2017 Honorary Chairs- Mary Ann Patterson & Mac Smith
The 2017 East Coast Games start on June 23rd and the organizing committee is pleased to announce that Mrs. Mary Ann Patterson and Mr. Malcolm (Mac) Smith have been selected as honorary chairs for the 2017 games. Both Mary Ann and Malcolm have been very active in the New Brunswick volleyball community, throughout the course of their careers.
Mac grew up in Sackville, NB and has played many sports throughout his life including baseball, volleyball and hockey. Mac played with the Fairweather Royals in Saint John. They won the Maritime Intermediate AA Fastball Championship in 1979. He coached the Saint John High Hockey Team before he was hired at that school, where he went on to teach biology, history, physical education and co-op education. He retired in 2001, after 28 years. He coached both the girls’ and boys’ varsity volleyball teams. One of his favourite coaching memories is from 1983, when both of his teams won the Provincial Championships. Mac has stayed involved in the sports community, since his retirement, as an off-ice official for both the Saint John Flames and the Saint John Sea Dogs. He says sports were never just about winning (although that was nice!) but rather about the sense of community sports created for him and his teams. He looks forward to being involved with the 2017 East Coast Games.
Mary Ann grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She describes herself as always being athletic but she was never enrolled in organized sports as a child. “Girls couldn’t go over half when I was playing,” she recalls about playing basketball. Mary Ann certainly helped change that throughout her career, coaching many young women, taking several teams to national competitions. Mary Ann worked at many different elementary schools in the city, helping to develop a better physical education program and retired in 2006. Volleyball was, and remains, Mary Ann’s favourite sport and passion project. Mary Ann and her husband, Dave, took teams to Women’s Nationals on several occasions. They were inducted into the Saint John Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 for their contributions to the sport. Mary Ann’s favourite sports memory is of coaching the Women’s Volleyball team at the 1983 Canada Games in Saguenay-Lac St Jean, QC. She was manager for the team that year and coached with Dave by her side. She is looking forward to being an Honorary Chair for the 2017 East Coast Games.