The University of Saskatchewan (U of S) Huskies produced plenty of fireworks last year. Huskie teams won Canada West titles in men’s hockey, wrestling and track while the women’s basketball squad earned a conference banner and its first national championship.
This level of success is something the university hopes will become the norm thanks to a new governance model unveiled on Tuesday.
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Starting Nov. 1, Huskie Athletics will no longer be contained within the college of kinesiology. Instead, an 11-member board of trustees will guide the department and report directly to U of S president Peter Stoicheff.
“This is new. This is different. We feel that as far as we know, it’s unique in this country, and it’s unique across other countries, too. We did not borrow something from the United States. This is community-minded. This is university-centric,” Stoicheff said.
The board will include community members and university officials, and will examine ways to increase internal support for student-athletes while boosting the Huskies visibility off-campus.
“We want to own our community as a sports group,” explained David Dube, a local businessman, philanthropist and long-time Huskies supporter who will serve as the board’s inaugural chair.
“We think the community can fall in love with Huskie Athletics if we present it to them in the proper way, and do we expect to raise more banners? Yeah, we do.”
Community members on the new board include three-time Olympic track and field athlete Diane Jones Konihowski and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment COO Tom Anselmi. All six community members are U of S alumni.
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The remaining board members come from a variety of university departments. The dean of the college of kinesiology, Chad London, will have a permanent seat and will split board chair duties with a community member on a rotating basis.
“I often say Huskie Athletics is the single biggest community outreach program the university has. Well it’s going to be bigger and better than ever and reporting to the President means we better deliver results for him,” Dube said.
That means focusing on all 15 Huskies teams, shining a spotlight on everything they have to offer both to student-athletes and the greater community outside of the university.
“The only reason we do this is because we’ve got students who are athletes … That’s an experience that not all students get but we want the ones who are able to get it to have the best possible one,” Stoicheff said.
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