down to peruse the collection and partake in the free lunch.

What was different about this open house is that there were computer stations set up around the room in order to hold one on one training sessions with individuals wanting to learn how to properly search the Sport Discus Database and also set up saved searches and alerts. Many of the PSOs participated including lacrosse, golf, basketball, ringette, Coaches Association of Ontario and triathlon. Linda Kirk, the Executive Director of the Ontario Association of Triathletes was looking for the latest information on Long Term Athlete Development from a Canadian perspective. She was able to set up a search and alert so now she will be receiving links to articles directly to her email.

Congratulations to our door prize winners Keeley MacLean from Coaches Association of Ontario, Chris Driscoll of the Ontario Lacrosse Association and Erin Hamilton from the Sport Alliance of Ontario. Look for the next SIRC road show to take place in the fall. Till then, sign out a book or two,” ask a librarian” or better yet visit one of SIRCs two libraries, you won’t be disappointed with the information available.

Athletics Ontario – a Meet to Remember

This past weekend, the SIRC Toronto Regional Information Specialist attended the Athletics Ontario’s National Qualifier Meet & Ontario Relay & JW 5000m & Combined Events Championships & National Junior Combined Events Championships (I know quite a mouthful). The event was a huge success for both participants and organizers despite the stormy weather. The event took place at the Toronto Track and Field Centre (TTFC) at the York University Campus. SIRC was on hand to promote the SIRC membership to Athletics Ontario Coaches, Trainers and Officials as they now have an association membership. The SIRC booth was visited by over 40 Athletics Ontario coaches and trainers, as well as numerous athletes and parents at the meet. The coaches were very excited about their new membership benefit and eagerly picked up brochures and searching guides. “I’d like to tell you that this is a great service, but I can’t, because it is more than great!” was just one of the comments made by coaches about the Athletics Ontario’s new SIRC membership. Coaches eagerly chatted with the SIRC Information Specialist about LTAD and overtraining as well as sport nutrition and developing effective warm up drills. Coaches and trainers not only talked about how SIRC would help them with their athletes, but also how it would help them in their jobs as elementary school teachers, wellness professionals and safety experts. Students and athletes were interested in SIRC’s career page and monthly newsletter, while parents were eager to know what they should be feeding their athletes before a meet. SIRC was able to meet all their information needs.

New Canadians Have New Opportunties

Statistics show that using sport is one of the most effective and fastest ways that New Canadians can assimilate into Canadian society. SIRC recently attended a “Sport and Diversity” session hosted by SPORT4ONTARIO at the Sport Alliance Building in Toronto, where three organizations presented on how they are expanding their services to insure that there are programs directed towards assisting New Canadians integrate into the rich Canadian sporting community.

The Coaches Association of Ontario (CAO) was awarded a grant from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and the Strategic Partnership Initiatives Youth Opportunities Program (SPIYOP). They are hosting 10 Coach Education For Newcomer Youth workshops in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) for newly landed Canadians ages 15-24, who are not currently attending school. The program provides an exceptional education in fair play, responsibility and safety, and child development phases, and each participant receives a coach workbook and resources, as well as a trained NCCP status in the national database. A great start to a new coaching life.

The Toronto Sports Council (TSC) was awarded a grant from True Sport to help increase the number of trained and certified youth sport leaders in the Jane-Finch communities in north Toronto. As a result, the communities will have a greater capacity to provide high quality sport programming opportunities for school age children.

And since soccer is such a global sport, most New Canadians arrive in Canada with a great amount of passion for the game already. The Ontario Soccer Association’s (OSA) “Soccer and Settlement” project connects New Canadians with organized, sanctioned soccer groups in specified communities and by doing so, they are linking communities and developing partnerships with other organizations that will serve to develop coach, referee and volunteer leaders for the future. Currently partnered with the Catholic Immigration Centre (CIC) which works with newcomers in the Ottawa area, they are connecting 66 soccer clubs in the nation’s capital with the OSA’s initiatives. The OSA is also creating a coaching program to train adult newcomers to coach or referee the game.

For more information on sporting programs for New Canadians, please visit SIRC.

¡Fiesta de las Americas!

In four years time, Canada will be hosting the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The local organizing committee, Toronto2015, is already hard at work preparing the venues and logistics for this immense event. Canada has hosted the Pan American Games twice—both times in Winnipeg (1967, 1999).

Photo credit: Mike Ridewood / COC 

But in just 24 hours time, the 2011Pan American Games will begin in Guadalajara, Mexico, the city referred to as the “Pearl of the West”, and known for its’ culture, theatre and museums.  This is the third time Mexico has hosted these Games, making them the first country to three-peat (1955 and 1975 were the first two times). The 2011 Games with their motto Fiesta de las Americas (The Americas' Party), will be the largest multi-sport event of this year’s sports calendar, with approximately 6,000 athletes from 42 nations expected to participate in 361 events in 36 sports.  Fifteen of the 26 Summer Olympic sports will use the 2011 Pan American Games as a qualifier for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, including handball, canoeing and modern pentathlon to name just a few.

Team Canada is made up of 493 athletes (257 men and 236 women), with all ten provinces and the Northwest Territories represented. The youngest Canadian athlete is Table Tennis player Anqi Luo of Mississauga, Ontario (age 15), and the oldest will be Equestrian veteran, Ian Millar of Perth, Ontario (age 64).

The 2011 Pan American Games will be held from October 14 – 30, with the Parapan American Games (the multi-sport event for athletes with a physical disability) starting on November 12. 

The first Pan American Games took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1951.

For more information on multi-sport events, please visit SIRC.

Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games Study

Canada is hosting the Pan/Parapan American Games in Toronto in 2015. SIRC, Canada's national sport information resource centre, is pleased to be working together with the Canadian Olympic Committee to conduct a study on the Games. In particular we are looking at the following areas:

• Expectations for our athletes
• Importance of the Games
• Potential opportunities for the Canadian sport community and other related sectors 

 An important component of the consultation process is to have as many Canadians as possible participate and share their perspectives. We would like to invite you to participate in a short online survey and share your thoughts on these topics. Please complete the survey by May 6, 2012.

Please complete the survey as it applies to you:

• Canadian Sport Community 
• General Public

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Les Jeux pan/parapanaméricains de 2015 seront à Toronto. SIRC est heureux, en tant que partenaire de recherche œuvrant en étroite collaboration avec le COC, de piloter un processus de collecte de données des canadiens et canadiennes pour évaluer :

• Nos attentes pour nos athlètes
• L‘importance des Jeux
• Les occasions à saisir par le sport canadien ou les autres secteurs 

 Nous vous invitons de participer et partager vos perspectives. Le sondage est court. S’il vous plait, répondre à ce questionnaire d’ici le 6 mai 2012.

Cliquez ici pour commencer :

• Communauté canadienne du sport
• Canadiens en general