April 1, 2009 – The Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation has awarded influential BMX official Jim Negenman with the Alberta Officiating Recognition Award. The ABA has also named Thiessen and Cools as new provincial BMX coaches. Read on for more info.

Jim Negenman Named Alberta Official of the Year
Jim Negenman has been among the most influential figures in BMX in Canada and around the World. His positions within the Alberta Bicycle Association, Canadian BMX Association, International Cycling Union, Canadian Cycling Association and Alberta BMX are nothing short of amazing! As an official Jim has dedicated a countless number of hours to the sport of cycling particularly BMX.

In recognition of Jim’s contributions to the Sport he has been awarded the the Alberta Officiating Recognition Award by the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation. The program is designed to recognize coaches for their successful and outstanding achievements in developing Alberta’s amateur athletes and to recognize officials for their successful and outstanding achievements in officiating sports that involve amateur athletes.

A brief overview of Jim’s contribution:

– Commissaire of more than 200 Provincial Events
– Chief Commissaire Province of Alberta
– Commissaire of more than 20 Western National Series Events
– Commissaire of numerous National Championships
– Commissaire at World Championships and International ranking events
– International Cycling Union BMX Commissaire
– VP BMX for the Alberta Bicycle Association
– President Alberta BMX
– President Canadian BMX Association

For more information about the Coaching and Officiating Awards visit the ASRPWF Website here.

ABA Name Thiessen and Cools as New Provincial Coaches
The Alberta Bicycle Association is excited to announce the appointment of Rick Thiessen as the new Provincial Head Coach. Thiessen comes to the ABA with rich and successful coaching background. As an NCCP level IV Road & MTB Coach Rick is a graduate of National Coaching Institute. Thiessen has coached National Trade Team (Lazy-Boy), Provincial Teams (Alberta and BC), and acted as the assistant coach at PacificSport National Cycling Centre Victoria.

To complement Rick the ABA has also appointed John cools to head up the Alberta Provincial BMX Team. Cools is the patriarch of the legendary Cools BMX Family and has coached numerous National and International BMX athletes.

Alberta Bicycle is thrilled to have three such highly qualified individuals at the helm of the Alberta High Performance program.
To find out more about the Alberta High Performance Program visit the HP Program link here.