Ryan Wolfe Steals Home

from Scott Searle

Ryan Wolfe batted 2nd in the Softball Ontario Webinar series, and as fans of the sport have seen many times, he hit a double, and then scored from 2nd on a Sacrifice Fly.

Ryan shared practical tips that he learned in his 16 years with the National team and explained tried and true strategies to teach baserunning to young athletes. Ryan drew on his experience as a high school physical education teacher to explain the best way to scaffold baserunning skills to teach it to athletes of all levels.

Coaches from across Canada earned a Professional Development Point to maintain their certification with the National Coaching Certification Program and learned from a great ambassador of the sport, and one of Canada’s top athletes.

Be sure to visit the Softball Ontario website at https://www.softballontario.ca/english/our-programs/coach/softball-nccp/professional-development-points-webinar-series.html to sign up for the remaining sessions.

Up next is the Head Coach of the Senior Men’s National Team to talk about Game Management. John Stuart led Team Canada to Gold Medals at the 2015 WBC World Championship and Pan-American Games. He is currently leading the preparations for the World Championships this summer in Whitehorse as Canada will defend its title.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at Scottsearle@rogers.com

Game Management
John Stuart
May 1st

The art of calling the Game (Pitch Selection)
Bruce Casselman
May 15th

Creating a Winning Culture
Chantal Valée
May 29th

Preparing for Elite Competitions
Pat Reid
June 19th


John Stuart
John is the Head Coach of the Senior Men’s National Team. In his first year in this role, he led the team to double gold medals at the World Softball and Baseball Classic (WSBC) and Pan-American Games.

He started his softball career late compared to most as he came from a Baseball background. Started coaching at age 25 while still playing eventually leading up to coaching BC Jr Team to Silver Medal in 2002 at Nationals as well as 4th place finish in 2004. Took over head coaching position of Vancouver Greysox Senior Men's Team in 2005 leading Greysox to National Championship in 2007 first time a Vancouver Team had won a National title since 1966. Was part of support staff for Team Canada Men's National Team at 2009 ISF World Championships. Became assistant coach with Men's National Team in 2010 helping Team Canada to Gold medal at Pan American Championships in 2012 . Took over head coaching position with Men's National Team in 2014 leading Canada to Gold at 2015 World Championship Canada's first World Championship since 1992. Followed up with Gold Medal a month later at 2015 Pan Am Games. Married 23 years to wife Barb have 2 boys Levi 21 and Brodi 17.

Bruce Casselman

Bruce Casselman holds the legacy of being one of the top players to play mens fastpitch in Canada. In the 1990’s he led the Toronto Gators to two ISC World Championships and two Canadian Championships. He was a member of the Senior Mens National Team that won Gold at the 1999 Pan-American Games champion in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He also represented Team Canada at the ISF World Championships in South Africa. A very humble person, Bruce is most proud to have caught some of the best pitchers from around the world including; Darren Zack, Brad Underwood, Micheal Piechnick, Dean Holein, Chubb Tangerora, Doug Middleton and Steve Price. Bruce moved away from softball to coach hockey in the Ottawa area, but had his passion for the game re-kindled by coaching his daughters u14 team. Bruce is a Softball Ontario Learning Facilitator and provides support on technical skills. More recently he was a Guest Coach with the u21 Men’s Canada Games Program in Ontario where he consulted with the catchers on setting up batters with proper sequences.

Chantal Vallée @coachvalee

Chantal Vallée is in currently in her eleventh season as the Head Coach of the Windsor Lancers Women's Basketball program. A native of Montreal, Quebec, Coach Vallée has built one of the top women's basketball programs in the country here at the University of Windsor, capturing five straight CIS national titles in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Chantal speaks fluent French, English and Spanish and has a Masters Degree in Sport Psychology. Her message and insights apply beyond competitive sports to all aspects of life.
In her off-season at Windsor, she is an Assistant Coach with the Women’s National Team. Most recently she covered the 2016 Olympic Summer Games as an analyst and sports caster.
Some notable awards she has received include:

- CIS Women's Basketball Coach of the Year - 2013-14, 2014-15
- OUA Fox 40 Overall Female Coach of Year – 2009, 2011, 2013 & 2015
- OUA West Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year – 2009, 2011 & 2012, 2014, 2015
- University of Windsor Gino Fracas Coach of the Year – 2008, 2009 & 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015
- WESPY Awards Coach of the Year - 2012, 2013

Pat Reid

Pat Reid is one of the most successful coaches in Canadian history. He has coached at the highest levels in hockey as well as Athletics is one of the few Level 5 certified coaches in Athletics Canada. Pat was the Director of the High Performance Program "Best Ever '88" for Canadian athletes and coaches preparing for the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. Pat has coached or been involved in a technical capacity at 7 Summer Olympics and 5 Winter Olympics Games and he has coached athletes to over 50 provincial and national titles and berths on four Olympic teams. He has been elected to the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame and currently lives in Edmonton where he works as the Executive Director of the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission.

In addition to his coaching success, he has a great deal of management experience in sport. While working as VP International for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (now Hockey Canada), he was the Director of Operations for the Women’s National Hockey Team and general manager of the first IIHF Women's World Hockey Championship. He is credited with the infamous pink jersey decision that ignited press coverage that is viewed as having saved the event which was secretly the Olympic test event to see if women's hockey could attract an Olympic calibre audience. It did and women's hockey was added to the Winter Olympics. Pat also guided Canada’s Junior Men’s Hockey Team to two World Championship gold medals.

Pat is a highly sought after speaker on coaching issues and was the first North American coach to give the keynote address at the annual European Athletics Coaches Congress. He has lectured as a professor in the Human Kinetics department at the University of Ottawa as well as at Algonquin College. While working in Edmonton he is presently completing his PhD at the University of Alberta. He has run the Boston Marathon twice and is a graduate of the National Coaching Institute. Most importantly, Pat played left field for the very successful Elliot Lake Merchants softball team as a young man growing up in Elliot Lake!