VIU’S DENSMORE OFF TO UBC

(ISN) Rob Barcelos and Dr. Abe Avender will be the new coaches of the Vancouver Island University men’s volleyball team.

They replace former head coach Chris Densmore who has taken on the full-time assistant coach postion with the UBC Thunderbirds men’s volleyball team.  

Both Barcelos and Avender are former Mariners and have been assistant coaches with the program.

They take on the new role of co-coaches.

Densmore was part-time with the Mariners. He also served as the marketing and communications co-ordinator for PacificSport Vancouver Island and ran his own business, Performance Elite volleyball camps.

“I start May 1 at UBC, and am looking forward to the change, the challenge and coaching at the next level,” Densmore told ISN.

“I think this will open the doors for me down the road as a CIS head coach as well as an athletic director, which is one of my goals.

“Anyhow, I am excited about the change and look forward to next season already!”

Densmore served eight years as head coach of the VIU Mariners men’s volleyball team. He started with the Mariners in 2001 as the assistant coach for the Mariners, and took over as head coach in 2002, a position he only intended to fill for one year.

After building the squad into one of the top programs in B.C., winning three bronze, two silver and two gold provincial medals and onenational silver in the past eight years, the 36-year-old decided it ws time to move on.

He found that juggling two part-time jobs and a business was taking its toll. Coaching for the M’s, while only a part-time job, takes full-time hours as his job involves practice and game preparations, travelling, watching game tape, recruiting, and fundraising, all of which easily adds up to more than 35 hours a week.

The Mariners will also find out if they will be accepted into the Canadian Interuniversity Sport league in May.