Setting an ultimate example
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This article was published 24/12/2018 (2470 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
An up-and-coming ultimate Frisbee coach has been nationally recognized for his commitment to developing young players.
Nicholas Einarson — a Westwood Collegiate alumnus and current University of Winnipeg student — is the 2018 recipient of the Ultimate Canada Scholarship.
“It means a lot to me to get some recognition for a lot of the work that I’ve been doing in the community,” Einarson said.
Ultimate Canada is the sport’s national governing body and has been handing out the $500 scholarship since 2011. It is awarded annually to a full-time student who is coaching and helping develop ultimate at a local level.
“Without coaches you cannot have good development programs. To us it’s very important to recognize coaches and leadership,” Ultimate Canada programs and high performance manager Christiane Marceau said.
Einarson was one of roughly a dozen applicants this year and Marceau says he was selected for his involvement in coaching at the junior, high school and provincial level in Manitoba.
“He’s kind of everywhere in his community,” she said. “We hope that it will inspire others to take a leadership role.”
Einarson started playing ultimate in 2013 when a teacher at Lincoln Middle School encouraged him to join the school’s team.
“I fell in love right at the beginning,” he said. “The community behind it is a lot different from other sports… it feels more welcoming and when I’m on the field I just forget all the other stresses and everything else going on.”
His career came full-circle when he started coaching at Lincoln two years ago. He is also helping build an ultimate program for elementary students at Sansome School and is an assistant coach with Team Manitoba. Einarson says his desire to get more kids involved in ultimate stems from his love of the sport.
“I just want to give back to the community that gave me so much,” he said. “I’m trying to reach out to as many kids as I can and try to spread the sport.”
Ultimate is unique in that all games, from the youth to high performance level, are self-refereed and all teams receive “Spirit of the Game” points based on their sportsmanship on the field. Marceau said these values are responsible for the growing popularity of ultimate in Canada.
“It just develops the values of communication, conflict resolution and self-awareness development with kids that you don’t get in lots of other sports,” she said. “People love the fact that it’s a family, you’re part of a group, you’re part of a social environment when you play ultimate.”
Einarson currently plays for U of W’s club ultimate team and with Novo, a national men’s travelling team that competes at the Canadian Ultimate Championships. He is studying education with a goal of becoming either a math or phys-ed teacher.
“I’ve always loved working with kids and have always had a love for gym,” Einarson said.