Excellence on ice
Like many other red-blooded Canadian boys, Ted Barton was a hockey player when he was growing up on the North Shore in the 1960s. Double salchows and lutzes hadn’t even entered his mind.
That was until his coach suggested he take some skating lessons from the local figure skating club. They helped quite a bit, but when his rep team coach told him to quit figure skating he wouldn’t do it.
“You don’t tell me you have to quit,” says Barton, 57, in the Burnaby 8-Rinks offices of Skate Canada BC/Yukon Division where he is the organization’s executive director.
In his youth, Barton played not only hockey, but tennis, basketball and rugby. (In his five years at Hillside secondary in West Vancouver, the rugby team went to the provincial championship every year, winning it three times.) But he loved the individual aspect of figure skating.
“Nothing compares to the difficulty of it,” says Barton, who will be inducted into the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame as a builder tonight (Feb. 16).
Like any figure skater, Barton’s dream was to reach the Olympics, and 1976 was shaping up to be his year. But his dreams of competing at the Games in Innsbruck, Austria were blown to bits in Minneapolis when the blade on his left skate cut deep into the arch of his right foot and stuck there. When they pulled the skate out blood spurted all over the ice.
In typical Canadian athletic fashion, Barton sucked it up and competed in the Canadian championship. But it wasn’t easy with a boot full of blood. Doctors tried freezing his foot to keep the pain down but it was his landing foot and no amount of freezing could make the agony subside or stop the bleeding every time he landed.
His Olympic dreams were toast.
However, he got to compete a couple of months later in the world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden where, busted foot and all, Barton finished 16th with the top Canadian being the flamboyant Toller Cranston in fourth.
Barton didn’t have the bucks to keep going for another Olympic cycle so he signed up with Ice Follies, skating for four years doing solo, pairs and comedy. He also drove the truck, sold programs and worked the concessions. “I had cotton candy all over my hair and moustache,” jokes Barton.
Barton went on to do some coaching before starting with the Canadian Figure Skating Association, now called Skate Canada, in 1983 and becoming executive director for B.C. in 1991.
“My journey prepared me to be an executive,” he says. “I try to do everything that everyone around me is doing so I know what it’s about. You can’t assume you know everything because you’re an executive director unless you do it. But if you know a little that changes everything for some people.”
Important lunch date
At first, he worked out of Sport BC’s offices on West Broadway in Vancouver. Then one day their neighbours, Canlan Sports, invited him to lunch. Canlan had a four-sheet facility in Burnaby they were converting into eight rinks and office space.
“Would you be interested in leasing some of the office space?” they asked him.
“Yes, we would, on one condition,” replied Barton. “That you set aside one sheet for us.”
They balked at first. Canlan didn’t mind skaters buying ice time, but were reluctant to take it away from hockey. Barton stood firm, pointing out how popular a sport figure skating actually was and saying, “We will not move there if we’re considered a second-class citizen.”
He got his rink. Barton wanted to establish a centre of excellence at the new facility. The Lower Mainland had elite skaters and good coaches, but they were all over the place. Consolidating them in one place made sense.
“You could only argue against it emotionally. You could not argue against it factually,” says Barton. “You can’t succeed in life without taking some risks.”
At first it was unpopular with the local clubs because their stars were being taken away from them. Barton’s view was all the clubs had something a skater needed, but not everything, such as off-ice workout facilities and committed ice time.
“You couldn’t turn out international athletes from a municipal club,” says Barton. “[The local clubs] have to meet the needs of the masses, and not of the few.”
According to Barton, it took about two years to build the centre up. But to take it to another level he went looking for a world-class coach. He reached out to Richmond Hill, Ont., to bring in Joanne McLeod.
With McLeod running the show, the concept has been a big success as it churns out Canadian champions and world-class skaters.
“We’ve changed the culture. Our results are through the roof. [B.C.] went from Alberta killing us to being the top per capita medal producing province in Canada,” says Barton proudly.
These days, the Skate Canada facility at Burnaby 8-Rinks has about 550 skaters training at various levels. In 2008, Barton’s work was recognized when he was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame. Now he’s looking forward to his induction into the Burnaby hall tonight (Feb. 16).
“It’s a bit embarrassing because it’s not just me that did it. I have vision, I want to win, but I have staff here and a board of directors. So when one person gets an award for something many people did, it’s embarrassing, but not in a bad way. When I know so many people were involved I’m shy. It has a little to do with me and a lot of people to carry the vision out.”
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