Steve Redmond is an inspirational and exemplary educator,coach, and community leader. Chosen in 2006 as one of Canada’s outstanding principals, Steve has successfully combined his passion for sports with his commitment to providing opportunities for all children and made it his life’s work.
Redmond has been a leader in the growth and development of school and youth programs including coaching, managing, and organizing with Special Olympics at the local, regional, and provincial levels. He was recognized as Special Olympics Ontario “Educator of the Year” in 2006.
In 2000, he established the first Guelph Special Olympics youth basketball program.He has been the head coach since the beginning and the program now has 80 athletes, four teams and 21 coaches. The Guelph team won provincial gold in 2008 and silver in 2012. He started Toronto’s 1• 1 Special Olympics youth basketball program in 2007.
In 2002, Redmond had a vision for a Guelph Special Olympics track & field meet and worked hard with a committee of community volunteers to make it a reality. This track meet now has 500 students with disabilities from 63 schools participating and has become a model for the rest of the province.
“I have been very blessed over my years in coaching to have had the chance to work with so many exceptional young people,he said. “They have been an ongoing inspiration to me in my life. It has been especially rewarding to work with the Special Olympic athletes.”
In 2007-2008 Redmond worked on a pilot project with Paralympics Canada that led to the creation of a new Athletics Canada teacher/coach resource with adaptations for students/athletes with disabilities to be used across the country.
Redmond was an outstanding athlete in his own right with provincial championships in five different sports. He was athlete of the year at John F. Ross four times and in 2007 was selected as one of the top football players in Guelph high school history. Redmond received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. Steve Redmond has coached, and mentored coaches, for over 40 years and to this day continues to enrich the lives of our youth. McPhee has left his mark on minor sports in Guelph through his officiating, coaching and volunteering with the Guelph Minor Hockey Association and the GRHA. For all he received from others, he has given back many times over.
Inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame – Builder category – on October 23, 2013
