By Chelsea Norris
Four Tigers coaches were tapped this year to lead their respective national programs on the world stage this summer.
Cross country and track & field head coach Rich Lehman was selected to head to China as a member of the Canadian coaching staff for the 2023 FISU Summer World University Games. Lehman was named the endurance coach by Athletics Canada for the event in July, but the Canadian team pulled out of the event earlier this year.
A two-year veteran of the leading Hockey Canada’s national women’s program, Tigers women’s hockey head coach Troy Ryan signed on to four more years as head coach. The first event of the quadrennial took place in April in Brampton, Ontario. Ryan and the Canadian women looked to win their third-straight IIHF World Championship gold medal.
After going undefeated in the round robin, the Canadians fell 3-2 to the Americans in the final.
While Ryan was away with the women’s team, it was announced that he would also be joining the senior men’s team as an assistant coach at the 2023 IIHF World Championship in Finland and Latvia in May. He is the first ever Canadian coach to serve on the coaching staff for both national teams.
In a much warmer Dominican Republic, women’s soccer head coach Cindy Tye was also away on international duty in April.
The Canadian U20 women’s team was in the Dominican Republic for the Concacaf Women’s Under-20 qualifiers. Over the four-game tournament, Canada outscored their opponents 40-1 including a 15-0 win over Martinique. With the four wins, Tye and the Canadians finished at the top of their group to qualify for the 2023 Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship May 24 to June 3 back in the Dominican Republic. They will need to place in the top three at that event to advance to the 2024 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.
A new environment and new opponents creates new opportunities for growth as a coach.
“Coaching in a national team setting gives you a chance to learn from great and new players and staff. I always pick up a new or different way to teach something,” says Tye. “The game is typically faster so it forces you to sharpen your understanding and ability to adjust quickly. You have to prepare for opponents that may play a different style at the international level. This has helped me be more analytical about the game when scouting. The level of detail is greater, and you have a shorter period of time to effect change, so it helps you choose what is priority and simplifying how that information is shared with athletes. All of these things help to make you a more well-rounded coach.”
Later this summer, men’s volleyball head coach Dan Ota will head to Gatineau, Quebec to meet up with the men’s NextGen team as an assistant coach. Ota and the team will prepare for two NORCECA tournaments later this summer: the XVI Pan-American Cup in Mexico and the Final Six in Edmonton, Alberta.
This is the second summer in a row that the Tigers bench boss will be with the Volleyball Canada NextGen program. In 2022 he served as the head coach with the team at the NORCECA Final Six tournament.
Tye, who is also an Associate Director within the department focusing on coach and athlete development, is grateful for Executive Director Tim Maloney’s willingness to allow coaches to pursue national and international coaching opportunities.
“He understands that having our coaches in that environment gives them a chance to learn and grow. Giving us that support allows us to bring that experience back to help make us stronger.”
While these national and international appointments take the coaches away from their Tigers teams, the benefits far outweigh any time they miss.
“We believe there are multiple benefits to our program stakeholders from our student-athletes to other head coaches and assistant coaching staffs,” says Maloney. “Thanks to Cindy’s leadership, we have a model internally that provides a platform for our coaches to develop and learn from each other. In addition to the core development work, a key element is our head coaches bringing back what they have learned while coaching on the international stage and within different environments.”
Coming back from international duty stronger not only benefits the coaches who travel, but also their student-athletes, assistant coaches and other Tigers head coaches as these experiences are shared at their monthly professional development days.
“We are committed to continuous improvement and appreciate that our environment is constantly evolving,” adds Maloney. “The experiences our coaches have outside of the U SPORTS environment make them and those around them better, which hopefully leads to improvements our student-athletes experience and benefit from.”