Two passionate members of the North Shore sports scene have been appointed to the board of directors of viaSport BC, a non-profit organization that leads the governance, promotion and development of amateur sport in province.
Brad Baker and Erica McGuiness will join viaSport as new board members, along with Kacey Dalzell and Sam Punzo.
Baker, a Squamish Nation member whose ancestral name is Tsnomot, has been a cornerstone of the educational and sports scenes in North Vancouver for decades. He is a district principal focusing on Indigenous education with the North Vancouver School District and coached the dominant senior girls rugby team at Carson Graham Secondary, winning 10 provincial titles in 24 seasons. He also coached and played lacrosse and soccer on the North Shore.
McGuiness was a basketball star at Handsworth Secondary before going to play for the University of British Columbia, where she thrived, winning three USport national titles and earning a spot in the UBC Sports Hall of Fame. She now is a chartered accountant and chartered business valuator with Sequeira Partners Inc.
ViaSport BC was created as a legacy of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games with the goal of creating a more effective provincial amateur sports system to bring “more families to the field of play, more fans into the stands, more athletes to the podium, and more sporting events to the province,” according to a viaSport release. The organization has been heavily involved in the implementation of return-to-play protocols across the province throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
ViaSport board members are volunteers and can be nominated for up to three terms with a maximum of three years per term.
