UBC Thunderbirds Fire Head Coach

[WilcoxHound]

Milan Dragacevic, Head Coach of the UBC Thunderbird men's hockey team for the past 12 years and the man who led the charge to secure 5 more years of existence for the varsity team has been fired. Dragacevic himself admitted that the program was not at the level he had hoped it would be at this time.
UBC probably has the highest admission standards of any school in the country, the majority of CIS hockey players would have a difficult time meeting admission requirements and this is the biggest obstacle to recruitment facing hockey at UBC.

Click to read more...

 

[Hollywood3]

UBC closed strong to make the playoffs and upset Sask, so I thought he would get more time. Still, 12 years is a long time to make no progress. University coaches sure get a nice, long tenure to make a mark.

BTW, regarding admission standards, I would expect those to rebalance as other BC universities gain prestige. As in other western provinces, each big city had a main university. At one time there were only 5 full-scale universities in the west. Now, BC and Alberta have had an explosion due to population growth.

 

[Rocko604]

Upsetting Saskatchewan and going out to Alberta would give any coach more life, but when your employer is trying to kill your program, and you speak out against it, your shelf life isn't going to be very long.

 

[MiamiHockey]

UBC closed strong to make the playoffs and upset Sask, so I thought he would get more time. Still, 12 years is a long time to make no progress. University coaches sure get a nice, long tenure to make a mark.

BTW, regarding admission standards, I would expect those to rebalance as other BC universities gain prestige. As in other western provinces, each big city had a main university. At one time there were only 5 full-scale universities in the west. Now, BC and Alberta have had an explosion due to population growth.

It's going to go in the other direction. UBC's international reputation is now on par with Univ of Toronto and McGill, and the new President just announced his goal to put UBC on par with Princeton and Harvard, with the focus being on attracting the best international students in the world. A schools with those objectives does not lower entrance standards for athletes.

 

[AdamMcg83]

Milan Dragacevic, Head Coach of the UBC Thunderbird men's hockey team for the past 12 years and the man who led the charge to secure 5 more years of existence for the varsity team has been fired. Dragacevic himself admitted that the program was not at the level he had hoped it would be at this time.
UBC probably has the highest admission standards of any school in the country, the majority of CIS hockey players would have a difficult time meeting admission requirements and this is the biggest obstacle to recruitment facing hockey at UBC.

Definitely not slagging on UBC; I don't know enough about the program to judge whether the last 12 years have been a success. But I will say that a number of schools with admissions averages *close* to UBC's have seen a lot more on-ice success than the TBirds - UWaterloo, Western, and McGill have admissions averages in the low- to mid-80's range (compared to UBC's mid- to high-80s), and each have had more prolonged on-ice success than UBC.

It's certainly a challenge, and it narrows the recruitment field, but it doesn't make it impossible to find high-end talent. For instance, 11 of the 23 members of Waterloo's 2013 OUA West champ team were Academic All-Canadians.

Other CW teams seem to be finding them, too. In the 20 years that the Governor General's Academic All Canadian Awards have been given out, the top CW men's academic athlete has been a hockey player six times - 2 from UofA, and one each from USask, Manitoba, Regina, and Lethbridge. So, there are super-smart men's hockey players playing all over CW and the rest of the CIS - why aren't they going to UBC?

Are there other factors in UBC's struggle to draw high-end players who are good in the classroom? Can't be the gorgeous geographical location. I remember reading once that CW sometimes has trouble keeping WHL grads from heading east. Is that a possible contributing factor too?

 

[AUS Fan]

Too bad. Drago is a good guy. I would guess the academic standards are one factor and perhaps the cost of living in Van. Would guess Edmonton would be a bit cheaper for a student-athlete.

 

[WilcoxHound]

Too bad. Drago is a good guy. I would guess the academic standards are one factor and perhaps the cost of living in Van. Would guess Edmonton would be a bit cheaper for a student-athlete.

I'd be surprised if COL in Edmonton would be lower, after all they are closer to Fort MacMurray "the richest city in Canada", where a mobile home will go for $400,000.00 lol.

 

[Drummer]

The COL is high in Vancouver, but UBC isn't really in Vancouver. The campus is 30 blocks west of Granville - there are a lot of apartments in that space.

With 57,000 students (not all at the Point Grey campus I realize) - I find it hard to believe their academic standards are so highly maintained that some 'average' hockey players can't make the bar or that there are some mid 80's players out there they can't seem to be enticed. If their standards were that high - there would no students left for UVic, Simon Fraser & Thompson River.

I have always found it hard to believe with such a good junior program in BC that they can't retain more hockey talent.

In the end - if the school isn't interested in sports (or the use of AFAs), I believe it will be their and the communities loss. I also don't necessary agree with a publicly funded institution trying to become 'elitist'. I don't see the value to the community in that sort of initiative.

 

[MiamiHockey]

The COL is high in Vancouver, but UBC isn't really in Vancouver. The campus is 30 blocks west of Granville - there are a lot of apartments in that space.

In the end - if the school isn't interested in sports (or the use of AFAs), I believe it will be their and the communities loss. I also don't necessary agree with a publicly funded institution trying to become 'elitist'. I don't see the value to the community in that sort of initiative.

It's evident that you've never been to Vancouver. The area near UBC is one of the most expensive in Vancouver, with housing prices starting at $1.4 million for a tear-down, and rent is incredibly high as well. There's also no train to UBC, so accessibility is a huge issue. If I'm an athlete with a limited budget,

There's a big difference between a small teaching-oriented university like UNB and a large research-oriented university like UBC. Each serves a different purpose, and while it's admirable that UNB is oriented to providing advanced education to whomever wants it in New Brunswick, it's ridiculous to suggest that UBC shouldn't aim to have greater academic standards.

 

[Hollywood3]

I haven't been to Vancouver since ~1996/7. But I can vouch for the fact that it is crazy expensive. I know back then rents were more than double Winnipeg's. It would be the worst place for a student to live. I am guessing that finding housing is required for recruitment.