The job is making great people first
Steve Dow named Knights women’s volleyball head coach
Niagara College has earned five provincial medals in a row in women’s volleyball under four different coaches.
No. 5 isn’t feeling pressure to continue that remarkable run.
“I don’t feel pressured in the sense to medal, and the reason I say that is because I have such an amazing, supportive administration,” Steve Dow said after being introduced as head coach of the Knights. “During our conversation, when we first started talking about this opportunity, we realized that our No. 1 goal is developing great people, as well as great athletes.
“And that’s something that no medal is going to determine.”
That is not to say that the 30year-old Toronto native who is coming to the college after serving four seasons as an assistant at University of Guelph doesn’t have his sights set on a top-three finish at the Ontario Colleges Athletics Association (OCAA) championships.
“The success seems to ride pretty much hand-in-hand with that,” he said. “The better we do
at developing people, the better we tend to do on the court.”
Dow succeeds Natasha Spaling, who led Niagara to the silver medal at provincials in her lone season at the helm. She accepted an offer to become a full-time assistant at Queen’s University in Kingston.
Dow, a high school teacher who holds a bachelor of education degree from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, doesn’t feel being a man taking over a women’s team is a handicap.
“Not at all, and the reason I say that is because one of the things that Natasha did really well was she built really positive relationships with the athletes,” he said.
“Based on talking to the athletes and talking to her, they put a big focus on open lines of communication and really ensuring that everybody was on the same page when it came to training, game prep, in-game management.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a male coaching females or a female coaching males, or gender parallel, it’s all about your ability to create positive relationships, allow athletes to feel comfortable and open to learning and kind of really push that comfort zone on themselves.”
Dow’s experience coaching volleyball at the post-secondary level isn’t limited to his four seasons at Guelph. He was an assistant with the Lakehead women’s program from 2011-13 and at Western University while completing his masters in coaching in 2016-17.
At the club level, Dow coached the London Volleyball Club to a bronze at the 2019 national championships. He recently was named as one of Team Ontario’s coaches.
Dow, who for the past years has been teaching high school as a long-term occasional teacher, plans to move to Niagara from Guelph.
“I am committed to being available for the program as much as possible,” he said. “I am really trying to continue the pedigree of success that it’s had the last couple of years, so making myself as available as possible will definitely benefit from being located in the area.”
Dow’s experience and enthusiasm tipped the scales in his favour when the time came to chose Spaling’s successor.
“Steve’s experience at the OUA (Ontario University Athletics) level as well as OVA (Ontario Volleyball Association) and Team Ontario makes him an excellent addition and successor to what was built in 2018-19,” Niagara College athletic director Michele O’Keefe said.
Women’s volleyball tryouts and training camp get underway Sept. 10. League play begins Oct. 19 versus the Cambrian Golden Shield in Sudbury.
“It’s all about your ability to create positive relationships ...” STEVE DOW head coach