2011 WU: CAN Assigns Staff for Men’s Ice Hockey

Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Monday the appointment of Canada’s men’s hockey team personnel for the 25th Winter Universiade set for January 27 to February 6, 2011 in Erzurum, Turkey.

Brian Bourque of the Waterloo Warriors will serve as Team Canada’s general manager, while Western Ontario’s Clarke Singer has been named head coach. His assistants behind the bench are Concordia’s Kevin Figsby and Guelph’s Shawn Camp.

It will be a second tour of duty at the University Games for both Singer and Figsby, who served similar roles in 2005 at Innsbruck, Austria, where Canada finished fifth.

The Canadian squad for the Games will be comprised entirely of players from the Ontario University Athletics conference.

Since 1997, Canada has been represented at the Universiade men’s hockey tournament by selections from each of three CIS leagues on a rotating basis. Canada West players claimed bronze medals in 1997 (South Korea) and 2003 (Italy) and silver in 2009 in Harbin, China, where they dropped a 4-2 decision to Russia in the gold-medal final; OUA skaters won bronze in 1999 (Slovakia) before their fifth-place finish in 2005; Atlantic University Sport all-stars returned home with silver in 2001 (Poland) before winning the competition in 2007 in Turin, Italy.

Canada also won gold in 1991 in Sapporo, Japan, while represented by the senior national team, and in 1981 in Jaca, Spain, when the University of Alberta Golden Bears wore the Maple Leaf uniform.

“It is an honour and privilege to represent Canada, the University of Waterloo, OUA and CIS on the international hockey stage,” said Bourque. “I am excited to work with the coaching staff that we have assembled. I look forward to the competition and showcasing the talent of our student-athletes.”

“It will be a great honour to represent the CIS and OUA in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a world championship,” said Singer. “Our coaching staff is looking forward to putting together a team the country will be very proud of.”

Bourque, who joined the Warriors as an assistant coach in 2003 and was voted OUA coach of the year in 2005-06, is in his fifth season as bench boss at Waterloo, where he has registered an impressive 83-32-9 overall record since taking over the team. A native of Cole Harbour, N.S., he previously coached with the Dartmouth Midget AAA (NSMHL) program, York University and the Newmarket Hurricanes (OPJHL) prior to joining the Warriors.

Singer is in his 11th season at the helm of the Mustangs. The native of Stratford, Ont., led Western to the University Cup national title in 2002, when he also earned CIS men’s hockey coach-of-the-year honours. Named as the OUA’s top coach four times, he has guided his troops to a pair of Queen’s Cup league banners (2005, 2009) and a return trip to the CIS gold-medal final last winter in Thunder Bay, where the Mustangs settled for silver. In addition to the 2005 Universiade, Singer’s international coaching experience includes three seasons in the Norwegian Elite Series with Trondheim and Fredrikstad from 1994 to 1997.

A resident of Baie d’Urfé, Que., Figsby is also in his 11th campaign as a CIS head coach, all at Concordia. Prior to joining the Stingers, he was head coach of the Quebec entry that captured bronze at the world under-17 championship in 1995. He also coached the OUA all-stars in games against the Canadian national junior team in 2000 (assistant) and 2001 (head coach). Figsby is one of less than 30 Canadian coaches to have completed a Canadian Hockey Association Level 4 certification.

Camp, from Ottawa, took over as head coach of the Gryphons in 2007. He made the move to university hockey following numerous seasons coaching and managing at the major junior level, including stints with Saginaw, Sarnia and Guelph, which he led to the OHL championship and a Memorial Cup appearance as head coach in 2003-04. He won a Memorial Cup ring as an assistant coach with Hull in 1997. Camp also coached Canada to a silver medal at the world under-18 championship in 2005 and a pair of Junior World Cup titles in 2004 and 2005.

Canada’s men’s hockey roster for the Erzurum Games will be announced in the fall of 2010.