Dave Cole is going to be an important part of ensuring races are running smoothly for the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships on February 9, 2025. Cole, the self-described “geek of the group” will be ‘sitting’ virtually at Race Control alongside Time-Team, the race system partner.
The long time Toronto rower has relocated to Moncton, New Brunswick and has been involved with organizing Canadian indoor rowing events since 2007.
At one of the first Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC) he worked, which took place in the atrium of the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto, he was sitting behind Joe Vince, who was operating the race results computers, trying to figure out how it all worked.
“I managed to sit with him (Vince) and help run the show in those early days,” he said on video call. “Ever since then it’s been Joe and Dave, that’s the race control duo. We’re the guys who knew how to hook everything up and how to keep everything running on time.” Sadly, Joe Vince passed away in 2021, but Dave has kept up the tradition of making sure everything is running smoothly behind the scenes.
The longtime volunteer best known in the rowing community as “Coley” said part of the job has been adapting to the different advancements in technology as it’s gone from rental tube televisions to the Invictus Games with massive projectors and LED boards. When the pandemic hit, Time-Team’s race platform allowed for CIRC and other competitions to go virtual and race together in real time at home. He was able to sit behind a desk in Moncton and help competitors from across the world compete from their own homes.
In 2023, the World Rowing Indoor Championships added a new twist as the first hybrid event. 1600 athletes competed in person on the arena floor in Mississauga and a few dozen athletes who qualified in continental championships joined the races virtually from all five continents. Coming out of a pandemic it was a big challenge putting all the pieces together, but our team was up to the task. Cole and all the other volunteers will be making sure it all runs seamlessly.
“Everything I have always been involved with in rowing since 2006 has been for the social side,” he said. Cole raced a little recreationally but isn’t really in it for the rowing competitions. “It might only seem like one or two days a year but it’s fun in the off season to keep in contact with the whole group to keep the planning going for the next year.”
“I don’t like exercise, but I have no problem making sure other people can compete,” he said.
The key part of being a volunteer for the former Upper Canada College repair guy is to make sure everyone can have fun doing what they want to do.
He encourages everyone to sign up and volunteer to help Canada put on a show for its global guests.
“Put your hand up. You never know what you could end up doing but I can guarantee you’ll have fun doing it.”
To join Dave and the rest of the enthusiastic team of volunteers reach out to volunteers@cdnindoorrowing.org
