Bobcats name Sanjenko head coach

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This article was published 14/06/2022 (1359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon University Bobcats women’s soccer team has unfinished business to attend to.

BU feels Danielle Sanjenko earned another shot after reaching the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference final in 2021. The school removed her interim tag and announced Sanjenko as head coach on Tuesday.

“Nobody left that game satisfied, from BU anyways. Everybody was waiting for a celebration, a win, working for it but it just didn’t happen,” Sanjenko told the Sun.

“It’s motivating as heck … the fire is lit and we don’t want that to happen again.”

Sanjenko took an assistant coaching role in 2020 under Jesse Roziere, who BU placed on leave two matches into the 2021 Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference outdoor soccer season. Sanjenko and Scott Haddow stepped up to lead the Bobcats (9-2-1) to the league final before falling 2-0 to St. Boniface.

On Dec. 23, BU received a third-party investigator’s report affirming complaints of Roziere’s sexual harassment of former Bobcats women’s soccer players. His contract wasn’t renewed before the 2022 futsal season when Brandon went 1-2-1 and lost 6-1 to Les Rouges in the semifinals.

Sanjenko played her four years with the Providence Pilots after a redshirt season at the University of Lethbridge. She moved to Brandon afterwards and has worked as a personal trainer. She’s now in a master’s program through Yorkville University, focusing on counselling psychology.

Her schooling, playing and coaching experience mesh perfectly for the job.

“I know exactly, year by year, almost down to each week of the season what these girls could be or are likely experiencing in terms of stress from school, anxieties about pre-season, coming into the final-four tournament … I can definitely relate on all aspects,” Sanjenko said.

“As mental health gains popularity as the years go on and more awareness is brought to that area, I look at health and wellness and being the most capable person a person can be as a holistic approach.

“It’s not just your body, it’s not just your physical shape, it’s your mind and before you can do anything physically, you have to convince your mind you can do it.”

Sanjenko has the returning players on strength and conditioning programs during the off-season and is looking forward to leading a group from pre-season through playoffs.

While the group was almost entirely first-year athletes last season, a few key pieces are gone.

Starting left-winger Kira Ireson has since committed to the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association’s Centennial Colts while all-conference midfielder Helen Langrehr left for the University of New Brunswick Reds.

The school hasn’t announced any recruits for 2022-23 but had 23 players, including four redshirts from Brandon, in 2021-22. Sanjenko said a few should be finalized soon.

“These are players who will definitely add to the program,” Sanjenko said. “Just like any season, the roster is not set in stone. We’re going to choose a roster that will get us the wins, whether it’s new players or keeping the same players in place we had last year.”

BU’s process for hiring soccer coaches is less extensive than the volleyball and basketball jobs, which are tenure-track faculty positions. Sanjenko received the offer for her one-year term through an internal process and no public posting was necessary.

“Danielle has done excellent work in an interim role. It is great to provide her the opportunity to lead the program moving forward,” BU athletic director Russ Paddock said in a release. Paddock did not respond to requests for comment.

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In other MCAC news, the league was officially voted in as a full member of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association on Tuesday, ending a two-year probationary period.

The first year was washed out due to COVID-19, and then MCAC champions competed in outdoor soccer and volleyball championships for the first time in 2021-22. All four teams were handed low seeds and left winless.

Christyn Blondeau is back with the Assiniboine Community College Cougars.

The outside hitter/libero last played for the team in 2019-20 and graduated from ACC’s practical nursing program a year later.

She’ll play for incoming head coach Kevin Neufeld and assistant Kellie Baker, along with a rookie class including Brandon’s Elle Snyder-Kowbel, Brie Mulligan, Taylor Cox and Jayde Hansen-Young, who joined the team for 2020-21 but never played a match.

“We are excited to add another experienced player who knows how hard a team has to work to be successful,” Neufeld said in a release. “Her versatile skill set will be a great value to the team.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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