Doug Reimer (born 1961) is the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

for the

UBC Thunderbirds The UBC Thunderbirds are the athletic teams that represent the University of British Columbia in the University Endowment Lands just outside the city limits of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In Canadian intercollegiate competition, the Thun ...

' women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

team and is a former

player. As a head coach, he has won the

U Sports women's volleyball championship The U Sports women's volleyball championship is an annual tournament that features the top eight women's volleyball teams from among competing Canadian universities in U Sports. 11 games are played over a period of three days culminating in a nati ...

ten times (once with the

Winnipeg Wesmen The Winnipeg Wesmen are the athletic teams that represent the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As an undergraduate school, the Wesmen participate in the sports of basketball, volleyball, and soccer in both the men's and women ...

and ninth with the Thunderbirds) and has been named the

U Sports women's volleyball U Sports women's volleyball is the highest level of amateur play of indoor volleyball in Canada and operates under the auspices of U Sports (formerly Canadian Interuniversity Sport). 41 teams from Canadian universities are divided into four athlet ...

coach of the year five times.

Playing career

Reimer played CIAU men's volleyball for the

Victoria Vikes The Victoria Vikes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Victoria of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in both men's and women's U Sports. ''Vikes'' was previously a longstanding nickname for both the men's teams (previously the ...

where he was named an All-Canadian setter twice and won the school's top student-athlete award.

Coaching career

Reimer began his coaching career as the head coach for the Vikettes for the 1985–86 season where he led the team to a 15–0 regular season record, a Canada West title, and was named the CIAU coach of the year. In the 1986-87 season, the Vikettes again won the Canada West title and finished in fourth place in the 1987

Women's Volleyball Championship A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

tournament. He then went on to coach Saskatchewan's women's team in the 1989

Canada Games The Canada Games (french: Jeux du Canada) is a multi-sport event held every two years, alternating between the Canada Winter Games and the Canada Summer Games. They represent the highest level of national competition for Canadian athletes. Two ...

to a gold medal win. After his time in Saskatchewan, Reimer joined the

volleyball team as the head coach where he led them to a gold medal finish in the CIAU Women's Volleyball Championship tournament and his first national championship in 1993. He was also named coach of the year in 1993 and 1994. Reimer joined the

program for the 1994–1995 season where he had an immediate impact as he led the team to their first national tournament appearance since 1991, but lost in the opening match to his former team, the Winnipeg Wesmen. The Thunderbirds won the Bronze medal over the Wesmen in 1996 and then won the silver medal in 1997 after losing to the

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in the championship match. He left UBC after that season to become the full-time head coach of

Canada women's national volleyball team The Canada women's national volleyball team participates in international women's volleyball competitions and friendly games. The purpose of the Senior Women's A National Team Program is to identify, select and train a group of athletes who h ...

, but returned to UBC for the 2000–01 season. Upon Reimer's return, the Thunderbirds regularly appeared in national championship tournaments, appearing every year in his first six years back where he won two silver medals and two bronze medals in that time span, including his fourth coach of the year win in 2006. After an absence from nationals in 2007, Reimer and the Thunderbirds ended a 30-year drought by winning their first national championship since 1978 by winning the gold medal over the

Montreal Carabins The Montréal Carabins are the men's and women's athletic teams that represent the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Teams play at the CEPSUM Stadium and at l'aréna du CEPSUM, located at the Université de Montréal campus. ...

at the 2008 tournament. The Thunderbirds won the Canada West title and the national title again in 2009, becoming the first repeat champions since the 2001–02

Manitoba Bisons The Manitoba Bisons are the athletic teams that represent the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The football team plays their games at Investors Group Field. The soccer team play their home games at the University of Manitoba ...

. For the 2009-10 season, the Thunderbirds finished with a perfect 27–0 record against

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opponents en route to their third consecutive national championship. Reimer was named the coach of the year for the fifth time in his career, which is a U Sports record. The Thunderbirds continued their dominance as Reimer led the team to three more titles as the six consecutive championships tied the

U Sports volleyball U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pro ...

record for the most title wins in a row. The Thunderbirds lost the gold medal match in the 2014 CIS Women's Volleyball Championship, which ended their streak at six. This period was also notable as Reimer had one of his players win the league's

player of the year award Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

for five straight seasons from 2010 to 2014. After finishing without a national medal in 2015 and 2016, Reimer once again led the Thunderbirds to a gold medal victory in the

2017 U Sports Women's Volleyball Championship The 2017 U Sports Women's Volleyball Championship was held March 17–19, 2017, in Toronto, Ontario, to determine a national champion for the 2016–17 U Sports women's volleyball season. The tournament was played at the Mattamy Athletic Centre an ...

which was his fourth championship win over the

(Three with UBC and one with Winnipeg) and his eighth overall. He won a bronze medal in

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and then made history as the 2018–19 Thunderbirds became the first eighth-seeded team to win a national championship with their 2019 gold medal win. Reimer won his ninth national championship with this win. However, in the 2019–20 season, the Thunderbirds slumped to a 13–11 record where they lost to the

Mount Royal Cougars The Mount Royal Cougars are the men's and women's athletic teams that represent Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Cougars field eight varsity teams with four men's teams and four women's teams that compete in the Canada West ...

in the Canada West Quarterfinals and failed to qualify for the national tournament for the first time since 2007. Reimer did not coach in 2020–21 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

. In the 2022–23 season, the Thunderbirds lost in the conference quarter-finals, but qualified for the 2023 national tournament since they were the host team. Reimer led his team to another national championship as he won his tenth as a head coach.

References

External links

UBC Thunderbirds profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reimer, Doug 1961 births Living people Canadian men's volleyball players Canadian volleyball coaches Sportspeople from Kelowna U Sports coaches University of Victoria alumni