Making Strides Campaign: Track and Field Case for Support

MAKING STRIDES CAMPAIGN

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO TRACK & FIELD HIGH PERFORMANCE PROGRAM

University of Toronto Track & Field High Performance Program Excellence in Track & Field - Our dream for Varsity, Junior Development, Masters and International-Calibre Athletes

Making Strides Campaign We strive to continue to develop the High Performance Program and secure it into the future.

Vision – A High Performance Program for Excellence in Track & Field The University of Toronto has world-class track and field facilities and a long-standing tradition of inspiring our track and field athletes to achieve excellence.

A high performance program requires more than facilities and tradition though; it requires financial resources to focus on recruiting young talented athletes and helping them reach their potential at both the university and international levels. To support these athletes and advance their development, we need additional financial resources.

school level. The challenge is retention after the athletes have been identified. We can change this!

With these resources, we will strengthen our partnerships with schools, clubs and community groups, ensuring we offer a comprehensive track and field program that attracts promising talent and develops athletes from the playground to the podium.

The school system is the sport’s life-line for untapped talent. Track and field is very popular at the elementary school level, but drops off dramatically at the high

A new era of excellence has begun. We need your help to develop and sustain the High Performance Program for Track and Field at the University of Toronto!

At the Varsity and elite level, athletes need support services at one location. The Program must provide the “total support system” needed by our athletes, including outstanding coaching, international-class facilities and equipment, training and competition opportunities, sport medicine services, sport science support and applied sport science research.

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The Goals The University of Toronto Track and Field Program consists of three programs that support and develop the athlete from childhood through university and beyond:

The goals of the programs are:

• The Junior Development Program

• To attract, develop, retain and support student athletes and elite athletes

• To offer a continuum of track and field opportunities from junior development competitors to Varsity competitors to international and masters competitors

• The Varsity Program

• To provide an environment that is conducive to the development of the whole person

• The University of Toronto Track and Field Club

• To provide the highest level of coaching, facilities and equipment, training and competition opportunities, sport medicine services, and sport science support.

Specifically, we want to: • Increase the number and calibre of young athletes in the Junior Development Program • Not turn away any promising athlete on the basis of inability to pay • Increase the number of athletes in all aspects of the Program who meet national and international standards 9

How we will achieve our goals • Increasing our visits to elementary and high schools in the GTA area to recruit talented middle and high school student athletes to join the Junior Development Program and the Varsity Program

• Providing enhanced professional technical, emotional and psychological support

• Increasing the recruiting efforts across Canada for Varsity athletes

• Providing better and more year-round training opportunities, including more opportunities for participation in training camps

• Providing more year-round and international competition opportunities

• Providing continuing education on modern training theory/ principles, warm-up techniques, strength fitness, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and specific technical event skills

• Conducting clinics and seminars at GTA schools as a community outreach and to enhance the athlete recruiting efforts

• Providing continuing education on nutrition, physiology and sport psychology

• Providing more professional development for coaches.

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What We Need What makes an athlete great? Is it their natural ability, their determination, their heart and drive? Is it a superior facility in which to train and practice with other motivated athletes? Is it outstanding coaching? It is all of these things plus the resources listed. In order to have a High Performance Program that can truly promote excellence in Track & Field, we need support from donors who believe in the future of our athletes!

We need your financial support to provide:

Our fundraising goal: $2 million

• Dedicated state-of-the-art equipment

• Additional coaching staff • Competitive honorariums for event coaches • Athletic scholarships • Program funding for training camps and for travel to competitions and training camps • Sport medicine and science support from specialists such as bio-mechanists, physiologists, physical therapists, nutritionists and sports psychologists

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Overview and History at Varsity Stadium in 2009 welcomed some of the world’s top athletes; among them Olympic Gold Medallist and world record holder, Usain Bolt.

University of Toronto is Canada’s leading researchintensive university. Since 1827, there have been more than 500,000 thousand graduates, and among this group are our outstanding national and international-calibre athletes.

Today, 80 athletes participate in the Varsity Program, with another 290 in the Junior Development, University of Toronto Track Club and Masters programs. In 2015 the women’s Varsity team won gold at the Canadian University Championships.

The Track Club has won the Athletics Ontario Overall Indoor Club Championships for the past five consecutive years while the Masters was the top scoring club at the Ontario Masters Indoor and Outdoor Championships for the past four years. In 2015, the Junior Development team won the Junior, Youth and Midget divisions at the Athletics Ontario Championships. Two Toronto track and field athletes participated in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

In 1902, a cinder track was first laid at Varsity Stadium. This investment established the University of Toronto as a premier training facility and was the first step in the journey toward becoming a destination for high performance track and field.

University of Toronto track and field athletes have competed at the Olympic Games 81 times and the FISU World University Games 62 times. Some amazing feats have been accomplished on the Varsity track over the years including Bill Crothers’ defeat of world champion Peter Snell in 1965 at 800m, and David Bailey’s first sub-four-minute mile on Canadian soil in 1967. The Festival of Excellence 15

Contact Information Carl Georgevski, Head Coach 1 (647) 233-2340 carl.georgevski@utoronto.ca Robin A. Campbell, Campaign Chair 1 (416) 456-2740 robincampbell268@gmail.com