Brenda O’Connor

Builder (2024)

Soccer, Athletics

Give Brenda O’Connor a few months as a soccer volunteer and she takes a decade.

She started coaching a girl’s team in Varsity View in 1998. The outdoor season became indoor. One team became two, two become three. She pitched in with the Eastside Soccer Association. She did its player registration. She helped Eastview families apply for financial aid through KidSport and Jumpstart. She was on committees for an Eastside banquet and for Eastside’s annual Grevers tournament. O’Connor was coach of the Eastside team that won the provincials girls U18 title in 2009.

With Saskatoon Youth Soccer, she processed player placements and transfers in zones. She reviewed rules and had a say in their revisions. She helped develop a new program for U18s, the number of its teams tripling.

Soccer is only half of it.

O’Connor has been an athletics official since the early ’80s, from the high school championships in Saskatoon to the Saskatchewan Summer Games in Melfort and Meadow Lake, from the Canada West university championships 14 times to the Canadian championships 15 times. O’Connor’s international assignments as an athletics official include the North American Indigenous Games, Pan Am juniors and the world championships.

She is chair of the Saskatoon Athletics officials committee, which led to her also being chair of the Saskatchewan branch of the officials committee with Athletics Canada.

As a national clinician she is the voice of authority in combined events, mentoring officials across the country in heptathlon and decathlon.

The heart of athletics in Saskatchewan is the Bob Adams Foundation. By serving on the committee with the Adams Foundation, she has kept a good thing going.

O’Connor worked in administration with the Saskatchewan Baton Twirling Association for 11 years as Saskatchewan twirlers hauled in the medals at nationals and stood tall on the Canadian team at worlds.