Music: {allcanada} SMU hockey coach gets new job

Friday, April 1, 2011

{allcanada} SMU hockey coach gets new job

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Saint Mary's University women's hockey team has lost their head coach.

Lisa Jordan, who founded the team 14 seasons ago, is leaving for a new coaching job at Ryerson University in Toronto.

It comes after a tumultuous two weeks when Jordan was informed her team's funding would be cut to save the university $120,000 a year, and her contract would not be renewed when it expired March 31.

Jordan said Friday that the offer from Ryerson is a long-term commitment.

"So, it's not that it's a bitter parting at all. It's an opportunity that arose from the very difficult situation at Saint Mary's for me," she said. "You know, it didn't take very long for other CAS schools across the country to realize that I may be available."

Jordan said the new job is a "very, very good fit for myself and my family."

Two weeks ago, Jordan was told that her team's funding would be cut, and her contract would not be renewed when it expired March 31.

But then a corporate sponsor, Canadian Tire, came forward to secure the team's existence. The company will contribute $60,000 to help fund the program for one more year at least. The university's board of governors voted Tuesday evening to keep the women's hockey team.

Jordan was the only woman on the women's hockey coaching staff at SMU.

Her sister, Lesley Jordan, coaches women's hockey at Dalhousie.

The Huskies won the Atlantic conference last year for the fourth time in their history. Saint Mary's lost in the bronze-medal game of the women's national championship, which was the Huskies' best result in a Canadian Interuniversity Sport season.