In June, record-setting UNB hockey coach Gardiner MacDougall received the Jean-Marie De Koninck Coaching Excellence Award by Canadian Interuniversity Sport.
The award honours an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to university sport as demonstrated by long-term commitment and leadership as a coach at the local, provincial, national and/or international levels.
“It is so fitting that Gardiner receive this prestigious national honour,” says UNB President Eddy Campbell. “He holds such devotion to the sport, to his team and his players. Gardiner’s talent and inspirational leadership loom large behind the University of New Brunswick’s long run as a top-ranked hockey program.”
This summer, MacDougall completed his 15th season at the helm of the Varsity Reds, one of Canada’s most successful university hockey programs. The native of Bedeque, PEI, has signed a five-year contract to continue his impressive coaching career.
Since taking over the men’s hockey program in 2000-01, MacDougall has guided UNB to 15 straight Atlantic University Sport (AUS) semifinals, six conference banners and nine University Cup championship appearances, including four Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) titles (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) in six trips to the national final. The V-Reds have topped the Atlantic standings in each of the past eight years.
“Gardiner devotes endless hours to the UNB program and its players,” says UNB hockey team captain Cam Critchlow. “He challenges his players to be better on the ice and in the classroom and has taken the UNB hockey program to the next level year after year. His passion and positive attitude are contagious.”
A four-time AUS coach of the year, he has twice been honoured at the CIS level with the Father George Kehoe Memorial Award, including this past season. He has also won a similar award in his home province on two occasions.
MacDougall became the winningest head coach in team history in only his sixth season at the helm in 2006 and has since become the all-time AUS leader in regular season wins (292) and playoff victories (53). He boasts career records of 448-181-20 overall (.706), 292-110-18 in league play (.717) and 73-39 in post-season action (.652), including a 20-6 mark at the CIS championship (.769), good for third place on the University Cup all-time wins list.
In 2009-10, the V-Reds posted a remarkable 27-1 mark in the regular season, establishing new CIS standards for most conference wins in a single campaign and most consecutive victories from the start of a season. Their combined 33 wins in 2007-08 in conference and post-season play are also a CIS record, tied with two other teams.
In recent years, MacDougall has also proved successful at the international level, helping a pair of Canadian teams made up of AUS all-stars capture gold at the Winter Universiade, first as an assistant coach in 2007 at Torino, Italy, and then as a head coach in 2013 at Trentino, Italy.
Aside from a successful on-ice coaching record, his background as an educator has helped UNB student athletes achieve strong academic standing. Sixty-eight of his players have merited Academic All-Canadian status, including two – Adrian Robertson (2013-14) and Colin Sinclair (2006-07) – who were selected as CIS Top 8 Academic All-Canadians.
In April 2007, MacDougall was honoured with the UNB President’s Citation Award by then university president John McLaughlin. In March 2009, McLaughlin made him the first coach to receive the UNB President’s Medal – the university’s most prestigious recognition. He was then awarded the Paul Harris Rotary Fellowship medallion as recognition for his service in the Fredericton hockey community and, in 2012, received the distinguished Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
