Programs
GROUNDBREAKER: Carol-Angela Orchard Orchestrates a Canadian Breakthrough
From the start, Carol-Angela Orchard's 30-year coaching career has been studded with milestones. Nothing, however, matched what happened on October 21, 2006, in Aarhus, Denmark, at the world artistic gymnastics championships. For on that day, 17-year-old gymnast Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs smashed a seemingly unbreakable barrier when she became the first Canadian woman to win a world championship medal, the beam bronze. Watching from the sidelines was her elated coach. “When she landed her dismount, I knew this could be the moment we had waited so long for,” says Carol-Angela, the head coach at the Seneca-Claude Watson Sports Program at Toronto's Seneca College. “I have always visualized one of our athletes standing on the podium with the flag being raised. It was such a wonderful moment for me when it finally happened.”
Widely quoted as comparing the medal performance to Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile, Carol-Angela explains that the analogy is appropriate because “for us, it was the absolute impossible thing. Internationally, we were considered tourists, and we're better than that; we have so much capability. And now, when the little ones look at Elyse they say, 'Yeah, if she did it, I can do it.' We've never had that belief before. The reaction is similar to the impact of Kyle Shewfelt when he won the floor Olympic gold medal in 2004. He's a fabulous role model for our sport and now, so is Elyse.”
Reflecting on her own athletic career, Carol-Angela wonders how far she might have gone. Starting at 13, she was far too late to climb farther than an Ontario title, but her love affair with the sport — the attraction was instantaneous — never waned. She remembers the exact moment when, still a teen-ager, she transferred her passion to coaching. “I was teaching an athlete how to do an element. She was so excited when she did it and I was so amazed that I could actually get someone to do something they really wanted to do, but never thought they could. Coaching was addictive from that point. I absolutely love to do it.”
Although there were few trailblazers for her to emulate and family sceptics were questioning her decision, Carol-Angela was determined to make coaching her profession. Already coaching at the national high performance level by the age of 18, she was encouraged by her coaching partner and then-national coach, Brian McVey, to enrol at York University and earn an honours degree in physical education and a certificate in advanced coaching.
After graduation, Carol-Angela's career began in earnest, first at Gymnastics Mississauga and, since 1980, at Seneca, always in partnership with McVey and always fixed on coaching at the highest levels. “I fulfilled my Olympic dream coaching. Because it wasn't attainable as an athlete, it made me strive all the more as a coach.” Success came early. She produced her first national champion — Melissa Hawrylshyn — in 1979, a result that encouraged her to venture “outside the box” in search of originality. “At that time, a lot of coaches focused on studying the Soviet and Romanian systems, which of course we did, too, but we didn't allow that to limit us, which is why our gym has so many original world skills to its credit. We wanted to leave our minds open and take each girl as far as she could possibly go. That's why it's so neat to finally have the medal — we wanted to prove that a Canadian girl could achieve this with Canadian coaches.”
Carol-Angela has been named to numerous international coaching assignments, including two Olympic Games, nine world championships, three Commonwealth Games, the Junior and Senior Pan American Games, and the Junior and Senior Pacific Alliance Championships.
Her coaching has also brought her national and international recognition. She is the only Canadian woman to be awarded the Honorary Diploma of International Coaching, the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique's (FIG) highest level of recognition. She has won National Choreography Awards and four of her world original skills have been named by FIG in honour of her athletes. One of the first coaches to earn an International Coaching Brevet and awarded an Honorary Coach diploma by FIG, she has numerous provincial and national awards to her credit. She is the national technical advisor - Ontario and a B member of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Much as Carol-Angela loves her profession, she is troubled by the difficulty the Seneca Coaching Diploma program is encountering in finding people who want to coach as a career. “We still struggle with the perception that coaching isn't a 'real' job.” She admits that from the perspective of financial reward, there is some validity to that impression. “Because I'm at Seneca, I'm very fortunate compared to most coaches, but still, I do it because I love it. I have an absolute passion for it, but it's hard when you're trying to pay the bills. Passion can override common sense.”
Balancing the financial limitations is the opportunity coaching affords her to help her athletes achieve their full potential. “This drives me as much as winning medals does. It is so satisfying to see the influence I have when the girls progress. I ensure that no matter when my athletes retire, they'll know that they were the best they could be, that they fulfilled their potential. I take really seriously my responsibility for each athlete's personal development. They're not always going to be gymnasts so I used gymnastics as a tool to teach important life skills. I get a kick out of seeing girls grow into incredible young women, with tremendous confidence and self-esteem.”
Profile by Sheila Robertson
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