Peter park won the 2016 Local Hero Coach Award for his many years of work in the community. Photo by Karen McKinnon Photography
Passing along his passion for sports to young athletes makes Peter Parke a great choice for top coach in the Comox Valley.
When he’s not working full-time at his Tsolum Mobile Veterinary Health practice in Merville, Parke is coaching young athletes in basketball, rugby, lacrosse and other sports at both the local and provincial level. He was an accomplished athlete in his own right, particularly in high competitive levels of rugby and lacrosse.
“What I enjoy most about coaching is giving back to kids and seeing them improve,” said Parke. “To teach them how to compete and maybe getting them to think about going to the next level after high school.”
Parke moved to the Comox Valley in 2003 to purchase a veterinary practice, and in 2013 founded the Comox Valley Athletic Association (with the support of fellow sports enthusiasts and business leaders) to help assist athletes who faced financial challenges in pursuing their sport.
The CVAA helps subsidize travel, training and equipment and has a 24-passenger bus that is used to transport teams to tournaments, athletic training and other events.
Although he has no children of his own, Parke has coached thousands of Comox Valley athletes, including standouts such as Thyssen deGoede (Canada 7s and 15s rugby), Adam Backular-Evans, Alec Molander and Tanner Jones (lacrosse scholarships to top U.S. universities) and Max Maund (soccer stalwart for St. Francis Xavier University, Halifax).
If all that work and volunteering makes it seem as if Parke is on the go 24/7, he happily agrees. “It seems like that sometimes,” he says.
“I’m all about the next play. How to quickly switch or maintain focus about the next play. Or the next play might be what you’re going to do once you get out of high school. ‘Next play’ pretty much summarizes everything we’re about.”
Age: 52
Workplace: Tsolum Mobile Veterinary Health
Lives In: Courtenay
Family: None
Quotable: “I’m all about the next play. How to quickly switch or maintain focus about the next play. Or the next play might be what you’re going to do once you get out of high school.”
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