Staff

Scott Murray
Head Coach
Scott founded the Pickering Dragon Boat Club in 2002. His many coaching experiences have allowed him to coach high school, corporate, community and sport based crews during the past 19 years. Scott has coached at several World Championship events including 2006 in Toronto. In addition to PDBC, Scott coached the Canadian National Senior A team in Hungary in 2013, Welland in 2015, China in 2017 and Thailand in 2019. Leading the team to 4 consecutive titles as world champions.

Andrew (Muff) Milner
Coach
Andrew is a fully certified IDBF race official. He is recognized as one of the best and most experienced race officials in Canada. He has officiated the past four Canadian Championships as well as several regional dragon boat events. Andrew has approximately 25 years of paddling experience in dragon boat and flatwater. As a coach he has led crews of all levels and has competed internationally. Andrew was the Head Coach of the Canadian National U24 team in Hungary in 2013, Welland in 2015, and France in 2017.

Jordan Morgan
Coach
Jordan is the founder of the UGDBC dragon boat program at the University of Guelph. He successfully led PDBC’s U24 team to a National title at the Canadian Championships in 2014, The Senior C program to titles in 2015 and 2016 along with 2 gold's and a silver for PDBC Senior C women at CCWC's in 2016. Jordan has competed internationally with the Canadian U24 National team in Tampa and Hungary. He competed as a member of the Canadian Premier Open National team in 2015 in Welland. He also competed at the CCWC's in 2016 for PDBC Premier Mixed and Premier Open.

Nancy Jones
Head Coach - Recreational Program
Nancy is a fully certified Level ll Dragon Boat Coach with an ICF Certified Coaching designation. For the past four years she has led our PDBC Recreational Team as Head Coach. Nancy began paddling in 2003 and has paddled competitively since 2006. She has earned medals from many International Championships including Toronto, Malaysia, Italy, Australia, Czech Republic, Welland and Hungary.

With her great leadership skills over the years she has facilitated the development of many recreation and competitive teams. Nancy brings a high level of energy and enthusiasm to her coaching duties, encouraging athletes to train hard to meet their goals and in many cases, surpass their goals while collecting many well-earned medals along the way.

Megan Ballantyne
Coach
With more than 10 years of paddling experience Megan has competed for the Canadian National Team four times in Tampa (2011) for the U18 Team, Hungary (2013) and Welland (2015) for the U24 Team, and in China (2017) for the Premier Women's Team. Megan has been coaching for 4 years working with competitive and recreational crews to achieve their dragon boat goals.

Mitchell Jordan
Coach
Mitchell joined PDBC in 2018 and has been paddling for 5 years. Mitchell was the head coach of the UGDBC dragon boat program for two years at the University of Guelph before graduating with a degree in Human Kinetics in 2020. He has medaled at several local competitions and qualified a small boat for the Club Crew World Championships in the U24 division at the Canadian National Championships in Regina, SK in 2019. Mitchell also has experience in marathon canoe, medaling in the C2 Stock division of NBMCA’s 64 km Mattawa River Canoe Race. Mitchell has successfully completed his level 1 coaching certification with Dragon Boat Canada and is kept busy with coaching in the competitive program.

Karen Townsend
Coach
Karen brings over 10 years experience to the sport of dragon boat racing. After paddling recreationally with various clubs in the GTA she found her home within the Pickering Dragon Boat Club. Having grown through the PDBC Recreational program Karen made the move to the competitive program. Her proudest moment came in 2017 after winning two Canadian Club Crew Championships with PDBC. One with the Senior B Women as a paddler and the other with the Senior B Mixed as drummer. After stepping back from the competitive program Karen completed her Level One Coaching Certification. She is thrilled to join the Rec crew as part of the coaching staff. She brings a deep love for the sport and respect for the hard work each member puts in. In the off season you will find Karen at her curling club trying to regain the Mixed Team Club Championship title.

Anthony Scott
Coach
Anthony Scott brings over 20 years of paddling experience to the strong team of PDBC Recreation Coaches. He enjoys working as an integral member of a team and has earned many international medals as a three time member of Team Canada and has competed at five Club Crew World Championships. Anthony coaches new paddlers on how to master the dragon boat stroke using his patient teaching skills and experience. He continues to paddle at a competitive level and is an avid cyclist. Often you will find Anthony volunteering at festivals as he believes in giving back to the sport that has afforded him many opportunities to make new friends and travel.

Danielle Albers
Strength and Conditioning Team
Danielle has been a part of the paddling community since 2009 when she joined her high school team. Since that point, her love for paddling has only grown. In 2009 she was a member of the Junior National Dragon boat Team that competed at the World Championships in Prague. After this, she concentrated her efforts more in the small boats of sprint canoe and kayak for a couple of years, attending 4 National Championship regattas. In 2017, she found her way back to dragon boating and is still loving every second of being on the water. Even when she is not paddling, she is dreaming about the moment that she will be able to get back on the water.

Since 2018, Danielle has been a certified personal trainer through CanFitPro. She uses this knowledge combined with her many years of paddling experience to create fun and exciting workouts both in the gym and on the water.

Katrina (Kat) Kraemer
Strength and Conditioning Team
Kat was introduced to Dragon Boat in 2016 and she’s been hooked ever since! Kat started paddling with the University of Guelph Dragon Boat Club (UGDBC) in 2018 and became the Dryland Coach in her second year, then transitioned into her current role as Head Coach for UGDBC. Kat actively paddles with both UGDBC and PDBC’s 24U team. This summer, Kat was very excited to take on a new role coaching outdoor Bootcamp for multiple PDBC teams. Kat loves being on the water, both in an OC and a Dragon Boat and she enjoys sharing the sport with new paddlers.