Doug White Vikes Men’s Rowing Award
Douglas White was born into a Canadian Navy family and left Victoria at the age of six months, moving to Halifax. After several relocations, he returned to Victoria in 1967 and began his studies at UVic in geography in 1968. At that time he discovered rowing which has since been an integral part of his life.
Douglas began his coaching career in 1973 as an assistant coach at the University of Victoria and became the varsity coach in 1974. The program had fallen on hard times in regards to funding and Douglas rebuilt it through fundraising and volunteer grit. Douglas attended the National Coaching Institute where he earned a coveted level 4 coaching certification.
Douglas moved on from Uvic to take on the head coach position at the prestigious Victoria City Rowing Club which he held for eight years before he moved on to coach the Banks Rowing Club in Melbourne, Australia for a number of years. In 1997 he moved to Korea to coach the Korean national team before he came back to Victoria where he ended his rowing career back on Elk Lake in 2017.
Throughout this time Douglas White coached countless national teams to countless regatts including the Royal Canadian Henley, English Henley Royal Regatta, U23 Worlds, Senior Worlds, Pan American Games, and the Olympics.
Douglas White has won many awards with the most notable ones being the: 1992 Medal of Confederation, Shields Award Coach of the Year 2004; Rowing Canada Coaching Achievement Award 2004 and RCA International Achievement Award 2008.
While Douglas White has an extensive career volunteering and coaching in rowing, he has also developed an incredible skill as a beer brew master.