HIGH ACHIEVERS: Stay-Safe Edition
Respected Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club coach Leslie Estwick has been named one of 12 mentors for the inaugural Black Female Coach Mentorship Program for 2020-21. The Black Female Coach Mentorship Program is the next step in the Coaching Association of Canada’s Women in Coaching program, which also includes the Enhanced Female Mentorship program.
Coaches mentoring coaches exists because of funding support from Sport Canada and the federal government’s priority of gender equity in sport by 2035. The Black Female Coach Mentorship Program will focus on three areas:
- Provide Black female mentorship;
- Advance coach professionalism through mentors and mentees;
- Provide a sustainable model of mentorship to increase accessibility, support, leadership development for Black coaches.
The 12 mentors represent 4 provinces – Ontario (7), Quebec (2), Nova Scotia (2), British Columbia (1) and 8 sports – basketball, flag football, ice hockey, field hockey, track and field, volleyball, rugby, swimming.
The Black Canadian Coaches Association contacted Estwick, looking to expand its network of coaches beyond basketball. Estwick, a Chartered Professional Coach granted by the Coaching Association of Canada, was interested and agreed to be a mentor. “The mentorship opportunity is a great idea,” Estwick said. “It would have been really useful for me 30 years ago.”
Estwick has been a volunteer coach with the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club for more than three decades, starting when she was a high jumper. “Coaching is still a male dominated activity. There are not a lot of paid coaching jobs for women and women of colour,” she added. “We need more coaches in all sports, all levels, more female coaches, more black coaches.”
Over the next year, Estwick and the other 11 Black Female Coach Mentorship Program coaches will assist coaches (mentees) with their individual needs in a variety of sports to empower, guide and assist them move forward.
“The coach may want to learn more skills, mental training, some sport specifics, coaching specifics or networking help,” said Estwick, adding it may be easier for a coach of colour to learn from another coach of colour.
“It’s good to have a coach to talk to for experience to climb the ladder, write a resume or develop a path to follow. There’s a confidence building aspect to it. Yes, you are capable of doing this,” Estwick said.
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This story was originally posted as a series of tweets by journalist Martin Cleary