“UNB to me is my NHL. I thoroughly enjoy each and every day,” says UNB Varsity Reds’ hockey head coach Gardiner MacDougall. (Photo by Andrew Meade/The Brunswickan)

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FREDERICTON (CUP) — UNB Varsity Reds’ hockey head coach Gardiner MacDougall has been named Canada’s head coach for the 2013 Winter Universiade, in Maribor, Slovenia.

This will be MacDougall’s second trip to the International University Sports Federation (FISU) University Games. In 2007, he won a gold medal as an assistant coach under Saint Mary’s Huskies head coach Trevor Steinburg.

Since the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) conferences began rotating representation duties in 1997, Atlantic University Sport (AUS) is the only conference to win gold.

The 11-day tournament is scheduled to start Jan. 30 next year, and although star AUS players will be required to answer the call for their country, play will resume as normal throughout the conference.

UPEI head coach Forbes MacPherson, and StFX head coach Brad Peddle will join MacDougall, and while these coaches are used to competing against each other, MacDougall says any competitive tension has to be put aside.

“Last time, we all met at the airport in Halifax and all three [coaches] had lost their last game before leaving for Torino,” MacDougall said. “You have to shake that off though because now you’re on the Canadian team.”

When picking players for the team, MacDougall says that any player in the AUS is fair game. He said there will be a lot of input from every coach around the AUS, because when selecting a team, it’s not just based on skill and stats.

“There’s a skill level and there’s a performance level,” MacDougall said, “but there’s also the intangibles of putting the right people in the right roles. When you put a group together, it’s not just finding the 12 top-skilled forwards. It’s [about] 12 forwards that are going to be able to play significant roles for our team.”

MacDougall has had some international experience other than the 2007 Universiade. He also represented Canada for Team Western at the under-17 Canadian Amateur Hockey Association World Championships.

A native of Bedeque, PEI, MacDougall originally got involved with coaching back in 1986 as a coach at Frontier College Residential School in Cranberry Portage, Manitoba, roughly nine hours north-west of Winnipeg.

“It was part-time coaching and part-time teaching,” MacDougall recalled. “I ended up coaching five teams that winter and got totally immersed in the game. I didn’t really know anybody in Manitoba but I was fortunate to get in the inner circle in Winnipeg.”

MacDougall remembered many “top quality” coaches, which he befriended and got into that inner circle of the hockey community in Manitoba.

“I was fortunate to get to know people like Mike Sirant [current head coach at the University of Manitoba] and Andy Murray [former L.A. Kings and St. Louis Blues coach] and become part of a circle. Doug MacLean [Florida Panthers president/general manager] was also a mentor to me, being from the Island working at his hockey camps. So it really started in those roots.”

MacDougall went on to a number of different coaching positions including the Flin Flon Bombers and the Lebret Eagles of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

This is MacDougall's 12th season coaching the Varsity Reds and he’s the most successful coach in the AUS. Since coming to the team in 2000, MacDougall has led UNB to three CIS championships and won CIS coach of the year in 2010.

He is also the coach to have the most wins in UNB history, but his impact on his players far exceeds what they accomplish on the ice. He said success doesn’t come from one person but rather the group as a whole.

“It’s like anything in life, it’s about meeting good people and having good friends and good contacts,” MacDougall said. “That’s what makes successful coaches is good people. Our motto here at UNB is to ‘make a significant difference,’ that’s my goal every day I come to the rink is to make a significant difference. Hopefully at least one person a day. Sometimes it’s with our own team, sometimes it’s with a youth team, and sometimes it’s with going to school visits.”

Having bachelor degrees in both education and physical education, MacDougall stresses the importance of academics.

Last semester alone, 14 players on the team achieved GPAs above 3.3, making them eligible to be Academic All-Canadians.

Last semester, UNB's Luke Gallant spoke about his experiences at UNB, and said one of the most important things he’s learned from coach MacDougall.

“You’re a person for a lot longer than you are a hockey player.”

MacDougall said the performance part of the team’s success is incredibly gratifying, but there’s also the developmental part of being a coach he finds truly rewarding at UNB.

“UNB to me is my NHL. I thoroughly enjoy each and every day and there are enough challenges as a coach to get better and to be successful. But getting calls from past players as to how they’re doing is great. I got a call from Jesse Furguson who said ‘coach I just got my second gold medal.’ He won a national championship here then when he got his chartered accountancy he considered that his second gold medal. So to see players come out of this program and do so well in the private world is really special,” he said.

As a result of his dedication to coaching and the success he’s brought with it, MacDougall was honoured in 2009 with UNB’s president’s medal, UNB’s most prestigious honour. He is the only coach to ever be awarded the medal.

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