By Brad Halasz
Men’s soccer coach retires
For 22 years Andy Gibbs manned the bench as head coach of the University of Calgary men’s soccer team. His stay gives him the title of longest serving coach in the Dinos program.
The 2008 season will be his last as he will undergo knee surgery in the off-season and will require half a year of rehabilitation according to a March 4 press release from the University of Calgary Dinos.
Gibbs leaves the team after two consecutive years of missing the playoffs, including a disappointing 2-8-4 record in the 2008 season. Gibbs led the Dinos to the Canada West final in 2006, losing to the Trinity Western University Spartans 4-1.
New men’s basketball recruits
With the excitement of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport men’s basketball final eight tournament looming it may be easy to look over two recruits who recently signed letters of intent to play for the University of Calgary men’s basketball team next year.
Dan Tilleman will follow in his father Karl’s footsteps. Karl was a four-time all-Canadian in the early 1980s. He is the Dinos all-time leading scorer and was named the greatest Dino of all-time in 2007.
According to a March 9 Dinos press release, the six-foot-five forward will be the first second-generation player in Dinos history.
Tilleman will join the Dinos in the 2009-10 season from Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, Arizona where he helped his team win the 5A Arizona state championship.
Six-foot-three shooting guard Andrew McGuiness will join the Dinos from Handsworth Secondary in Vancouver.
McGuiness averaged more than 25 points per game and “is one of the best shooters in B.C. high school basketball,” according to the release.
Dinos tear up the track at finals
The Dinos women’s track squad failed to make it five Canada West championships in a row as they placed third overall with 89 points. The University of Saskatchewan Huskies took top honours on the women’s side and the University of Manitoba Bisons won the men’s side in Regina on Feb. 28.
While the men finished in the middle of the pack in fourth place with 70 points, all was not lost on the weekend as there were some great individual Dino efforts.
Superstar Sam Effah claimed track athlete of the year for his gold medal effort in the 60-metre dash, which broke a conference record with a time of 6.64 seconds.
Dino fourth-year Trent Ratzlaff was fast enough to claim gold in the 600-metre run on Saturday.
Dinos sprinter Evan Kimick was named male student-athlete of the year.
On the women’s side, fifth-year superstar Heather Sim was named female track athlete of the year and won gold in the 1500-metre run as well as the 4×200 metre team relay.
Fifth-year Holy Ratzlaff won gold in the 600-metre run.
The Dinos have a chance to redeem their championship-winning ways this weekend as the Canadian Interuniversity Sport finals are held at the University of Windsor, March 12-14.