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The new director of athletics at UBCO said he likes banners. We sat down with Tom Huisman with the basketball season just getting underway and the volleyball home openers scheduled for this weekend.
Huisman is part of a shake-up at the Kelowna campus where the marquis sports of basketball and volleyball saw some very disappointing results. In basketball, the men and women's teams managed a total of 4 wins in 48 games last season.
The men's volleyball team didn't fare much better, posting a record of 9 wins against 25 losses last season. A bright spot was the women's volleyball squad with a record of 19-9 and a berth in the National Championships.
Huisman believes there's something to build on there, and he sees brighter things ahead for UBCO athletics in the near future. "For sure there are some challenges," said Huisman. "But that makes any new job opportunity exciting. With basketball, we're optimistic that we're rebuilding and hit a bit of a reset button over the summer." Two new basketball head coaches are now in place including Ken Olynyk, the father of NBA player Kelly Olynyk. "We're very much looking forward to seeing where those programs are headed in the very near future," Huisman added.
Huisman said the attractiveness of Kelowna as a place to live should help with recruiting, but he comes to the job with an eye on keeping talent from leaving here as well. "As much as we want to recruit those blue-chip student-athletes," said Huisman, "there's also a lot of local talent that we want to be able to recruit to stay here."
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