Camosun Coach shares his Summer Games experience in PEI
If you were among the thousands of Canadians watching the 2009 Canada Summer Games held in PEI, you may have caught Camosun College Chargers men’s volleyball head coach—Charles Parkinson providing live commentary for the volleyball events on TSN. Camosun College sat down with Coach Parkinson to hear about his experience.
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| TSN’s Rod Smith with Charles Parkinson in a pre-match interview at the 2009 Canada Summer Games |
Tell us about your history and involvement with the Canada Games.
I have been a commentator at two Canada Games (2001 and 2009), but my involvement in these events goes way beyond television, having attended seven Games over the years. I was the Chef de Mission (Head of Delegation) for BC’s 415 athletes and coaches at the 1993 Canada Games in Kamloops, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Canada Games Council for many years and a member of the Canada Games Sport Committee for 5 years or so. The Canada Games is unique in that it is an opportunity for athletes who will be future stars to cut their teeth. For example, in 1993 the leader of our men’s basketball team was Steve Nash, and the flag bearer for our 1995 Canada Winter Games Team was Paul Kariya.
How did you enjoy your stay in Prince Edward Island?
The last time I was in PEI was in the winter so it was really nice to experience this gentle province in the summer. It is very green, with almost 95% of the land being arable. It reminded me a lot of parts of England more than parts of Canada which shows how big and diverse this country really is. The people are incredible. They are warm and friendly and they all seem to have a great sense of humour. Quick wit seems to be their hallmark, and of course their accents are unique, although many of them thought I was the one with the accent!
Looking at the results, BC earned medals in three of the four volleyball events (Bronze in both men’s indoor and beach and Gold in women’s beach). What does that say about the development of volleyball in the province? Were there any volleyball athletes from Camosun or the BCCAA?
There were no Camosun volleyball athletes involved on the BC team this year, but there were a number of CCAA athletes whom I recognized from the National Championships. BC’s performance at the Games was okay. Against the weaker teams BC played well and won in pretty convincing fashion as you would expect. However, against some of the tough teams we weren’t able to raise the level of our play in beach or indoors (with the obvious exception of women’s beach) sufficiently to challenge for the win, and that was a bit disappointing. Overall, though, coming out with 3 of 4 medals is a pretty good record and suggests that we are on the right track.
What stood out in your mind about the college athletes that you recognized from the CCAA Nationals representing their respective province/territory?
Watching the CCAA players at the Games says a lot about the level of college play. Even against many of the top CIS players they did not look out of place and in some cases, particularly Quebec and Alberta, they were team leaders.
What are you looking forward to with your Chargers this year? Any new tricks up your sleeve??!
I’m really looking forward to getting back in the gym and working with the guys. We will have quite a few new athletes this season; some of them older players returning to school who will bring maturity and stability to the team, and some of them younger recruits who are starting their college careers with great expectations. Overall, we will be a bigger team than last year and so should be a better blocking group and more physical. What we have to ensure is that we don’t trade those qualities for skill and ball control, something that Camosun is known for and that helped us to victory last season.
The other thing we have to be mindful of is that we go into the season with a big bull’s eye on our backs. Every team is going to want to knock us off our #1 position as quickly as possible and I’ve heard that some of the other BCCAA teams will be very strong. It should make for interesting times and we hope that students, alumni and the public will come out and support their Chargers!
Opportunities
Camosun students have the opportunity to try-out for a spot on Coach Parkinsons’ gold medal program September 8-11, but be warned – the competition is fierce!
Volleyball enthusiasts can catch Coach Parkinson and his team kick-off the season on Friday, October 30th at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence.
More info
Find game dates and times, photos and all the latest news on the Chargers Blog!
