OSHAWA, Ont. – Durham College athletics is proud to announce that Kate Beirness will be the keynote speaker at the Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Friday night.
Beirness was the voice of the Lords from 2005 to 2007, working as a commentator and PA announcer at varsity home games. She moved on to be a sports anchor at Rogers TV Durham, covering Durham extensively for a number of years.
The induction ceremony will take place on Friday, Sept. 8 during the Durham College 50th anniversary homecoming weekend. There are nearly 100 athletes, coaches and team staff that will be inducted.
The teams that will be inducted are the 1996-97 men's basketball team, 1996-97 women's basketball team, 2002-03 to 2005-06 women's softball teams and the 2007-08 women's soccer team. This will be the second time that teams will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
KATE BEIRNESS - FULL BIO
Kate was born and raised in Port Per. Her parents John and Chris were both teachers and always encouraged her dream of playing in the WNBA. Fortunately they also encouraged her to have a plan B! In grade 12 Kate tore her ACL and although she was determined to play basketball as long as she could, she was cut from a CIS team which forced her to change her focus.
Kate's first job in the "biz" was actually at Sportsnet booking travel and completing expenses for their on-air commentators. During that year she was given one of the best pieces of advice from her boss at the time. He said "if you are serious about this career, you need to leave and get on air every day." Rather than accepting a full time job behind the scenes she took his advice, left Sportsnet and started volunteering at Durham College and Rogers TV in the Durham Region while completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
After volunteering at Rogers TV for two years, she landed a part time sports anchoring position at the station and she felt like she hit the jackpot! For the first time she was making money to commentate sports, let's just say no one was happier than her parents. 6 months into her "paid" gig a videographer position became available in Barrie Ontario at A Channel (formerly the new VR). She landed the job and would spend 6 months at the station before getting the call to the big leagues! She made the move to TSN in December 2009.
Throughout her nearly seven years at TSN Kate has hosted a number of marquee events. She was the host for TSN Olympic Morning in 2012, March Madness, NBA Draft, was a staple on the Kraft Celebration Tour for four years, host for the BioSteele All Canadian Game and co-host for Grey Cup Saturday & Sunday.
Since the summer of 2013 Kate has anchored the morning loop edition of SportsCentre. The following year Kate was paired with co-host Natasha Staniszewski forming SportsCentre's first ever female anchor team! Kate has recently been a back fill host for the Social on CTV and has appeared on a number of Bell Media affiliates such as CP24, BNN and CTV News Channel.
Outside of broadcasting Kate still adores basketball and plays pick up every week! She is passionate about fitness training seven days a week and is currently an Under Armour & BioSteel Ambassador. She loves to travel and most recently she went on a trip of a lifetime with the Canadian Armed Forces visiting troops in Kuwait, France and Ukraine.
