Grand council employee to coach in Olympics

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Very few employers are understanding with their employees when they want to take about a month off all at once during the year. Luckily for John Fitzgerald, the sports and recreation co-ordinator at the Prince Albert Grand Council, his bosses are more than slightly understanding. After all, it is an Olympic year, and his services are required in Sydney, Australia next month.

?I?ve been working with the (Canadian) national team for about 20 years,? said Fitzgerald.

As is the case with any coach at this level, it took a while for him to achieve international status.

?I took an apprenticeship with Ontario, which is a year. Then the national team asked me to work for them, so I took an apprenticeship with them and then I became what they call a shared coach.?

Since then, Fitzgerald has attended about 10 World competitions, eight Pan-American Games, three Commonwealth Games, and three to four Olympics. This year?s Olympics will see Fitzgerald coaching a long distance race walker named Tim Berrett.

A part of Fitzgerald?s duties include helping his athlete when he makes pit-stops every 2.5 km.

?That?s one of the key things that happens,? explained Fitzgerald. ?When you hand out liquids, you might be handing out water. It might be some type of substance that gives them extra potassium because they might be cramping up. It might be torch caffeine to give them a bit of energy with some glucose in it. If the shoes get destroyed, you might have to change shoes. You might get blisters, you might apply second skin to (relieve) it.

?Indirectly, it?s like a small Indy 500 with walkers.?

Tim Berrett will be competing in two events at the Sydney Olympics. The first one, on Sept. 22, will be the 20 km race walk, lasting nearly an hour and a half. His main event, the 50 km race walk, will be on Sept. 29, and that one will be about 15 minutes shy of four hours.

For some people, defining why they enjoy coaching might include cliches, but this is definitely not the case with Fitzgerald. In fact, his definition was not at all what one might expect from someone in the world of sports, but it rings true none-the-less.

?I think it?s like a piece of art, and I guess it?s like somebody that is a good painter,? he began.

?See, there?s a lot of components, like there?s a lot of colors in what you?re painting. There?s a lot of components when you?re coaching: there?s the strength, there?s the flexibility, there?s the co-ordination. There?s all the mental sides of the athlete that you have to be able to work with, and, really, it?s to try to regroup.

?Each athlete is different, so each athlete becomes a different painting. I?m pretty consistent at getting athletes to produce and do well at national and international levels.?

For the 10 days leading up to the Olympics, Fitzgerald and Berrett will be in Brisbane where they will be hard at work at a training camp, acclimatizing his methods of walking during the early spring climate of Australia.