Lowell Cormier has left a legacy through his impressive leadership– from coaching school and community teams for more than five decades, to fundraising for and overseeing the development of sport facilities that make New Waterford the envy of many provincial communities.

A retired teacher and school principal from New Waterford, Cormier was a stellar athlete in his youth and excelled in every sport. He played basketball for the New Waterford Strands who won the 1970 Maritime Senior Championship. Superb in junior and senior baseball, he helped Sydney Steel Kings win a silver medal at the 1974 Canadian Senior Championships. In soccer, he stood out at Mount Carmel High and Xavier College.

He started coaching baseball at 13, a year after he left Little League where the upper age limit was 12. He went on to coach baseball and/or basketball for 47 of the next 49 years. His bantam and juvenile baseball teams won four provincial, one Maritime, and one Eastern Canadian title. His basketball teams at Xavier College, College of Cape Breton, Breton Education Centre, and Cape Breton University (where he was associate coach) won two provincial and one Atlantic University title.
Cormier ended his extensive coaching career in 2010.

Cormier’s continuing community leadership shaped New Waterford so much that his impact was recognized by a town street being named Lowell Cormier Avenue. In 1980, while coaching basketball at BEC, Cormier formed the New Waterford Minor Basketball Association. The original $10 fee per player is the same today. In 1982, he founded the annual Coal Bowl Basketball Tournament that brings high school teams from across Canada to Cape Breton for a week of hoops, touring, education, and camaraderie. The biggest challenge Cormier faced with the Coal Bowl was convincing the school board to move students from a wing of the school to set up bunk beds for the tournament, but he sold the board on the educational and social components of the tournament.

Since 2001, Cormier led the drive for a turf soccer field, outdoor ball hockey rink, basketball court, and fitness facility, and refurbishment of an outdoor tennis court complex projects that cost almost $2 million. He has spearheaded a long list of successful projects, served on many boards and executives, and has received many awards.