Every sports organization should be so lucky to have someone like figure skating’s Valerie Davies. She is a people person, accomplished coach, astute clinician, innovative organizer and natural leader rolled into one.

Little did the figure skating community know how lucky they were when Davies laced up her first pair of skates at 11 years of age. A quick learner, she would strive through the rigorous progressional tests to become one of the best senior skaters in the Brandon Figure Skating Club. By the time she was 14, Davies was travelling by bus or train to serve as an amateur coach in the surrounding communities. When she acquired her driver’s license, she extended her coaching responsibilities to include a greater number of small communities in the western regions of Manitoba.

In Brandon, she became head coach of the national skating test program and single-handedly organized, administered and coached the school program for Grade 4 students from the Brandon School Division. A team player, Davies also volunteered in the running of the provincial, divisional and national figure skating championships that were held in Brandon. Davies’ passion was to foster the development of figure skating coaches in rural Manitoba. She helped run week-long leadership training clinics once or twice a year, along the way she also continued to upgrade her own teaching skills through the national certified theory courses.

She has touched many skaters in the province and has been a driving force in the development of figure skaters from rural areas in our province. Some 20 years after she first laced up her skates, Valerie Davies was figure skating’s 3M Female Coach of the Year in 1989. Two years later and she was inducted into the Canadian Figure Skating Association, Manitoba Section, Honour Society.