BC Winter Games is an exciting but tiring event as it’s often early mornings and late evenings, however it’s very rewarding when you get to coach young athletes at this prestigious sports event. The process of becoming selected as a BCWG Speed Skating Coach begins the previous season when the PSO (Provincial Sports Organization; Speed Skating BC) releases the spring coaching modules. Each coaching position requires a certain level of coaching qualifications.
Coach Selection
Coach selection is usually completed by mid-late July in order to ensure coaches will be certified, the selection process is usually completed by the Zone Rep who is appointed near the end of the season prior to the games. This is to ensure that the potential athletes, parents and clubs are familiar with the individual handling the process leading up to the games
Our PSO usually reaches out to the last Zone Rep to confirm if that person would still like to fill that role. A zone rep usually does 2 or 3 games before handing it off to a new rep. I myself was the Zone Rep for the 2024 games, and will more than likely fill that role again for 2026.
Registration and Zone Apparel
Registration and Zone Apparel (jackets, sweaters, hats etc.) are completed by the Zone Rep, although Zone Apparel is typically handed off to another individual to handle the purchasing and ordering of the zone gear
Travel Day: February 21, 2024
Our travel day began like any other typical day. Since we weren’t departing until around 1pm, we met at the arena to pack up the final things before heading back home to get everything together. Around 12pm our ride arrived to take us to the Ovintiv Events Centre (this is where the charter bus was picking us up from) There were about 5 or so individuals from Dawson Creek (2 from speed skating and 3 from another sport) The bus arrived about 20 minutes behind schedule, however it isn’t nothing new for being in the North. This northern ‘winter’ day was actually quite mild, in fact it looked more like spring than winter as there was barely any snow. That changed over the weekend as there a bunch of snow now. Our bus departed the events center around 1:35pm enroute to Quesnel. Around 3:25pm (4:25pm home local time) we pulled in Mackenzie Junction
As we were preparing to leave Mackenzie, it was discovered that we had a flat tire on the bus. Initially a repair truck was coming from Mackenzie, however it was decided to head to Mackenzie to get the tire replaced, this put us behind schedule. After the delay we headed to Prince George and then onwards to Quesnel arriving around 10pm (our original arrival time was around 7pm). After arriving into Quesnel, we headed to the Billy Barker Hotel to pick up our accreditation passes.
Typical Competition Day
While the first day was similar to our competition days, other than returning to Quesnel for dinner and then the opening ceremony
The day started as early as 6:15am as skaters, coaches, officials got up and prepared for a full day on the docket. We’d take what we needed as we’d wouldn’t be back until around 8pm, around 7am we’d gather in the main hallway to board the bus to the Quesnel Seniors Hall (this where all of our meals were had. breakfast all days and dinner on Thursday. They catered in meals in PG for our competition days) Around 8:15am we departed Quesnel for the hour and 10 minute drive to the Kin 1 Arena in Prince George. We arrive at the arena around 9:30 with competition getting underway by 10am
After a full day of competition dinner is served in the cafeteria area at the top of the bleachers around 5:30pm as skaters, officials, volunteers and everyone involved has dinner prior to heading back to Quesnel, after dinner we head down to the east side of the arena and board buses for the road back to Quesnel. We arrive back at the school around 8pm and then offload all of our equipment and head into the school to drop everything off. Shortly after we board school buses for the nightly participant activities at the Lhtako First Nations (which is French for Red Bluff) They were serving fresh Bannock, and had all sorts of different activities for participants to do throughout the evening. Around 9:45 we headed back to where the school buses were parked and got on a bus back to the school for the evening as it was going to be another long travel day ahead of us.
Travel Day back to Dawson Creek
Our morning began a little later around 7am as everyone packed everything up and cleaned out the classrooms for the school districts janitorial team to come in and do the deep clean before students returned the next day. We also wrote messages on whiteboards, left thank you cards in the classrooms as a gesture of our appreciation which actually made it to the school’s website. Around 8:30am we departed for breakfast, once we got off the buses we collected our luggage and brought them over to the staging area for storage as we’d be leaving around 1:30pm. After dropping off our luggage we headed to the Seniors hall for our last meal of the Games (we’d have our bagged lunch before heading home) After breakfast, we head to LeBourdis Park for the closing celebration. It was during the celebration when my friend Cassidy showed up (her mom and I planned for this as the games were busy and I wasn’t sure what the schedule would be like) and was surprised to see me in person.
Around 11am we headed back to the arena, said farewell to our Prince George skaters and coach and collected our luggage and headed to the Helen Dixon school (this was located across the street from the seniors hall) and the holding area for athletes using Games transportation. The games are one large logistic system as they need to move about 2.500 participants across BC to one central location.
Around 1:10pm we made our way to the staging area to board our bus home, collecting our luggage and then waiting at the arena until everyone was accounted for before leaving the building to catch our bus (Bus 27) We departed Quesnel around 1:20pm and ahead of schedule, this ride would be a normal ride and not very eventful with a stop in Prince George to drop off athletes (they were supposed to be picked up on the way down, but due to our delay they were put on another bus), stopped at Mackenzie Junction and Chetwynd. Around 9pm, we were about 20 minutes out so I contacted our ride to inform them that we were about 20 minutes out. We arrived around 9:30 back home and then off loaded my bags into Debbie’s car and she drove me home. After a long 4 days we finally go home around 9:45
Are the BC Games worth attending?
Short answer is YES!!! They are a rewarding 4 days, even though the days are long and busy it is so rewarding knowing the memories you’ll take home. I’ve been to a few games myself as an athlete and as a coach.
How much do the Games cost?
The last time I checked there is no cost for coaches or officials. Athletes do pay $225 ($175 covers the BC Games fees, and the other $50 is the SSBC Competition Fees) to attend the games. Considering this fee covers the transportation, accommodations, food, competition fees and all the activities it is a very affordable cost. The only other costs to the games would be the Zone Apparel, and any spending money you’d bring for Games Gear or snacks at the arena besides what is already provided
While I didn’t attend the Games in 2026, I’m hoping to attend another Games very soon, and even hopefully one day entice City Council to even bid for the Games to come to Dawson Creek (we hosted in 1988)
