UBCO tight-lipped on coach change
Athletic director Tom Huisman has wasted no time putting his stamp on the UBCO Heat.
And maybe there’s some intrigue behind his early moves in Kelowna.
Hired in early April from Carleton University in Ottawa, Huisman and the Heat announced on Wednesday they had replaced basketball coaches Claire Meadows (women) and Pete Guarasci (men).
Bobby Mitchell will be in charge of the Heat women's team. He has been at UBCO as an assistant coach since 2013.
Former University of Toronto basketball head coach Ken Olynyk has come out of retirement to take over the men’s team.
Both men begin their new jobs immediately.
“As for the former basketball head coaches, I can confirm they no longer work for the university. For privacy reasons, I can’t comment beyond that on individual personnel matters,” UBCO spokesman Nathan Skolski wrote Wednesday in an email.
Mitchell began his coaching career in 2003 at Vernon Secondary School, where he coached the seniors girls team to nine consecutive AA provincial championship appearances and numerous Okanagan Valley championships.
Olynyk's coaching career includes stops in Lethbridge, Toronto, and Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. In Toronto, Olynyk also spent one season in the NBA as an observer coach with the Toronto Raptors.
Guarasci is an Olympian and former pro who played 12 seasons in the top leagues of Italy, Spain and Germany.
According to his UBCO bio, Guarasci is an NCCP level three coach.
“I believe to coach well you have to be a life-long student of the game,” he’s quoted as saying.
Guarasci’s coaching experience includes Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta and UBC Okanagan as an assistant.
He has coached Team Canada at the under-19 championships and has also spent several years with Canada’s junior team.
Meadows was hired by UBCO in 2015.
She played five years at Queen’s University, earning first and second team Ontario East All-Star awards and finishing her career as a team captain and as Queen’s second alltime leading scorer.
She was an assistant at Alberta and Lethbridge before coming to Kelowna.
“I am fortunate to be given a position to be able to influence and shape young women and future leaders in the community,” she said after her 2015 hiring.