Laurel Creek Coaching Staff
Sprints
Head Coach and Program Lead: Bruce Glebe
Contact: bglebe@rogers.com
Bruce has served as a sprints coach with LC since 1990. In addition to coaching, he serves as the club’s General Manager and Coaches’ Representative to the Board, and acts as the club liaison for local road races supported by LC volunteers.
Over his coaching career, Bruce has developed numerous OFSAA, provincial, and national medalists. A highlight of his career has been coaching two-time Paralympian Leah Robinson, who competed at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Paralympic Games.
Bruce also coaches relay teams at all levels and, in addition to numerous championship titles, has guided several teams to Ontario record-breaking performances.
Assistant Coach: Susan Merlau
Hurdles
Coach and Program Lead: John McLean, ChPC, NCCP 3 Performance
Contact: johndsmclean@gmail.com
John works with athletes ranging from beginners to high-performance athletes. He is a certified NCCP Performance Coach in Sprints and Hurdles and holds the Chartered Professional Coach (ChPC) designation. His athletes have included OFSAA, provincial, and national youth and junior champions and medalists, with his hurdlers earning 16 All-American honors. John has served as a hurdles coach for Team Ontario and currently coaches hurdlers with the varsity program at the University of Guelph.
As an athlete, John trained with the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club under hurdles coach Hugh Conlin and sprints coach Gerard Mach. He is a past winner of the Waterloo 10K Classic and holds course records at several road races in the Waterloo region.
Outside of coaching, John is an English professor at Humber Polytechnic, where he specializes in composition and technical writing.
Assistant Coach: Rebecca Postma
Assistant Coach: Brianne O’Driscoll
Middle Distance
Coach and Program Lead: Tom Fitzgerald
Contact: tomfitzgerald.mrfitz@gmail.com
With more than 30 years of coaching experience, primarily working with high school–aged athletes, “Fitz” continues to lead the middle-distance group. Over his career, he has coached more than 100 D8 conference championship teams in both cross country and track and field.
Fitz has coached numerous CWOSSA and OFSAA individual champions across events ranging from the 400m to the 3000m, as well as the high jump. Highlights of his coaching career include leading a four-year run of CWOSSA team championships, along with an OFSAA girls team title in 2004 and a runner-up finish in 2008. He has also been part of OFSAA championship success with boys (gold, 1986) and girls (gold, 2003) teams, as well as teams that placed second (Senior Girls, 2000) and third (Junior Girls, 1998 and 2004).
At the national level, Fitz helped guide National Junior Men’s cross country teams to gold medals from 1999 to 2002 and contributed to National Junior Women’s cross country teams that earned medals during the same period.
Athletes from the middle-distance group continue to achieve success at the university level in both Canada and the United States.
Assistant Coach: Bryan Stride, NCCP 2 Club
Bryan Graduated from John F Ross in Guelph where he ran track and Cross country, competing at OFSAA with a best finish of 4th in the Senior Boys XC and 4th in the Junior Boys 1 mile.
Graduating from Brock University in 1976 with a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and BEd in 1977, he ran track (indoors and outdoors) and cross country while at university, winning the OUA title several times and being named USport cross country champion in 1976.
Bryan competed for Canada at the 1975 Pan-American Games in Mexico, placing 4th in the 3000m steeplechase. From 1991-1994, Bryan was Canadian Masters Champion in Cross Country.
During his 25 year tenure as a high school teacher at Centre Wellington DHS in Fergus, Bryan coached both cross country and track, producing several individual and team champions at the OFSAA level. For six years Bryan was the cross country and middle distance coach at the University of Waterloo. The cross country teams competed at the USports Championships every year with the best result being 12th in the country. Bryan has been coaching with Laurel Creek TC since 2019.
Assistant Coach: James Porto NCCP 2 Club
Vertical Jumps
Coach and Program Lead: Thomas “Fitz” Fitzgerald
Contact: tomfitzgerald.mrfitz@gmail.com
Assistant Coach, Pole Vault: James Porto NCCP 2 Club
Contact: cambridgeathlet@gmail.com
Horizontal Jumps
Coach and Program Lead: Kate Flemington
Kate was a long jumper for both Western and Windsor University, earning her Bachelor of Education while competing as a varsity and club athlete. She also competed in triple jump throughout her high school career. Her most recent accomplishments include 2018 Ontario Championships LJ gold medalist, 2018 Canadian National LJ Bronze medalist, 2019 Ontario Championship LJ silver medalist, and 2019 OUA LJ bronze medalist. She later moved on to coaching with London Western before moving to Kitchener. Her expertise is in horizontal jumps.
Contact: kflemi991@gmail.com
Coach: Brianne O’Driscoll
Brianne is a former Division 1 hurdler and practicing chiropractor. Before joining Laurel Creek TFC, Brianne coached as an assistant to Peter Manning in Guelph.
Developmental Group
Coach and Program Lead: Maryann Pierson
Contact: mpierson56@gmail.com
Assistant Coach Developmental Sprints and Middle Distance: Summer Pierson
Assistant Coach Developmental Hurdles and Jumps: Elyssa Reiter
Strength and Conditioning
Dan deMelo-Knapp, CSCS
Coaching Opportunities with Laurel Creek
We’re always looking for coaches who are passionate about developing athletes to the fullest of their potential. If you’d like to join our team in either a full-time or part-time capacity we’d love to hear from you. Please contact our Head Coach, Bruce Glebe at 519-893-4361 or bglebe@rogers.com for more information.