Pat Sheahan new OC at Calgary

CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos football program has added unparalleled experience to one of the top coaching staffs in the nation with the hiring of Pat Sheahan as Offensive Coordinator.

Head Coach Wayne Harris made the announcement Thursday.

“We’re very excited to have Coach Sheahan come on board,” said Harris, who enters his fifth season at the helm of the Dinos. “He’s a great fit for our program and what we’ve been doing, and he created a lot of our systems so it’ll be a smooth transition for our offence, which has been one of the most high-powered in Canada for the last four years.

“Not only does he bring that knowledge, but his experience really can’t be matched. He has come from a tradition of excellence on the football field and in the classroom, and that experience alone will be so valuable to our program moving forward to hopefully get us to that national championship.”

Sheahan brings a resume unmatched in U SPORTS football with 30 years of head coaching experience, the last 19 of which came at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. where he led the Gaels to the 2009 Vanier Cup title. Prior to Queen’s he was the head coach at Concordia University in Montreal from 1989-99, taking the Stingers to their first Vanier Cup appearance in 1998. He began his coaching career at McGill University, where he was assistant head coach from 1984-88 and part of McGill’s 1987 Vanier Cup championship team.

He will take over an offence featuring the reigning Hec Crighton Trophy winner in quarterback Adam Sinagra, the national rookie of the year in Tyson Philpot, and a host of all-stars and All-Canadians that put up more than 570 yards and 44 points per game during a perfect regular season in 2018.

“It’s an interesting challenge,” said Sheahan. “In the three previous times I’ve taken over a program it’s been at rock bottom, and that’s not the case here. How do you take a high-powered offence like this and make it a little bit better? It’s about tweaking, about polishing, helping the players fix a few things. Job One is to not blow up the ship because there are a lot of talented players here, but the expectation every year is that everyone else is getting better and we need to be committed to self-improvement in the off-season.”

Sheahan finds himself in the unique position of replacing his son as the Dinos’ offensive coordinator, after Ryan Sheahan took on the head coaching position at the University of Guelph earlier this off-season.

“(Ryan) has been following me around his whole life, it’s about time he left a trail for me,” Sheahan laughed. “It’s a very unique thing, but over the years I’ve had the chance to meet Wayne and I have great respect for him and great admiration for the job he has done. And the offensive playbook and I are very simpatico.

“It’s a great football program in a great football town with great facilities. There was an opening, and it seemed to me to be a great match.”

Sheahan is a three-time Ontario University Athletics (OUA) football coach of the year and was awarded the Frank Tindall Trophy as the U SPORTS coach of the year in 2008.

Pat and his wife Lee will relocate to Calgary and begin working with the Dinos immediately. The team will be back on the field in early May for their annual spring camp before kicking off the 56th season of Dinos Football this fall.

 

source: Ben Matchett; Assistant Athletic Director (Communications)

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