{"id":12018,"date":"2015-09-23T10:15:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T14:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12018"},"modified":"2015-10-07T17:31:19","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T21:31:19","slug":"athletes-and-coaches-recognized-at-annual-breakfast-of-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/athletes-and-coaches-recognized-at-annual-breakfast-of-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletes and coaches recognized at annual Breakfast of Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

TSN sportscaster Rod Black admitted to a crowd of young athletes Saturday morning at King\u2019s Riding Golf Club that one of his most embarrassing moments happened at that first tee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a little mix-up with the men\u2019s and women\u2019s tees.\u201d<\/p>\n

But amidst his amusing stories and quips about everything from fatherhood to politics, he had one message for the athletes: local sports matter.<\/p>\n

That was the theme for Sport Aurora\u2019s annual \u201cBreakfast of Champions\u201d gathering, an event celebrating the accomplishments of all eight member organizations under the Sport Aurora umbrella that were able to take home a provincial or national championship this year.<\/p>\n

Over 140 players, coaches, and other staff were presented gold medals by event chair Doug LeGallais.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese medals reflect the hard work and dedication put in by our athletes,\u201d said LeGallais. \u201cAnd hopefully can inspire them to continue to work hard to accomplish their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black, born in Winnipeg but working at CTV and TSN since the early 1990s, has kids in organizations around the Aurora area, including a daughter that plays for the Aurora Panthers and a son who is a student athlete at St. Andrew\u2019s College.<\/p>\n

Parents need to understand the positive impact sports can have on their children\u2019s lives, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can certainly say that my kids are better having played sports all of their lives. The power of sport can shape you into a role model in society.\u201d
\nHe also stressed the role of the parent or mentor, and applauded the event for providing recognition to kids and coaches that might otherwise go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

Jim Thomson, the new owner of the Junior A Aurora Tigers, former NHLer, and motivational life coach, once again played emcee for the event. He echoed Black\u2019s applause for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a room full of young athletes who are champions, and this morning emphasizes how difficult that is to do,\u201d said Thomson. \u201cI take myself back to when I was a kid at hockey banquets and how memorable they were. This is a plateau above that. It\u2019s special for everyone in this room, and it\u2019s amazing Sport Aurora does this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another NHLer, Brad Marsh, returned as a special guest speaker to the third annual bash. Although he enjoyed a successful hockey career spanning 15 professional years, including a three-year stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he said he still recalls events such as this that gave him recognition at a young age.<\/p>\n

For more information on the event or the organization, check out www.sportaurora.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TSN sportscaster Rod Black admitted to a crowd of young athletes Saturday morning at King\u2019s Riding Golf Club that one of his most embarrassing moments happened at that first tee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/2015-09-24-09.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-37Q","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 13:46:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}