By Martin Cleary
Kerry MacLean and Steve Johnson are associated with high-performance sports in Ottawa at different levels, but they have plenty in common.
Their sports focus around a round ball – youth volleyball for MacLean and women’s university soccer for Johnson.
Both have a teaching background – MacLean spent 29 years as a physical education teacher and coaching volleyball at Colonel By Secondary School before retiring in 2013, while Johnson has been connected to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s soccer team for more than 30 years, serving as a part-time head coach while teaching full-time at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School until he became Ottawa’s full-time coach in 2017.
On Feb. 4 at the Infinity Convention Centre, MacLean and Johnson will have something else in common, when they will be front and centre at the 73rd annual Ottawa Sports Awards dinner to receive lifetime achievement awards.
Johnson will be honoured for his successful 32-year coaching career with the Gee-Gees women’s soccer team and MacLean will be recognized for 40 years as a volunteer-administrator with the Maverick Volleyball Club, which he co-founded.
The dinner also will honour John Butcher with the Lifetime Achievement Award for technical official as an on-ice linesman and off-ice administrative volunteer.
Marci Morris, who was the executive director of the Ottawa Sport Council for 12 years, has been named the winner of the Mayor’s Cup for her long-standing overall sport contributions.
“It’s an absolute honour,” MacLean said about the most recent recognition for his dedication to high school and community volleyball. “I didn’t do it (volleyball) for the awards, but it’s nice to know someone noticed.”
Earlier this year, MacLean was inducted into the Ontario Volleyball Association Hall of Fame. In the past, his vision to grow volleyball beyond his successful Colonel By program by creating the ever-expanding Maverick Volleyball Club earned him the 2015 Mayor’s City Builder Award. He also is a two-time winner of the OVA Recognition Award and the OFSAA Leadership in School Sport Award at the Ontario high school girls’ AAA volleyball championship in 1999.
MacLean stepped down from the Maverick program earlier this year, after 40 years of service. His wife Chris also played a vital role in the club’s development, especially in the area of merchandise, branding and tournament preparation.
Read More: Maverick club founders retire, leaving lengthy legacy for Ottawa volleyball
In the mid-1980s, MacLean developed powerhouse high school boys’ senior teams at Colonel By, including the 1988 OFSAA boys’ AAA championship squad. Paul Villeneuve, Dave St. Helene and Kevin Graham were a significant force on that emerging volleyball team and wanted more competition.
MacLean responded by creating an extension of the Colonel By school program, which later was named the Maverick Volleyball Club, for one practice a week and one local or regional tournament a year.
That competitive program had a low profile until MacLean’s son Karch wanted to play volleyball in 1998.
“Slowly and steadily it grew and we added a high-performance model, which moved us to the front of the pack in the city and province,” MacLean said in a phone interview Wednesday. “And we won a boys’ 18U Canadian championship at Carleton University (in 2009).”
In the past two decades, Maverick has expanded to more than 70 teams from about 20 to 22 teams. The program includes high-performance teams, a regional training centre and a learn-to-play concept.
This year, Maverick became the first Ontario club to introduce a 12-week, mixed-gender learn-to-referee program, which attracted 10 individuals aged 16-18.
MacLean served as Maverick president for four decades, while coaching not only various youth teams, but also Colonel By Cougars high school teams. At the high school level, he was the OFSAA sport advisory committee chair and the lead convenor for volleyball in the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association.
When the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s soccer program started in 1994, Steve Johnson was named its first head coach on a part-time basis. Since then, he has carved a memorable and record-setting pathway for the discipline.
The Gee-Gees have won 12 medals in 17 appearances at the U Sports national women’s soccer championship, including gold in 1996 and 2018. They also reached four other finals and earned silver medals as well as collecting six bronze medals.
At the OUA conference level, Ottawa has made the playoffs all 32 seasons and qualified for 16 championship games, winning a dozen between 1996 and 2024.
During his time on the sidelines, Johnson earned a record-setting number of victories, making him the winningest university women’s soccer coach in the OUA. He achieved his 400th career win this season and his overall record is 404 wins, 74 losses and 71 ties.
U Sports named Johnson its coach of the year in 2005 and 1996. He also was an OUA coach of the year eight times.
Johnson, who has seen three of his players named to Canada’s senior women’s team for international matches, also has been part of the national team coach staff for five FISU Summer Universiades.
In 2019, Johnson and the Gee-Gees won the FISU World Cup women’s soccer title as the entry for Canada. The Gee-Gees also captured the FISU Americas Cup championship in 2022.
When John Butcher moved to Ottawa in 1976, he began his hockey officiating career as a linesman and worked his way into the junior, university and Ontario Hockey League ranks.
While serving as an on-ice official, he spent many hours as a behind-the-scenes volunteer in various hockey roles.
Butcher’s most significant impact with Hockey Eastern Ontario has been as a referee supervisor, working with junior and university hockey officials as well as U15, U16 and U18 AAA minor officials. A member of the HEO board of directors, he is the vice-president, rules and officials. He also is a life patron of HEO.
Butcher’s dedication to overseeing the game has led him to be an instructor in the National Referees Certification Program, presenting at Hockey Canada supervisors workshops, being a member of a Hockey Canada ad-hoc committee reviewing its constitution, regulations and by-laws and sitting on the Hockey Canada Return to Hockey Officiating Task Team.
As executive director of the Ottawa Sport Council from 2013 through 2024, Marci Morris was “an advocate, leader and passionate supporter of the collective approach to community sport,” and “had an impact across almost every amateur sporting organization in the city,” the Ottawa Sports Awards press release said.
Morris established a solid base for her council leadership by working for different national sports organizations and tackled major projects like concussion education, safe sport, and the Belonging Playbook. The council’s work is considered vital information for community sport.
In her professional working career, Morris developed her leadership skills working for the Canadian Paralympic Committee, True Sport and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. She also worked for the Ottawa Internationals Soccer Club.
A masters athlete with the Ottawa Rowing Club, she has sat on the board of directors with the Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association and Ringette Canada.
