wy oe a a a NOTE a ~a March 26, 2003 Sports Section Editor: Jordan Cripps the other press dcsportseditor@yahoo.ca Tim Frick—Douglas College’s Paralympic Champion Jordan Cripps Sports Editor “You just have to dwell on the present and really enjoy what you're doing at the time.” It’s this phi- losophy of living in the moment that has allowed Tim Frick to succeed as a coach and instructor. From a very early age, he seemed destined for a career as a coach but it’s unlikely that even he could have predicted the many different paths he would take along the way. In 1965, at the age of 13, he began coaching a soccer team made up of 5-and 6-year-olds. This experience began to shape the philosophies he would adopt in his future coaching positions. “They needed a coach and it seemed to work,” he says. “It was good for me because I was learning about the sport, too, as I was trying to explain it to them,” explains Frick, “I was learning as I was going on.” His high school athletic career was certainly varied. He describes going to basketball practice only to assume the role of coach for the junior girl’s team immediately after. This would be fol- lowed up by any number of sports activities, from baseball to soccer. “You juggled all those things,” he explains, because “anything to do with sport seemed to be a passion.” He eventually decided that coaching was a career possibility while playing university volley- ball in the 1970s and, at the same time, coaching the junior women’s team and the junior varsity. “When I found out Langara was actually paying about a fifth of a salary to coach a team, all of a sudden I was right there, knocking on their door,” he says, chuckling. After coaching and teaching phys-ed at Langara, he moved to Douglas College, teaching courses for the Therapeutic Recreation Program and now for the Sports Sciences Department. 1977 proved to be a pivotal time for Frick’s coaching career as he, in addition to coaching volleyball, added another kind of sport to his coaching repertoire. One of Frick’s friends at col- lege was from Williams Lake and had gone to high school with Rick Hansen. Through this mutual acquaintance, he met Hansen and they became friends. It was Hansen who “badgered” him into coaching wheelchair volleyball and track. “I was just stuck,” he says, laughing. “It was that meeting and that friendship that really solidified my love for wheelchair sports.” In his early foray into coaching wheelchair sports, Frick believed it was important to estab- lish early the way he would approach his new responsibilities. At his first volleyball practice, he said to his players, “Look, I don’t know anything about wheelchairs or paraplegia or anything like that, but I know about volleyball, and so I'm going to coach volleyball. I’m going to coach the way | always coach. Give me a couple of weeks to do it, and if at the end of those two weeks you don't like it, you don’t like that style, just tell me and I'll leave.” He rationalized that he would develop a better understanding of the workings of wheelchairs and then be able to find the best way to get a team to maximize their skills through observing the players in action. From these initial steps, Frick began a climb up the coaching ladder, culminating with him being named as coach of the National Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team. Over the years, he guided the team to six world championships and an unbelievable 43-0 run in tournaments and qualifiers, a streak that only came to an end last year at a qualifying tournament. Despite this minor setback, a streak of 32 consecutive victo- ries in Paralympic and World Championship tournaments is continuing. Along the way, he has received a number of prestigious awards, includ- ing the Order of BC, Sport BC Coach of the Year Award, and, just last year, a 3M Coaching award. After so many years of feeling like a volunteer coach, Frick is grateful for the agreement between the Canadian Sports Centre in Greater Vancouver, the CWBA (Canadian Wheelchair Basketball Association), and Douglas College that allows him to divide his time as teacher and coach evenly. As an instructor, he brings many of the same attributes to his students as he does to the teams he coaches. As an instructor, he believes that he can “impart some knowledge and maybe a different way of looking at things” as well as encouraging a positive attitude in his stu- dents.. Comparing teaching and coaching, Frick says, “they're almost identical tasks. Basically youre taking human potential and trying to develop it somehow, be a catalyst for this devel- opment.” His involvement in the Man in Motion World Tour is, clearly, one of the endeavors he feels most proud of: “When you look at your life, some- times you just wonder, ‘how did that happen?” It’s in discussing this topic that Frick allows sen- timentality to enter his voice. Thinking back to the way things used to be prior to the Man in Motion World Tour, he marvels at the success of the tour in terms of bringing awareness to the issue of spinal cord research. “To have been part of that process, however small that part is, it’s unbelievable,” he says. Asked to talk about a specific moment or memory in his coaching life, he says that “it’s hard to really differentiate a specific season or moment because you put so much energy, so much focus, on each situation that, when it’s over, you've had fun for a while, but you're put- ting that energy somewhere else. You can’t really dwell in the past no matter whether youre suc- cessful or unsuccessful. You just really have to dwell on the present and really enjoy what you're doing at the time.” However, special memories do exist with his involvement in the Man in Motion World Tour and, obviously, with the suc- cesses he’s had as coach of the National Team. After 25 years of coaching wheelchair basket- ball, Frick shows no signs of slowing down. He will be heading to Greece for the 2004 Paralympic Games, and although there is “not really” anything he needs to accomplish, he admits that “there are lots of other personal goals” he hopes to achieve both in the classroom and on the court. Erik Hagreen, Kevin Hall Tim Frick days of Pibeeneetcya (rer w enter ‘ey. / Carleton UNIVERSITY Canada’s Capital University.” Start up. Catch up. Jateim tem Sun. Sand. Study. An unlikely combination — unless you're taking a summer-session course at Carleton University in Ottawa. Flexible and convenient. Courses are available days and evenings in classrooms and on our itv channel. Whatever course you choose will fit easily into your schedule, leaving time for the beach, chores, and a job. Everything you need to know is on our Web site. Just log on and follow the instructions, then get out and enjoy the sun. You're already on your way to a brighter Summer e future. Session 2003 carleton.ca/summer registrar@carleton.ca (613) 520-3500 © page 20