Kane Doran, who was appointed deputy fire chief of EMS with the City of Thompson on June 22, and has worked with the Thompson EMS for two years now, is still able to find time in his busy schedule to guide students in a sport he loves - track and field.
Doran's love of track and field began at a young age, when he was attending Juniper Elementary School in Grade 5 and was part of the Juniper Jaguars. Doran went on to be the undefeated and provincial champion at hurdles in Grades 10, 11 and 12 while competing for R. D. Parker Collegiate from 1999 to 1996 and a member of the University of Manitoba track and field team in 1998. He went on to win a gold medal in the 110-metre hurdle race as a member of Team Manitoba at the Canada Summer Games in 1999, and won a bronze medal in the 400-metre hurdle race as a member of the team later on at the games in 2001. One of Doran's crowning achievements was also being ranked second in Canada at 110 metre hurdles as a junior when he was 19 years old.
Now, at 31-years of age and with a busy work life, Doran isn't involved with hurdles or track and field competitively, but has found a way to foster his love for the sport in others by coaching youth. Doran coached track and field relays, springs and hurdles for R. D. Parker Collegiate from 1997 to 2000, for Bonnycastle Elementary School in Winnipeg from 2001 to 2003 and returned to coaching hurdles at R. D. Parker in 2006.
Since then, Doran has been too busy to be on the roster as a full time coaching staff at R. D. Parker, but he still manages to coach kids that come to him for help.
"It was just kind of initially coaching at the high school, and then after that it's been kind of just word of mouth if somebody's interested, or the coaching staff at the high school will refer somebody to me, or somebody will just hear and call and ask," he explains.
The last student Doran worked with is Ryan Templeton, a 15-year-old R. D. Parker student who is going into Grade 11 this year. Templeton contacted Doran to hone his skills with hurdles and sprinting in time for the provincial track and field tournament he was competing in.
Templeton also started being involved with track and field at a young age, taking part in running hurdles in elementary school and starting again in Grade 10 at R. D. Parker. Under Doran's training he managed to get second in his heat in provincials, which took place at the University of Manitoba on June 3, and then went on to the finals where he placed seventh. He says he believes he did so well because of the wonderful experience he had under Doran's tutelage.
"He taught me a lot. Pretty much everything I know is from him for hurdles, and he's an easy-going guy," Templeton says.
Doran says he is glad to be able to help students in the North who are interested in competing in track and field, since usually they don't have the same resources as their competitors in the southern part of the province.
