As you may have heard, our long serving Junior Coach – Ed Kornachuk – will be leaving us at the end of the month. He and his wife, Margo, will be moving to Winnipeg to be closer to their family. Ed will be joining the coaching staff at the WinnipegRowing Club in the New Year, and will help to develop their junior rowing program.

For those of you that don’t know, Ed began at the Don Rowing Club as a Masters rower in 1982. He was a member of the DRC Men’s Master eight that won gold at the very first Canadian Masters Rowing Championships. He also won the Canadian Masters Henley three years in row with Kari Juurako in the double.

Although Ed started at the Don Rowing Club in the eighties, he had been rowing for almost three decades at that point. He started in the sport many years ago as a high school student in his home town of Lachine, Quebec in 1958. Throughout his university studies in Montreal, and working life in Virginia, Winnipeg and Toronto – he always kept in contact with the sport, rowing competitively as a lightweight rower and then as a masters rower.

It was in 2001 that Ed became a Junior Coach the Don Rowing Club, and over the past fourteen years he has introduced countless kids to the sport. He was the tireless force that was there every afternoon helping kids take their first strokes on the water, driving the trailer to and from regattas, or organizing wonderful training camps. He was the one who helped kids fall in love with the sport. He encouraged and inspired junior rowers to attain rowing scholarships or coveted spots on the Canadian national team. In 2013, he led the U19 boys eight to gold at Canadian Henley – winning by over 9 secs, and in his namesake the “Fast Eddie” no less! Last year Ed was awarded “Coach of the Year” by RowOntario at the annual provincial coaching conference.

Ed Kornachuk has been instrumental in developing DRC’s junior program into what it is today.  

 There will be a formal recognition for Ed’s service at the Captain’s Dinner on Saturday, November 28^th.

 We hope that you can be there to wish Ed well as he begins the next chapter in his long rowing career.