Board Members

Barclay was born in Pembroke, Ontario, and moved to Ottawa at an early age. He developed a love of sports while quite young and dreamed of high jumping in the Olympics while in grade five.

Barclay played five sports a year for most of his high school years, playing football, volleyball, basketball, badminton and track and field. He set a high school record in the high jump, won top male athlete at Lisgar Collegiate, won the high school boy’s singles event in badminton, played on 3 high school championship football teams and in 1961 was the Canadian Juvenile high jump champion. As a three time member of Team Ontario, he competed in three National Championships in the high jump, long jump, triple jump and the 4×100 relay, winning a bronze medal in the long jump.

Always interested in sports, Barclay worked during the summer months as a playground supervisor in Sandy Hill. He eventually became a “sports specialist” for the Ottawa Parks & Recreation Department. In this position, he organized summer sporting events for thousands of Ottawa children including the Summer Olympics, swim programs, city-wide softball leagues, playdays and field trips. A love of this experience working with children led Barclay to a 34 year teaching career in the Ottawa area. While teaching elementary grades, Barclay was always very active in the Athletic Associations serving as president, a convener of leagues and tournaments, and coaching as many school teams as time would allow. Outside of the school environment, he was an active coach in minor hockey, minor softball and track and field. Some of the athletes he has coached have gone on to play in the NHL while others have competed for Canada in the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.

Barclay has always been a very active official. He has been a softball umpire doing all the local leagues and umpired a Canadian Armed Forces Championship. As a basketball referee, Barclay officiated high school, intermediate and senior leagues, and college and university games. He has been a registered track and field official since 1967 and has worked his way up the ranks to become a level 5 (international level) referee working in the high jump, pole vault, long jump and triple jump events. Along the way, he has done meets that included: the Canadian Junior and Senior Championships, 5 Canada Summer Games, The Ontario Games, Pan Am Juniors, Pan Am Games, Ottawa Citizen Indoor Games, World Junior and Senior Championships, Francophone Games and the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. Barclay has been the field referee at local high school meets for more than 30 years. He has also served as a jumps referee at many Ontario High School Championships.

Barc, as he is known to his friends, is a member of the Goulbourn Sports Wall of Fame and has received on Ontario Volunteers Award. In 2003, Barclay received The Ottawa Sports Award of Excellence-Lifetime Achievement Award for Technical Official. He was later asked to join the volunteer board which he as assisted as a Director since 2004. He was inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and was selected for the Athletics Canada National Officials Committee Wall of Honour in 2021. In 2023 he was inducted into the Ontario Athletics Hall of Fame.

Barclay keeps active playing golf, camping and officiating track meets in the summer while in the fall and winter months, he turns his attention to curling and playing goal in old-timers hockey.

Kimberly is currently a teacher and avid coach at Mother Teresa High School in Barrhaven where she has had much success with the track and field team as well as the varsity girls basketball team.  Her previous coaching experience includes 6 straight OFSAA appearances in track and field, and 4 straight OFSAA appearances with the Girls Soccer team. Kimberly has been highly involved in the school community providing students with the opportunity for experiential learning, organizing trips for students and student-athletes to Victoria B.C., Honolulu Hawaii and Paris France.

Kimberly was a member of the University of Ottawa basketball team for 3 years, followed by 1 season as a member of the Lakehead University Soccer team.  She has been an assistant coach at the University of Ottawa for the Women’s Basketball program since the 2006 season where the Gee-Gees have won 2 OUA silver medals and one gold and collected a bronze medal at the 2011-2012 CIS Championships.

Her interest in Ottawa sport began when she was in high school at Notre Dame in Ottawa, but her passion for health and fitness began when she was very young having two very active and well balanced parents who have always encouraged healthy, active living. Kimberly made several appearances as a OFSAA sprinter and had city championships in Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball.

Academically, she has most recently pursued her interest in research studying psychological effects of athletic injuries while completing her Masters of Science at the Lakehead University, and other research using movement screening to predict injury in athletics.

Jim Dean has been involved in baseball in Ottawa since the age of 8 when he played in Carlingwood Little League. In 1989 he became president of the Ottawa Recreational Baseball League. A year later, he engineered its merger with the Senior Interprovincial Baseball League, to form what is still the National Capital Baseball League. He remained as President of the NCBL for the 1990-1993 seasons. In 1993 he became a game-day employee of the Ottawa Lynx, running the Scoreboard Room for all 15 Lynx seasons. Also in 1993, he founded the local Ontario Baseball Association chapter, the National Capital Senior Baseball Association, and served as its Chairman for several years, including hosting the 1993 National Selects (U19) championship for Baseball Canada.

In 1995 he re-entered the Little League world as a coach and general all-around volunteer, until 2005 when he accepted the position of District Administrator for Ontario District 2 (West Ottawa), a position he continues to hold. He served as Vice-President of Little League Ontario from 2006 through 2008, then as President from 2009 through 2016. He also represented Ontario on Little League Canada’s Board of Directors from 2012 to 2016. In 2014, at Little League International’s Congress (held every 4 years), Jim was recognized with their Meritorious Service Award. In 2023 he was elected to the Little League International Board of Directors, serving as a Field Director.

Although principally an exceptionally photogenic “baseball guy”, he has a passion for amateur sports that has led him to join the Board of the Ottawa Awards.

Jen Elliott joined the Ottawa Sports Awards in 2017 after multiple years attending the banquet to support student-athletes as a staff member at the University of Ottawa. At uOttawa, Jen is the Sports Archives and Recognition Officer and has worked with the varsity programs and local media since 2009. Prior to moving to Ottawa at that time, Jen worked in marketing and events and high performance at Canada Basketball. She has also acted as a match statistician for Volleyball Canada, the Ottawa BlackJacks, Wheelchair Basketball Canada, and was a member of Canada’s mission staff at the 2013 and 2015 Summer World University Games.

Leslie Coburn comes from a strong sporting family and has carried on the legacy her entire life as a player, coach and organizer.

Her mother taught her to figure skate at an early age and she continued as a “test” skater for fifteen years before turning “pro,” teaching the sport for thirty years at the recreational and competitive levels.

She excelled at all sports and in high school was named female athlete of the year. She was captain of her school’s championship basketball team, played volleyball and did track and field. During intramurals’ and outside of school she enjoyed cycling, roller skating, downhill skiing, tennis, squash, and badminton. In her early twenties she played touch football and enjoyed cross country skiing. Later she learned hockey and dragon boating, and recently has taken up golf.

Basketball emerged as one of her favorite sports. She played competitively for the “original” Ottawa Rookies team and played for McMaster University. In addition, she coached primary and secondary school basketball teams. This sport also led to her long career in sport and recreation management.

She volunteered as a basketball coach through Nepean Parks & Recreation, which at age sixteen, led to a stint as a Sport Supervisor for Girls Ringette during March break. In 2015, Leslie retired from the City of Ottawa as a Program Manager with over 35 years in sport management. She oversaw the Recreational Skating School for over twenty years, advocated and developed sport opportunities for girls and women, along with many other programs; as well, as supporting major sporting events.

She also volunteered as an executive on the National Capital Girls Hockey Association and Ottawa District Women’s Hockey Association.

To say Leslie has lived a sporting life is an understatement. Her love of sport was fostered by her parents and by example she has passed on this passion to her children and grandchildren. To her it comes naturally as ancestors before her have been key players in promoting and advocating sport in Ottawa.

Bill had a 26 year career as an on-court basketball official, all with the Ottawa Valley Board of Approved Basketball Officials (OVBABO). He was elected an honourary liftetime member of OVBABO due to his outstanding career, which included officiating at two university men’s national championship tournaments, the 2001 Canada Games, OCAA/CCAA playoffs and championships, and OFSAA provincial championships. Bill has also been active as a member of the OVBABO Executive, having held the positions of Vice-President, President and the Board Interpreter and Chair of the Board Training Committee, as well as serving as a member of the OABO FIBA Ad Hoc Provincial Interpreters Committee to help develop FIBA rules instructional and training materials for Ontario officials. He is currently a local assignor with OVBABO.