After leading the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks for four seasons, Rob Millikin is retiring as head coach of the rowing program.
“I would really like to thank UOIT for giving me the opportunity to coach at the university level, especially at the senior age which I had reached,” he says.
“I have met a great group of students over the past four years and they have taught me a lot and left great memories to take into retirement. Their generation, I am sure, will be a credit to our nation.”
Millikin was instrumental in the process of bringing a rowing team to UOIT, a press release from the school states, which came to be in 2006.
“We would like to thank Rob for all of his hard work and dedication that he brought to our program,” says UOIT’s Athletic Director Ken Babcock.
“Rob made a remarkable impact on the sport of rowing over the years and we are proud that it involved our university rowing program from its inception.”
For UOIT rowing captain Jason Klein-Horsman Millikin was a great coach.
“Rob was inspiring. He has always had a plan as to what the UOIT rowing team would look like one day and he has been working hard for that plan to become a reality.”
Millikin began rowing with the Leander Boat Club in 1953. In 1989, he was one of the founders of the Durham Rowing Club (DRC), which is located and still running in Port Perry.
He also served in various committees and has coached at the DRC since the opening of the club.
In 2006, Millikin made another big impact in Durham Region, the release states, as he was named the inaugural head coach of the rowing program at UOIT.
This past December in Vancouver Millikin received one of Rowing Canada’s highest honours as he was presented with the Rowing Canada Aviron Centennial Medal of Merit for his contributions to the sport.
Millikin will now turn his attention to the development of a venue for a top-class flat-water regatta course on Lake Scugog with the potential to groom world-class athletes and draw thousands of tourists to the Scugog area.
The Ridgebacks will begin the search for Millikin’s replacement leading into the 2010/2011 varsity season.