Volume 144 · Issue 24 • March 23, 2011
www.thebruns.ca
University Cup the brunswickan presents : 2010/11 special national championship insert
Varsity Reds
welcome the nations best
Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan Christopher Cameron Sports Editor As with any national event that takes place it benefits an array of businesses, groups and the team or program involved in the program and this year’s CIS Cavendish University Cup is no different. UNB Athletic Director Kevin Dickie discussed what hosting this championship does for the program, bringing it back to it only being a piece of the puzzle in having a successful program. “I think to be a nationally recognized program four things need to happen. You (as a program) need to be successful and we have been this
year,” said Dickie. “We’ve had AUS champions and people knocking at the door and we do it the right way with 33 per cent of our athletes being Academic All-Canadians. “The second thing is hosting well received national champions makes a difference across the country. The third thing is the facilities that you have. I think our facilities will be as good as anywhere as of April 4 and fourth when your athletes win national awards.” “I think all four of those areas lend to us being recognized as a nationally recognized program and we’re hitting all of those marks right now and hosting this national championship is
a huge part of that.” Dickie continued to say this year’s championship was a major boost for the men’s hockey team in making a statement in every game all season. “For me it has been about the journey, about trying to be successful during the regular season, which they were coming in first, number one ranking in the country,” said Dickie. “Striving so hard to win Game 5 against StFX and come through the front door. That team is running at such a high level right now we want to do everything we can to finish the deal in a week’s time.” He also discussed how alive the campus was for Game 5 of the AUS f inals and how this tournament
magnifies that effect. “First of all for the campus in general; Friday night was unbelievable. The arena was full of all kinds of different groups of people. If that happened at an AUS championship where you already knew both teams would survive and play the following week, the national championship just transcends all of that.” “When we won the national championship in 2007 in Moncton, which to me will always stand out in my memories, I’m trying to picture 2,500 people or whatever it is with red and black on filling an arena 185 km from here. I’m just trying to picture what it will be like this weekend here,” said
Dickie. Another major initiative UNB is working on is to have a green championship in many different ways; something Dickie said is hard to touch on with anything in particular. “One of the big additions to our steering committee this year has been Alycia Morehouse from the City of Fredericton, who has really co-ordinated our green initiative and been our moral compass at times in terms of doing the right thing,” he said. “All of a sudden here over the past year we’ve all become engaged in this process. There are so many different areas it’d be hard to touch on anything in particular.”