Cam Leverman got a kick out of winning the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association’s coach of the year award in men’s soccer.
“It’s a real honour,” said the MacEwan University Griffins’ field general. “I didn't really expect it so I was actually quite surprised.”
Leverman guided MacEwan to an 8-1-1 regular-season record and the team’s first Alberta Colleges’ Athletic Conference championship since 2006.
“It’s definitely an award I share not only with the guys and the coaching staff, but also my wife and family (one boy and three girls) because for me to put in that kind of time to make sure we were that successful I had to take time away from them,” said the St. Albert resident and former Paul Kane High School teacher.
The other nominees were Luke Corey of the Mount Saint Vincent University Mystics, Paul D’Hollander of the Fanshawe Falcons, Armando Melo of the Lionel-Groulx Nordiques and Marc Rizzardo of the Langara Falcons.
“They had really good records and made good cases for coach of the year as well so I was really surprised at the end that it went to me,” said Leverman, the 2013 ACAC coach of the year.
The award was also extra special because it’s MacEwan’s last ACAC campaign before joining the Canadian Interuniversity Sport ranks next season.
Leverman and his coaching staff wanted the team to go out with a bang.
“We changed our philosophy a little bit going into the season. We decided we would try and score more goals than in the past. We were more focused on defence and shutting teams down and this year most of our practices were aimed towards how to score goals against all the teams,” said Leverman, a Coaches of Canada member who has coaching experience with Team Alberta, as well as Southwest and the Strikers at club nationals.
Jim Loughlin, the CCAA men’s soccer convener, described Leverman as a worthy recipient.
“His team’s remarkable improvement (from missing the 2012 ACA playoffs) stands out from the others,” Loughlin said. “As a coach he’s a class act and the standards he holds his players to off the field are as high as on the field.”
The award was presented Nov. 5 at nationals in Saint John, N.B. Every CCAA coach of the year also receives a customized ring from Jostens Canada.
At nationals MacEwan finished fifth at 2-2.
“It was a little bit of a disappointment. I thought we probably deserved a little bit better than fifth but we had a couple of injuries at the wrong time,” said Leverman, who made his national debut as head coach after serving as an assistant on MacEwan’s bronze-medal winning team in 2006.
Leverman, 38, completed his 11th season with the MacEwan program and acknowledged the role of former longtime head coach Murray Orvis had in his decision to join the Griffins.
“He was kind of coaching the team I was playing on as a club player and out of the blue one day he came to me and said, ‘I know you’re involved with Alberta teams and would you want to help me out with the Griffins.’ I said absolutely, I would love to and that was it. I think I was 26 or 27 at the time,” Leverman said.
“He wanted me to be his assistant and he said one day I want you to take over the program. He gave me a ton of responsibility my first year. He told the guys I’m going to do all the coaching and he would just do all the paperwork so even as an assistant right from the start I got a lot of head coach responsibilities and that was fantastic.”
Leverman is passionate about coaching at the post-secondary level.
“I love the time of year that it’s at. You never know what kind of weather you’re going to get, whether it will be nice or snowy. I like the fact it’s men versus 10, 11, 12-year-old kids. I also like the fact that it’s such a short season. There is a lot of coaching that has to be done because if you try to correct all of their bad habits you would need a year but with that shortened season you really just try and get the pieces in place and try and come up with the best system available to beat the other teams,” said the full-time MacEwan employee who works with sports clubs at the university in addition to his head coaching duties.
Leverman is a better coach now than when he first started at MacEwan.
“Absolutely. You learn so much in this job. You learn how to deal with the 18- to 23-year-old athlete. You also learn the ins and outs of the university itself, which makes it easier to deal with the players. You’ve also got that schooling aspect that comes along with it. You have to be very cognizant of that and make sure they keep up with their schooling.”
Leverman played three ACAC seasons in Red Deer after graduating from DP Todd High School in Prince George, B.C.
“I went in trying out as a striker and the coach put me at left back. He decided he wanted my size at left back. That’s what he said. Like I was so tall back then!” said the vertically-challenged Leverman, who was revered by the students he taught at Paul Kane for his jovial sense of humour.
