When Dr. Pat Cormier (BScKin’17) first stepped onto the soccer field as a student-athlete at UNB, he didn’t know he was already laying the groundwork for a career that would take him around the world. From Fredericton to Wales, Spain to Finland, and now to the sidelines of one of Canada’s newest professional soccer leagues, Pat is certainly leaving his mark on the field.

In January he joined the Vancouver Rise FC, a new women’s team and founding member of the Northern Super League (NSL), Canada's first top-division professional women's league. As the head of performance, Pat oversees everything under the sport science umbrella, including nutrition, mental performance, injury management, data tracking, and physical preparation.

“When I came on board, there was literally nothing. No facility, no systems, no infrastructure,” he says. “We were putting our brains together, pioneering and trying to figure out the best way to basically form a soccer club in a brand-new league. It was both exciting and probably one of the hardest challenges of my life so far.”

Pat is responsible for leading gym sessions, on-field warm-ups, individual physical work, monitoring training load and intensity from the field, as well as managing return-to-play protocols alongside the club’s medical and athletic therapy staff. Beyond daily training, he is also helping shape what the Rise will look like for years to come.

“Everything I’ve done so far as part of this club has been geared toward legacy. We’ve documented every process, built every system to last. I want to make sure that even if I’m not here one day, the club is in a good place, sustainable and ready to grow.”

As the Rise FC wrap up their inaugural season, Pat has his eyes on helping Vancouver reach the league’s first-ever championship final. They will play against the Ottawa Rapid FC on Nov. 4, before traveling to the nation's capital for the second leg of the semifinals.

But his work with the Rise is not the only thing keeping Pat on his toes. He also works on a contract basis with the men’s national team, in a sport science and physical preparation role.

And it’s a job that comes with any soccer-lover’s dream: Canada’s men’s team will compete at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, on home soil.

“Never did I think Canada would host a World Cup, nor did I ever imagine that I would get to be there. It’ll be a meaningful moment for me.”

After graduating from UNB, Pat dove into a paid internship in strength and conditioning, working under his longtime mentor and UNB faculty member Ken Morrison. From there, he travelled to Spain for a master’s degree in high performance sport, and then to Helsinki, Finland for an internship that turned into one of his first big breaks.

“That was probably one of the highlights early on. I ended up running their reserve squad’s entire physical performance program. Traveling with the team, leading sessions, being in that environment every day - it was kind of the spark for everything that came after.”

After returning to Fredericton briefly (and even suiting up for one last soccer season with the REDS), Pat then completed a fellowship and PhD through the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific and the University of Victoria.

 “That experience was incredible. I got to work with Olympic and Paralympic athletes in rowing, rugby, basketball, athletics, you name it.”

Pat’s PhD research, which he defended earlier this year, focuses on invisible athlete-monitoring technology. Using GPS data collected from small sensors worn by players, he developed models to track and interpret biomechanical profiles, allowing coaches to make training decisions without formal testing sessions. That work is what eventually opened the door to his current role with Canada Soccer.

“My time at UNB was really formative. Even before I enrolled as a student, I was getting coached by strength and conditioning coaches who were also UNB instructors — people like Ken Seaman and Ken Morrison. They started training me when I was 15.”

Those early mentorships ignited a passion for the science behind sport. By the time he arrived at UNB to study kinesiology and play for the men’s soccer team, Pat already knew he wanted to stay connected to high performance, even if it wasn’t as a professional player.

“I realized pretty early that I wasn’t going to be a pro athlete, but I still wanted to be part of that environment and to help others perform at their best.”

For Pat, mentorship continues to play the same vital role it did during his time at UNB. This year, he’s brought several University of British Columbia (UBC) students into the Rise FC’s performance department to gain hands-on experience in professional sport and to help increase the practitioner pool in Canada.

He says what’s most important to him is helping to train the next generation and build environments where people can perform at their best and become great people.