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Sports Oakville Beaver 33 · Thursday, November 29, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-632-0588 (ext. 294) email sports@oakvillebeaver.com Local hockey players commit to Wisconsin A pair of Oakville residents last week signed letters of intent to play women's hockey for the University of Wisconsin next season. Melissa Channell and Sydney McKibbon were two of five players who committed to join the Badgers on national signing day. Channell is a 5-foot-4 defenceman who currently plays for the Provincial Women's Hockey League's Burlington Barracudas. She was an invitee to the Team Canada under-22 camp last summer and was also part of the Canadian U18 team that played in the 2011 Canada-USA series. Channell, whose father, Craig, is a scout for the NHL's Minnesota Wild, helped the Ontario Red team to a national championship last year. McKibbon, currently the captain of the PWHL's Stoney Creek Junior Sabres, is a 5-foot-6 forward who leads the Sabres in points this season (eight goals, four assists in 13 games). McKibbon also led Stoney Creek in scoring last year (12 goals, 29 assists) and was named to the PWHL all-star team. She attended last year's IIHF High Performance Women's Hockey Camp in Slovakia and was part of the Ontario Red team that won bronze at this year's national championships. PHOTO SUBMITTED PROUD PROTEGES: Oakville Aquatic Club head coach Scott Baker (third from left) is flanked by OAK swimmers (from left) Abbey Saunders, Emily Ramier, Perrie Armstrong and Alexandra Fabugais-Inaba after being named Canadian swim club coach of the year Monday in Toronto. OAK's Baker national club coach of year By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Over the past year, there's been plenty for Oakville Aquatic Club (OAK) head coach Sean Baker to be proud of. OAK was second at the 2012 Canadian Summer Nationals senior meet in Edmonton. A week later, the club won its first-ever Canadian age group championships title in Calgary, also claiming the men's team crown at the event. Earlier in the season, OAK won team titles at the Central Region team championships and Ontario Junior Provincial Championships. And from an individual standpoint, OAK product Tera Van Beilen represented both her club and her country at the Olympic Summer Games in London, placing ninth in the women's 100-metre breaststroke. OAK teammate Zack Chetrat came within two-hundredths of a second from qualifying for the London Games, while nearly 30 other OAK swimmers also participated in Olympic trials. But what Baker might have been most gratified by was the number of OAK athletes who attended Monday's Big Splash Awards Gala in Toronto to watch him receive the Canadian swim club coach-of-the-year award. "We had 40 or 45 of them there to support me Monday night," said the soft-spoken 43-yearold, who took the OAK head coaching reins two years ago from Alex Wallingford and was a finalist for the club coach of the year award last year as well. "I think we're really building a tighterknit group. There's a lot of support and excitement for what we're trying to do, and I think it's quite a happy place to be. We're fortunate to be in that situation." Fortunate, perhaps, but it hardly seems coincidental. Getting the most out of athletes while still maintaining a cordial relationship is a difficult balance for any elite-level coach, but Baker seems to have managed to do both. "He's driven, but at the same time, he puts the kids first. That is a wonderful thing in a coach," said OAK president Wendy Saunders. "(His swimmers) work hard and he has great expectations and gets results, but he also has a great relationship with them." Baker said his coaching philosophy is a simple one. "To coach them tough and be firm without being mean is important," he said. "Sometimes we talk about trying to have the iron fist and the velvet glove. Firm and consistent, but still friendly with them. "First and foremost, we try to develop great people who will go on to be great citizens. Because of that process, we get great athletes out of that." The national club coach-of-the-year award, which was decided on by the Canadian Swim Coaches and Teachers Federation, is not the first major accolade of Baker's coaching career. He received a similar honour -- though not the exact same award -- in 1998 while he coached the Nanaimo Rip Tides Swim Team in British Columbia, and he is also a former junior coach of the year. In the last four years, OAK has more than doubled in size from 250 members to 550. Nearly half of those competitive swimmers are age 10 or younger, and the club's learn-to-swim program features another 300 youngsters. Baker was quick to deflect credit for the club's recent success to assistant coaches Laura Nicholls, Cathy Pardy, Melanie Mackay and Dave Judd. "I don't think Sean really likes the spotlight a whole lot," said Saunders. "But he's certainly deserving." OAKVILLE BEAVER FILE PHOTO NEWEST BADGERS: Melissa Channell (above) and Sydney McKibbon will be teammates at the University of Wisconsin next season.