Don Steen was an outstanding athlete at Burnaby South Senior Secondary, even helping the senior boys team with a provincial basketball title 1953. But it wasn’t the hoop hardwood where he thrived as a coach. It was outside on cinder or rubber tracks and their infields where he had a lifetime of success.

Steen decided to be a decathlete winning the 1956 national championship qualifying him for the Olympics in Melbourne, Australia that year. But, as it turned out, Canada didn’t have enough funds to send him and many other athletes Down Under.

After coaching at Burnaby South for nine years and founding the Burnaby Striders Track and Field Club in 1958 at the age of 23, Steen became Simon Fraser University’s first track and field coach. He was a founding member and president of the Canadian Track and Field Coaches Association. Steen was on Canada’s coaching staff at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and was there when terrorists stormed the dorms killing 11 athletes.

In 1978, Steen was named executive director BC School Sports.

Steen went on to coach Canada at several Olympics including 1988 in Seoul where his son Dave won a bronze medal in the decathlon.

Eventually Steen, who even played on Canada’s national rugby team in the 1960s and led the committee that built the Burnaby Lake Rugby Clubhouse, turned his attention to coaching Paralympic athletes. He was the national athletics coach responsible for Canada’s elite blind and visually impaired athletes, coaching them at four Paralympic Games and many national and international events.

But it wasn’t just elite athletes he trained. Every spring Steen helped coach the field athletes at Burnaby Central, including Curtis Moss who went on to compete in javelin at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Steen passed away in July 2022. He was 87.

THE FOLLOWING IS A STORY WRITTEN FOR THE BURNABY NEWSLEADER IN 2008 BY GRANT GRANGER

Photo: Mario Bartel

Burnaby track and field coaching legend Don Steen’s connection with the Olympics and Paralympics goes way back.

Although he was the tournament’s top scorer when Burnaby South won the provincial high school basketball championships in 1953 and he played rugby for Canada, Don decided a decathlete is what he wanted to be. He won the national championship in 1956 qualifying for the Melbourne Olympics, but Canada’s funds were so short he and a bunch of other athletes stayed home.

After nine years coaching at South and then getting the gig as SFU track and field coach, Don was named to Canada’s coaching staff for the 1972 Olympics in Munich. One night the Canadian contingent wanted to watch Canada play Russia in the Summit Series. They pushed some picnic benches up against the athletes village fence and jumped over to view the game at the Olympic communications centre. Shortly after they returned all hell broke loose as Palestinian terrorists took over the Israeli dorms eventually killing 11 athletes.

“They were right behind us,” says Don of the terrorists climbing over the same fence.

With only the Japanese dorm between Canada’s and Israel’s, Don went to check it out the next day. He got close enough to one machine-gun toting terrorist he could have easily held a conversation with him.

Seoul in 1988 was much more joyful. That’s when he went to the Olympics as a proud papa. Son Dave won a bronze beating out two-time gold medallist Daley Thompson of Britain. The two East Germans who finished ahead of him were juiced up according to medical records that surfaced years later. When Don and Dave met in the stands afterward tears streamed down both of their faces.

Eventually Don took up the challenge of coaching blind athletes taking his fascination with biomechanics to a new level. He tells them to listen to themselves and asks them what they hear to help them change their technique.

“It’s a real challenge as to how to put across your points,” says Don, who like his son is a member of both the B.C. and Burnaby sports halls of fame.

Steen continued coaching well into his 70s. One of his star pupils was another Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame athlete, paralympian cross-country skier Courtney Knight. But he also continued to help out in his hometown helping to train field athletes at Burnaby Central. Olympics, Paralympics or high school, it doesn’t matter because coaching keeps Don smiling.

After defeating the New Westminster Salmonbellies 4-1 in the league final, Cablevision headed east to face the Ontario champion Whitby Builders in the Minto Cup final,

Burnaby lost the first two games of the best-of-seven series but rebounded in impressive fashion by winning the next four to capture the title and in the process becoming the first BC team to win the Cup in Ontario since 1953. The 1977 Cablevision team was the first of three straight Minto Cups the team would win.

Jerry Dugger began his coaching career in Burnaby minor softball in 1985. He was a founding member of the Burnaby Minor Softball Association and a founder of the highly successful Burnaby Oakey’s girls program. 

The honoured member of Softball BC’s Hall of Fame (2019) conducted a softball clinic each spring for Burnaby coaches and coached in the Mite to Junior age categories in Burnaby. In the 1990s and the early 2000s, Dugger’s teams won three national championships (2000, 2001, 2003), several provincial championships as well as a host of national age group championships over the years. 

Softball BC named him its coach of the year in 2000 and in 2001. Dugger was the head coach for Team BC for the Western Canada Summer Games in 1995 and 2007, and head coach for Team BC at the 1997 Canada Summer Games.

Don Berry, a graduate of Burnaby South Senior Secondary, was extremely active in minor hockey in Burnaby. He coached the Burnaby Winter Club to the B.C. Peewee title in 1972-73 and the Midget AAA team to the provincial title in 1973-74, a team that won the bronze medal at the prestigious Air Canada Championship that year.

With Berry behind the bench, the Abbotsford Flyers dominated the BC Junior Hockey League in 1982-83 going 46-9-1 in the regular season and then going on to win the league playoffs before defeating the Alberta champion Calgary Canucks and Manitoba’s Dauphin Kings en route to the Centennial Cup national final where they fell to the North York (Ont.) Rangers.

For that accomplishment, Berry was awarded the Ernie Gare Memorial Trophy as the 1982-83 BC Amateur Hockey Association coach of the year. He also coached in the BCJHL for the Bellingham Blazers (1977 to 1980) and the Abbotsford Falcons (1985 to 1987), a team that included two players who went on to play in the NHL, goaltender Olaf Kolzig and notorious enforcer Link Gaetz,

 and also returned to assist with the coaching program at the Burnaby Winter Club.

Prior to his coaching years, Berry was a member of the Penticton Vees which won the 1954 Allan Cup, the Canadian championship for senior men’s hockey. That team then went on to win the 1955 World championship in Germany winning all eight of their games including defeating the Soviet Union 5-0 in the final. That team was inducted into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame in 1994.

He passed away in August 2011. He was 82.

                                                          Photo: Mario Bartel

Lou Moro was one of the most respected trainers in the country in soccer and lacrosse. He was the trainer of a host of Canadian national and international soccer teams dating back to 1957.

Luigi Moro was born in Savona, Italy and moved to Trail with his family in 1929 when he was 11. In the Kootenay town he hooked up with Bert Repton, the long-time trainer of the famed Trail Smoke Eaters hockey team.

After serving in the Second World War as a cook on a mine sweeper, Moro caught on as the trainer for the Canadian naval hockey team and then moved on to do the same job in the now-defunct Mainland Soccer League.

Without any formal training, Moro mastered the ability to restore an athlete’s body following injury, and their confidence as well, all the while being an expert with scissors and tape.

Although he was a butcher by trade, Moro went on to work with several soccer clubs including the Vancouver Whitecaps and 86ers, and with four Mann Cup national lacrosse championship Vancouver Burrards/Carlings teams.

Moro was the national men’s soccer team’s trainer for a tour of England, Scotland and the Soviet Union in 1960, for two runs at qualifying for the FIFA World Cup in the 1970s, and many other touring Canadian international squads at various levels.

But despite all his worldly training travels, Moro also helped out his local Cliff Avenue United Soccer Club. His home was across the street from Westridge Park in North Burnaby, which has since been renamed Lou Moro Park. He had a training room there that was always open to athletes for any treatment or taping up they needed. The added benefit for his ‘patients’ was a chance to peruse Moro’s extensive display of memorabilia accumulated during his travels and travails locally, nationally and internationally.

Moro was elected to the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1995, the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1975, the Italian-Canadian Cultural Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000. He was a recipient of A.C. Sandford Achievement Award for his contribution to B.C. soccer and was also appointed life member Cliff Avenue United Soccer Club.

Moro, whose nephew Paul Dal Monte is an honoured member of the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame, passed away Oct. 1, 2009.

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ARTICLE THAT APPEARED IN THE BURNABY NEWSLEADER ON THE OCCASION OF MORO’S BIRTHDAY IN APRIL 2008. IT WAS WRITTEN BY NEWSLEADER REPORTER AND BURNABY SPORTS HALL OF FAME COMMITTEE MEMBER GRANT GRANGER.

Lou Moro wipes away a tear with his handkerchief as he stands amongst a lifetime of memorabilia in the rec room of his North Burnaby home.

Lou, who turns 90 today, is a lucky man and he knows it. That’s why he can’t help but shed a tear or two. Lou’s not rich in money, but in experiences. He’s been all over the world as an athletic trainer, working for the Vancouver Whitecaps, the 86ers, the Canadian men’s soccer team and the Vancouver Burrards lacrosse team.

His basement is bulging with plaques, trophies, tributes and medals. There’s even a letter from Pele congratulating him on being inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame (he’s also a member of the Canadian soccer, Canadian lacrosse and Burnaby sports halls of fame).

“I miss the camaraderie, especially now that I’m by myself,” said Lou whose wife Virginia died three years ago. “If I’m feeling down, I come down here and look at all the pictures and all that and I feel better right away.”

Over the decades, thousands of athletes, both adults and kids, have been taped up or worked on in his basement. His door was always open. He refused to take any payment, although he did make an exception for a bottles of wine.

Lou arrived in Trail from Northern Italy on Nov. 11, 1929. One night, he went to watch a junior lacrosse game only to find out the local team’s goalie, a pipefitter at the smelter, had his eyes burnt out when a pipe burst. They asked him to play goal and eventually he helped them win a championship in 1938.

The team’s trainer, Bert Repton, was also worked for the famed Smoke Eaters hockey team, and Lou admired his work.

“I said if I quit playing lacrosse I’m going to be a trainer,” recalls Lou.

That day did come. After a stint in the war as a cook on a mine sweeper in the English Channel, Lou tried out for the New Westminster Adanacs. They played the New Westminster Salmonbellies in an exhibition and the ’Bellies were having their way with Lou. He walked off the floor, threw his stick and said, “That’s it.” So he went to work for the Burrards as a trainer and kept doing it for more than 50 years, on the field and in his home.

“I took it personally if a fellow was hurt. I would help them day and night if it would help them play,” says Lou, who raised two sons and two daughters.

He finally retired from the 86ers when he was 78.

“They were getting hurt on the other side of the field. I said to the guys unless you get hurt right in front of the bench I’m not going to be able to help you,” says Lou.

These days, along with revisiting his memories, Lou still cooks for himself and tends to his garden. But in his basement there’s a table and a couple of drawers full of tape, scissors and supplies at the ready for any athlete who needs to be treated.

Happy Birthday, Lou.

Dave Fryatt more than earned the title Mr. Soccer. He deserves the title after being involved in the sport for 40 years (1953 to 1993) and serving with the BC Soccer Association for more than 35 years, including 18 as president. 

Fryatt held various positions with the Canadian Soccer Association, including being its president (1963-64) and vice-president (1962) and serving on the CSA executive for 26 years including being its treasurer/director of finance for eight years. He was the auditor for the BC Youth Soccer Association for 36 years and treasurer for 34 years. 

Fryatt was a founding member and director of the West Coast Soccer Society and the Vancouver 86ers pro soccer club. He was a long-time member of the Canadian World Cup Committee and served six years (1957-1962) with the Pacific Coast Soccer League as vice-president and treasurer and 24 years (over a period of time between 1952 and 1982) for the BC Soccer Association as chair, secretary/treasurer and chair/treasurer.

He helped establish the Provincial Vancouver Sun Tournament of Soccer Championships in 1952 that eventually found a home at Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium for many years. It was built for the 1973 Canada Summer Games in Burnaby and New Westminster, an event which had Fryatt as a committee member. Fryatt was the manager for Canada’s 1982 soccer team at the 1982 World Student Games in Mexico.

Fryatt is also an honoured member of the BC Sports Hall of Fame (1983) and the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame (2000), Soccer Hall of Fame of British Columbia (2019) and was a lifetime member of Canada Soccer (1972) and BC Soccer (1980). He received Sport BC’s President’s Award in 1996.

Fryatt passed away in October 2015. He was 94.

Norma Foster is the first woman in the world to receive international judging status for world class karate competitions.

Foster began her karate career in Scotland where she became the first woman to achieve her JKA Black Belt. She won the 1984 Canadian women’s championship in kata and kumite while joining Karate BC in 1981 and helping to establish Team Kumite for women at the provincial and national levels.

She eventually began to concentrate on refereeing going on to participate in 60 international and 25 national championships as a referee or judge. Foster fought for gender equality in the sport’s refereeing community and was the first woman appointed to the WKF Referee Council in 2003 and was the first chair of its gender equity committee. Foster was a technical official at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She has also served a director, vice-president and president of Karate BC.

Foster, who started a dojo in Burnaby in 1998, received the Ross Rumble Award from Karate Canada in 2006 recognizing her long-term service, leadership and outstanding contributions to the sport. She has been inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame (2002) and the Canadian Black Belt Hall of Fame (2026).

Jack Crosby, Burnaby’s Mr. Lacrosse, was president of Burnaby Minor Lacrosse Association from 1964 until his passing in 2008, serving the Burnaby lacrosse community for the 55 years in total.

Crosby organized and ran the Burnaby Intermediates, Juniors and Seniors as well as coaching a peewee team. He was general manager of Burnaby Cablevision that won Minto Cup championships in 1977, 1978 and 1979 and the mastermind behind the Burnaby Lakers that won Minto Cups in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2005. In fact, under Crosby’s leadership the Jr. Lakers participated in 12 consecutive Minto Cups from 1996 to 2005, a dynasty that has also been inducted into the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame.

He was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1980 and received the Canadian Lacrosse Association’s Lester B. Pearson Award for outstanding achievement in 1981. In 1984, the BC Lacrosse Association established a novice tournament in his name which is still competed for.

The City of Burnaby honoured Crosby, who operated Victory Trophies in North Burnaby, with the Jack Crosby Memorial Lacrosse Box at the Riverway Sports Complex in southwest Burnaby in 2007.

Moira Colbourne started the field hockey program in Burnaby in 1968 and was instrumental one year later in forming the Burnaby Women’s Field Hockey Association. She was its president for more than 30 years and saw the association grow from two teams to 44.

The captain of the BC team that won a gold medal at the 1969 Canada Summer Games in Halifax and member of two teams representing Canada at international events, was a member of the Vancouver Women’s Field Hockey Association for more than 35 years. Colbourne also helped form associations in Delta, Coquitlam and West Vancouver. She began serving on the BC Women’s Field Hockey Association council in the late 1960s.

Colbourne introduced field hockey into Burnaby schools serving as a volunteer coach at Royal Oak Junior High and Burnaby South Senior Secondary. She began umpiring high school and senior games in the early 1960s as well as provincial and national championships, Colbourne was still refereeing games more than half a century later.

Along with coaching Simon Fraser University’s field hockey program, which has an annual Moira Colbourne Women’s Field Hockey Award scholarship, for 29 years, she coached BC to a gold medal at the 1981 Canada Summer Games and was team manager at the 1985 Games. 

Colbourne served on the executive of the Canadian Women’s Field Hockey Association and was its vice-president of coaching in 1983.

The long-time South Burnaby resident was inducted as a builder into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Field Hockey Canada Hall of Fame in 2020.

Colbourne has also served on the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame committee for more than two decades. She passed away in October 2026. She was 90.

Dave Steen, Jr. was a bronze medalist in the decathlon at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was an outstanding athlete at Burnaby Central Secondary.

Steen set a national long jump record in the mid-70’s. He led the national decathlon rankings for nine years, breaking his own Canadian record four times. Steen won a silver medal in the decathlon at the 1986 Commonwealth Games. He went on to win gold in 1983 at the World Student and Pan Am Games. He was the first Canadian to an win Olympic decathlon medal.

Steen received the Order of Canada in 1990 and is a member of both the BC Sports Hall Of Fame (1991) and Canadian Sports Hall Of Fame (1992). After his athletic career Steen became a firefighter in Ontario.