Ridley College and Sport Niagara form partnership. Photo Credit: London 2024 Ontario Games.
A connection to the 15U Team Ontario baseball team, that just happened to be his son Jack who plays for Niagara Falls, led Jay Tredway to think bigger.
You see, over 150 athletes from Niagara make up Team Ontario, and the Assistant Head of School at Ridley College wanted to do something special.
Enter Dan Kennedy and Sport Niagara, and an official Niagara sendoff for all the athletes representing the region.
“I took the opportunity to start to figure out who else was heading to the (Ontario) Games from Niagara, and working with Sport Niagara and Dan Kennedy, and a bunch of other connections we have, we’ve cobbled together a pretty fantastic list of Niagara athletes who are going to be representing all of us at this multi-sport games,” explained Tredway recently on the Niagara Sports Report on Newstalk 610 CKTB. “It’s exciting.”
The official sendoff happens Wednesday at Oakes Park in Niagara Falls from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 pm.
“These games are a little bit different, in that a lot of the competitors come from individual clubs, so there isn’t necessarily at this stage a lot of coordination inside of a region or inside of a province, it’s all kind of done through the provincial sports organizations, but we did the leg work and we now know Team Niagara,” said Tredway.
Tredway says he hopes everyone from Niagara has been contacted, but adds this:
“These are 14- to 17-year-old athletes, that we may not have gotten everybody, so if you’re heading to London and haven’t heard from met yet, I encourage them to reach out to me at jay_tredway@ridleycollege.com.”
“There at 13 events and we have athletes in nine of them that will be attending the sendoff event,” Tredway noted.
Tredway says it’s also a chance for the athletes to get to know each other before they start competing in London.
“There’s been some generous gifts put forward to give to the athletes, as a congratulations and a good luck,” Tredway said. “So hopefully getting a chance to meet one another, it will mean they actually get a chance to see each other in the Athlete’s Village in London, and go out and cheer for one another during the course of the games.”
The opening ceremonies for the Ontario Games happen Thursday night at 6 p.m., as over 3,500 athletes will converge on London to begin their paths to become hopeful future Canadian Olympians.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
