Bobcats past head coach Hemmings off to Cyprus

BRANDON, MB – Jerry Hemmings, the coach with the most victories in Canadian University men’s basketball history, will be taking a leave of absence from Brandon University for the upcoming academic year. Hemmings, the basketball Coach Emeritus at Brandon, has accepted an offer to coach Team AEK for the 2009-10 season in the Cyprus professional league.

Hemmings coached the Brandon University Men’s Basketball Team from 1974-2003. During his tenure at Brandon University, his teams won four national championships and a record 734 games. Hemmings coached and developed 14 players to All-Canadian status and four players were named CIS National Player of the Year. One of those players is the Bobcat’s present head coach, Keith Vassell.

“Coach Hemmings is a great mentor to our young coaches at BU. Jerry’s wealth of experience will undoubtedly challenge Team AEK at the professional level,” said Kirk DeFazio, Director of Athletics at Brandon University.

Hemmings has previous international coaching experience. He has been a head coach both in Austria and Syria, where his Ah-Ittihad team in Syria’s largest city of Aleppo, won the regular season championship in 2004.

Hemmings coached with the Canadian National Team from 1989 through to the World Championships held in Toronto in 1994. He was the head coach of the 1991 World University Team that won a silver medal in Sheffield, England. That year, Hemmings’ team defeated the Soviet Union in the semi-finals before losing to the USA team in the gold medal game. That team was also the last to defeat the USSR in international basketball.

For more information on Bobcats Athletics, including rosters and up-to-date schedules please go to: http://www.gobobcats.ca

For further information, or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Jerry Hemmings
Professor/Coach Emeritus
Phone: (204) 728-7178 or 573-7965

Kirk De Fazio
Athletics Director
Brandon University
Phone: (204) 727-7405 or 724-2790
Email: defaziok@brandonu.ca

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