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Matt Nicolle made lifelong memories while playing varsity badminton at UNB Saint John. Two decades later, he wants to help his own players do the same.

Nicolle, who starred on the court for the Seawolves from 1999-2003, is the head coach of this year’s UNB Saint John squad after the program’s 16-year hiatus.
“Honestly, I feel like it’s a bit of a legacy project,” he said. “The sport has given me so much throughout my life. I’m happy that we’re going to have future generations of badminton talent being developed because we have this program at the ACAA level. So many kids are going to benefit from this.”

The Seawolves open their ACAA schedule with a tournament on Nov. 11 at the Université Sainte-Anne in Church Point, N.S. There have already been some encouraging results, with Sydney Arsenault and Krishna Vaibhov going undefeated in singles/doubles/mixed in their respective categories at a recent jamboree.

“That’s a pretty huge accomplishment right out of the gate,” Nicolle said.

Arsenault and Vaibhov also showed strong leadership, a quality Nicolle appreciates as a former two-time team captain of the Seawolves. His other career accomplishments include copping team MVP honours and winning the men’s singles and doubles titles.

But the highlight Nicolle remembers most is helping the Seawolves win a conference championship. He hopes that pedigree assists him while working with the current crop of UNB Saint John players.
“I kind of take a page out of my professional life and my two decades in the corporate world working for Fortune 500 companies,” Nicolle said about his coaching philosophy. “The best leaders I’ve seen are the ones who can lead from the back and from the front. It’s a sense of service and contribution. You always feel good when you’re living in service and being able to help people and give back.”
Badminton has a proud history at UNB Saint John, where the sport was played as early as 1976. The program began ACAA play in 1995-96 and ended following the 2006-07 campaign.

During that span, the Seawolves won four ACAA championships and two players – Jen Fox (1999-2000) and Ron Davis (2000-01) – won bronze medals at the CCAA championships, the school’s only medals at the national level. Richard Johnson and Britt MacLeod each won two ACAA coach of the year awards, while Jing Bing Lam was the conference’s player of the year in 2006-07. The Seawolves had 11 all-conference nods during their 12-year run.

The new program has a training partnership with the Saint John Badminton Club, which will serve as a valuable farm system.

“We have a good pipeline program that will feed the university system, and I think it’s going to be good for many years to come,” Nicolle said. “Varsity badminton gives people a transition from playing high school to playing collegiately. It’s an underrated sport in this part of the world, and it’s a sport that sometimes doesn’t get as much attention as others, but it’s such a highly regarded sport in other parts of the world.”