Day In The Life: BCWG
Speed Skating Coach
February 27, 2024
by Raistlin van Spronsen
BC Winter Games Coach
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.
Travel Day to Quesnel
Travel Day is an intereseting day as it could be as early as 6am or later in day such as us in Northern BC
9am The day starts early as I head down the the Memorial Arena to pick up my skates, skating bag, and any equipment needed for my skater(s) during the Games
12pm My ride picks me up to head to the Ovintiv Events Centre for a 1pm departure
1:20pm The bus arrives about 20 minutes behind schedule
1:35pm The bus departs Ovintiv Events Centre enroute to Prince George
3:25pm We pull into Mackenzie Junction to get some snacks, drinks and use the washroom. Upon our arrival our driver discovers an issue with one of the tires on the bus.
4:47pm It is decided to head to Mackenzie to get the tire changed as Kal Tire would be closing soon. Throughout the situation as a Coach for Zone 8, I was communicating not only with our Zone Parents but along with other Zones and BC Games reps.
5:30pm We are disembarked off of the bus to replace the tire
5:45pm BC Games was about to dispatch another bus to collect us when we were informed the bus was repaired and we reboarded and prepared for the remainder of our trip
6pm Departed from Mackenzie to continue our journey to Quesnel, there was no passenger pick up in PG as those participants were reassigned to a different bus after BC Games was informed of the flat tire situation
8:15pm We stopped at a gas station in Prince George for a bathroom break and to get some food for dinner.
10pm We finally arrived into Quesnel, as our luggage was off loaded and loaded into trucks I headed over to Billy Barker Hotel to collect our accreditation passes
10:40pm Arrival at Red Bluff School. Short coaches meeting before going to our designated ‘dorms’ for bed
Day to day schedule
While Day 1 included the return to Quesnel around 4pm and opening ceremonies at 7, a typical competition day was as follows
6:15am skaters, coaches, officials and provincial team staff awake for the day. Showers available for adults (athletes shower at the arena) getting ready for another busy day
7:00am line up for the buses begin, all participants line up in their respective zones and grouped with their zones to get to the buses
7:15am boarding begins at Red Bluff Elementary School, each bus carries about 2-3 zones (ours had zone 2,6 & 8) the charter buses operated from pick up to drop off in the evening
7:30am dropped off for breakfast at Quesnel Seniors Center for our morning breakfast and packing our daily lunch
8:00am getting back on board our buses, the same buses that picked us up would transport us to the venue
8:15am departure from Quesnel Arenas, despite the Games being in Quesnel, us as speed skating participants were training and competing in Prince George so the buses drove us to the arena every day and back to Quesnel in the evening
9:45am arrival at Kin Centre/CN Centre. Buses would line up along the main driveway of the Kin 1 arena and disembark all athletes, coaches, officials and provincial staff
10:00am off ice warm up and preparing to get ready for the days’ competition
10:30am competition begins and various teams are competing for a medal. Coaches and assistant coaches tasked with various roles of the team.
12:15am ish a short lunch break before competition resumes, these days I was averaging about 10,000 steps
1:00pm racing resumes with the next set of distances (heat, semi and finals)
4:15pm racing ends and everyone marshals to the top of the arena for the awards ceremony with our zones
5:00pm Awards ceremony (medals, leadership awards and coaches medallions)
5:30pm dinner is served in dining hall. Due to our long days and distance it was ultimately decided that dinner would be catered for the Speed Skating athletes in Prince George instead of waiting until we arrived back in Quesnel. This also allowed an opportunity for skaters to shower as well
6:15pm begin loading buses for the trip back to Quesnel (we loaded on the side of the arena compared to the front for an expedited departure from PG.
6:30pm departure from Prince George to Quesnel, we always had a different driver on the return journey as the morning commute bus driver had timed out (hours of driving time)
8:15pm arrival at Red Bluff Elementary School and unloaded all equipment from the buses
8:30pm board school buses to be transported to the Lhtako First Nations Reserve for the Lhtako Participation Bash, here they had fresh bannock, maple on snow, s’mores, information about the Lhtako First Nations people.
9:45pm board buses back to Red Bluff
11:00pm lights out on a busy night and getting sleep for a busy travel day on the next day
Travel Day back to Dawson Creek
7am skaters, coaches, officials and provincial team staff awake for the day. Showers available for adults (athletes shower at the arena) getting ready for another busy day
8:15am Line up with all of our luggage ready to load onto trucks for Departures area
8:30am depart Red Bluff School and load luggage trucks with our bags, school buses departed shortly afterwards
8:45am arrived at Seniors Centre, and took luggage to drop off zone. We’d recollect our bags prior to boarding the bus
9:00am Breakfast and pack our lunch for the road. Our lunch and backpacks were dropped off at the Arena 2, we’d recollect them after closing celebrations
9:45am head to the Park for the Closing Celebrations, my friend Cassidy surprised me by stopping by.
10:30 am Pick up bags from Arena 2 (our main luggage stayed behind until departure time) and head across the street to the Helen Dixon Centre, we settled into the classroom as we awaited our departure time
1:10pm Leave the Helen Dixon Centre and make our way back to Arena 2 to collect our luggage
1:20pm Leave Arena 2 and Quesnel enroute back to Dawson Creek. We stopped in Prince George to disembark PG athletes, Mackenzie and Chetwynd for bathroom breakes
9:30pm Arrived at Ovintiv Events Centre, Debbie pulled up behind the bus and I loaded into her car and she drove me home.
9:47pm Arrived home after a busy trip
Common Questions
Requirements to coach at the BC Winter Games?
This varies depending on your sport. For the sport of speed skating based on the 2026 requirements; Head Coaches must be certified in Intro to Comp, and assistant coaches need to be Trained in Intro To Comp. All other chaperones are marked as Adult Supervisors and are required to have completed Safe Sport (Sport Canada requirement) and Making Headway (concussion management) online modules
How much does the BCWG cost to attend?
For coaches, officials and adult supervisors there is no cost to attend. Athletes are invoiced after the Games. The 2026 registration fee was $175 (this is the BCWG fee) along with the registration fee assessed by your sport (for speed skating it was another $50 for a total of $225 for the entire event) Considering what is provided for this cost it is very affordable
What is included in the Registration Fee
On the BCWG side, the registration fees cover the transportation costs, food for the participants, accommodations (we stay in schools to keep costs low), running special events and the ceremonies
The sport-specific fee by your PSO covers the cost of running the competition (for speed skating it’s a 3 day event with day 1 being on-ice practice and training sessions. Day 2 and 3 are all competition)
Is BCWG worth attending
Yes, I would 100% attend the BCWG events again. BC Games is an incredible organization who supports local communities in bringing this bi-annual sporting event to their community (hosted every 2 years with a winter games in February and a summer games in July) I do hope one day Dawson Creek will bring a BC Games to our city