The British Columbia Colleges Athletic Association has played the name change game.
Now known as the Pacific Western Athletic Association or PACWEST, UNBC athletics director Jason Kerswill says the name better reflects the makeup of its 14 member schools, eight of which are degree-granting institutions.
As vice-president of marketing for PACWEST, Kerswill says the new name and logo should help Kerswill create public awareness of the league and its athletes. The logo features the words PAC in white lettering and WEST in red lettering overtop the shape of an ocean wave that flows into a mountain range.
"The name change has been the works for a few years now, especially with so many universities being part of this association now," said Kerswill. "The new logo is, in our opinion, more appealing than the old block lettering of the BCCAA, and it fits with what we're about."
Formerly known as the Totem Conference Athletic Association, the BCCAA adopted its name in 1986.
The PACWEST name change and logo were approved at the league AGM in May, and were originally planned to be launched before the league soccer schedule began last weekend. The delay resulted when BCCAA media manager Wilson Wong left the league last week to join UBC as its sports information officer.
"For me, it's an opportunity to launch the PACWEST brand in a way to get some media attention so that our students and future parents of student-athletes understand what we're about," said Kerswill.
"The BCCAA has been around since the '70s so I think it was time to update it and get in line with the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association [formerly the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association], which just went through a rebranding exercise about a month ago to better represent its 109 CCAA members across the country."
