Vivien Symington feels she never reached her full athletic potential when she was younger because her family moved so often as her father pursued academic and work opportunities in Scotland, England, Vancouver, Seattle and Kingston.
So when she opened Club Aviva Gymnastics in 1986, she wanted it to be a place kids could count on to be there for them, to provide them with the instruction, leadership, motivation and equipment to be their best. On the mat, and in life.
Thursday, Symington’s success in achieving that will be recognized when she’s inducted as a builder into the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame. She’s one of three builders, two athletes and one team named to the hall for 2017. The ceremony, to be held at the Poirier Sports and Leisure Complex at 7 p.m., also recognizes a number of Wall of Fame honourees for their achievements in the past year.
Symington said she was taken aback when she received the email notifying of her honour, especially as her staff had spent much of the past year working secretly to submit a portfolio of her career.
And what a career it has been. Although it didn’t exactly get started on the right foot. That’s because various permitting delays meant she wasn’t able to open Club Aviva’s original location on Booth Avenue until November; she missed the crucial fall window when parents sign their kids up for extracurricular activities into the winter season.
It may have been Symington’s last misstep, though.
In 1997 she moved the gym to its expansive current home on Brigantine Drive and five years after that Symington launched her passion project, a movement therapy program for about 150 kids from around Metro Vancouver with autism and other neurodevelopmental delays.
Through it all she’s kept her eyes on the prize: providing kids with a positive experience no matter their age, capabilities or challenges.
“Every child can feel better,” said Symington. “If you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll have success at some level.”
To realize that, Symington knew she’d have to step back from working with elite athletes. She leaves that to specialized coaches as she builds curriculum’s for all the club’s programs.
“If I’m running a program for a three-year-old, that child deserves just as much of my attention as a high-performance athlete,” said Symington. “After all, they may become a high performance athlete down the road.’
Even as Symington begins the early groundwork to pass the business on to her son, she’s excited about the imminent publication of the first clinical study of her Empowering Steps Movement Therapy program by scientists from University of British Columbia who’ve been working with her since 2013.
“That’s one of my greatest achievements,” said Symington of the program she hopes she’ll someday be able to expand to other communities.
Other 2017 inductees into the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame are:
Carlo Corazzin, a goal-scoring striker who made his professional debut with the Winnipeg Fury of the Canadian Soccer League. He played one season with the Vancouver 86ers in 1993, then spent eight seasons playing for various teams in England. He also appeared in 59 games for the Canadian national team, scoring 11 times. He closed out his professional playing career with the Vancouver Whitecaps of the USL A-league and retired in 2006.
Nick Hebeler joined the BC Lions as a defensive end in 1979 and helped turn the Canadian Football League team into a perennial Grey Cup contender in the early 1980s that culminated with the team’s first championship in 21 years in 1985. Hebeler ended his career the following year, with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He played 113 CFL regular season games and recorded 56.5 sacks.
The 1987-88 Centennial Centaurs senior girls basketball teams dominated the province. After winning their first Fraser Valley title in 14 years in 1986, the Centaurs took it to the next level when they beat Salmon Arm in the 1987 provincial final. They repeated as champions the next year, defeating Windsor 71-59 in the final.
Barry Parrish has spent much of his adult life on the pool deck, as a volunteer with the Coquitlam Sharks swim club, mentor and official. He’s the first person to be awarded a lifetime membership by the Sharks, volunteered with Special Olympics, B.C. High School swimming, Swim BC and the 55-plus Games in Coquitlam in 2016. He also established the Jason Parrish Memorial scholarship for deserving BC summer swimmers after the death of his son in 1991.
Ken Winslade was involved with the BC Boys High School basketball championships for more than 40 years.
Wall of Fame honourees are:
Junior athletes Connor Hollingshead and Shallon Olsen; high school athletes Nic Greene and Jacqueline Lew; senior athletes Christian Del Bianco and Jasmine Glaesser; university athletes Adam Jones, Challen Rogers, Samantha McIlwrick and Addy Townsend; athlete with a disability Ahmad Zeividavi; master athlete Urith Hayley; team Coquitlam Junior Adanacs; coach Pat Coyle of the Jr. Adanacs; and volunteers Earlene Graham and Gayle Statton.
