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Sports Oakville Beaver By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2008 31 New Oldershaw at helm of Burloak Canoe Club There's a new name and face at the helm of the Burloak Canoe Club. Okay, the surname's actually the same. And the face, well it's been a fixture on the club's docks for years. All of which gives new head coach Adam Oldershaw all the incentive he needs to maintain the club's place among the best in the country. The 26-year-old takes over from his dad, Scott, who will remain with the club as its junior and senior high performance coach. The change was necessitated after "The biggest the elder Oldershaw was challenge for me appointed head coach of the will be keeping national canoe/kayak team. the momentum "It's a bit of a change. I'll be we've built." doing a lot of stuff now that I didn't do before, but I've been Adam Oldershaw a part of those things, even if I wasn't responsible for them," said Adam, who was a junior high performance coach with the club. "I'll be working with (Scott) and he's still going to be here so the transition, overall, should be pretty smooth." Scott said the most difficult part of the job is keeping track of the different groups -- Burloak offers developmental and high performance programs in canoe and kayak as well as programs for war canoe and dragon boats -- and making sure everyone's needs are being met. But he has no hesitation in passing on the responsibility to his son. "I feel pretty good about handing it over," Scott said. "He knows the job fairly well. He's fair with everybody, he listens well and he has good ideas." Scott Oldershaw head coach since 1990 Scott has been the club's head coach since 1990, just one year after the club was formed by the merger of the Mohawk Canoe Club and the Oakville Racing Canoe Club. He led Burloak to national titles in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2007. In that time, he also coached Oakville's Adam van Koeverden, who won Olympic gold and bronze medals in 2004. Burloak members Mark Oldershaw, Chris Pellini and Brady Reardon hope to join van Koeverden at this year's Summer Games. Adam Oldershaw most recently coached the DEREK WOOLLAM / OAKVILLE BEAVER PASSING THE PADDLE: Adam Oldershaw (right), pictured with his father Scott at the Burloak Canoe Club, is the club's new head coach. Scott, the head coach of the club since 1990, will remain as junior and senior high performance coach, and is also the head coach of the national canoe/kayak team. Canadian sprint kayak team at the Pan Am Games in Brazil. A former national team member who represented Canada at the Pan American Championships, Adam was coached by his father throughout his career. For that reason, he said the club's paddlers shouldn't expect a big change. "My coaching philosophy, everything I know about coaching, comes from him," Adam said. With Burloak coming off what he calls "a ridiculously successful year" that saw every paddler reach the podium at nationals and the club win its fourth Canadian championship, Adam said he doesn't feel the pressure of expectations. "The biggest challenge for me will be keeping the momentum we've built," he said. "We expected to do well (at nationals) but we came out way ahead of expectations. It was planned for and trained for, but there was a lot of good fortune too. I think most people in the club recognize that. My job is to keep the programs running as well as they can." OAK dominates relays at own invitational swim meet After dominating its own invitational swim meet last weekend, the Oakville Aquatic Club appears capable of challenging Etobicoke Swim Club for provincial supremacy at next month's junior championships. OAK's overall strength was perhaps best illustrated in relay competition. Not only did the club win all eight girls' races, but its second team won medals in all eight as well (three silver and five bronze). On the boys' side, OAK teams won five gold, two silver and three bronze medals. OAK swimmers also won gold in all 38 of the 13- and 14-year-old boys' and girls' races, led by Erin Assman, Kent Kikot and Mack Darragh. The local club finished the meet with 125 gold, 108 silver and 118 bronze. Top individual performers in each class included Alexandra Fabugais-Inaba (four gold) and Olivia Sinclair (three gold) in girls' 10-and-under; Meghan Clark (four gold) and Meredith Johnson in girls' 11; Emily Hunt (five gold) in girls' 12; Erin Assman (five gold) in girls' 13-14; Karina Sils (three gold) in girls' 15-and-older; Matthew Mac (five medals) and Alexander Hayman (five medals) in boys' 10-and-under; Mitchell Gour (seven gold), Evan White (six gold) and Connor Wilkins (11 medals) in boys' 11; Gamal Assaad (three gold) in boys' 12; Mack Darragh (eight gold) and Kent Kikot (seven gold) in boys' 13-14; and Graham Fink (four gold) in boys' 15-andolder. Also winning gold medals for OAK were Abbey Saunders, Alexandra Morris, Annika Grewal, Stephanie Nakamura, Hannah Hunt, Bridget Jordan, Cassandra Pedro, Jenna Wood, Marni Oldershaw, Mika Spencer, Tera Van Beilen, Annie Harrison, Keslie McNeill, Veronica DavisFreeman, Katie Fox, Marina MacDougall, Bridget Scott, Sara Pearson, Julie Koszo, Hilary Turk, Elliot Smith, Bennett Ho, Liam Charbonneau, Greg MacLennan, Jarrod Baddeliyanage, Jack Cavanagh, Cameron Byrne, Nathan Lang, Ryan Maccarone, Dylan Kent, Steven Ritchie, Jason Bysice, John Steadman, Brody Dyson and Christopher Carin. Claiming silver were Brittany Lantz, Hannah Burgess-Dines, Dominique George, Tyra Sweet, Hayley Duncan-Snobel, Holly Olsen, Jennifer Wilson, Nicole Mackenzie, Adham Assaad, Dan Andrei Rona, Alexander Smith, Mackenzie Martyn, Owen Scarrow, Connor Ward, Jaret Charbonneau, Peter Serles, Dragan Poposki and David Wilson. Bronze winners included Emily Ramier, Sarah Watt, Morgan Seto, Perrie Armstrong, Erin Jordan, Cassidy Ward, Michelle Carrabetta, Linda Wang, Milan Bowie, Clara Armstrong, Julie Sinkovits, Jessica Fraser, Chrissa McDonald, Jacqueline Watt, Avery Longmore, Alana Boffa, Kaelan Chambers, Amanda Fraser, Scott Love, David Whiteside, Joel Pearson, David Whiteside, Wezley Wright, Michael Luneberg, Connor Ward, Carter Yeudall, Ryan Lewis and Marc Ovsec.