
Year 2 of the ONGPC Sees Growth and Results
It was just over two years ago that Row Ontario first announced plans to develop a provincial rowing centre. After determining a host city, finding a location, and retrofitting the space, the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre first opened its doors in September 2020.
The first year of operation saw a tremendous amount of growth and development for the Centre as the NextGen athletes completed their first year in the daily training environment. Now deep into Year 2 of the ONGPC, the athletes are in the midst of their first full summer on the water, as the rowing community has returned to a full regatta schedule for the first time since 2019.
“We’re extremely proud of the progress we’ve made throughout the first two years of running the ONGPC,” said Chris Marshall, Director of Rowing with Row Ontario. “From Day 1 it’s been a learning experience and we’ve had to adapt and change along the way in order to execute our vision of having an ideal daily training environment for Ontario’s next generation of rowers. We feel that we’ve greatly improved our infrastructure throughout Year 2 and we’re starting to see the hard work the athletes and coaches have been putting in pay off with their results on the regatta course. It’s been great to watch them compete and thrive throughout the Spring and we can’t wait to see how they perform the rest of the year.”
For the ONGPC rowers, two Spring events had been marked on their calendars since the beginning of the year. The Row Ontario Small Boat Regatta and the CSSRA Championships were two key regattas in which their performance would help determine whether they would qualify for elite level regattas later in the season. Both the centralized and regional athlete groups performed extremely well in the two regattas, claiming many well-earned victories and top finishes in several race categories. The impressive performances led to many of the ONGPC athletes being named to elite level teams, including Clara VanDyk and Julia Teixeira to the CanAMex team, Payton Gauthier and Mike Ciepiella to the RCA U23 National Team, and Cait Whittard, Anna Pamenter, Stella Bittman, Autumn Crowe, Madeson Scott, Riley Richardson, Lucas Maroney and Shane Keagan to the RCA U19 National Team. Many of the ONGPC athletes are also in contention for Ontario’s rowing team for the 2022 Canada Summer Games, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
In addition to the progress made by the athletes in the training room and on the regatta course, the ONGPC has also made progress in several different areas throughout Year 2. In September of 2021, the ONGPC welcomed the Ontario rowing community for the official Grand Opening. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ‘Grand Opening’ was held one year after the Centre had first opened its doors.
“Opening the ONGPC in the middle of a pandemic definitely brought along some challenges with it,” said Andrew Backer, CEO of Row Ontario. “Being able to host the Grand Opening was a huge moment for us as an organization as we were finally able to show the rowing community and our stakeholders what we had put so much effort into over the previous year and a half. We were able to welcome our sport partners from the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, Rowing Canada Aviron, the Canadian Sport Institute of Ontario, and the City of Welland as well as our sponsors HUDSON and RegattaSport to the Centre, many of whom were seeing it for the first time. Without their support we wouldn’t be where we are today, and it was truly rewarding to host them at the Grand Opening.”
In January, Grant Boyd was hired as Row Ontario’s High Performance Manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of the ONGPC. Boyd joined NextGen Performance Coaches Will Mulcahy and Greg Szybka (RCA) as a regular presence in the daily training environment.
“I can’t say enough about the amount of effort Will and Greg have put in over the last year,” said Marshall. “The development and progress of the athletes throughout the indoor season and into the Spring are a true testament of the job the coaches have done and how they’ve helped them accomplish their goals. We have a great team in place at the Centre.”
The last year has also seen Row Ontario host its first three regattas after forming a partnership with the City of Welland to become the home of the ONGPC and Row Ontario’s proprietary events. The first event was the OUA Rowing Championships in October 2021, followed by the Small Boat Regatta in May and the Tony Biernacki Sr. Memorial Regatta in June. Next on the schedule is the Row Ontario Masters Championship (July 10) and the Row Ontario Championships (July 23-24).
For more on the Ontario NextGen Performance Centre, visit our website.