June 24th, 2024...Welland, ON – Niagara College is excited to announce the hiring of Jordan Thin, Richard Reist, and Chris Poulouski as the team of coaches that will take over the varsity curling program effective immediately. Jordan will come on board as a technical director while Richard and Chris will come on as co-head coaches as this trio will work together to build on our foundation of successful curling programs at Niagara College.
"We're very excited for our trio of technical leads for our curling program at Niagara College," said Michele O'Keefe, Director, Athletics & Student Engagement. "We've assembled three people who are very invested in curling, and we know we are building for success. Their technical knowledge as well as being entrenched in the Niagara region's curling programs, will no doubt support our recruiting strategy."
This group brings an abundance of experience to the Knights family as college, university, and junior coaches as well as ambassadors for curling in the Niagara region. The collection of experience will help the coaches focus on recruiting as we inject energy back into our Knights curling program.
Co-head coaches Chris and Richard both share their excitement to "be a part of the team to help grow the game of curling at Niagara College". They echoed that they are "looking forward to working with all the players, coaches, and staff to build a competitive program that we can all be proud of".
Technical director, Jordan Thin, who was with the program as the head coach from 2015 to 2019, chimes in saying that he is "very excited to be back with the Knights family and to start building on the future". He adds that he and the other two coaches will "be focused on building the curling program and decorating the walls with banners!".
The Niagara Knights varsity curling program has a history of success in both the OCAA and CCAA, accumulating a combined five gold medals, thirteen silver medals, and four bronze medals since the program's start. This team of coaches will look to build on the success of the past and see how many more medals they can add to the collection.