{"id":7671,"date":"2014-08-06T05:25:04","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T09:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7671"},"modified":"2014-08-20T11:57:35","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T15:57:35","slug":"volleyball-coach-bruce-stafford-storms-into-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/volleyball-coach-bruce-stafford-storms-into-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Volleyball coach Bruce Stafford storms into Aurora Sports Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Bruce Stafford can be found at the helm of an organization bringing the sport of volleyball to hundreds of young athletes across Aurora.<\/p>\n

His efforts and dedication to volleyball have led him into the 2014 class of inductees to the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

Stafford played high school volleyball throughout his teens in North York, as a self-proclaimed \u201csports nut who paid more attention to athletics than academics.\u201d <\/p>\n

His transition to coaching came in the early 1970\u2019s, when a work-to-rule strike hit the local schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a few years there when we as athletes had to find a way to keep our sports teams going,\u201d said Stafford. \u201cSo we had to cover these roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his grade twelve year, Stafford took on the head coaching position of the senior women\u2019s volleyball team. He also became a player\/coach of the senior men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

In 1979, Stafford took over the Ryerson University women\u2019s volleyball team while getting his education. He held the position for seven seasons, once bringing the underdog team to the OUA playoffs.<\/p>\n

After resigning to focus on his family, Stafford continued to be involved with various club teams throughout Ontario. In 1992, he coached a team at the Ontario Summer Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was still really enjoying the coaching aspect of it,\u201d said Stafford. \u201cSo when my kids got to an age where they started getting involved in school, they said \u2018dad, didn\u2019t you use to coach? We should start a club!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stafford and his oldest daughter recruited some of her friends and athletes from the local elementary school. In September of 1998, The Storm was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought, here\u2019s a great opportunity to provide kids the education and learning of this great sport that anyone can play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Storm originally consisted of two girls\u2019 teams, one for each of Stafford\u2019s daughters born seventeen months apart.<\/p>\n

By word of mouth, the Storm expanded to five teams the following year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the next tryouts came the following September, there were just too many kids there to send home,\u201d said Stafford. \u201cI thought, why not just keep everybody?\u201d<\/p>\n

What began as a two-team operation has since grown to an expansive program covering all different ages and skill sets, including Rep, Select, Beach, and the in-house \u201cStorm League\u201d.<\/p>\n

As for being inducted into the ASHoF, Stafford said he was \u201cliterally dumbfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was totally blown away. I try to be in the background most of the time. When I\u2019m working with the kids I\u2019m in my element, I\u2019d rather just watch the kids and see how they\u2019re being successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stafford recalled the moment that he realized the impact he had on the local athletic community, when he was told that regardless of what he has done, he \u201cprovided an opportunity that was not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Storm\u2019s website has the message \u201cProviding Opportunities\u201d across the home page, which Stafford says is the organization\u2019s main goal for young athletes.<\/p>\n

Concerning the future of the Aurora Storm, Stafford hopes to pass the reigns onto some of his graduating classes from the sixteen years of team history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got kids starting to cycle back,\u201d said Stafford. \u201cThey\u2019re finished university, some of them are moving home, or getting jobs in the area. Some of them want to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if I can split it up and teach the right people, the organization can continue on for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce Stafford can be found at the helm of an organization bringing the sport of volleyball to hundreds of young athletes across Aurora.<\/p>\n

His efforts and dedication to volleyball have led him into the 2014 class of inductees to the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7623,"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-7671","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\/2014\/08\/2014-08-07-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1ZJ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 09:53:35","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\/7671","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=7671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}