ARCHERY COACH HONOURED AT SPORT LEADERSHIP AWARDS GALA

Canadian Archery coach Joan McDonald (Richmond Hill, ON) was one of a number of Canada’s top coaches that were honoured at the Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Awards Gala, hosted by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), this past weekend in Calgary. McDonald was a recipient of the Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award. This prestigious award recognizes coaches whose athletes have excelled at World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Special Olympics World Games.

McDonald is the personal coach of Crispin Duenas (Toronto, ON), who won the bronze  medal in the Men’s Recurve Bow category at the 2013 World Archery Championship in Belek Antalya, Turkey (September 29^th – October 6^th). The bronze medal marked the first time in 42 years that Canada had finished on the podium at a World Championship in the Men’s Recurve individual category.

McDonald has been personal coach to Duenas for the past 13 years. She is also the founder and Head Coach of the Bullseye Buccanneers Archery Club in Richmond Hill, Ontario.  McDonald has been instrumental in the development of Duenas as an archer from the ‘Learn to Shoot’ stage of Archery Canada’s Long-Term Archer Development (LTAD) model through to the ‘Shoot to Excel’ stage. “Joan’s confidence in my abilities and her keen attention to the coaching of the technical and psychological aspects of archery, have led to my steady progress and success at the national and international levels”, said Duenas.  “I have no doubt that without Joan’s coaching and guidance, I wouldn’t have been on the podium at Worlds. I’m also sure that under Joan’s continued coaching, I’m on the path to a long and successful career as a high performance archer.”

“I’m thrilled and honoured to have won this prestigious award. Crispin is a tremendous young man and athlete with lots of potential”, said McDonald. “My sincere thanks and appreciation to Petro-Canada and the CAC.”  Archery Canada

Congratulations Joan!

Archer nominated for ESPY Award

2012 Paralympic gold medalist Jeff Fabry (Tulare, Calif.) has been nominated for an ESPY Award in the “Best Male Athlete With a Disability” category. The nomination, announced on JUN 27, 2013, puts Fabry in the running for this prestigious award from top sports network ESPN.

Fabry, who shoots a compound bow and had a breathtaking rise to the podium in London after an equipment failure that nearly eliminated him from competition, is one of 11 Paralympians nominated for an ESPY this year. Fabry’s nomination is archery’s first-ever nod in the ESPY nominations.  Read More…

Be sure to watch the 2013 ESPY’s tonight.

Chapter One complete…

On Thursday, I finished the first chapter of my life by graduating from Kingston Vocational & Collegiate Institute.  My graduating class was about 300 kids, with more 80% graduating with honors (academic 80% average) and Ontario scholars of which I was one. I remember walking across the stage, my brothers and sister cheering, apparently my mother cried, my father could not stop taking photos they was so proud and happy.

Besides being an Ontario scholar, I was also the recipient of couple of awards and scholarships. With the first award, my name with forever by etched on the walls of K.C.V.I. as it in engraved on a plague.

The Adrien Langlois Award (Physical Education)

Awarded to a graduating student who has completed a minimum of three physical education credits including PSE4U (Sport Science). The student is considered the best overall physical education student as determined by the Healthy Active living department

The Sandy Prentice Memorial Scholarship

The scholarship is designed to recognize the efforts and accomplishments of a graduating K.C.V.I. student with an identified communication disability. The student must have demonstrated outstanding and persistent effort in overcoming the challenges of their learning difficulty such as reading, writing, organization or social skills. The student must also demonstrate a high degree of academic competence, the ability to self advocate and self regulate, and some level of contribution to the school community in the area of sports, clubs, or student leadership.

Graduating from high school was an extremely important moment for me, since at five years old, my parents were told I would never learn to read or write so not to bother to try and teach me. I have dyslexia, severe auditory processing communication disorder to be more exact, so much so that when officially tested, I scored in 1st percentile.

There is often a misconception about dyslexia, most people think of people reversing letters or numbers; however dyslexia is about learning differently, and auditory processing disorder is a broad umbrella for people who have difficultly either understanding or expressing ideas or information either verbally or written. For an overview about various types of auditory processing disorder check out the Wikipedia article.

This is the first time I have publicly acknowledged my learning challenge. Mainly because I never ever wanted anyone to treat me differently or for one minute think that I could not do something. Personally, I think it is a learning GIFT, since I just learn differently and the list of famous people with dyslexia is very extensive including Muhammad Ali, Cher, Robin Williams, Albert Einstein and many more.

Although, I had been accepted at Dalhousie and Acadia, I will be attending Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario this fall studying Kinesiology, with  goals of becoming a physiotherapist and a national level archery coach.  To all who read this, do not let anyone else dictate your path in life. You can achieve anything you want to, it just takes a little hard work.

Winner of the SBA Best New Sports Blog – September 2012

I am very pleased to announce that my blog “Jordan Sequillion – My Quest for Archery Gold” has been awarded the Sports Blog Award (SBA) Best New Sports Blog for September 2012.

I know there are lots of great sport blogs and I really want to thank all the judges who reviewed the site and found it worthy of winning.

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I hope to continue to provide valuable information to my readers and help grow the sport of archery.

My Coach Honoured

This past weekend was the Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Awards Gala, hosted by the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), at The Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto. My coach, Kathy Millar of South Nation Archery was honoured as one of Canada’s top coaches and sport administrators for her coaching efforts with World Champion Archer Christopher Perkins.

The prestigious Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Awards recognize coaches whose athletes have excelled at World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Special Olympics World Games.

“Petro-Canada has supported the recognition of Canada’s coaches for 11 years and has recognized over 200 of Canada’s best. This year, as in years past, there is an incredible list of talented coaches that we are very proud to celebrate,” said Steven Keith, Director, Loyalty and Marketing Partnerships, Petro-Canada, a Suncor Energy business.

“The Government of Canada is pleased to support the Coaching Association of Canada and the 2011 Petro-Canada Sport Leadership sportif Conference as we recognize the critical role that sport leaders and coaches play in the development of athletes and sport inCanada,” said the Honourable Bal Gosal, Minister of State (Sport). “I commend their commitment to Canadian amateur sport and to achieving sport excellence.”

“Each one of these coaches exemplifies what the Coaching Association of Canada stands for,” stated John Bales, Chief Executive Officer for the CAC. “They are dedicated individuals that push themselves harder and harder each day by planning, researching, and actively listening so that they can be better for their athletes. We are truly proud of these award winners.”

The excerpt above is from Coach.ca.

Ms. Millar is the personal coach of Christopher Perkins (Athens, ON), who won the gold medal in the Men’s Compound Bow category at this year’s World Archery Championship.  At 19 and still a junior age athlete, Perkins was competing in his first-ever Senior World Championship. Using the momentum of his gold medal performance, Perkins and his two teammates captured the bronze medal in the Compound Bow Team event.

Ms. Millar has been personal coach to Perkins for the past five years. She is also the founder and Head Coach of the South Nation Archery Club in Winchester, Ontario.  Millar has been instrumental in the development of Perkins as an archer from the ‘Train to Shoot’ stage of Archery Canada’s Long-Term Archer Development (LTAD) model through to the ‘Shoot to Excel’ stage. “Kathleen’s confidence in my abilities and her keen attention to the coaching of the technical and psychological aspects of archery, have led to my steady progress and success at the national and international levels”, said Perkins.  “I have no doubt that without Kathleen’s coaching and guidance, I wouldn’t have won the gold. I’m also sure that under Kathleen’s continued coaching, I’m on the path to a long and successful career as a high performance archer.”

“I’m thrilled and honoured to have won this prestigious award. Christopher is a tremendous young man and athlete with lots of potential”, said Millar.  “My sincere thanks and appreciation to those that nominated me, the CAC and Petro-Canada.”

The excerpt above is from Archery Canada.

Kathy Millar truly exemplifies what it means to be a true top coach and in my opinion, no one I know deserves the recognition more. Congratulations!

Most Improved Archer

Last weekend, my archery club, South Nation Archery in Winchester,  had it’s annual awards ceremony.  It’s a great time to have a potluck dinner and recognize all the archers accomplishments throughout the indoor season.  This year,  I won several medals including two national medals and three provinical medals however nothing was more surprising than to win our club’s “Most Improved Archer” award.

There were nine very deserving nominees and I was extremely happy to co-win this with my friend Nathan. This award is very special to me,  since it recognizes the dedication I have shown to my training schedule and all the hardwork that I doing to improve my archer skills and really move to the next level.  In my coach’s nomination she mentioned “… and if I told Jordan to walk for 20 minutes in a bizzard, I know she would…“.

I am not sure anyone can win this award a second time, however I am going to work even harder now and make them consider me again.