By Dan Plouffe
Of all the ways you could describe Jean-Pierre Saab, a champion curling coach would definitely not be top of mind. But that’s one of many little experiences on Saab’s wide-ranging coaching career of 20+ years that was recently recognized by the City of Ottawa.
“Our goal is not to win. Our goal is to allow the kids to have a passion for sports,” underlines Saab, the winner of the 2024 Brian Kilrea Award for Coaching Excellence. “And one of the biggest reasons I love coaching is the relationship we build with the kids.”
Saab’s passion for sports was first born on the ice at age 3. He played competitive hockey in Orleans (and still plays in a league at Ray Friel Arena), and that’s where his coaching journey began too. As a 15-year-old, Saab started helping out with his five-year-old cousin’s initiation program.
“I loved it right away,” Saab recalls. “It was different, and it was fun.”
A knee injury led Saab to move away from hockey’s competitive ranks, but he got into a pile of other sports, mostly at Garneau high school. He played rugby, basketball, volleyball, hockey, soccer, badminton and football.
“I would just try out for every team and hope to make it,” Saab recounts. “I was always busy. It kept me going and kept me out of trouble.”
The 2007 Garneau grad admits that he “wasn’t always the best student” in high school.
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“I’d get bored. I’d just want to move. I was a typical teenage boy,” says Saab. “But my parents had a rule: I could do sports if I did well in school.”
Saab did eventually find another passion alongside sports – science. Armed with a University of Ottawa biopharmaceutical science and Laurentien University education degree, Saab returned to his alma mater as a teacher, carrying with him an extra dose of perspective.
“I realized there were a lot of people who took time from their day to allow me to play sports,” reflects the Garneau teacher of 13 years. “Now my goal is to try to give back that time as much as I can.”
Saab has fully embraced that challenge, volunteering to coach Gaulois teams in volleyball, hockey, football, ringette, soccer and curling.
“I’m no expert in any sport. But I’ve realized that coaching isn’t about just being able to know what to do,” signals the father of two elementary school-aged children.
Saab explains that sometimes he may not have the ability to demonstrate a skill, but he’d often recruit another coach or a past student who excelled in that sport to help with technical points. He was never afraid to launch a new program even if he wasn’t an expert.
“I want to see as many teams as possible,” Saab indicates, noting that he believes in the school and the community, and that sports positively impacts both.
He also thinks that coaching has helped him become a better teacher. In biology or physics, he’ll often use sports examples to engage his students in class, like looking at collisions between rugby players or curling rocks.
“I know there’s a lot of athletes, especially now with the sports programs that we’re running in the school, and it just brings them in,” Saab adds. “I bring a lot of science into my coaching too.”
He’ll use the Pythagorean theorem to help players understand where they should spike the volleyball, and talk about velocity and how the ball’s shape will react to touches.
Of all the sports Saab has coached, volleyball has become the one that’s been the most constant. Several very strong volleyball schools have dominated the local league for more than a decade, but Garneau has managed to push its way into the top ranks too.
“We’ve built a program,” he highlights, noting that several other coaches have helped the Gaulois girls’ and boys’ teams excel from Grade 7 up to 12. “We went from a school that had a few teams, some kids played, to now having a team in every level and being very competitive at every level.”
Saab has seen many of his student-athletes progress onto university and national teams, most notably Maxime Gratton, viewed as the region’s top male prospect of the past decade.
“I don’t think I have anything to do with those athletes becoming the athletes they are” from a technical perspective since the bulk of that work was done in community sport, Saab notes. “But my goal as a coach is to allow them to become better people. Because when you play school sports, you’re playing with players that are not as good as you, so how do you interact with them? And how do you become a leader?”
Saab’s foray into curling – a sport that was practically foreign to him – came about through volleyball, when one of his players wanted to compete at the high school level.
“I have a hard time saying no to kids when they ask me to coach a team,” smiles Saab, who’d only ever curled at a charity event. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know anything about curling,’ but he was a very good player, and he brought the team to OFSAA.”
Saab wound up rubbing elbows with curling royalty when he received his coaching award on Nov. 14 at City Hall.
At the same ceremony, two-time Olympian Lisa Weagle was inducted into the Order of Ottawa alongside 14 other impactful community members. Weagle, who is now a coach herself, won three Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles and a medal of each colour at the World Championships as a member of the Rachel Homan and Jennifer Jones curling rinks.
Also honoured was Jeff York, who is perhaps best known for his past work as head of Giant Tiger and Farm Boy and on local charitable initiatives. But York’s sports involvement has now come to the forefront as a minority owner of the Ottawa Senators and as CEO of Altea Active – a giant new 129,000 square-foot fitness centre opened at Canadian Tire’s former Carling Ave. location.
Saab received his Brian Kilrea Award from the Ottawa 67’s coaching legend himself, along with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Innes Councillor Laura Dudas.
“When I won this prize, I was very humbled and very happy, and I felt fortunate to be nominated,” Saab reflects. “There’s a lot of people in the city that are very deserving.”
Saab felt a little awkward having the attention on him since he’s used to being in the background while his students get the chance to shine. It also a change because Saab’s usually the one giving out the awards, having founded the Gaulois’s athletics gala.
“I wanted to see the athletes recognized because they give so much for the school. They also give a lot of their time and they’re wearing our logo,” Saab outlines. “We have really good students. I’m always proud wherever I go with any of my students. They’re always representing our school values, which we have up over our gym: ‘[pride], effort, respect.'”
The school dresses up the gym and the students all dress up for the occasion, with sponsor Lacroix Sports providing gift cards to all winners as well as several scholarships.
“The sports gala was an idea that I had, but it’s a team effort,” Saab underlines. “A lot of these things are team efforts.”
Saab is quick to salute his colleagues, students and family for their role in allowing him to receive the honour, although he’s received many kudos back since his principal made an announcement on the intercom a day after the ceremony.
“Now my colleagues know, now everyone knows, the kids talk about it a little bit – I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from them thanking me, and former students talking to me. It’s awesome and I’m really thankful for that,” Saab states. “Now I just don’t know where I’m going to put that award. It’s a big trophy.”