Cor Ouwerkerk
Volleyball Builder - Inducted 2005
Cor Ouwerkerk coached many sports including basketball, football, gymnastics, rugby, soccer, track and field, and volleyball. He coached school athletics, provincial athletes, and senior women’s teams. He won a provincial rugby championship in 1976; two Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) cross-country running championships in the 1990s; led the X-Queens senior women’s team to two provincial Senior A Championships.
Cor Ouwerkerk excelled as an ACAC coach for five decades from 1968 to 2000. He coached the Red Deer College Volleyball Queens to six undefeated seasons. He won over 3700 games where he obtained a 90% winning percentage over a 30-year period. His teams received 13 consecutive Alberta Colleges Athletic Association pennants, and 14 gold medals in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference in which eight of them were consecutive in the 1980s, and he made 15 trips to the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) national finals. He was named coach of the year seven times by the ACAC and once by the CCAA.
In 1985 Cor initiated a volleyball exchange program between Red Deer College and Hokkaido Women’s College of Ebestu in Japan. This program is ongoing and has expanded to include academic and cultural exchanges between the staff and students of the two sister colleges.
Cor Ouwerkerk served in executive positions and as president of both the Alberta Volleyball Association in the mid-1970s and the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference in the mid-1980s.
Cor Ouwerkerk established a level of excellence, a standard of perfection, and an expectation of success in both the classroom and in the field of competition that is unmatched. In 1984 he received the Alberta Achievement Award by Premier Lougheed. He was honoured as the Red Deer Coach of the Year and received the City of Red Deer Recognition Award.
After Induction
2005 – Alberta Sports Hall of Fame
2005 – Alberta Volleyball Hall of Fame
2014 – Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference Hall of Fame (ACAC)
2019 – Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association
