MacDougall Leads REDS Contingent To FISU Games
(FREDERICTON, NB) Having already coached two Canadian teams to gold medals at FISU Winter Universiades, Gardiner MacDougall is looking for a third.
The legendary coach of the UNB REDS men’s hockey team was a head coach when Canada claimed gold at the 2013 FISU Winter Games, in Trentino, Italy. He was an assistant, in 2007, when Canada took gold at the games in Turin.
“Any time you get a chance to represent Canada, it’s an honour and a privilege, for the coaching staff, for the players,” said MacDougall. “We get to represent not just the country, but our universities and U SPORTS.”
MacDougall, who has coached UNB to seven national championships, will lead Team Canada into the 2021 FISU Winter Universiade, in Lucerne, Switzerland. The event runs December 11-21.
He and his assistants have spent months assembling the team, which will consist of players from Atlantic University Sport, Ontario University Athletics and Canada West.
“Where players haven’t played a lot, with last year’s season being lost, we’ve relied heavily on contacts and scouting and our complete staff,” said MacDougall. “This will be, largely, a younger team. COVID has changed the composition of a lot of teams, but we’ve put together a group that is skilled and each player will have a defined role to play.”
Among the players who’ll pull on the Team Canada jersey in Switzerland will be five REDS.
Goaltender Rylan Parenteau, defenceman Joe Gatenby and forwards Tyler Boland, Samuel Dove-McFalls and Austen Keating.
“Rylan is off to a tremendous start,” said MacDougall. “He’s got so much experience, we expect to lean on that a lot.”
“Guys like Joe, Sam and Tyler have all be a part of our group for a while. They’ve all competed at and won national championships. They know what it’s like to play in and win big games. They’re all high performers in the AUS.”
Keating, in his second year at UNB but playing his first AUS season, is among the league’s top-five scorers.
“Austen is a detail-oriented player. He’s had a great start to his AUS career and we’re excited to see what he can do with this select group of players.””
“It’s an incredible honour and privilege to not only be selected for this team, but to be able to represent Canada on an international stage,” said Boland, who led the country in scoring in 2019-20, the last full season of men’s university hockey in this country. “It’s also exciting to be sharing this experience with my teammates that were also selected. I am very much looking forward to playing in this event.”
“Wearing the maple leaf for the first time is something I am really looking forward to,” said Dove-McFalls, the captain of the REDS in 2021-22. “Being part of this tournament is a goal I had set for myself earlier this season.”
The tournament falls during UNB’s exam period for the fall term.
For Dove-McFalls, that means writing all but one exam before he leaves. The other, which just happens to fall on a day off for Team Canada, will be done online.
“It’s important to manage your time carefully to be able to be involved fully in these different projects and teams,” he said. “This is a skill I have really developed over the last three years here at UNB.”
Ryan Sweeney, a member of the REDS men’s hockey team’s therapy staff, will serve as Team Canada’s Athletic Therapist in Switzerland.
The Canadian men are in a pool with Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and the United States.
They open, on December 10th, against the Estonians.
The Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Russia and the host Swiss are in the other pool.
“In this almost post-COVID era, there is a greater appreciation for something like this, for the coaches and the players,” said MacDougall. “This is what we do, and to be able to do it on an international stage, it’s a tremendous opportunity. This is what players dream of, coaches too. So, to be able to have this chance, despite all that’s gone on in the world recently, is quite something.”
“While we’re all excited to get back to sport and experience all that the Winter Universiade has to offer in a beautiful part of the world, our first priority will always be the health and safety of the Canadian delegation,” said Ben Matchett, Team Canada’s Chef de Mission. “FISU and the Lucerne organizing committee have put in place stringent protocols to ensure the safety of participants, including mandatory vaccination and testing, and we know we all have a responsibility to keep ourselves and each other safe and healthy.”