Alan Alderson loves a good test. For that reason and others, he wanted to be the new head coach of the UNBC Northern Timberwolves men's soccer team.
More than 35 people applied for the job and Alderson was the successful candidate. The university announced his hiring on Tuesday and his first official day on the job will be June 4.
Alderson will be tasked with leading the Timberwolves out of the B.C. college league and into the Canada West conference of Canadian Interuniversity Sport. It's an assignment he completed successfully with the Trinity Western University Spartans earlier in his career.
"I'm incredibly excited to be back in the CIS, back in Canada West, and into a program that is ideally suited for who I am and what I love to do," said Alderson, who was most recently director of coaching for Total Soccer Development in Calgary. "The other part of that is, when I went up and visited the campus and met with some of the people I'd be working with, I was just impressed and I'm incredibly excited to be starting up."
Alderson spent 17 years -- on and off -- as head coach of the Trinity Western men's team. In 2001, he took the Langley-based Spartans out of the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association and into Canada West. In the club's first Canada West season, it played to a 4-6-2 record. After going 3-6-3 in 2002, the Spartans stormed to the top of the standings in 2003 with a mark of 9-2-1 and remained a contender after that.
Jason Kerswill, director of athletics at UNBC, said there was a five-person short list for the coaching position. Alderson was one of two individuals interviewed in person.
Kerswill is pleased the program has landed someone with such impressive credentials.
"When we put the request for applicants out, we were hoping a candidate of this calibre would apply," he said. "We were thrilled when Alan did apply and moved through the process successfully and we're happy to have him on board."
On Wednesday, see The Citizen and pgcitizen.ca for more.
