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U SPORTS sits down with one key athlete, coach, and staff member of each U SPORTS athletic program in our new interview series “Getting to know…”
- Name: Jean-Noel Corriveau
- School: Universite Laval
- Position: Assistant Director of the Sports Service Department,
- Previous school/position: Athletic Director at Cégep Limoilou
- Hometown: Quebec City
1. How did you get to your current position and what do you enjoy most about your job?
I obtained my position through the regular hiring process in the spring of 2018. What I like most about my job is working in the student-athlete field, using sport as a form of education.
2. Who has had the most influence on your career?
Several people, all of them being connected to sport: a gym teacher in high school, Mr. Yves-Marie Côté – my first boss in the student-athlete field, Mr. Gilles Lépine, as well as several coaches with whom I have worked with.
3. What is your greatest sporting moment or achievement?
Advancing the sports program at Cégep Limoilou and enhancing its image during my 17-year tenure there.
4. How would you define a Universite Laval student-athlete?
A student who wants to connect his studies with a high-level sports program recognized in both Quebec and Canada.
5. What does success look like for the Universite Laval athletics program?
The success is to see our student athletes blooming and succeeding in the academic sector as well as in sports, and to have them become good citizens.
6. What is the biggest challenge you face in today’s sports world?
The involvement of women in sport - there are few female coaches - as well as the level of media coverage for all sports, as only certain sports have adequate coverage.
7. Where would you like to see Canadian university sport in the next three to five years?
That it strengthens its network, which prepares the students-athletes for national teams or the professional leagues, but also that it brings a certain recognition which would be noticed by important financial partners.
8. If you could sit down for dinner with one person in the sports industry (athlete, coach or manager), who would it be? Why? What would you talk about?
It is difficult to target a single person. I would like to have a mixture of people like Glen Hoag, former head oach of the national volleyball team; Steph Curry, basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, and an innovative university administrator that likes to experiment.
Because these are people who succeeded in their career, not without a price, but by keeping their values and a sense of humility.
I would like to discuss with them about their story, to get to know more about them, their real-life experience, to know how they were able to maintain their values and attain success through a sports world which could have broken them.
9. What would you say to a sports fan who’s never watched a U SPORTS game/tournament/competition?
That they have to come see at least one match, that they are going to be surprised with the calibre of play, and that some of these athletes are the next national team players.
10. What do you enjoy doing when you’re away from work?
Watch my children practice and play their sports – baseball and soccer – walk my dog, and play soccer and volleyball.