Orillia's Toben Sutherland has been recognized by the Canadian Association of Coaches with an Excellence in Coaching Award presented by Petro-Canada.
Sutherland, 47, received the award for coaching Parry Sound native Megan Oldham to a silver medal in slopestyle and bronze in the "big air" event at the 2023 World Championships in Georgia last February.
Sutherland has now won the Excellence in Coaching Award four times during his career.
"I don't do this for any recognition," he said. "I do it to see the athletes excel and work toward their goals."
Sutherland, however, says winning the award means a lot to him because it gives recognition to the sport.
"It gives me validation to see that the program that we have been running is working," he said. "We will continue to take risks to push the sport in the right direction."
Sutherland, a Twin Lakes Secondary School graduate, started skiing when he was nine years old. He turned competitive with free skiing when he was 12 and has never looked back. He was named Orillia's Athlete of the Year in 1992.
In 1997, Sutherland won the Crystal Globe, a world championship title. He won three World Cup events while competing on the international circuit from 1993 until 1999 before transitioning to coaching in 2000 because of injury concerns.
"I found myself at a place where I was making a living coaching and enjoying working with the athletes," he explained. "I found when I was working with a group of athletes it was much more rewarding to see the team and each individual athlete within it focus and work toward their common goals."
Sutherland says it's more fulfilling to him as a coach when one of his athletes wins than it was for him when he won as a competitor.
"It's been my goal for the last couple of decades to build a group of athletes who can be competitive on the world stage on any given day," he said. "That's where my focus has laid for the better part of my career."
Already looking ahead to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, Sutherland is hoping to take eight athletes to Italy who can land on the podium.
"We want to come out with as many medals as possible," he said. "We won two medals in 2014, one in 2018, and unfortunately we came up short in 2022."
Sutherland says he is seeking redemption at the next Olympic Games for the lack of success in 2022 in Beijing.
Sutherland thanks the Orillia community for their support of him over the years.
"I've had a ton of support growing up in the area," he said. "I really appreciate all of the recognition that comes with it."
Sutherland says he will be visiting Orillia in December to donate his most recent Excellence in Coaching Award to be displayed in the Orillia Sports Hall of Fame at the Orillia Recreation Centre.
