Jordan Yu, head coach of the national-champion UNBC Northern Timberwolves.
If the cards had landed a little differently, the above phrase could have been true.
In the summer of 2008, when the UNBC men's basketball team was seeking a new sideline boss to replace Zane Robison, Yu -- a hometown boy -- applied for the job. It was eventually given to Mike Raimbault, who went on to lead the Timberwolves to a fourth-place finish at the 2009 nationals.
This season, Raimbault's club rose all the way to the top of Canadian college basketball.
Also this season, Yu was a first-year head coach of the North Vancouver-based Capilano University Blues. Looking back, he said he probably wasn't ready to take the controls of the UNBC program when the job was available.
"I don't think I was ready yet to take on that responsibility," he said. "It was a full-time position and I had never head-coached before. I think I have to earn the respect of UNBC and earn the respect of Prince George as a coach before I come back and maybe coach here one day."
See Saturday's Citizen for more.
