Round two weeks in the past, Gardiner McDougall, head coach of the College of New Brunswick (UNB) Reds males’s hockey staff, acquired a cellphone name from Scott Salmon, senior vice chairman of excessive efficiency and hockey operations at Hockey Canada.
The Bedeque, P.E.I., native started teaching UNB within the 2000-01 season, serving to construct a profitable tradition based on vitality, enthusiasm and love. Following the 2023-24 College Cup — which noticed UNB cap off an ideal season the place the Reds did not concede a single contest whereas claiming back-to-back nationwide titles — Salmond reached out to see if MacDougall had an curiosity in teaching Canada’s males’s U-18 staff on the 2024 IIHF U18 World Championship in Finland.
After consulting his spouse, checking in on household plans and subsequent cellphone calls with Benoit Roy, senior supervisor of hockey operations, MacDougall pounced on the “lifetime alternative.”
“Your life can generally change with a cellphone name,” MacDougall instructed CBC Sports activities. “It is an unbelievable alternative, an honour to educate the Nationwide Underneath-18 program and characterize an obligation to your nation and attempt to get probably the most out of your group on the world championships in Finland.”
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The U-18 world championship will kick off on April 25 and run by means of Might 5, giving MacDougall an opportunity to go away a long-lasting mark on the way forward for Canadian hockey.
MacDougall’s Group Canada begins its journey for gold on the 2024 IIHF U18 World Championship towards Sweden on Thursday. Captained by Porter Martone of Peterborough, Ont., the Canadian crew takes to the ice at midday ET, 9 a.m. PT.
“The massive factor is to get higher every single day,” MacDougall stated. “The final word purpose for Group Canada is to win a gold medal, however we are going to finest obtain that by discovering methods to get higher.
A collector of quotes
An opportunity to make a distinction in his gamers’ lives drives MacDougall to educate.
To take action, MacDougall has realized how you can inspire, affect and enhance the lads who come by means of UNB’s program.
“As a coach, I satisfaction myself on vitality, enthusiasm and positivity,” MacDougall stated. “You will get a lot from individuals if you deliver that vitality and assist them out.
“There’s an excellent quote: consistency is the mom of excellence, and incremental enchancment is the daddy. A famend motivation guru talked about that quote, and it is a terrific quote to stay by.”
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That quote is a favorite for MacDougall. The self-described reader signed up for messages from a Canadian motivational speaker years in the past, which helps construct his quote assortment, whose quantity seeps into the 1000’s.
‘Make a big distinction,’ UNB’s motto, and ‘Simply Getting Began,’ what his affiliate coach, Rob Hennigar, considers MacDougall’s private slogan, are two different phrases he lives by. Phrases which assist fulfil one among his many duties because the Reds’s head coach.
“I am making an attempt to make everyone higher,” MacDougall stated. “It is individual by individual — you simply attempt to make a distinction of their life.”
Rooted in UNB
Hennigar, who additionally performed below McDougall from 2004 to 2008 and joined his teaching workers in 2014, is aware of MacDougall’s had his justifiable share of gives to go away the Reds.
The 64-year-old served because the interim head coach for the Saint John Sea Canines on the 2022 Memorial Cup and as Canada’s head coach on the FISU World College Video games twice, however his full-time teaching dedication has remained with UNB.
“He has definitely stated no to different gives,” Hennigar stated. “His primary dedication is UNB. Even this yr, I believe there was hesitancy [to coach Team Canada] as a result of we’re dropping a couple of guys, and proper now, it is a heavy recruiting season.”
MacDougall had quite a few gives over his twenty-plus profession, provided that his teaching resume consists of over 600 wins and 9 nationwide titles, and he’s the winningest coach in U Sports activities historical past.
Nonetheless, MacDougall’s love for UNB has saved him in Fredericton.
“He’s UNB,” Hennigar stated. “Every thing he does revolves across the college. He bleeds crimson and black greater than anybody.”
“However he is already completed his due diligence and is able to go abroad.”
MacDougall’s ardour for the Reds goes past hockey. He and his household are avid in the neighborhood. The coach’s spouse retired this yr however labored as a bodily training mentor and trainer within the college’s system.
His daughter obtained three levels from UNB, whereas his son snagged a enterprise and regulation diploma throughout his five-year stint on the college — now he’s an NHL participant agent.
Even then, in MacDougall’s eyes, he has already discovered his NHL.
“I believe if any coach ever will get the chance on the NHL, that is a dream of each coach, however we have loved it right here,” MacDougall stated. “At my first press convention at UNB, I stated this was my NHL — I felt ecstatic to get the job — I utilized for it on two different events and was fortunate sufficient to get it on the third.
“And it has definitely proved to be my NHL.”