Sharyl Ann Milligan
Sharyl Ann Milligan has been a trailblazer in Lawn Bowling for over 50 years; as a national team player, official, coach and administrator. She has performed all of these roles, with much success and achievement, on the Local, Provincial, National, and International levels. Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, while also serving as the Secretary for the Ladies Provincial Lawn Bowling Association/Ontario Lawn Bowls Association, Sharyl Ann was a fixture in District, Zone, and Provincial Lawn Bowling Competitions in both singles and team events. The Provincial Ladies Champion in 1990, she also was a valued member of the National team during this same time period, representing Canada in the 1st Atlantic Rim Championship in 1993 and capturing the North American Challenge in 1994. SAM, as she is known to family and friends alike, was a member of the 1995 Pacific Rim Bowls team that placed 4th in New Zealand. In addition to her playing commitments, in 1993 she was selected to the National Officiating team for the Mazda Pacific Bowls Championship as well as the 1994 Commonwealth Games, held in Victoria, B.C. In 2002, she was chosen as Canada’s only Technical Official in Lawn Bowling at the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, England and also began an eight-year tenure on the World Bowls Laws Committee. That same year after retiring from working with youth over 40 years, Sharyl Ann made it her task to revive the Cobourg Lawn Bowling Youth Club which had been shuttered years before. Beginning with the simple credo to give back to a sport that had already given her so much joy, Sharyl Ann soon arranged to go to local schools and arrange indoor orientation in the sport, in the hopes that some of the students would sign up for more at the Club in the summer. In time, this happened and Sharyl Ann introduced a new generation to Lawn Bowling. Thanks to Sharyl Ann’s guidance and coaching the club’s more advanced students have played in a number of open youth tournaments held across the province and throughout Canada and she has personally coached local youth who have medaled on the world stage. One of her pupils, Baylee van Steijn, the 2014 and 2015 Ontario youth bowler of the year, won the Gold Medal at the 2019 Ontario Youth Singles and represented Canada at the 2023 World Outdoor Bowls Championship. That same year, in recognition of her service and dedication to the sport Sharyl Ann was inducted as a ‘Builder’ into Ontario Lawn Bowls Sports Hall of Fame.