Longtime volunteer Dave Cole looking forward to keeping the show running for the athletes
By Stuart Miller-Davis
Dave Cole is going to be an important part of ensuring races are running smoothly for the first ever World Rowing Indoor Championships (WRICH) hosted in Canada. Cole, the self-described “geek of the group” will be sitting alongside Time-Team at centre ice in race control at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre in February.
The longtime Toronto rower has relocated to Moncton, New Brunswick and has been involved with organizing Canadian indoor rowing events since 2007.
At one of the first Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC) he worked, which took place in the atrium of the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto, he was sitting behind Joe Vince, who was operating the race results computers, trying to figure out how it all worked.
“I managed to sit with him (Vince) and help run the show in those early days,” he said on video call. “Ever since then it’s been Joe and Dave, that’s the race control duo. We’re the guys who knew how to hook everything up and how to keep everything running on time.” Sadly, Joe Vince passed away in 2021, but Dave has kept up the tradition of making sure everything is running smoothly behind the scenes.
The longtime volunteer best known in the rowing community as “Coley” said part of the job has been adapting to the different advancements in technology as it’s gone from rental tube televisions to the Invictus Games with massive projectors and LED boards. When the pandemic hit, Time-Team’s race platform allowed for CIRC and other competitions to go virtual and race together in real time at home. He was able to sit behind a desk in Moncton and help competitors from across the world compete from their own homes.
This year, the World Rowing Indoor Championships will add another interesting new twist as the first hybrid event. 3000 athletes will compete in person on the arena floor in Mississauga and a few dozen athletes who qualify in continental championships will join the races virtually to ensure everyone can get in on the action. Cole and all the other volunteers will be making sure it all runs seamlessly.
Cole raced a little recreationally but isn’t really in it for the rowing competitions.
“Everything I have always been involved with in rowing since 2006 has been for the social side,” he said. “It might only seem like one or two days a year but it’s fun in the offseason to keep in contact with the whole group to keep the planning going for the next year.”
The key part of being a volunteer for the former Upper Canada College repair guy for ten years is to make sure everyone can have fun doing what they want to do.
“I don’t like exercise, but I have no problem making sure other people can compete,” he said.
He encourages everyone to sign up and volunteer to help Canada put on a show for its global guests.
“Put your hand up. You never know what you could end up doing but I can guarantee you’ll have fun doing it.”
To join Dave and the rest of our dedicated, enthusiastic team of volunteers in making history at the 2023 WRICH visit https://wrichtoronto2023.ca/volunteers