May 30, 2013 (HALIFAX, N.S.) – Atlantic University Sport held its 2013 annual general meeting last week in Fredericton, N.B. The University of New Brunswick hosted the annual meetings, attended by representatives of all eleven member institutions, at the Richard J. Currie Center.
Phil Currie, executive director of Atlantic University Sport, chaired the meetings, and recently appointed CEO of Canadian Interuniversity Sport, Mr. Pierre Lafontaine, was also on hand for a portion of the sessions to meet with the conference’s athletic directors.

“Atlantic University Sport and our 11 members continue to lead the way in advancing university sport,” said Currie. “Each year, the AGM is a great opportunity for our athletic directors to come together and meet face to face to discuss a number of issues which affect university sport and our student-athletes. In addition to reviewing recommended changes to the rules and regulations of the conference, we had some very positive dialogue around our strategic plan and ensuring we remained focused on achieving our goal of providing the ultimate student-athlete experience.”

The work that takes place at the AGM includes receiving reports from the various AUS committees, discussion on any motions coming forward for the 2013 CIS AGM scheduled for June 4-7 in Toronto, finalizing the 2013-14 AUS playing schedules and reviewing sport-specific motions that come from the coaches’ associations of the winter sports.

Michelle Healey, director of athletics at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, officially started her term as president of the AUS management council, while Marc Boudreau, director of athletics at the Université de Moncton, wrapped up a two-year term as president and remains on the executive committee as past president.

In addition to the above, highlights of other items discussed at these meetings are as follows:

Women’s hockey championship moves to a series format
Beginning in the 2013-14 season, the AUS women’s hockey championship format will no longer consist of a four-day tournament held at a single location. This season will see three rounds of playoff series contested, where teams will play each other in best two-of-three series.

The top six teams following regular season play will qualify for the post-season, with the top two seeds receiving byes into the semifinal round. Quarterfinals will feature the third place team taking on the sixth place finisher, while the fourth place team will face off against the fifth place team.

The quarterfinals, semifinals and final will each be played using a ‘home-away-home’ format where the higher seeded team will host the opening game of the series as well as the third and deciding game, if necessary.

Men’s Hockey moves to a four-person officiating system for all regular season and playoff games
Beginning this fall, all AUS men’s hockey regular season and playoff games will use a four-person officiating system.

The four-person system has been phased in over the past number of years with full implementation now in place for 2013-14 and beyond.

Women’s Hockey to experiment with four-person officiating system in 25% of regular season games
A four-person officiating system will be employed for the first time in AUS women’s hockey as a pilot project beginning this fall.

The 2013-14 season will see 25% of AUS regular season games officiated using this system, with the goal of developing more female officials and improving the overall depth of officials qualified to work at the AUS level in Atlantic Canada.

2014 Winter AUS championship hosts announced:
The scheduling for the 2013-14 season was concluded and the following dates and locations have been confirmed for the winter AUS championship events:

- Memorial University will host the 2014 swimming championship, February 7-9, 2014.
- Dalhousie University will host the 2014 women’s volleyball championship, February 14-16, 2014.
- Université de Moncton will host the 2014 track & field championship, February 22-23, 2014.
- Atlantic University Sport will host the 2014 men’s basketball championship, February 28-March 2, 2014.
- University of Prince Edward Island will host the 2014 women’s basketball championship, March 7-9, 2014.