Western Mustangs head hockey coach Clarke Singer will take the lead behind the bench for the 25th Winter Universiade, set for Jan. 27 to Feb. 6, 2011 in Erzurum, Turkey.
It will be the second tour of duty at the University Games for Singer, who served a similar role in 2005 at Innsbruck, Austria, where Canada finished fifth.
The Canadian squad for the games will be comprised entirely of players from the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) conference.
Clarke Singer
“It will be a great honour to represent the CIS and OUA in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a world championship,” says Singer. “Our coaching staff is looking forward to putting together a team the country will be very proud of.”
Since 1997, Canada has been represented at the Universiade men’s hockey tournament by selections from each of three CIS leagues on a rotating basis.
Singer, in his 11th season at the helm of the Mustangs, led Western to the University Cup national title in 2002, where he also earned CIS men’s hockey coach-of-the-year honours.
Named as the OUA’s top coach four times, he has guided his troops to a pair of Queen’s Cup league banners (2005, 2009) and a return trip to the CIS gold-medal final last winter in Thunder Bay, where the Mustangs picked up silver. In addition to the 2005 Universiade, Singer’s international coaching experience includes three seasons in the Norwegian Elite Series with Trondheim and Fredrikstad from 1994 to 1997.
Canada’s men’s hockey roster for the Erzurum Games will be announced in the fall of 2010.