Ed Ashmore

Ed Ashmore

Ed Ashmore

Ed Ashmore

Ed Ashmore

Ed Ashmore

Ed Ashmore

Ed Ashmore

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Ed was coaching gymnastics at the Victoria YMCA IN 1964 when Art Burgess asked him if he could help by coaching wrestling as well. That conversation turned into a 52-plus year involvement with the sport of wrestling. Ed’s dedication to wrestling led Victoria to become a powerhouse in the late 1960s and into the '70s. Some of Canada’s best wrestlers at that time had their start in the wrestling room at the Y.

In 1969, Ed coached Canadian Wrestlers at the first Junior World Championship held in Boulder, Colorado. Taras Hryb won the bronze medal at that event and become the first Canadian to win a medal at a Wrestling World Championship since the Berlin Olympics in 1936. After that event, wrestlers who have had their start with Ed have won a number of World Championship, Commonwealth and Pan American Games medals, including Clark Davies, 1981 World Senior Silver Medalist.

The quality of wrestlers that were coached by Ed in those days was amazing. Ironically, there was no wrestling program at the University of Victoria and so many outstanding athletes went to UBC where they excelled. In one year, five wrestlers from Ed’s program all won gold at the CIAU championships and secured the team title for UBC.

In those early years, Ed also became involved as a wrestling official. Nationally he officiated at many Canadian Championships in the early '70s, and he represented Canada as an international FILA official in Mexico City and in Santa Domingo.

Ed continued to coach junior and senior high wrestlers in the '80s and his involvement with the sport continues to this day. Ed chaired the Organizing Committee for the BC High School Championships in 1969 and 1994, the 1997 North American Indigenous Games, and two BC Summer Games in Victoria and in Nanaimo. In addition he was the Assistant Technical Director for wrestling at the 1993 Commonwealth Championships and the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

More than five decades later and now over 80 years old, Ed is still coaching. After his retirement from teaching, he continued to coach at the club he started, the Victoria Commonwealth Bulldogs. Recently Ed was honoured as one of the original coaches at the first BC High School Wrestling Championship in 1965, but the real news was that he was still actively coaching at the 2015 event.

When Ed goes to coach at a school, he not only coaches wrestling -- he also instils a holistic approach to sport with an emphasis on proper mental preparation, nutrition, character development and sportsmanship.

SPONSORED BY BRIAN ZELLEY ACCOUNTING