The new senior athletics director at UBC envisions a richer, fuller experience for varsity athletes and fans by marketing marquee sports teams to leverage corporate sponsorship and grow Thunderbird coffers.
The university announced Gilles Lepine as the incoming athletic director at the Point Grey campus May 6. For the previous 12 years, he held a similar position at Laval University in Quebec City where the Rouge et Or won numerous national titles in addition to seven Varsity Cup football championships in 11 years.
Lepine, who taught a sports marketing course at the university, said “market-driven sports” such as men’s basketball and football can be harnessed to benefit other teams and student-athletes.
“No one program is more important than another, but we have to take care of our market-driven sports,” Lepine told reporters last week. “We can bring a lot of energy in media attention, sponsors and fans. I can use football as the main engine of a train to explore other possibilities.”
UBC vice-president Louise Cowin called Lepine a good fit for UBC’s “powerhouse” status.
“The experience, passion, skill and energy Gilles brings to UBC’s Athletics Department is second to none,” she said.Ěý
A former Laval volleyball player and coach, Lepine said he intends to tap business and industry to bolster university sport.
“If we want to grow as a varsity program, the university cannot do that by itself,” he said. “In Vancouver, the potential is incredible what we can do with business people. If we convince [the community] that we are always on the same pattern, meaning we are selling something great, people will be so proud of what we have.”
Deep pockets were quickly turned into dividends when it comes to the Thunderbirds’ football program.
Under the guidance of first-year UBC football coach Blake Nill, UBC capped a thrilling Cinderella season with a Vanier Cup — which they won at Laval. The coach was enticed away from the University of Calgary with the financial support of the 13th Man Foundation, a group of backers and alumni who are funding improvements to the team’s facilities on campus.
In a telephone conference call with francophone press, Lepine said his decision came with some heartache but the 61-year-old husband and father was ready for a new “adventure” to take him across the country.
“Leaving is huge. I am not walking away from Quebec,” he said. “I am going to live a new experience. The Rouge et Or will always be a part of me,” he Ěýin the Journal de Quebec.
UBC whittled down its search from 18 candidates to five to two before he was hired, added Lepine.
“They are not numerous, those francophones in important roles and other universities [in Canada]. The reputation of the Rouge et Or goes beyond our regional and provincial borders,” he said in French.
Lepine’s tenure begins July 11.
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T-Bird Coaching Changes
The UBC T-Birds enter the summer with two coaching vacancies, one in women’s soccer and another in men’s volleyball.
Leaving the women’s soccer program on a high note, Marisa Kovacs coached just one season at UBC but won national women’s soccer championship last November, the 100th title in UBC history. She won’t have the chance to defend that win since resigning to move to the east coast where her husband, James Colzie, was named the head football coach at Saint Mary’s after a year as UBC’s defensive coordinator.
After 12 years at the helm of the men’s volleyball program, Richard Schick was let go in March with an overall 174-142 record.
Applicants are being interviewed for the soccer position now. Applications are open for the volleyball coaching job.
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