Women’s Volleyball
Getting to know your U SPORTS coaches: Kevin Neufeld
Throughout the 2017-18 season, 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-Pierre Chancy
School: Université de Montréal
Sport: All
Position: Sports Excellence Coordinator, Student and Academic Affairs
Seniority: 28 years
Previous job/position: Women’s volleyball coach – Université de Montreal Carabins
Hometown: Port-au-Prince, Haïti
A university athlete who gives 100 per cent will always be better and more important to me than a professional.
1. How did you get to your current position, and what do you enjoy most about your job?
I was coaching with the Carabins for many years and took the job, first as a maternity-leave replacement and then as a service to the organization. Helping the student-athletes motivates me the most in this job.
2. Who has had the most influence on your career?
I'll admit that it's a "what" rather than a "who." The love for the sport has had the most influence on my career. That's why I'm here, and why I’ve loved my job for several years.
3. What is your greatest sporting moment or achievement?
As a coach, I would say winning gold at a junior Canadian championship in my early days as a coach with the Club de volleyball Celtique, a local club in the region.
4. How would you define a Université de Montréal university student-athlete?
Hard to say, there are so many different kinds of people these days, which is the beauty of university sports. I'd say it's the image of our city: multidisciplinary and multicultural. There isn’t really one type of general student-athlete here.
5. What does success look like for the Université de Montréal athletics program?
It's the overall achievement of a student-athlete’s goal. As an organization, we truly fulfill our mandate when students grow and succeed within our sporting teams.
6. What’s the biggest challenge you face in today’s sports world?
Community support in general. Whether it be financial or media projects, the support needed to carry out these initiatives is sometimes missing. We live in a world a bit between two extremes. Either our sports are publicized, over-emphasizing on the “sport” and not enough on the "student," or there’s a complete lack of media support.
7. Where would you like to see Canadian university sport in the next three to five years?
Where it deserves to be. We want society to be aware of it in general, showing the recognition it deserves, but also supporting student-athletes.
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?
Muhammad Ali, he was a prominent figure throughout my younger years. I would like to talk to him about politics, the state of today's world, and globalisation.
9. What would you say to a sports fan who’s never watched a U SPORTS game/tournament/competition?
That they’re missing something good, that they don’t realise our student-athletes’ quality performance and genuine intensity. A university athlete who gives 100 per cent will always be better and more important to me than a professional.
10. What do you enjoy doing when you’re away from work?
Playing golf! It's something that I've recently discovered but it's very challenging. Let's say it tests my patience a bit!