Christine Whelan FEO, July 21, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 24
Rick Plato was inducted into the CCAA Hall of Fame for his accomplishments at Mount St. Vincent University on June 14th of this year.
This is not his first induction.
The athlete turned coach also has a Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame induction, St. Mary’s Hall of Fame induction and in 2017, Rick was inducted into the Fort Erie Sports Wall of Fame.
Plato grew up in Ridgeway, and attended Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School from 1972 to 1976. While there, he played many sports but particularly was a very successful basketball player, winning many local All-Star awards, including being named the MVP of the Welland Tribune Basketball Tournament in 1975.
Now living in Halifax with his wife Andrea, he takes the time to reminisce, as the two of them often do, about his friends and family “back home”.
Family Roots
“My mom was American.” Rick began at the beginning. “My dad was born and raised in Fort Erie. I was born in Niagara Falls, New York.” A story similar to what we hear a lot in Fort Erie, involving cross-border relationships.
Rick’s dad was a veteran. He was in the Navy, during the Second World War. “When he came back, he farmed, then was on the railroad. He had an accident while with the railroad, and had his leg crushed. My mom was a physiotherapist. That’s how they met.
“My dad had a lot of brothers and sisters. I have all kinds of relatives who lived mostly through Fort Erie.”
The well-known local Earl Plato was Rick’s dad’s cousin. “His son Paul and I went to school together. I know Paul really well.”
School History
When Rick was in third grade, his family moved back to Ridgeway. “We lived in Oakhill Forest, on Beech Avenue. My first school in the area was at Battle of Ridgeway School, across Garrison Road from the battlefields,” now a church known as All Nations Fellowship.
“Then, because we were Catholic, I went to Our Lady of Peace in Crystal Beach, which no longer exists, then Our Lady of Grace for grades seven and eight and finally to Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School.”
Ridgeway High is where Rick’s story really began. “I played football, basketball. But I became serious about basketball in high school. When I was in grade nine, we won the Southern Ontario Championship. When I got into grades 12 and 13, I started getting recruited by a number of schools in the States and in Canada.
“The very first time I ever flew was when I was getting recruited. I was flown out to St. Mary’s University in Halifax. I went to school there, played basketball there, for five years.
After completing his time as a student, “I ended up teaching high school for almost 34 years. Then, I coached high school for seven years. I coached at a small university, Mount St. Vincent, in Halifax, for 25 years. After that, the opportunity came up at Dalhousie, which is a major university, with an enrollment of about 19,000, right in Halifax as well. I’ve been coaching there for the last 10 years.”
His Recent Induction
“The Hall of Fame I was just inducted into was for coaching. It’s the CCAA, Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association. So, across Canada and mostly for community colleges.”
At the ceremony, “Friends were there. A number of my former players were there. A lot of my former players are coaches now. It’s kind of like a coaching tree when I see a lot of my former players.”
Rick shared what is really in his heart, what he values the most. “Don’t get me wrong, I love coaching and I love winning. But to me, when I see these guys come in, and basically they’re still kids, and they graduate, they become husbands, fathers, do well in their professional careers. To me, that’s the biggest thing.” And knowing he played a part in those journeys.
“They’re all like family to me.”
When talking about his wife, Andrea, “She grew up in Crystal Beach. She went to Crystal Beach Public and Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School from 1975 to 1978. When I decided to move out here, she moved here with me. She’s been my team manager for the last 35 years, arranging travel plans like flights, hotel accommodations and meals. She takes care of all of that. She makes my life a lot easier. And she’s like the team mom.”
Andrea has won several awards like Volunteer of the Year and Manager of the Year.
Inspirations
I asked Rick who, along the way, had inspired and motivated him. “Basketball-wise, my University Coach, Brian Heaney, recruited me to go to St. Mary’s and he’s been my mentor from a basketball perspective. Where I got my work ethic and all of my motivation is from my parents, who have both passed. My dad, Ray Plato, and my mom, Helen,” calling his parents supportive and understanding.
“There’s another guy. I worked with him all through high school and through university, Jim Gage. He had a landscaping company. I delivered papers there. And all through high school and university, I worked for him and learned so much from him.
“Playing basketball growing up around there, I had a lot of support from some older guys and I know they both still live around there. Rich Pawlick and Gary Snyder. Gary went to Ridgeway but Rich went to high school in the States. And then my other two buddies Terry Chadwick and Ron Cooper. I’m still close to both of these guys.”
Highlights Remembered
“As a player, when I went to St. Mary’s, we won the University National Championship two years in a row. And for me, when I was at Mount St. Vincent coaching, we had a lot of success. Our teams won 13 Conference Championships, and went to 13 National Tournaments.
And now that I’ve moved on to Dalhousie, their national sports body is now called U Sports, covering the bigger universities. “We’ve won six AUS’s (Atlantic University Sports). We’ve gone to six National Tournaments. We’ve won a couple of medals, a silver and a bronze.”
When talking about the inductions, Rick admitted about the Fort Erie Wall of Fame induction, “To me, that’s the one that meant the most. To me, that was huge.” He started listing the teachers he remembers from ‘Ridge High’, reminiscing fondly.
Thinking Of Home
“As I said the night of the induction of the Fort Erie Wall of Fame, even though through my adult life my wife and I have lived out here in Halifax, I’m from Ridgeway. There are so many memories and a lot of them are bittersweet because when I think of the schools I went to, most of them have been demolished. The park is gone.”
With a change of tone, “But then I think of growing up in a community that was so close. Everybody knew everybody walking down the street. Ridgeway High had such great team spirit. I remember the great pep rallies we had, going down Ridge Road. Some of my fondest memories of growing up were the friendships. My fondest memories are from high school.
“I still think of Ridgeway and Fort Erie as home. I’m still just a small town boy. My uncle had a farm. Good friends had farms. We had a small farm with goats and chickens and rabbits. My dad was a meat cutter at Homer’s Meats.
“I am so proud to have had the opportunity to grow up in such a great town. It was an ideal place to live.”
As we wrapped up our conversation, I mentioned that I was hoping to get his story in the July 21st edition of the Observer. With a laugh, Rick ended with, “Well that’s awesome. July 21st is my birthday.”
Happy Birthday, Rick! It’s your day to celebrate a lifetime of achievement.
Photo provided by Andrea Plato
